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ful years and seasons" proceed from the Lord, Acts iv. 17: and likewise barren years, when he maketh the heaven as iron, and the earth as brass." Lev. xxvi. 19.(d) On the fourth day God created the lights of heaven. He takes care of these also." He appointeth the moon for seasons, the sun knoweth his going down: he maketh darkness, and it is night," Psalm civ. 19, 20. See also Job ix. 7.(e) The fishes and fowls were the work of the fifth day. And God attends to these also. He slew the fish of Egypt." Psalm cv. 29, and enabled Peter to catch a great multitude, Luke v. 5. 6. "He provideth food for the fowls," Job xxxviii. 41. Matt. vi. 26. yea, the meanest sparrow falls not to the ground without your Father, Matt. x. 29. (f) On the sixth day God made the beasts of the earth, and he takes care of oxen," Deut. xxv. 4. 1 Cor. 9. God directs even vermin, as we see in the lice, frogs, and locusts of Egypt, "The locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, are God's great army," Joel ii. 25. But God orders and directs especially man, the chief of all the works that he hath made, and that with respect to his natural and spiritual condition. With respect to his natural condition, the providence of God extends (2) to his birth and life. How beautifully doth Job describe the providence of God with respect to his birth! "Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation bath preserved my spirit," Job x. 10, 11, 12. (2) To every occurrence, as "riches and go poverty.". For "the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth A dow, and lifteth up," 1 Sam. ii. 7, "Health and sickness." For "be maketh sore and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole," Job v. 18. War and peace. "He maketh peace, and crea- 2 teth evil," Isaiah xlv. 7. "Kings obtain victory of him." Psalm cxliv. 10. "The horse is prepared against the day of battle; but safety is of the Lord," Prov. xxi. 31. Yea, the providence of God numbers also the hairs of our head," Matt. x. 30. Luke xxi. 18. (3) The providence of God extends to all the voluntary actions of nan, as his thoughts, his downsitting, uprising, walking, downlying, ways and words," Psalm cxxxix. 2, 3, 4. This is evident also from Prov. xvi. 9. xxi. 1. James iv. 13, 14, 15. I Sam. x. 26. (4) Also to his death, the manner, the time and the place of his death are ordered by God in his providence, according to his counsel. So Job speaks to the Lord concerning man: "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass," Job xiv. 5.. Verily the

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greatest revolutions depend upon the death of men, which cannot happen without the providence of God. Did the Lord add fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah, Isaiah xxxviii. 1-5, he did not add them to the years which he had decreed that he should live; but to to the life of Hezekiah, when he should otherwise have died of his deadly sickness; those fifteen years also showed that his lifetime was determined, and the whole procedure of God in that affair demonstrates his providence, "Do not wicked men live out half their days," as David speaks, Psalm Iv. 25, this doth not mean that their untimely death happens without the providence of God, but it respects only a possibility of their living longer, and their injuring and forfeiting of their health by their wickedness; for which reason God takes them away suddenly in his anger. (5) The providence of God extends also to those occurrences, which happen to a man accidentally without any direction of the man himself, or of others: "The disposing of the lot is of the Lord," Prov. xvi. 33. Is a man slain unawares, “God delivers him into the slayer's hand," Exod. xxi. 13. compare herewith, Deut. xix. 5.

But the providence of God extends not only to the natural, but also to the moral condition of man, since he is subject to God as his lawgiver: "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king," saith the church, Isaiah xxxiii. 22. The Lord manifests this by establishing his covenant of works, and of grace with man; and thus "God works in him both to will and to do after his good pleasure," Philip. ii. 13, and he inflicts a judgment of blindness and hardness upon particular persons. We shali speak of this more fully hereafter.

4. God exerciseth his providence, either with respect to the essence and existence of his creatures, or with respet to their actions, or with respect to their ends, in their actions.

With respect to the essence and existence of the creatures, the providence of God consists in upholding them, by which he causeth all things, which he hath created to exist, and continue in being: "The Lord preserveth man and beast," Psalm xxxvi. 6. "By him all things consist." Coll. i. 17. God upholds some things with re spect to their essence, as the heaven, angels, the sun, moon, stars, and the earth; these are all still the same that they were when they were created and produced: he upholds others with respect to their kind by generation, as men, beasts, herbs, and plants. God upholds those things not merely by not annihilating and destroying them, as a person may be said to preserve a thing that he hath made, when he doth not destroy it, which is the notion of the Pelagians concern

ing this matter: but God upholds by an actual, operative and pow erful influence, which is God's almighty and every where present power: for we cannot otherwise understand how "we live, move, and have our being in God." God's upholding is, as it were, his continual creation, as the four and twenty elders, when they ascribe honour to him, say, Rev. iv. 11, "Thou hast created all things, and by thy will they are, and are created."* It is a continual vivification of them, Neh. ix. 6, therefore it is also said, Psalm civ. 30, "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renew est the face of the earth." Yea, this upholding is, as it were, a bearing with a strong hand; "God beareth all things by the word of his power. † Heb. i. 3; otherwise the creature would perish of itself, since it hath nothing in itself that causesth it to exist in future: and annihilation takes place only when God withholds his influence: "when he lets his hand loose, he cuts man off," Job vi. 9. See also Psalm civ. 29.

