The Providence of God in Particulars

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

The subject to be treated from these words is that of a particular providence. And by a particular providence, we mean a divine care, unceasingly bestowed on all creatures and all their actions; on things heavenly and things sublunary; whether small or great, whether good or evil; whether natural or moral; whether necessary or free; so that nothing can occur in the universe which is not immediately governed by Omnipotence. The Epicureans feigned a deity who takes no cognizance of creatures. The followers of Aristotle seem to have confined the divine regards only to celestial things. The Pelagians withdraw from the rule of

* Princeton, January 2, 1855. *

God all free actions of moral beings; and men of the world, professing no philosophical creed in particular, entertain a vague notion of some general oversight which the Supreme Intelligence exercises since creation, while they practically deny any such special care as we have just asserted. It is of vast importance that our minds be firmly settled on this fundamental point. Generalities will not suffice, when we sustain the shock of great and sudden afflictions. As the doctrine of chance is the most absurd and cheerless of all human tenets, so any approach to it, by withdrawing a part of all events from the circle of God’s plan, tends to hesitation, darkness, and misery. For which part shall we so withdraw? What objects and what acts shall we abandon to the fortuitous concussion of circumstances? Or if this could be determined, how shall we be assured that the particulars in which we affirm God to have no concern, are not the very ones on which our highest happiness hinges? In opposition to all such irrational hypotheses, we maintain that he who firmly behoves in a universal providence, extending to every hair, and who feels accordingly, has arrived at the true secret of a happy life.

We argue a particular providence fi’om a particular creation. That which God has deigned to make, he will condescend to care for; and that which he has made in all its minutest details, he may, without derogation from his infinite majesty, continue to sustain and govern even in its least members and motions. The instance

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chosen by our Lord is among the most light and impalpable of all objects connected with the human frame. Yet, under the glass of the microscopic anatomist, the single hair presents wonders of structure and adaptation which no human hand can reproduce or imitate. Indeed, the further down we go into the interior recesses of nature, all invisible to the naked eye, the more amazing become the revelations of power, and skUl, and goodness. So that the very antennae of the fly that annoys our slumber, the dust of the downy fruit, and the volatile pollen of the lily or the rose, awaken new adoration of Him who is 7naximus in minimis, greatest in that which seems least. Take any inch-square of the ground we tread on; and to the eye of reverent science, it is a world teeming with wonders. Nor do we observe any tendency to a termination of these wonders, or any limit of this creative ingenuity, though we press our investigation to the utmost length which adventurous observation can reach with its most elaborate, costly, and recent appliances. The finger of Omnipotence is still before us; tracing contours of beauty, adding lustrous hues far beyond the reach of human gaze, weaving tissues, conveying tides of circulation, and adjusting forces with mathematical exactness, in the filament of the tiniest floweret, and the organ of the evanescent animalcule. Now, that which it was not unworthy of creative power to make, it is not unworthy of providential care to uphold and govern. Our scale of measurement on this subject is arbitrary and partial. We knov7 little of iJQ DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN PARTICULARS.

great or small, as applied to the works of the Almighty. In his eye, there may be as much value in the living mote, that scarcely darkens our vision, as in the leviathan of the hoary waters. And here, let me deviate, if it be not in the direct line of our argument, to expose the emptiness of that flippant reasoning of half-philosophy, which sometimes makes bold to jeer at our doctrine, that all things were made for some good end. These laughing sages demand of us for what purpose the contemptible insect, which flits across our path or alights on our persons, was created. Let it be a successful and triumphant reply to ignorant and impertinent scofling, that an infinitely benevolent Creator, besides other reasons unknown to us, has had sufficient reason for the production of wondrous living mechanisms, in the securing of happiness to the being itself, which thus stands forth as a small but animated argument of the divine goodness. On this point, I gladly borrow from the sometimes erroneous, but, here, incomparable Paley;” The air, the earth, the water, teem with dehghted existence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. The insect youth are on the wing.’ Swarms of new-born flies are tiying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without use or purpose, testify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discovered faculties. A bee amongst the flowers in

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spring, is one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment: so busy and so pleased; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. The whole winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon, their proper employments; and, under every variety of constitution, gratified, and perhaps equally gratified, by the ofiices which the Author of their nature has assigned to them.’’ — “Walking by the sea-side, in a calm evening, upon a sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather very thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height perhaps of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and always retiring with the water. When this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much space, filled with young shrimps, in the act of bounding into the air from the shallow margin of the water, or from the wet sand. If any motion of a mute animal could express delight, it was this; if they had meant to make signs of their happiness, they could not have done it more inteUigibly, Suppose, then, what I have no doubt of, each individual of this number to be in a state of positive enjoyment, what a sum, collectively, of gratification and pleasure have we here before our view.” *

* Natural Theology.

