 CHAPTER 16 The World Created by God Still Cherished and Protected by Him Each and all of its parts governed by His providence. The divisions of this chapter are, one, the doctrine of the special providence of God over all the creatures, singly and collectively, as opposed to the dreams of the Epicureans about fortune and fortuitous causes, two, the fiction of the Sophists concerning the omnipotence of God and the error of philosophers as to a confused and equivocal government of the world, sections one through five. All animals, but especially mankind, from the peculiar superintendents exercised over them, are proofs, evidences, and examples of the providence of God, sections six and seven. Three, a consideration of fate, fortune, chance, contingents, and uncertain events, on which the matter here under discussion turns. One, even the wicked under the guidance of carnal sense, acknowledge that God is the creator. The godly acknowledge not this only, but that He is a most wise and powerful governor and preserver of all created objects. In so doing they lean on the word of God, some passages from which are produced. Two, refutation of the Epicureans, who oppose fortune and fortuitous causes to divine providence, as taught in Scripture, the Son, a bright manifestation of divine providence. Three, figment of the Sophists as to an indolent providence refuted, consideration of the omnipotence as combined with the providence of God, double benefit resulting from a proper acknowledgment of the divine omnipotence, cavals of infidelity. Four, a definition of providence refuting the erroneous dogmas of philosophers, dreams of the Epicureans and parapatetics. Five, special providence of God asserted and proved by arguments founded on a consideration of the divine justice and mercy, proved also by passages of Scripture relating to the sky, the earth and animals. Six, special providence proved by passages relating to the human race and the more especially that for its sake the world was created. Seven, special providence proved, lastly, from examples taken from the history of the Israelites of Jonah, Jacob and from daily experience. Eight, erroneous views as to providence refuted, one, the sect of Stoics, two, the fortune and chance of the heathen. Nine, how things are said to be fortuitous to us, though done by the determinant counsel of God. Example, error of separating contingency and event from the secret but just and most wise counsel of God. Two examples. One, it were cold and lifeless to represent God as a momentary creator who completed his work once for all and then left it. Here especially we must dissent from the profane and maintain that the presence of the divine power is conspicuous, not less in the perpetual condition of the world than in its first creation. Four, although even wicked men are forced by the mere view of the earth and sky to rise to the Creator, yet faith has a method of its own in assigning the whole praise of creation to God. To this effect is the passage of the apostle already quoted that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, Hebrews 11.3. Because without proceeding to his providence, we cannot understand the full force of what is meant by God being the Creator, how much so ever we may seem to comprehend it with our mind and confess it with our tongue. The carnal mind, when once it has perceived the power of God in the creation, stops there and at the farthest, thinks and ponders on nothing else than the wisdom, power, and goodness displayed by the author of such a work, matters which rise spontaneously and force themselves on the notice even of the unwilling, for on some general agency on which the power of motion depends, exercised in preserving and governing it. In short, it imagines that all things are sufficiently sustained by the energy divinely infused into them at first, but faith must penetrate deeper. After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith infer that he is also a governor and preserver, and that, not by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe as well as in each of its parts, but by a special providence sustaining, cherishing, superintending all the things which he has made to the very minutest, even to a sparrow. Thus David, after briefly premising that the world was created by God, immediately descends to the continual course of providence. By the word of the Lord were the heavens framed, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth, immediately adding, The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth the children of men, Psalm 33, 6, 13, etc. He subjoins other things to the same effect. For although I'll do not reason so accurately, yet because it would not be credible that human affairs were superintended by God, unless he were the maker of the world, and no one could seriously believe that he is its creator without feeling convinced that he takes care of his works. David, with good reason and in admirable order, leads us from the one to the other. In general, indeed, philosophers teach, and the human mind conceives, that all the parts of the world are invigorated by the secret inspiration of God. They do not, however, reach the height to which David rises, taking all the pious along with him when he says, These weight all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. What thou givest them they gather, thou openness thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hideest thy face, they are troubled. Thou takeest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth, Psalm 104, 27-30. Nay, though they subscribe to the sentiment of Paul, that in God we live and move and have our being, Acts 17-28, yet they are far from having the serious apprehension of the grace which he commends, because they have not the least relish for that special care in which alone the paternal favor of God is discerned. 2. That this distinction may be the more manifest, we must consider that the providence of God, as taught in Scripture, is opposed to fortune and fortuitous causes. By an erroneous opinion prevailing in all ages, an opinion almost universally prevailing in our own day, vis that all things happen fortuitously, the true doctrine of providence has not only been obscured but almost buried. If one falls among robbers or ravenous beasts, if a sudden gust of wind at sea causes shipwreck, if one is struck down by the fall of a house or a tree, if another, when wandering through desert paths, meets with deliverance, or after being tossed by the waves arrives in port and makes some wondrous hair-breath escape from death, all these occurrences, prosperous as well as adverse, kernel sense will attribute to fortune. But whoso has learned from the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his head are numbered, Matthew 10.30, will look farther for the cause and hold that all events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God. With regard to inanimate objects again, we must hold that though each is possessed of its peculiar properties, yet all of them exert their force only insofar as directed by the immediate hand of God. Hence they are merely instruments into which God constantly infuses what energy he sees meet and turns and converts to any purpose at his pleasure. No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the sun, for besides illuminating the whole world with its brightness, how admirably does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat and fertilize the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap and thereby calling forth the verdant blade. This it supports, increases, and strengthens with additional nurture till it rises into the stock, and still feeds it with perpetual moisture till it comes into flower, and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till it attains maturity. In like manner, by its warmth, trees and vines bud, and put forth first their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit. And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun. No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases, though he can lay it aside and act equally well by himself. Again, when we read that at the prayer of Joshua the sun was stayed in its course, Joshua 1013, that as a favor to Hezekiah, its shadow receded ten degrees, 2 Kings 2011, by these miracles God declared that the sun does not daily rise and set by a blind instinct of nature, but is governed by Him in its course, that He may renew the remembrance of His paternal favor toward us. Nothing is more natural than for spring in its turns to succeed winter, summer spring, and autumn summer. But in this series the variations are so great and so unequal as to make it very apparent that every single year, month, and day is regulated by a new and special providence of God. 3. And truly God claims omnipotence to Himself and would have us to acknowledge it, not the vain, indolent, slumbering omnipotence which sophists vain, but vigilant, efficacious, energetic, and ever active, not an omnipotence which may only act as a general principle of confused motion, as in ordering a stream to keep within the channel once prescribed to it, but one which is intent on individual and special movements. God is deemed omnipotent not because He can act though He may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct He continues the order of nature previously appointed, but because, governing heaven and earth by His providence, He so overrules all things that nothing happens without His counsel. For when it is said in the Psalms, He has done whatsoever He has pleased, Psalm 115-3, the thing meant is His sure and deliberate purpose. It were insipid to interpret the psalmist's words in philosophic fashion to mean that