With respect to the actions of the creatures, the providence of God co-operates with them, whereby he prevents, excites and maintains their motions and actions, by an active, but secret power, so that they move in him, for the Lord works both to will and to do," Philip. ii. 13. "It is God himself who worketh all in all," 1 Cor. xii. 6. Read this also emphatically, Isaiah x. 5, 6. It is not therefore enough to assert a general preservation of the creature's power and ability to act, or a general, undetermining influence, which is determined by the creature itself, as the wind impels the ship forward, while it nevertheless moves hither and thither by the conduct of the steersman. It is moreover not enough to assert a co-ordinate acting of God, with the actions of the creature, as the Pelagians speak; for this renders the creature in its actions, independent of God, and God dependent in his act on the action of the creature, which he must only follow: yea, the Lord God is not then the principal, but the subordinate cause.

With respect to the end of the creature, the providence of God works by governing, whereby God directs, in a sovereign manner, every event, and the designs of his creatures, to certain ends, which he himself proposeth, according to certain laws which he hath given; "His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doth according to his will in the army

⚫ We have rendered this passage according to the Dutch translation. †This is according to the Dutch translation

of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what dost thou ?" Dan. iv. 34, 35. God hath for this purpose given his creatures certain laws, according to which he governs and directs them; which are either the established order of nature, which God hath given to the inanimate creatures, so "that henceforth, while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease," Gen. viii. 22. See also Jer. xxxi. 35, 36, or the natural instinct of animate creatures, according to which they perform all their actions; "Even the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming," Jer. viii 7, or "the royal law," which he hath given to rational creatures, James ii. 8. Yea, we may also say, that "the counsel of the Lord's will, after which he worketh all things," is the law of the Lord, or the plan, according to which he doth all things. According to these laws doth God govern all his creatures, and that in a mariner suited to their nature. Doth the creature swerve in any instance from that law, either by some miraculous act of God, or by its own vice, God directs it in such a manner, that it is agreeable to his decree, and issues to his honour, and for the welfare of the good, by which the Lord always obtains the end, which he proposeth, even against the purpose and end of the creature. This Joseph observed, when he said to his brethren, Gen. 1. 20, "Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good." See Isaiah X. 5,6,7.

5. God the Lord provides for all his creatures, and at all times, in different methods; and therefore we consider providence, as (1) mediate and immediate: the mediate providence is that by which God provides for some creatures by means. The Lord saith, Hosea ii. 21, 22, "I will hear the heavens; and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel," See also Psalm civ. 13, 14, 15, Rom i. 16. x. 17. Immediate providence is that by which God provides for some things without means, as the third heaven, and the angels ; in this manner the Lord also provided for Moses and for the Lord Jesus, forty days, without the means of meat and drink ; but when he makes use of means, he doth not do it from any defect, as though he had need of them, for he is allsufficient; but he doth it from his goodness, as he is willing to honour the creature by making it his fellowworker. See 1 Cor. Hi. 9. For he makes use sometimes of the most insignificant means: three hundred men sufficed to discomfit the innumerable host of the Medianites. God sometimes renders

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the most powerful means inefficacious, so that "a king is not saved by the multitude of an host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength," Psalm xxxiii. 16, 17. God works sometimes in a manner that is above, and contrary to the na ture of the means; for instance, causing that the fire doth not burn and singe, Dan. iii. And when God useth means, their power doth still depend on him. See Deut. viii. 3. 1 Cor. iii. 5, 6. (2) Providence is also distinguished into an ordinary and extraordinary. The ordinary providence is, that God works according to the ordinary and established course of nature: but the extraordinary, or superordinary is, that God works sometimes above the ordinary and established course of nature, by a miracle: for instance, when God gives bread from heaven, brings water out of the rock, makes the sun and moon stand still, effects that the cruel lions do not rend Daniel, and that the hungry ravens bring Elijah bread and flesh: which, and like wonders, God the Lord alone can do, according to Psalm Ixxii. 18. Psalm cxxxvi. 4. Are they sometimes ascribed to men, it is only because they were mere moral instruments by their faith and prayers. See Acts iii. 12, 13, 16. Miracles or wonders, are certain great events, which take place beside the ordinary laws of nature, through the almighty power of God, for the confirmation of the divine truth: but we may not look upon that as a miracle, which a person doth by a more than ordinary strength, like Samson; for that is only an increase of strength, which doth not exist in a miracle. Moreover, it doth not enter into the nature of a miracle, that we do not know the precise reason of a thing, and that it happens seldom, as some speak, who are unwilling to allow that God ever doth any thing beside the laws of nature, or contrary to the established motions of matter: for when we speak thus, we lessen, yea, we vilify the great miracles of God: at this rate, there would happen many miracles every day, which no man will consider as miracies, because we can assign the precise reason of but few of God's works. Can we discover the reason why the iron swims upon the water, the sun and moon stand still, and the fire doth not burn? Such wonders hath God sometimes wrought, in order to confirm the truth: but shall our ignorance of the precise reason, of such things be a powerful confirmation of the divine truth (3) Finally, we distinguish the providence of God into a common and special providence. The common providence is that by which he showeth favour, from a common good-will to all his creatures; yea, to the ungodly, as well as to the godly: "God maketh his sun to rise on