In conformity with this, we believe with pleasure that whatsoever God has made, even to the smallest details, he continues to preserve and regulate. Providence has sometimes been considered as a continued creation; but more properly, as the constant will of God to maintain the being of that which he has created. For there is no innate power of self-sustentation in the creature; and if God were to withdraw his power, all that he has made would collapse into its original nothing. Being is too sublime an endowment to own any other source, even for an instant, than that which first gave it. We are to look on nature in its minutest varieties, and having God perpetually standing by it, upholding and guiding. In this there is nothing low and nothing wearisome. Omnipotence is equally unexhausted in driving whole stellar systems through their awful incalculable trajectories, and in supporting the gossamer that floats over our autumnal fields. The reason of creation thus becomes the reason of providence, and we exult in the truth, as sublime as it is consolatory, that the hairs of our head are all numbered.

After this preamble, we argue particular providence from the express teachings of Scripture. Here it will be necessary to use selection. First, we open upon passages which ascribe to God the wielding and governance of all things in general. As where Nehemiah prays: ix. 6,” Thou, even thou, art Jehovah alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things therein, and thou preservest

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them all.” As when Paul, at the Areopagus, challenging the assent of even a heathen auditory, says, “Though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.” As when, Heb. i. 3, the Son of God is represented as “upholding all things by the word of his power.” But passages of this sort are numerous and familiar. Next we meet with places where this very particularity of providence is explicitly asserted. Thus the smallest as well as the greatest objects are referred to his care; as in our text, and in that beautiful and parallel instance, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” Or, where he chides the distrust of disciples as to food and raiment, by pointing to hhes and birds, arrayed and fed by God; in other words, the objects of his careful providence. The very insects, used by the sceptic for his ill-timed jests, were fearfully employed in vengeance among the plagues of Egypt; and at a later day, the locust, the palmer- worm and the caterpillar, are marshalled by him in battle-array against a guilty land, while he says, Joel ii. 11, “And Jehovah shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great.”

But this Providence of God includes in its range a nobler class of creatures, even those which are rational and immortal. These, with all their thoughts, affections, and acts, are parts of his marvellous plan. Indeed, if these were excluded, there could be nothing in the doctrine of Providence which could afford us any go DIVINE PROYIDENCE IN PARTICULARS.

contentment. It were a mockery to tell us that we should have safety by the hand of Omnipotence, in regard to the powers of irrational nature; but that in all that concerns the free or the wicked actions of men, we must rely on ourselves or on chance. It were a crippled and insufficient providence which should guard me against the serpent or the tornado, but which should leave me to myself the moment a moral and responsible agent came upon the stage. Yet, this is the strange, uncomfortable doctrine which prompts the language heard in many a Christian circle. Which of us has not listened to such words as these? “I could bear this trial, if it were ordered of God, but it proceeds from man. It is not providential, but from wicked human beings.” There is in this a sad confusion. Such a government as is here assumed, would be no providence at all; and would render all rule impossible, as excluding those very agencies which are most important. And I return to say, that the Bible teaches no such doctrine. While it abhors the thought of making God the author of sin, it does not exclude sinful acts from his wise and holy plan. While it evermore denies God’s participation in the evil of wicked deeds, it still asserts, that in the directing and governing of such deeds, there is a sovereign providence, working out its own wise and holy ends. “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how then can a. man understand his own way?” “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.” The wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder

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of wrath He will restrain. Let it be clearly fixed in our minds, as the only true philosophy of this subject, that an act may be wicked, as to the intent of its agent, and yet its result may be really intended by God. Were it not so, we could have no relief under our worst suflPerings, namely, those which we endure from depraved and malignant human creatures. But these also are providential. Joseph’s brethren committed a great sin. This none can deny, so far as they were concerned. Yet was it strictly and particularly providential: “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” “God did send me before you to preserve life.” “Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.” Here is particular providence, in regard to free and wicked acts. Other instances in point will occur to the memory of the scriptural student. Especially the great and striking case of our Lord’s arrest and death; intensely wicked as to its free perpetrators, yet a part of God’s providential scheme for the salvation of mankind. We cannot on any principle of reason escape from this great and most consolatory truth. The dependence of the creature upon the Creator enforces it. As man is suspended absolutely on God for his being and his life, so also is he dependent on him for his power to act, and for the acts themselves. If for the body, then yet more for the soul, the nobler part. Conceive of a being independent of God in acting, and you infer a being independent also in essence. But if he is dependent, then is he in all his actions brought within the circle of providential ordering. And surely there can be derived neither peace nor profit from the doctrine, that a large part of human acts, many of which most nearly concern us, are performed without God’s knowledge, which were to deny omniscience; or, without his caring for them, which were to deny his love; or, without his power to prevent them, which were to deny his omnipotence. Yet, this is the doctrine of the Epicurean, of the world, and of many who suppose themselves to be Christians. As none but infidels deny all providence outright — a truth which forces the assent of the sober Deist — the usual method of error is to admit some general care of the universe, but to deny such care as extends to minute particulars. And this misconception is widely prevalent among superficial thinkers. Now, not to repeat what has been abeady urged, that in the sense intended there is with God neither great nor small, and that there is to the Almighty no degradation, nor weariness, nor waste of power, in caring for the sparrow, the hair or the atom, I would bring it before the serious consideration of doubters, that their tenet is destructive of all providence whatever; and that if there is no particular providence, there can be none at all. General providence infers that which is particular. For, surely these deniers do not mean to tell us, that God singles out the great acts of the universe and the world’s history, and neglects the small. In this case, the small must after all be considered in the divine prescience, in order that they may be left out. The meaning, per-DIYINE PROVIDENCE IN PARTICULARS. g3

haps, is, that Divine wisdom fixes and decrees the grand and momentous events in history, but fixes not minor and intermediate points. But look a little more closely, and you will perceive, that those momentous points are caused and determined by these which are smaller. The most astonishing changes in human things, which have rent empires, and made the world ring for ages, have depended on the most trifiing occurrences, and but for these would not, and could not have been. Did Providence then secure the great event, and leave its proximate causes to be settled by chance, or not settled at all? The rise and fortunes of Moses occupy a just eminence, as connected with the destiny of a people still subsisting. Was there, or was there not, a providence in the fact that the princess of Egypt, at a certain hour, spied that wicker cradle upon the Nile? It was a grand event, that Christianity should be carried to Ethiopia. Was there any providence in the meeting of Philip and the treasurer of Queen Candace, on the road to Gaza? The death of Julius Cesar is one of the capital events in human annals. Was there a providence in the great man’s failing to read the scroll of papyrus, handed to him in the crowd, and which would have revealed to him the conspiracy? Nay, each of us, in his own little life, can recount incidents, trivial in themselves, yet directly conducive and even necessary to the occurrence of what has given colour to our whole subsequent existence. The truth is, general providence is only the sum of particular providences, as every whole is but an aggregation of its several parts. And he who speaks of a providential plan, so general as to exclude details and minutiae, utters he knows not what, and professes what he cannot expound even to his own conceptions. Let us, therefore, reverently and dehghtedly, come back to the doctrine of our childish days, which is at the same time a conclusion of the profoundest philosophy, that all events, even the smallest, fall out according to the comprehensive and well-ordered plan of a sleepless benignant and all- wise Ruler, who doeth his pleasure in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. How beautifully this shines out in the records of the Scriptures; making them herein differ strikingly from all other annals! This clew will often guide us through the mazes of an otherwise inexphcable narrative. This will often explain to us, why some things are given in great detail, while others are passed over in silence. For, the accounts given in Scriptm-e are the history, not so much of the intentions of man, as of the plans of God. Especially in the vernal sunshine of patriarchal days, we behold God’s hand, we feel his presence, we admit his agency, at every turn. And all the way through the tangled web of Judaic history, it is Jehovah who is the planner, it is Jehovah who is the hero of the story. Well were it for each of us, if we could transfer this spirit of the Bible to the explanation of our own lives. It would clear up many a day of clouds, and solve many an enigma. In this belief, I dare not close without certain practical conclusions from truths, I trust,

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sufficiently established. We may sin against the doctrine of a particular providence in several ways.

In regard to the past, we may offend by repining, or quaxreUing with providence. It is one of our daily and most heinous transgressions, excluding the thought of God’s wise and beneficent rule from the events of our common days. The sin of murmuring was the fatal iniquity of Israel in the wilderness. It should be enough to reconcile us to every event, that it befals us agreeably to the wisdom and justice and mercy of God. What misery, what weakness, what consumption of health, what decay of spirits, what paralysis of effort, what sourness and morose care, might have been avoided, if we had learnt to live in a continual submission to Providence, as to every particular of our lives. “Lord, increase our faith!”

Akin to this is despair, when there seems to be no outlet from our troubles. It may befit a Cain, a Saul, or a Judas; but not a child of God. If time had allowed, I might have shown how Providence, under a special covenant, concerns itself for those who shall be heirs of salvation. The lessons of our Lord, abeady cited, go to forbid this undue despondency. Hard as it may be for unaided nature, it is the prerogative of grace, when the night is darkest and most dreary, not only to submit to what is sent, but to trust and hope in God for the future; and there is a blessing on such exercises of soul. Distrust of Providence impHes an actual disbelief of God’s rule and disposal of the events which concern ns.