God is the primary agent because the beginning and cause of all motion. This rather is the solace of the faithful in their adversity that everything which they endure is by the ordination and command of God that they are under His hand. But if the government of God thus extends to all His works, it is a childish caval to confine it to natural influx. Those moreover who confine the providence of God within narrow limits, as if He allowed all things to be born along freely according to a perpetual law of nature, do not more defraud God of His glory than themselves of a most useful doctrine. For nothing were more wretched than man if He were exposed to all possible movements of the sky, the air, the earth and the water. We may add that by this view the singular goodness of God towards each individual is unbecomingly impaired. David exclaims, Psalm 8-3, that infants hanging at their mother's breasts are eloquent enough to celebrate the glory of God because, from the very moment of their births, they find an element prepared for them by heavenly care. Indeed, if we do not shut our eyes and senses to the fact, we must see that some mothers have full provision for their infants and others almost none, according as it is the pleasure of God to nourish one child more liberally and another more sparingly. Those who attribute due praise to the omnipotence of God thereby derive a double benefit. He to whom heaven and earth belong, and whose nod all creatures must obey, is fully able to reward the homage which they pay to him, and they can rest secure in the protection of him whose control everything that could do them harm is subject, by whose authority Satan, with all his furies and engines, is curbed as with a bridle, and on whose will everything adverse to our safety depends. In this way and in no other can the immoderate and superstitious fears excited by the dangers to which we are exposed, be calmed or subdued. I say superstitious fears, for such they are, as often as the dangers threatened by any created objects inspire us with such terror, that we tremble as if they had in themselves a power to hurt us, or could hurt at random or by chance, or as if we had not in God a sufficient protection against them. For example, Jeremiah forbids the children of God to be dismayed at the signs of heaven, as the heathen are dismayed at them, Jeremiah 10.2. He does not indeed condemn every kind of fear, but as unbelievers transfer the government of the world from God to the stars, imagining that happiness or misery depends on their decrees or presages, and not on the divine will, the consequence is that their fear, which ought to have reference to him only, is diverted to stars and comets. Let him therefore, who would beware of such unbelief, always bear in mind that there is no random power or agency or motion in the creatures, who are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed. 4. First, then, let the reader remember that the providence we mean is not one by which the deity, sitting idly in heaven, looks on at what is taking place in the world, but one by which he, as it were, holds the helms and overrules all events. Hence his providence extends not less to the hand than to the eye. When Abraham said to his son, God will provide, Genesis 22.8, he meant not merely to assert that the future event was foreknown to God, but to resign the management of an unknown business to the will of him whose province it is to bring perplexed and dubious matters to a happy result. Hence it appears that providence consists in action. What many talk of bare prescience is the merest trifling. Those who do not err quite so grossly who attribute government to God, but still, as I have observed, a confused and promiscuous government which consists in giving an impulse and general movement to the machine of the globe and each of its parts, but does not specially direct the action of every creature. It is impossible, however, to tolerate this error. For, according to its abetters, there is nothing in this providence, which they call universal, to prevent all the creatures from being moved contingently, or to prevent man from turning himself in this direction or in that, according to the mere freedom of his own will. In this ways they make man a partner with God, God by his energy, impressing man with the movement by which he can act, agreeably to the nature conferred upon him, while man voluntarily regulates his own actions. In short, their doctrine is that the world, the affairs of men and men themselves, are governed by the power, but not by the decree of God. I say nothing of the Epicureans, a pest of which the world has always been plagued, who dream of an inert and idle God, and others not a wit sounder, who of old feigned that God rules the upper regions of the air, but leaves the inferior to fortune. Against such evident madness even dumb creatures lift their voice. My intention now is to refute an opinion which has very generally obtained, an opinion which, while it concedes to God some blind and equivocal movement, withholds what is of principal moment, vis the disposing and directing of everything to its proper end by incomprehensible wisdom. By withholding government, it makes God the ruler of the world in name only, not in reality. For what I ask is meant by government, if it be not to preside so as to regulate the destiny of that over which you preside. I do not, however, totally repudiate what is said of an universal providence, provided, on the other hand, it is conceded to me that the world is governed by God, not only because he maintains the order of nature appointed by him, but because he takes a special charge of every one of his words. It is true indeed that each species of created objects is moved by a secret instinct of nature, as if they obeyed the eternal command of God and spontaneously followed the course which God at first appointed. And to this we may refer to our Saviour's words that he and his father have always been at work from the beginning, John 5.17, also the words of Paul that, in him we live and move and have our being, Acts 17.28. Also the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who, when wishing to prove the divinity of Christ, says that he upholdeth all things by the word of his power, Hebrews 1.3. But some, under pretext of the general, hide and obscure the special providence, which is so surely and clearly taught in Scripture that it is strange how anyone can bring himself to doubt of it. And indeed those who interpose that disguised are themselves forced to modify their doctrine by adding that many things are done by the special care of God. This, however, they erroneously confine to particular acts. The thing to be proved therefore is that single events are so regulated by God, and all events so proceed from his determinant counsel that nothing happens fortuitously. 5. Assuming that the beginning of motion belongs to God, but that all things move spontaneously or casually, according to the impulse which nature gives, the vicissitudes of day and nights, summer and winter, will be the work of God in as much as he in assigning the office of each appointed a certain law, namely that they should always with uniform tenor observe the same course, day succeeding night, month succeeding month, and year succeeding year. But as at one time excessive heat combined with drought burns up the fields, at another time excessive rains rot the crops, while sudden devastation is produced by tempests and storms of hail, these will not be the works of God unless in so far as rainy or fair weather, heat or cold, are produced by the concourse of the stars and other natural causes. According to this view, there is no place left either for the paternal favor or the judgments of God, if it is said that God fully manifests his beneficence to the human race by furnishing heaven and earth with the ordinary power of producing food, the explanation is meager and heathenish as if the fertility of one year were not a special blessing, the penury and dearth of another a special punishment and curse from God. But as it would occupy too much time to enumerate all the arguments, let the authority of God himself suffice. In the law in the prophets he repeatedly declares that as often as he waters the earth with dew and rain he manifests his favor, that by his command the heaven becomes hard as iron, the crops are destroyed by mildew and other evils, that storms and hail in devastating the fields are signs of shore and special vengeance. This being admitted, it is certain that not a drop of rain falls without the express command of God. David indeed, Psalm 146-9 extols the general providence of God in supplying food to the young ravens that cried to him. But when God himself threatens living creatures with famine, does he not plainly declare that they are all nourished by him at one time with scanty, at another time with more ample measure? It is childish, as I have already said, to confine this to particular acts when Christ says without reservation that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of his father, Matthew 1029. Surely if the flight of birds is regulated by the counsel of God we must acknowledge with the prophet that while he dwelleth on high he humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth. Psalm 113, 5 and 6. 