3. Nothing doth subsist without God's care and power. His eyes
greater bulk, and know every motion of it; how much more God, who hath infinity and excellency and strength of all angels and souls, must need actuate this world, and know every motion of it! There is nothing done in the world but some creature or other knows it; he that acts it doth at least know it. If God did not know it, the creatures then in that particular knowledge would be superior to God, and know something more than God knows; can this be possible?
2. Nothing is acted in the world without the will of God. His will either commands it, or permits it: Eph. 1:11, 'He works all things after the counsel of his own will,' Ps. 135:6, 'Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth.'
Even the sins of the world his will permits them, his power assists in the act, and his wisdom orders the sinfulness of the act for holy ends.
The four chariots in Zech. 6:2–5, by which some understand angels, are sent upon commission into the several parts of the world, and compared to chariots, both for their strength, their swiftness, their employment in a military way to secure the church. These are said to come out of the two mountains of brass, ver. 1, which signify the irreversible decrees of God, which the angels are to execute.* He alarms up the winds, when he would have Jonah arrested in his flight. He sounds a retreat to them, and locks them up in their chambers, Ps. 107:25–29. Bread hath a natural virtue in it to nourish, but it must be accompanied with his secret blessing, Mat.
4:4.
Virtute primi actus, agunt agentia omnia quicquid agunt.
3. Nothing doth subsist without God's care and power. His eyes running to and fro, implies not only knowledge, but care. He doth not carelessly behold what is done in the world, but, like a skilful pilot, he sits at the helm, and steers the world in what course it should sail. Our being we owe to his power, our well-being to his care, our motion and exerting of every faculty to his merciful providence and concurrence; 'in him we live, and move, and have our
being,' Acts 17:28. He frames our being, preserves our life, concurs with our motion. This is an idea that bears date in the minds of men with the very notion of a God. Why else did the heathen in all their straits fly to their altars, and fill their temples with cries and sacrifices? To what purpose was this, if they had not acknowledged
God's superintendency, his taking notice of their cause, hearing their prayers, considering their cries? Why should they do this, if they thought that God did not regard human affairs, but stood untouched with a sense of their miseries?
If all things were done by chance, there could be no predictions of future things, which we frequently find in Scripture, and by what ways accomplished. Impossible it is that anything can be continued without his care. If God should in the least moment withhold the influence of his providence, we should melt into nothing, as the impression of a seal upon the water vanishes as soon as the seal is removed; or as the reflection of the face in the glass disappears upon the first instant of our removal from it. The light in the air is by participation of the light of the sun; the light in the air withdraws upon the departure of the sun. The physical and moral goodness [of] the creature would vanish upon the removal of God from it, who is the fountain of both.
What an artificer doth work, may continue, though the workman dies, because what he doth is materially, as to the matter of it, ready to his hands; he creates not the matter, but only sets materials together, and disposeth them into such a form and figure. But God gives a being to the matter and form of all things, and therefore the continuance of that being depends upon his preserving influence.*
God upholds the world, and causes all those laws which he hath impressed upon every creature, to be put in execution: not as a man that makes a watch, and winds it up, and then suffers it to go of itself; or that turns a river into another channel, and lets it alone to run in the graff he hath made for it; but there is a continual concurrence of God to this goodly frame. For they do not only live, but move in him, or by him; his living and omnipotent power runs
through every vein of the creation, giving it life and motion, and ordering the acts of every part of this great body. All the motions of second causes are ultimately resolved into the providence of God, who holds the first link of them in his hands, Hosea 2:21, 22. More particularly, the nature of providence may be explained by two propositions.
Prop. 1. The universality of it. His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth.
1. It is over all creatures, (1.) the highest, (2.) the lowest.
(1.) The highest and most magnificent pieces of the creation.
[1.] Over Jesus Christ, the first-born of every creature. God's providence was in an especial manner conversant about him, and fixed upon him. It was by the determinate counsel of God, that he was delivered up, Acts 2:23. His providence was diligently exercised about him in his whole course. Christ answers his mother's solicitousness with the care his Father took of him: Luke 2:49, 'Wist you not that I must be about my Father's business?' Do you not know that I am about those things my Father takes care of? This exposition best agrees with his reproof, who blames them for creating so much trouble to themselves upon their missing him in the town. It is not,
Why do you interrupt me in my dispute with the Jewish doctors? But 'How is it that you sought me? Do you think I am not under the care of my Father?'† It was particularly exercised on him in the midst of his passion, Zech. 3:9. Seven eyes were upon the stone; seven, a number of perfection, a perfect and peculiar care of God attended him.
[2.] Over angels and men. The soul of the least animal, and the smallest plant, is formed and preserved by God, but the breath of mankind is more particularly in his hand: Job 12:10, 'In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.'