Another sin is the imputing of our sins to God, which is a horrible abuse of the doctrine of Providence. The metaphysics of this subject may be difficult, and we are not called upon to resolve all the doubts which may be raised by an ingenious and perverse reason; but a few undeniable truths stand out in fire, like lighthouses flaming along a tempestuous coast. Whatever we know not, we do know that the Judge of all the earth will do right; that God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man; that while he permits sin, bounds it, and overrules it, he is infinitely remote from being its cause, and from participating in its mahgn quahty; that, as all good is from above, so all the evil of our misdeeds is from ourselves. These plain and admitted truths should rise fully before us, when at any time we are tempted to charge God foolishly.

Again, there is a perversion which turns providence into fate, and professes to hope for results without using means. Whatever is to be, will be — is the familiar maxim of the profane and superficial fatalist; often upon the lips of those who have no real belief in providence. Wise men know that he who orders the end, orders also the means, and that the means are made necessary to the end by the decree of God himself. Providence is itself a system, regularly working by a chain of means, in the order of cause and efiect.

Providence does not ensure the result in spite of neglects and omissions, but by ensuring the means required. Where any man, whether from fataUsm or indolence, omits the performance of his part, providence then goes on its stately march to produce the Milure of the end. Hence the sin of presumption is chargeable on such as rush on dangers, uncalled, in the profane expectation of safety or deliverance. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In things temporal, and in those which concern our personal salvation, we abuse providence when we neglect the diligent use of those instrumentalities which God has ordained.

Prone to extremes, however, sinful human nature sometimes speeds to the very opposite, and relies impHcitly on second causes. This is the reigning sin of the busy world. It becomes flagrant in many, who, after long prosperity, come to ascribe all their success to their own endeavours, forget the hand which has sustained and supported them, and mentally expel the God of Providence from his own dominions. Such are the sons of wealth, who fear no reverses, give no thanks, expect largely from self, or, as they speak, from luck, and mean to be happy in spite of God. There may be cases in which they have their good things in this world, feel no bands in their death, and expire as they have lived. But it is very common for a holy and just God, by some stroke of his judgment on body, reason, family, reputation, or estate, to show such persons, as he did Nebuchadnezzar, that “the Heavens do rule.”

We shall best avoid these various errors, by establishing our minds on a thorough persuasion of God’s all-pervading, all-embracing providence. And happy should I be, my brethren, if the words now spoken should prove seasonable to any one who has come to this house overburdened with care. To such a heart the blessed assurance of the text, carried home by the Spirit of grace, will become a sovereign balm. The bitterness of our griefs arises from our denying or forgetting, that whatsoever Hes heavy on our lot is laid there by the hand of Him who is ordering all things for our good. However vexing may be the annoyances of our pilgrim state, the loving soul can bear much from the hand of a compassionate Creator and Redeemer. These unwelcome visitations are intended to bring us to right views of God’s government of all things for his people. Is the trouble past?. It is the Lord who hath done it; let him do as seemeth him good! Be still, and know that he is God. Is it present? Own the chastening of a present God, who doeth all things well, and who is near you, to bring good out of evil. Is it future? Take no anxious thought for the morrow. He who plans in wisdom and executes in power, is your Keeper, your Shield, and your exceeding great Reward. Nothing is too hard for his might; nothing too little for his condescension. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Apply this to the circumstances of this very day and hour; apply it to those second causes, which, to a vainly-wise unbelief

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often seem too insignificant to be brought to the foot of the infinite throne. You may use a child-hke confidence in coming to your Father in heaven; you may unbosom before him your smallest disquietudes. The thorn in the traveller’s foot is sometimes grievous as the sword of an adversary. The strongest Christians are those who, from holy habit, hasten with every thiag to God. Summon this doctrine to your aid, not merely when the weightier class of calamities oppress you; but amidst the perturbations of ordinary life, the coUisions of business, the perplexities of the household, the mutations of health and spirits, nay the clouds of the sky, which too often carry darkness into the windows of the shrinking and sensitive soul. The very moods which make our wheels drag slowly through the daily task, the tempers of those around us, the petty disappointment and chagrin, the sHght, the cross, the look of unkindness and the silence of rebuke — all are dispensed in season and in love. Happy is the soul which, having secured an interest in providence by securing acceptance in Christ, can roll its burden on the Lord and lie down secure amidst the tempest, because its Father is at the helm.