6. But as we know that it was chiefly for the sake of mankind that the world was made, we must look to this as the end which God has in view in the government of it. The prophet Jeremiah exclaims, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jeremiah 1023. Solomon again says, Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way, Proverbs 2024? Will it now be said that man is moved by God according to the bent of his nature, but that man himself gives the movement any direction he pleases? Were it truly so, man would have the full disposal of his own ways. To this it will perhaps be answered that man can do nothing without the power of God, but the answer will not avail since both Jeremiah and Solomon attribute to God not power only, but also election and decree. And Solomon in another place elegantly rebukes the rashness of men in fixing their plans without reference to God as if they were not led by his hand. The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Proverbs 161. It is a strange infatuation surely for miserable men who cannot even give utterance except in so far as God pleases to begin to act without him. Scriptures, moreover, the better to show that everything done in the world is according to his decree, declares that the things which seem most fortuitous are subject to him. For what seems more attributable to chance than the branch which falls from a tree and kills the passing traveler? But the Lord sees very differently and declares that he delivered him into the hand of the slayer, Exodus 2113. In like manners, who does not attribute the lot to the blindness of fortune? Not so the Lord, who claims the decision for himself, Proverbs 1633. He says not that by his power the lot is thrown into the lap and taken out, but declares that the only thing which could be attributed to chance is from him. To the same effect are the words of Solomon, the poor and the deceitful man meet together, the Lord lightens both their eyes, Proverbs 2913. For although rich and poor are mingled together in the world in saying that the condition of each is divinely appointed, he reminds us that God, who enlightens all, has his own eye always open, and thus exhorts the poor to patient endurance, seeing that those who are discontented with their lot endeavour to shake off a burden which God has imposed upon them. Thus too another prophet upbraids the profane, who ascribe it to human industry or to fortune, that some grovel in the mire while others rise to honor. Promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge, he puteth down ones and seteth up another, Psalm 75, 6, and 7. Because God cannot divest himself of the office of judge, he infers that to his secret counsel it is owing that some are elevated while others remain without honor. 7. Nay, I affirm in general that particular events are evidences of the special providence of God. In the wilderness God caused a south wind to blow, and brought the people a plentiful supply of birds, Exodus 1913. When he desired that Jonah should be thrown into the sea, he sent forth a whirlwind. Those who deny that God holds the reins of government will say that this was contrary to ordinary practice, whereas I infer from it that no wind ever rises or rages without his special command. In no way could it be true that he maketh the winds his messengers and the flames of fire his ministers, that he maketh the clouds his chariot and walketh upon the wings of the wind. Psalm 104, 3 and 4, did he not at pleasure drive the clouds and winds, and therein manifest the special presence of his power. In like manner we are elsewhere taught that whenever the sea is raised into a storm its billows attest to the special presence of God. He commanded and raiseth the stormy wind which lifted up the waves. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Psalm 107, 25 and 29. He also elsewhere declares that he had smitten the people with blasting and mildew, Amos 4, 9. Again, while man naturally possesses the power of continuing his species, God describes it as a mark of his special favor, that while some continue childless, others are blessed with offspring, for the fruit of the womb is his gift. Hence the words of Jacob to Rachel, Am I in God's stead, who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Genesis 30, verse 2. To conclude in one word, nothing in nature is more ordinary than that we should be nourished with bread. But the Spirit declares not only that the produce of the earth is God's special gift, but that man does not live by bread only, Deuteronomy 8.3, because it is not mere fullness that nourishes him, but the secret blessing of God. And hence, on the other hand, he threatens to take away the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, Isaiah 3.1. Indeed, there could be no serious meaning in our prayer for daily bread if God did not with paternal hand supply us with food. Accordingly, to convince the faithful that God in feeding them fulfills the office of the best of parents, the Prophet reminds them that he giveth food to all flesh, Psalm 136, verse 25. In fine, when we hear on the one hand that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their cry, and on the other hand that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth, Psalm 34, 15 and 16, let us be assured that all creatures above and below are ready at his service, that he may employ them in whatever way he pleases. Hence we infer not only that the general providence of God, continuing the order of nature, extends over the creatures, but that by his wonderful counsel they are adapted to a certain and special purpose. 8. Those who would cast obliquely on this doctrine, columniated as the dogma of the Stoics concerning fate, the same charge was formerly brought against Augustine. We are unwilling to dispute about words, but we do not admit the term fate, both because it is of the class which Paul teaches us to Sean as profane novelties, 1 Timothy 620, and also because it is attempted by means of an odious term to fix a stigma on the truth of God. But the dogma itself is falsely and maliciously imputed to us, for we do not with the Stoics imagine a necessity consisting of a perpetual chain of causes and a kind of involved series contained in nature, but we hold that God is the disposer and ruler of all things, that from the remotest eternity according to his own wisdom he decreed what he was to do, and now by his power executes what he decreed. Hence we maintain that by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the councils and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined. What, then, will you say? Does nothing happen fortuitously, nothing contingently? I answer, it was a true saying of Basil the Great, that fortune and chance are heathen terms, the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds. For if all success is blessing from God and calamity and adversity are his curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance. We ought also to be moved by the words of Augustine. In my writings against the academics, says he, quote, I regret having so often used the term fortune, although I intended to denote by it not some goddess, but the fortuitous issue of events in external matters, whether good or evil. Hence too those words, perhaps, per chance, fortuitously, which no religion forbids us to use, though everything must be referred to divine providence. Nor did I omit to observe this when I said, although, perhaps, that which is vulgarly called fortune is also regulated by a hidden order, and what we call chance is nothing else than that the reason and cause of which is secret. It is true, I so spoke, but I repent of having mentioned fortune there as I did, when I see the very bad custom which men have of saying, not as they ought to do, so God pleased, but so fortune pleased, end, quote. In short, Augustine everywhere teaches that if anything is left to fortune, the world moves at random, and although he elsewhere declares that all things are carried on, partly by the free will of man and partly by the providence of God, he shortly after shows clearly enough that his meaning was that men also are ruled by providence when he assumes it as a principle that there cannot be a greater absurdity than to hold that anything is done without the ordination of God because it would happen at random, for which reason he also excludes the contingency which depends on human will, maintaining a little further on in clearer terms, that no cause must be sought for but the will of God. When he uses the term permission, the meaning which he attaches to it will best appear from a single passage, where he proves that the will of God is the supreme and primary cause of all things, because nothing happens without his order or permission. He certainly does not figure God sitting idly in a watchtower when he chooses to permit anything, the will which he represents as interposing is, if I may so express it, active, actualis, and but for this could not be regarded as a cause. 