The Proofs of a Divine Providence.

DISCOURSË I.

ROMANS xi. 36:

Of him, and through him, and to him, are all Things: to whom be Glory for ever. Amen.

T

HE Doctrine of Divine Providence, which comprehendeth God's Prefervation and Government of the World, is of the highest Importance. If we should profefs to believe never fo firmly, that there is a God who gave Being to the World; yet if we should at the fame Time believe, that he doth not concern himfelf about his Creatures after he hath made them, and, particularly, that he taketh no VOL. I. Care

B

.

Care of Men or their Affairs, this would be to all the Purposes of Religion as if we did not acknowledge a God at all. It may be justly faid, therefore, that the Belief of the Providence of God is no lefs neceffary than the Belief of his Existence. And if the Matter be rightly confidered, it will be found that the one of thefe is infeparably connected with the other: For if there be a fupreme, original, 'eternal Caufe, a God that made this vaft Univerfe, and all Things that are therein, he must be poffeffed of infinite Perfections, of almighty Power, of unfearchable Wisdom, and boundless Goodnefs. And how can it be reconciled with thefe Perfections, to make fuch a World as this, and then to abandon it, and throw afide all Care and Concern about it? And especially to make reasonable Beings, moral Agents, capable of being governed by Laws, and endued with a Sense of Good and Evil, and yet be utterly regardlefs how they behave, and whether Virtue or Vice, Order or Confufion, Happiness or Mifery, prevails among them? Whatever Reafons induced him to create the World, which may be supposed to have been for the Exercife and Difplay of his own Perfections, the Manifeftation of his Glory, and the Communications of his Goodness, muft equally induce him to preferve and govern it when

when made. To lay out fuch a Profufion of Glory and Excellency in the Formation of this vast, beautiful, and well-ordered System, and then leave it to Chance and Confufion, would be to act fo capricious, fo unaccountable a Part, as no wife Man would be guilty of, and which cannot, without great Abfurdity, be ascribed to the abfolutely perfect Being. And fuch a Conduct would be as inconfiftent with his Goodness as with his Wifdom. That he fhould make numberless Orders of Beings, and afterwards take no farther Care of them, as if he were abfolutely indifferent what became of them, would be in no wife reconcileable to the Character of the beneficent Parent of the Universe.

*

Thefe Things are fo evident and obvious to the common Senfe and Reason of Mankind, that all those who believe that the Formation of the World was owing to a fupreme intelligent Caufe, muft, if they be confiftent with themselves, believe, that the fame infinitely wife, good, and powerful Mind governs the World when made, and exerciseth a conftant Care over it. And accordingly, the Epicureans, who denied a Providence, did alfo deny that the World was made by God, and attributed the Formation of it, not to the Wisdom and Power of an intelligent Cause, but to Chance, or a for

B 2

a fortuitous Concourfe and Jumble of Atom's. And fo far their Scheme, however falfe and abfurd, was confiftent with itself: For they could find no effectual Way to exclude God from the Government of the World, which was what they wanted to get rid of, but by excluding him from the making of it too. But if the fuppofing this ftupendous System, which beareth fo many illuftrious Characters of the most amazing Skill and Contrivance, and the various Orders of reafonable and intelligent Beings it contains, to have been produced by a blind undefigning Chance, or by any unintelligent Cause or Nature, be, as it certainly is, the most abfurd and ridiculous Conceit that ever entered into the Mind of Man; if there be infinitely greater Reason to believe, that the World was contrived and formed by a moft wife, as well as powerful Being, than there is to believe that any the most exquifite Productions of human Skill and Genius are the Effects of Contrivance and Design; then we are almost irrefiftibly led to conclude, that the fame infinite Power and Wisdom, which gave Existence to the World, ftill maintaineth and prefideth over the universal Frame in all its Parts. It is with the greatest Propriety that the Apostle Paul declares concerning God, that of him, and through him, and to him, are all Things. As all Things are of God,

God, as the fupreme original Cause, most powerful, wife, and good, from whom this vaft Universe, and all the Orders of Beings in it, derived their Existence; fo through him are all Things, i. e. on him all Things continually depend, by him they are all maintained, difpofed, and governed,

and are under his conftant Direction and Superintendency, who, as the fame Apostle fpeaks, worketh all Things according to the Counsel of his own Will. Eph. i. 11. And then it follows, that to him are all Things: they are all for him, and to him, as their fupreme and ultimate End. And whofoever believes this, will readily join in the apoftolical Doxology, To him be Glory for ever. Amen.

That, if there be a God who made the World, there must be a Providence, may be farther argued thus. If God doth not exercife a providential Care over his Creatures, it must be either because he cannot, or because he will not do it. To pretend that he cannot do it were to the last degree abfurd. For why should he not be as able to preferve and govern the World as he was to create it? He could not have made the World, if he had not been poffeffed of infinite Wisdom and almighty Power; and the fame divine Understanding and Power would equally qualify him to preferve and govern the World when B 3

he