9. But since our sluggish minds rest far beneath the height of divine providence, we must have recourse to a distinction which may assist them in rising. I say, then, that though all things are ordered by the counsel and certain arrangement of God, to us, however, they are fortuitous, not because we imagine that fortune rules the world and mankind and turns all things upside down at random, far be such a heartless thought from every Christian breast. But as the order, method, and and necessity of events are for the most part hidden in the counsel of God, though it is certain that they are produced by the will of God, they have the appearance of being fortuitous, such being the form under which they present themselves to us, whether considered in their own nature or estimated according to our knowledge and judgment. Let us suppose, for example, that a merchant, after entering a forest in company with trustworthy individuals, imprudently strays from his companions and wanders bewildered until he falls into a den of robbers and is murdered. His death was not only foreseen by the eye of God, but had been fixed by his decree, for it is said not that he foresaw how far the life of each individual should extend, but that he determined and fixed the bounds which could not be passed, Job 14.5. Still, in relation to our capacity of discernment, all these things appear fortuitous. How will the Christian feel, though he will consider that every circumstance which occurred in that person's death was indeed in its nature fortuitous, he will have no doubt that the providence of God overruled it and guided fortune to his own end. The same thing holds in the case of future contingencies. All future events being uncertain to us seem in suspense as if ready to take either direction. Still, however, the impression remains seated in our hearts that nothing will happen which the Lord has not provided. In this sense, the term event is repeatedly used in ecclesiastes, because at the first glance men do not penetrate to the primary cause which lies concealed. And yet, what is taught in Scripture of the secret providence of God was never so completely effaced from the human heart as that some sparks did not always shine in the darkness. Thus the soothsayers of the Philistine, though they waver in uncertainty, attribute the adverse event partly to God and partly to chance. If the ark, they say, goes up by the way of his own coast to Beth Shemish, then he has done us this great evil, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us, it was a chance that happened to us. First Samuel 6.9. Foolishly indeed, when divination fails them, they flee to fortune. Still we see them constrained, so as not to venture to regard their disaster as fortuitous. But the mode in which God, by the curb of his providence, turns events in whatever direction he pleases, will appear from a remarkable example. At the very same moment when David was discovered in the wilderness of Mayan, the Philistines made an inroad into the country, and Saul is forced to depart, 1 Samuel 23, 26 and 27. If God, in order to provide for the safety of his servant, threw this obstacle in the way of Saul, we surely cannot say that though the Philistines took up arms contrary to human expectation, they did it by chance. What seems to us contingents, faith will recognize as the secret impulse of God. The reason is not always equally apparent, but we ought undoubtedly to hold that all the changes which take place in the world are produced by the secret agency of the hand of God. At the same time that which God has determined, though it must come to pass, is not however precisely or in its own nature necessary. We have a familiar example in the case of our Saviour's bones. As he assumed a body similar to ours, no sane man will deny that his bones were capable of being broken, and yet it was impossible that they should be broken, John 19, 33 and 36. Hence again we see that there was good ground for the distinction which the schoolmen made between necessity, secundum quid, and necessity absolute, also between the necessity of consequent and of consequence. God made the bones of his son frangible, though he exempted them from actual fracture, and thus, in reference to the necessity of his counsel, made that impossible which might have naturally taken place. End of section 26. Section 27 of Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1 by John Calvin, translated by Henry Beverage. Chapter 17, Part 1. Used to be made of the Doctrine of Providence. This chapter may be conveniently divided into two parts. One, a general explanation is given of the Doctrine of Divine Providence insofar as conducive to the solid instruction and consolation of the Godly, Section 1, and specially, Sections 2 through 12. First, however, those are refuted who deny that the world is governed by the secret and incomprehensible counsel of God. Those also who throw the blame of all wickedness upon God and absurdly pretend that exercises of piety are useless, Sections 2 through 5. Thereafter is added a holy meditation on divide and providence, which, in the case of prosperity, is painted to the life, Sections 6 through 11. Two, a solution of two objections from passages of scripture which attribute repentance to God and speak of something like an abrogation of his decrees. Sections 1. Summary of the Doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means without means and against means. 3. Mankind and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The motive administration usually secret but always just, this last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of scripture, salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of God in the government of the world, gives no countenance either to the impiety of those who throw the blame of their wickedness upon God, the petulance of those who reject means or the error of those who neglect the duties of religion. 4. As regards future events, the doctrine of divine providence not inconsistent with deliberation on the part of man. 5. In regard to past events, it is absurd to argue that crimes ought not to be punished because they are in accordance with the divine decrees. 1. The wicked resist the declared will of God. 2. They are condemned by conscience. 3. The essence and guilt of the crime is in themselves, though God uses them as instruments. 6. A holy meditation on divine providence. 1. All things happen by the ordination of God. 2. All things contribute to the advantage of the godly. 3. The hearts of men and all their endeavors are in the hand of God. 4. Providence watches for the safety of the righteous. 5. God has a special care of his elect. 7. Meditation on providence continued. 6. God in various ways curbs and defeats the enemies of the church. 7. He overrules all creatures, even Satan himself, for the good of his people. 8. Meditation on providence continued. 8. He trains the godly to patience and moderation, examples, Joseph, Job and David. 9. He shakes off their lethargy and urges them to repentance. 9. Meditation continued. 10. The right use of inferior causes explained. 11. When the godly become negligent or imprudent in the discharge of duty, providence reminds them of their fault. 12. It condemns the iniquities of the wicked. 13. It produces a right consideration of the future, rendering the servants of God prudent, diligent and active. 14. It causes them to resign themselves to the wisdom and omnipotence of God, and at the same time makes them diligent in their calling. 10. Meditation continued. 15. Though human life is beset with innumerable evils, the righteous, trusting to divine providence, feel perfectly secure. 11. The use of the foregoing meditation. 12. The second part of the chapter, disposing of two objections. 1. The scripture represents God as changing his purpose or repenting, and that therefore his providence is not fixed. Answer to this first objection. Proof from scripture that God cannot repent. 13. Why repentance attributed to God? 14. Second objection that scripture speaks of an annulment of the divine decrees. Objection answered. Answer confirmed by an example. 1. Moreover, such is the proneness of the human mind to indulge in vain subtleties, that it becomes almost impossible for those who do not see the sound and proper use of this doctrine to avoid entangling themselves in perplexing difficulties. It will therefore be proper here to advert to the end which scripture has in view and teaching that all things are divinely ordained, and it is to be observed, first, that the providence of God is to be considered with reference both to the past and the future, and secondly, that in overruling all things it works at one time with means, at another without means, and at another against means. Lastly, the design of God is to show that he takes care of the whole human race, but is especially vigilant in governing the church, which he favors with a closer inspection. Moreover, we must add that although the paternal favor and beneficence, as well as the judicial severity of God, is often conspicuous in the whole course of his providence, yet occasionally as the causes of events are concealed, the thought is apt to rise that human affairs are world about by a blind impulse of fortune, or our carnal nature inclines us to speak as if God were amusing himself by tossing men up and down like balls. It is true indeed that if with sedate and quiet minds we were disposed to learn, the issue would at length make it manifest that the counsel of God was in accordance with the highest reason that his purpose was either to train his people to patience, correct their depraved affections, tame their wantonness, inure them to self-denial, and arouse them from torpor, or on the other hand, to cast down the proud, defeat the craftiness of the ungodly, and frustrate all their schemes. How much so ever causes may escape our notice, we must feel assured that they are deposited with him and accordingly exclaim with David, many, O Lord my God, are they wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward, if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalm 40 verse 5. For while our adversaries ought always to remind us of our sins, that the punishment may incline us to repentance, we see moreover how Christ declares there is something more in the secret counsel of his Father than to chastise everyone as he deserves. For he says of the man who was born blind, neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. John 9 verse 3. Here, where calamity takes precedence even of birth, our carnal sense murmurs as if God were unmerciful, in thus afflicting those who have not offended. But Christ declares that, provided we had eyes clear enough, we should perceive that in this spectacle the glory of his Father is brightly displayed. We must use modesty, not as it were compelling God to render an account, but so revering his hidden judgments as to account his will the best of all reasons. When the sky is overcast with dense clouds and a violent tempest arises, the darkness which is presented to our eye and the thunder which strikes our ears and stupefies all our senses with terror, make us imagine that everything is thrown into confusion, though in the firmament itself all continues quiet and serene. In the same way, when the tumultuous aspect of human affairs unfits us for judging, we should still hold that God, in the pure light of his justice and wisdom, keeps all these commotions in due subordination and conducts them to their proper end. And certainly in this matter many display monstrous infatuation, presuming to subject the works of God to their calculation and discuss his secret counsels as well as to pass a precipitant judgment on things unknown and that with greater license than on the doings of mortal men. What can be more preposterous than to show modesty toward our equals and choose rather to suspend our judgment than incur the blame of rashness, while we petulantly insult the hidden judgments of God, judgments which it becomes us to look up to and revere? 2. No man therefore will duly and usefully ponder on the providence of God save he who recollects that he has to do with his own maker and the maker of the world, and in the exercise of the humility which becomes him manifests both fear and reverence. Hence it is that on the present day so many dogs tear this doctrine with inventum'd teeth, or at least assail it with their bark, refusing to give more license to God than their own reason dictates to themselves. With what petulance, too, are we assailed for not being contented with the precepts of the law in which the will of God is comprehended and for maintaining that the world is governed by his secret counsels, as if our doctrine were the figment of our own brain and were not distinctly declared by the spirit and repeated in innumerable forms of expression? Since some feeling of shame restrains them from daring to belch forth their blasphemies against heaven that they may give the freer vent to their rage, they pretend to pick a quarrel with us. But if they refuse to admit that every event which happens in the world is governed by the incomprehensible counsel of God, let them explain to what effect Scripture declares that his judgments are a great deed, Psalm 36 verse 7, for when Moses exclaims that the will of God, quote, is not in heaven that thou shouldst say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us? Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldst say, who shall go over the sea and bring it unto us?" end, quote, Deuteronomy 30 verses 12 and 13. Because it was familiarly expounded in the law, it follows that there must be another hidden will which is compared to a great deep. It is of this will, Paul exclaims, oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out, for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Romans 11 verses 33 and 34. It is true indeed that in the law and the gospel are comprehended mysteries which far transcend the measure of our sense. But since God, to enable his people to understand these mysteries, which he has deigned to reveal in his word, enlightens their minds with the spirit of understanding, they are now no longer a deep but a path in which they can walk safely, a lamp to guide their feet, a light of life, a school of clear and certain truth. But the admirable method of governing the world is justly called a deep, because, while it lies hid from us, it is to be reverently adored. Both views Moses has beautifully expressed in a few words. Secret things, sayeth he, belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, Deuteronomy 29 verse 29. We see how he enjoins us not only studiously to meditate on the law, but to look up with reverence to the secret providence of God. The book of Job also, in order to keep our minds humble, contains a description of this lofty theme. The author of the book, after taking an ample survey of the universe and discoursing magnificently on the works of God at length adds, Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him. Job 26 verse 14. For which reason he, in another passage, distinguishes between the wisdom which dwells in God and the measure of wisdom which he has assigned to man, Job 28 verse 21 and 28. After discoursing of the secrets of nature, he says that wisdom is hid from the eyes of all living, that God understandeth the way thereof. Shortly after, he adds that it has been divulged that it might be investigated, for, quote, unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, end, quote. To this the words of Augustine refer, quote, As we do not know all the things which God does respecting us in the best order, we ought, with good intention, to act according to the law, and in some things be acted upon according to the law, his providence being a law immutable, end, quote. Therefore, since God claims to himself the right of governing the world, a right unknown to us, let it be our law of modesty and soberness to acquiesce in his supreme authority regarding his will as our only rule of justice, and the most perfect cause of all things, not that absolute will, indeed, of which sophists prayed, when by a profane and impious divorce they separate his justice from his power, but that universal overruling providence from which nothing flows that is not right, though the reasons thereof may be concealed. 3. Those who have learned this modesty will neither murmur against God for adversity in time past, nor charge him with the blame of their own wickedness, as Homer's Agamemnon does. 4. Ego doic eitios eimi allazus chai moira, blame not me but Jupiter in fate. On the other hand, they will not, like the youth in Plautus, destroy themselves in despairs as if hurried away by the fates. Quote, unstable is the condition of affairs, instead of doing as they list, men only fulfill their fate. I will hide me to Iraq, and there end my fortune with my life, end quote. Nor will they, under the example of another, use the name of God as a cloak for their crimes, for in another comedy, Lyconides thus expresses himself, quote, God was the impeller, I believe the gods wished it, did they not wish it, it would not be done, I know, end quote. They will rather inquire and learn from Scripture what is pleasing to God, and then, under the guidance of the Spirit, endeavor to attain it. Prepared to follow whithersoever God may call, they will show by their example that nothing is more useful than the knowledge of this doctrine which pervers men undeservedly assail because it is sometimes wickedly abused. The profane makes such a bluster with their foolish pluralities that they almost, according to the expression, confound heaven and earth. If the Lord has marked the moment of our death it cannot be escaped, it is vain to toil and use precaution. Therefore, when one ventures not to travel on a road which he hears is infested by robbers, when another calls in the physician and annoys himself with drugs for the sake of his health, a third abstains from coarser food that he may not injure a sickly constitution, and a fourth fears to dwell in a ruinous house, when all in short devise and with great eagerness of mind strike out paths by which they may attain the objects of their desire. Either these are all vain remedies laid hold of to correct the will of God, or his certain decree does not fix the limits of life and death, health and sickness, peace and war, and other matters which men, according as they desire and hate, study by their own industry to secure or avoid. Nay, these trifles even infer, and the prayers of the faithful must be perverse not to say superfluous because they entreat the Lord to make a provision for things which he has decreed from eternity. And then, imputing whatever happens to the providence of God, they connive at the man who is known to have expressly designed it. Has an assassin slain an honest citizen? He has, they say, executed the counsel of God. Has someone committed theft or adultery? The deed having been provided and ordained by the Lord, he is the minister of his providence. Has a son waited within difference for the death of his parent without trying any remedy? He could not oppose God, who had so predetermined from eternity. Thus all crimes receive the name of virtues as being in accordance with divine ordination. 4. As regards future events, Solomon easily reconciles human deliberation with divine providence. For while he derides the stupidity of those who presume to undertake anything without God as if they were not ruled by his hand, he elsewhere thus expresses himself. A man's heart devises his ways, but the Lord directed his steps. Proverbs 16 verse 9, intimating that the eternal decrees of God by no means prevent us from proceeding under his will to provide for ourselves and arrange all our affairs. And the reason for this is clear. For he who has fixed the boundaries of our life has at the same time entrusted us with the care of it, provided us with means of preserving it, forewarned us of the dangers to which we are exposed and supplied cautions and remedies that we may not be overwhelmed unawares. Now our duty is clear, namely, since the Lord has committed to us the defense of our life, to defend it, since he offers assistance to use it, since he forewarns us of danger, not to rush on heedless, since he supplies remedies not to neglect them. But it is said, a danger that is not fatal will not hurt us, and one that is fatal cannot be resisted by any precaution. But what if dangers are not fatal merely because the Lord has furnished you with the means of warding them off and surmounting them? See how far your reasoning accords with the order of divine procedure. You infer that danger is not to be guarded against because if it is not fatal you shall escape without precaution, whereas the Lord enjoins you to guard against it just because he wills it not to be fatal. These insane cavalers overlook what is plainly before their eyes, that is, that the Lord has furnished men with the artful of deliberation and caution that they may employ them in subservience to his providence in the preservation of their life. While, on the contrary, by neglect and sloth, they bring upon themselves the evils which he has annexed to them. How comes it that a provident man, while he consults for his safety, disentangles himself from impending evils, while a foolish man, through unadvised temerity, perishes, unless it be that prudence and folly are, in either case, instruments of divine dispensation? God has been pleased to conceal from us all future events that we may prepare for them as doubtful, and cease not to apply the provided remedies until they have either been overcome, or have proved too much for all our care. Hence, I formerly observed that the providence of God does not interpose simply, but by employing means assumes as it were a visible form. Five. By the same class of persons, past events are referred improperly and inconsiderately to simple providence, as all contingencies whatsoever depend on it, therefore, neither thefts nor adulteries nor murders are perpetrated without an interposition of the divine will. Why, then, they ask, should the thief be punished for robbing him whom the Lord chose to chastise with poverty? Why should the murderer be punished for slaying him whose life the Lord had terminated? If all such persons serve the will of God, why should they be punished? I deny that they serve the will of God, for we cannot say that he who is carried away by a wicked mind performs service on the order of God when he is only following his own malignant desires. He obeys God, who, being instructed in his will, hastens in the direction in which God calls him. But how are we so instructed, unless by his word? The will declared by his word is, therefore, that which we must keep in view in acting. God requires of us nothing but what he enjoins. If we design anything contrary to his precept, it is not obedience, but contumacy and transgression. But if he did not will it, we could not do it. I admit this. But do we act wickedly for the purpose of yielding obedience to him? This assuredly he does not command. Nay, rather we rush on, not thinking of what he wishes, but so inflamed by our own passionate lust, that, with dust and purpose, we strive against him. And in this way, while acting wickedly, we serve his righteous ordination, since in his boundless wisdom he well knows how to use bad instruments for good purposes. And see how absurd this mode of arguing is. They will have it that crimes ought not to be punished in their authors, because they are not committed without the dispensation of God. I concede more, that thieves and murderers and other evildoers are instruments of divine providence being employed by the Lord himself to execute the judgments which he has resolved to inflict. But I deny that this forms any excuse for their misdeeds. For how, will they implicate God in the same iniquity with themselves, or will they cloak their depravity by his righteousness? They cannot exculpate themselves, for their own conscience condemns them. They cannot charge God, since they perceive the whole wickedness in themselves, and nothing in him save the legitimate use of their wickedness. But it is said he works by their means. And whence I pray, the fetid odor of a dead body which has been unconfined and putrified by the sun's heat, I'll see that it is excited by the rays of the sun, but no man therefore says that the fetid odor is in them. In the same way, while the matter in guilt of wickedness belongs to the wicked man, why should it be thought that God contracts any impurity in using it at pleasure as his instrument? Have done, then, with that dog-like petulance which may, indeed, bathe from a distance at the justice of God, but cannot reach it. Six. These calamities, or rather frenzied dreams, will easily be dispelled by a pure and holy meditation on divine providence, meditation such as piety and joins, that we may thence derive the best and sweetest fruit. The Christian, then, being most fully persuaded that all things come to pass by the dispensation of God and that nothing happens fortuitously, will always direct his eye to him as the principal cause of events, at the same time paying due regard to inferior causes in their own place. Next he will have no doubt that a special providence is awake for his preservation and will not suffer anything to happen that will not turn to his good and safety. But as its business is first with men and then with other creatures, he will feel assured that the providence of God reigns over both. In regard to men, good as well as bad, he will acknowledge that their counsels, wishes, aims, and faculties are so under his hand that he has full power to turn them in whatever direction and constrain them as often as he pleases. The fact that a special providence watches over the safety of believers is attested by a vast number of the clearest promises. Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain me. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Casting all your care upon him, for he careeth for you. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye. We have a strong city, salvation will got a point for walls and bulwarks. Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Nay, the chief aim of the historical books of Scripture is to show that the ways of his saints are so carefully guarded by the Lord as to prevent them even from dashing their foot against a stone. Therefore, as we a little ago justly exploded the opinion of those who fain a universal providence, which does not condescend to take special care of every creature, so it is of the highest moment that we should specially recognize this care towards ourselves. Hence, our Saviour, after declaring that even a sparrow falls not to the ground without the will of his father, immediately makes the application that, being more valuable than many sparrows, we ought to consider that God provides more carefully for us. He even extends this so far as to assure us that the hairs of our head are all numbered. What more can we wish, if not even a hair of our head can fall, save in accordance with his will? I speak not merely of the human race in general. God having chosen the church for his abode, there cannot be a doubt that in governing it, he gives singular manifestations of his paternal care. Section 28 of Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 1 by John Calvin Translated by Henry Beverage Chapter 17 Part 2 7. The servant of God being confirmed by these promises and examples will add the passages which teach that all men are under his power, whether to conciliate their minds or to curb their wickedness and prevent it from doing harm. For it is the Lord who gives us favor, not only with those who wish us well, but also in the eyes of the Egyptians, Exodus 3 verse 21, in various ways defeating the malice of our enemies. Sometimes he deprives them of all presence of mind, so that they cannot undertake anything soundly or soberly. In this ways he sends Satan to be a lie in the mouths of all the prophets in order to deceive Ahab, 1 Kings 22 verse 22, by the counsel of the young men he so infatuates Rehoboam that his folly deprives him of his kingdom, 1 Kings 12 verses 10 and 15. Sometimes when he leaves them in possession of intellect, he so fills them with terror and dismay that they can neither will nor plan the execution of what they had designed. Sometimes too, after permitting them to attempt what lust and rage suggested, he opportunely interrupts them in their career and allows them not to conclude what they had begun. Thus the counsel of Ahetha fell, which would have been fatal to David, was defeated before its time, 2 Samuel 17 verses 7 and 14. Thus for the good and safety of his people he overrules all the creatures, even the devil himself, who we see, durst not attempt anything against Job without his permission and command. This knowledge is necessarily followed by gratitude and prosperity, patience and adversity, and incredible security for the time to come. Everything therefore, which turns out prosperous and according to his wish, the Christian will ascribe entirely to God whether he has experienced his beneficence through the instrumentality of men or been aided by inanimate creatures. For he will thus consider with himself. Certainly it was the Lord that disposed the minds of these people in my favor, attaching them to me so as to make them the instruments of his kindness. In an abundant harvest he will think that it is the Lord who listens to the heaven that the heaven may listen to the earth and the earth herself to her own offspring. In other cases he will have no doubt that he owes all his prosperity to the divine blessing and, admonished by so many circumstances, will feel it impossible to be ungrateful. 8. If anything adverse befalls him, he will forthwith raise his mind to God, whose hand is most effectual in impressing us with patience and placid moderation of mind. Had Joseph kept his thoughts fixed on the treachery of his brethren, he never could have resumed fraternal affection for them. But turning toward the Lord, he forgot the injury, and was so inclined to mildness and mercy that he even voluntarily comforts his brethren, telling them, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. 45. Had Job turned to the Caldees, by whom he was plundered, he should instantly have been fired with revenge. But recognizing the work of the Lord, he solaces himself with this most beautiful sentiment. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1.21 So when David was assailed by Shime, with stones and curses, had he immediately fixed his eyes on the man, he would have urged his people to retaliate the injury. But perceiving that he acts not without an impulse from the Lord, he rather calms them. So let him curse, says he, because the Lord has said unto him, curse David. With the same bridle he elsewhere curbs the excess of his grief. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. Psalm 39 verse 9 If there is no more effectual remedy for anger and impatience, he assuredly has not made little progress, who has learned so to meditate on divine providence, as to be able always to bring his mind to this. The Lord willed it, it must therefore be born, not only because it is unlawful to strive with him, but because he wills nothing that is not just and befitting. The whole comes to this, when unjustly assailed by men overlooking their malice, which could only aggravate our grief and wet our minds for vengeance, let us remember to ascend to God and learn to hold it for certain that whatever an enemy wickedly committed against us was permitted and sent by his righteous dispensation. Paul, in order to suppress our desire to retaliate injuries, wisely reminds us that we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with our spiritual enemy the devil, that we may prepare for the contest, Ephesians 6 verse 12. But to calm all the impulses of passion, the most useful consideration is that God arms the devil as well as all the wicked for conflict and sits as umpire that he may exercise our patience. But if the disasters and miseries which press us happen without the agency of men, let us call to mind the doctrine of the law, Deuteronomy 28 verse 1, that all prosperity has its source in the blessing of God, that all adversity is his curse. And let us tremble at the dreadful denunciation, and if ye will not be reformed by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, Leviticus 26 verses 23 and 24. These words condemn our torpor, then, according to our carnal sense, deeming that whatever happens in any way is fortuitous, we are neither animated by the kindness of God to worship him, nor by his scourge stimulated to repentance. And it is for this reason that Jeremiah, Lamentations 3 verse 38, and Amos, Amos 3 verse 6, expostulated bitterly with the Jews for not believing that good as well as evil was produced by the command of God. To the same effect are the words in Isaiah, I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all these things, Isaiah 45 verse 7. 9. At the same time, the Christian will not overlook inferior causes. For, while he regards those by whom he has benefited as ministers of the Divine Goodness, he will not therefore pass them by, as if their kindness deserved no gratitude, but feeling sincerely obliged to them will willingly confess the obligation and endeavor according to his ability to return it. In fine, in the blessings which he receives, he will revere and extol God as the principal author, but will also honor men as his ministers, and perceive, as is the truth, that by the will of God he is under obligation to those by whose hand God has been pleased to show him kindness. If he sustains any loss through negligence or imprudence, he will, indeed, believe that it was the Lord's will it should so be, but at the same time he will impute it to himself. If one for whom it was his duty to care, but whom he has treated with neglect is carried off by disease, although aware that the person had reached a limit beyond which it is impossible to pass, he will not therefore extenuate his fault, but as he had neglected to do his duty faithfully towards him, will feel as if he had perished by his guilty negligence. Far less where, in the case of theft or murder, fraud and preconceived malice have existed, will he palliate it under the pretext of divine providence, but in the same crime will distinctly recognize the justice of God and the iniquity of man, as each is separately manifested. But in future events especially, will he take account of such inferior causes? If he has not left destitute of human aid, which he can employ for his safety, he will set it down as a divine blessing, but he will not therefore be remiss in taking measures or slow in employing the help of those whom he sees possessed of the means of assisting him. Regarding all the aids which the creatures can lend him, as hands offered him by the Lord, he will avail himself of them as the legitimate instruments of divine providence. And as he is uncertain what the result of any business in which he engages is to be, save that he knows that in all things the Lord will provide for his good, he will zealously aim at what he deems for the best so far as his abilities enable him. In adopting his measures, he will not be carried away by his own impressions, but will commit and resign himself to the wisdom of God that under his guidance he may be led into the right path. However, his confidence in external aid will not be such that the presence of it will make him feel secure, the absence of it fill him with dismay, as if he were destitute. His mind will always be fixed on the providence of God alone, and no consideration of present circumstances will be allowed to withdraw him from the steady contemplation of it. Thus Joab, while he acknowledges that the issue of the battle is entirely in the hand of God, does not therefore become inactive, but strenuously proceeds with what belongs to his proper calling. Be of good courage, says he, and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God, and the Lord do that which seemeth him good. 2 Samuel 10 verse 12 The same conviction keeping us free from rashness and false confidence will stimulate us to constant prayer, while at the same time filling our minds with good hope it will enable us to feel secure and bid defiance to all the dangers by which we are surrounded. 10. Here we are forcibly reminded of the inestimable felicity of a pious mind. Innumerable are the ills which beset human life and present death in as many different forms. Not to go beyond ourselves, since the body is a receptacle, nay the nurse of a thousand diseases, a man cannot move without carrying along with him many forms of destruction. His life is in a manner interwoven with death. For what else can be said where heat and cold bring equal danger? Then, in what direction soever you turn, all surrounding objects not only may do harm, but almost openly threaten and seem to present immediate death. Go on board a ship, you are but a plank's breadth from death. Mount a horse, the stumbling of a foot endangers your life. Walk along the streets, every tile upon the roofs is a source of danger. If a sharp instrument is in your own hand or that of a friend, the possible harm is manifest. All the savage beasts you see are so many beings armed for your destruction. Even within a high-walled garden, where everything ministers to delight, a serpent will sometimes lurk. Your house, constantly exposed to fire, threatens you with poverty by day, with destruction by night. Your fields, subject to hail, mildew, drought, and other injuries, denounce barrenness and thereby famine. I say nothing of poison, treachery, robbery, some of which be set us at home, others follow us abroad. Amid these perils, must not man be very miserable, as one who, more dead than alive, with difficulty draws an anxious and feeble breath, just as if a drawn sword were constantly suspended over his neck. It may be said that these things happen seldom, at least not always or to all, certainly never all at once. I admit it, but since we are reminded by the example of others that they may also happen to us and that our life is not an exception any more than theirs, it is impossible not to fear and dread as if they were to befall us. What can you imagine more grievous than such trepidation? Add that there is something like an insult to God when it is said that man, the noblest of the creatures, stands exposed to every blind and random stroke of fortune. Here, however, we are only referring to the misery which man should feel where he placed under the dominion of chance. But when once the light of divine providence has illumined the believer's soul, he is relieved and set free not only from the extreme fear and anxiety which formerly oppressed him, but from all care, for as he justly shutters at the idea of chance, so he can confidently commit himself to God. This, I say, is his comfort, that his Heavenly Father so embraces all things under his power, so governs them at will by his nod, so regulates them by his wisdom that nothing takes place save according to his appointment, that received into his favor and entrusted to the care of his angels, neither fire nor water nor sword can do him harm except insofar as God their master is pleased to permit. For thus sings the Psalm, Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence, he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shall thou trust, his truth shall be thy shield and buckler, thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteeth at noonday, etc. Psalm 91 verses 2 through 6. Hence the exalting confidence of the saints, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do to me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me, though in host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Psalm 118 verse 6, 27 verse 3, 23 verse 4. How comes it, I ask, that their confidence never fails, but just that while the world apparently revolves at random, they know that God is everywhere at work and feel assured that his work will be their safety. When assailed by the devil and wicked men, were they not confirmed by remembering and meditating on providence, they should of necessity forthwith despond. But when they call to mind that the devil and the whole train of the ungodly are in all directions held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, so that they can neither conceive any mischief nor plan what they have conceived, nor how much so ever they have planned move a single finger to perpetrate, unless insofar as he permits, nay, unless insofar as he commands, that they are not only bound by his bedders, but are even forced to do him service. When the godly think of all these things, they have ample sources of consolation. For as it belongs to the Lord to arm the fury of such foes and turn indestinate at pleasure, so it is his also to determine the measure and the end, so as to prevent them from breaking loose and wantoning as they list. Supported by this conviction, Paul, who had said in one place that his journey was hindered by Satan, 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 18, in another resolves with the permission of God to undertake it, 1 Corinthians 16-7. If he had only said that Satan was the obstacle, he might have seemed to give him too much power as if he were able even to overturn the councils of God. But now, when he makes God the disposer, on whose permission all journeys depend, he shows that however Satan may contrive, he can accomplish nothing except insofar as he pleases to give the word. For the same reason, David, considering the various turns which human life undergoes as it rolls and in a manner whirls around, retakes himself to this asylum, my times are in thy hand, Psalm 31 verse 15. He might have said the course of life or time in the singular number, but by times he meant to express that how unstable so ever the condition of man may be, the vicissitudes which were ever and anon taking place are under divine regulation. Hence resin in the king of Israel, after they had joined their forces for the destruction of Israel, and seemed torches which had been kindled to destroy and consume the land, are termed by the prophet smoking fire-brands. They could only emit a little smoke. Isaiah 7 verse 4. So Pharaoh, when he was an object of dread to all by his wealth and strength and the multitude of his troops, is compared to the largest of beasts, while his troops are compared to fishes. And God declares that he will take both leader and army with his hooks, and drag them whither he pleases. Ezekiel 29 verse 4. In one word, not to dwell longer on this, give heed, and you will at once perceive that ignorance of providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness. 12. On the providence of God, insofar as conducive to the solid instruction and consolation of believers, for as to satisfying the curiosity of foolish men, it is a thing which cannot be done and ought not to be attempted. Enough would have been said, did not a few passages remain which seemed to insinuate, contrary to the view which we have expounded, that the counsel of God is not firm and stable, but varies with the changes of subliminary affairs. First, in reference to the providence of God, it is said that he repented of having made men, Genesis 6 verse 6, and of having raised Saul to the kingdom, 1 Samuel 15 verse 11, and that he will repent of the evil which he had resolved to inflict on his people as soon as he shall have perceived some amendment in them, Jeremiah 18 verse 8. Secondly, his decrees are sometimes said to be annulled. He had by Jonah proclaimed to the Ninevites, yet forty days and Ninevah shall be overthrown, but immediately upon their repentance he inclined to a more merciful sentence, Jonah 3 verses 4 through 10. After he had, by the mouth of Isaiah, given Hezekiah intimation of his death, he was moved by his tears and prayers to defer it, Isaiah 38 verse 15, 2 Kings 20 verse 15. Hence many argue that God has not fixed human affairs by an eternal decree, but according to the merits of each individual, and as he deems right and just, disposes of each single year and day and hour. As to repentance, we must hold that it can no more exist in God than ignorance or error or impotence. If no man knowingly or willingly reduces himself to the necessity of repentance, we cannot attribute repentance to God without saying either that he knows not what is to happen or that he cannot evade it or that he rushes precipitately and inconsiderately into a resolution and then forthwith regrets it. But so far as this from the meaning of the Holy Spirit that in the very mention of repentance he declares that God is not influenced by any feeling of regret, that he is not a man that he should repent, and it is to be observed that in the same chapter both things are so conjoined that a comparison of the passages admirably removes the appearance of contradiction. When it is said that God repented of having made Saul king, the term change is used figuratively. Shortly after it is added, the strength of Israel will not fly nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent, 1 Samuel 1529. In these words his immutability is plainly asserted without figure, wherefore it is certain that, in administering human affairs, the ordination of God is perpetual and superior to everything like repentance, that there might be no doubt of his constancy even his enemies are forced to bear testimony to it, for Balaam even against his will behaved to break forth into this exclamation. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said and shall he not do it, or has he spoken and shall he not make it good? Numbers 23 verse 19 13 What then is meant by the term repentance, the very same that is meant by the other forms of expression by which God is described to us humanly, because our weakness cannot reach his height, any description which we receive of him must be lowered to our capacity in order to be intelligible, and the mode of lowering is to represent him not as he really is, but as we conceive of him. Though he is incapable of every feeling of perturbation, he declares that he is angry with the wicked. Wherefore, as when we hear that God is angry, we ought not to imagine that there is any emotion in him but ought rather to consider the mode of speech accommodated to our sense, God appearing to us like one inflamed and irritated whenever he exercises judgment. So we ought not to imagine anything more under the term repentance than a change of action, men being wanted to testify their dissatisfaction by such a change. Hence, because every change whatever among men is intended as a correction of what displeases, and the correction proceeds from repentance, the same term applied to God simply means that his procedure is changed. In the meantime, there is no inversion of his counsel or will, no change of his affection. What from eternity he had foreseen, approved, decreed, he prosecutes with unvarying uniformity, how sudden so ever to the eyes of man the variation may seem to be. 14. Nor does the sacred history, while it relates that the destruction which had been proclaimed to the Nunavites was remitted, and the life of Hezekiah after an intimation of death prolonged implied that the decrees of God were annulled. Those who think so labor under delusion as to the meaning of threatenings, which, though they affirm simply, nevertheless contain in them a tacit condition dependent on the result. Why did the Lord send Jonah to the Nunavites to predict the overthrow of their city? Why did he by Isaiah give Hezekiah intimation of his death? He might have destroyed both them and him without a message to announce the disaster. He had something else in view than to give them a warning of death which might let them see it at a distance before it came. It was because he did not wish them destroyed but reformed, and thereby saved from destruction. When Jonah prophesies that in forty days Nunava will be overthrown, he does it in order to prevent the overthrow. When Hezekiah is forbidden to hope for longer life, it is that he may obtain longer life. Who does not now see that, by threatening of this kind, God wished to arouse those to repentance whom he terrified, that they might escape the judgment which their sins deserved. If this is so, the very nature of the case obliges us to supply a tacit condition in a simple denunciation. This is even confirmed by analogous cases. The Lord rebuking King Abimelech for having carried off the wife of Abraham uses these words. Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But, after Abimelech's excuse, he speaks thus. Restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that art thine. Genesis 20 verses 3 and 7. You see that, by the first announcement, he makes a deep impression on his mind that he may render him eager to give satisfaction, and that by the second he clearly explains his will. Since the other passages may be similarly explained, you must not infer from them that the Lord derogated in any respect from his former counsel, because he recalled what he had promulgated. When, by denouncing punishment, he admonishes to repentance those whom he wishes to spare, he paves the way for his eternal decree, instead of varying it one wit either in will or in language. The only difference is that he does not express in so many syllables what is easily understood. The words of Isaiah must remain true. The Lord of hosts has purposed, and who shall disannual it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Isaiah 14 verse 27. End of section 28