First, Over good angels and men. He charges his angels with folly and weakness. They cannot direct themselves without his wisdom, nor preserve themselves without his power. God hath a book of providence, wherein he writes down who shall be preserved, and this book Moses understands: Exod. 32:33, 'Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book;' not the book of election,
—no names written there are blotted out,—but out of the book of providence. As it is understood, Isa. 4:3, 'Every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem,' i.e. every one whom God designs to preservation and deliverance.* That God, surely, that hath a care of the mean animals, will not be careless of his affectionate worshippers. He that feeds the ravens will not starve his doves. He that satisfies the ravening wolf, will not famish his gentle lambs and harmless sheep. He shelters Jacob from Laban's fury, Gen. 31, and tutors him how he should carry himself towards the good man. He brought Haman out of favour, and set Mordecai in his place for the deliverance of the Jews which were designed for slaughter.
Secondly, Over evil angels and men. God's power preserves them, his patience suffers them, his wisdom orders them, and their evil purposes and performances, to his own glory. The devil cannot arrest
Job, nor touch a lamb of his flock, nor a hair of his head, without a commission from God. He cannot enter into one filthy swine in the Gaderenes' herd, without asking our Saviour leave. Whatever he doth, he hath a grant or permission from heaven for it. God's special providence is over his people, but his general providence over all kingdoms and countries.
He takes care of Syria, as well as of Judea; and sends Elisha to anoint Hazael king of Syria, as well as Jehu king of Israel, 1 Kings 19:15.
Though Ishmael had mocks for Isaac, yet the God of Isaac provided for the wants of Ishmael; Gen. 25:16–18, 'He causeth his sun to shine upon the unjust,' as well as 'the just,' to produce fruits and plants for their preservation.
(2.) Over the meanest creatures. As the sun's light, so God's providence disdains not the meanest worms. It is observed, that in the enumeration of the works of creation, Gen. 1:21, only the great whales and small creeping things are mentioned, and not the intermediate creatures, to shew that the least as well as the greatest are under his care. It is one of his titles to be the preserver of beasts as well as men, Neh. 9:6. He is the great caterer for all creatures; Ps.
104:21, 'The young lions seek their meat from God.' They attend him for their daily portion, and what they gather and meet with in their pursuit, is God's gift to them, ver. 27, 28. He listens to the cries of the young ravens, though they are birds of prey. 'He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,' Ps. 147:9. In Ps. 104. David throughout the whole reads a particular lecture of this doctrine, wherein you may take a prospect of God's providence all over the world. He acts them by a commandment and imprinted law upon their natures, and makes them observe exactly those statutes he enacts for the guidance of them in their proper operations. Ps.
147:15, 'He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth, and his word runs very swiftly,' viz., his word of providence. God keeps them in the observation of their first ordinance. Ps. 119:91, 'They continue this day according to thine ordinances, for all are thy servants,' i.e. the earth and what is upon it. They observe their stations, the law
God hath set them, as if they had a rational knowledge of their duty in their particular motions; Ps. 104:19, 'the sun knoweth his going down.' Sometimes he makes them instruments of his ministry to us, sometimes executioners of his judgments. Lice and frogs arm themselves at his command to punish Egypt. He makes a whale to attend Jonas dropping into the sea, to be an instrument both to punish and preserve him. Yea, and which is more wonderful, the multitude of the very cattle is brought among others as a reason of a people's preservation from destruction, Jonah 4:11; the multitude of the cattle are joined with the multitude of the infants, as an argument to spare Nineveh. He remembers Noah's cattle as well as his sons; Gen 8:1, 'God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.' He numbers the very hairs of our heads, that not one falls without his will. Not only the
immortal soul, but the decaying body; not only the vital parts of that body, but the inconsiderable hairs of the head, are under his care.
Obs. 1. This is no dishonour to God, to take care of the meanest creatures. It is as honourable for his power to preserve them, and his wisdom to govern them, as for both to create them. It is one part of a man's righteousness to be merciful to his beasts, which he never made; and is it not a part of God's righteousness, as the rector of the world, to take care of those creatures, which he did not disdain to give a being to?
Obs. 2. It rather conduceth to his honour.
(1.) The honour of his goodness. It shews the comprehensiveness of his goodness, which embraceth in the arms of his providence the lowest worm as well as the highest angel. Shall infinite goodness frame a thing, and make no provision for its subsistence? At the first creation he acknowledged whatever he had created good in his kind, good in themselves, good in order to the end for which he created them; it is therefore an honourable thing for his goodness to conduct them to that end which in their creation he designed them for; and not leave them wild disorders, unsuitable to the end of that goodness which first called them into being. If he grow out of love with the operations of his hands, he would seem to grow out of love with his own goodness that formed them.
(2.) The honour of his power and wisdom. The power of God is as much seen in making an insect full of life and spirit in all the parts of it, to perform all the actions suitable to its life and nature, as in making creatures of a greater bulk; and is it not for the honour of his power to preserve them, and the honour of his wisdom to direct these little animals to the end he intended in their creation? For as little as they seem to be, an end they have, and glorious too, for natura nihil facit frustra. It seems not to consist with his wisdom to neglect that which he hath vouchsafed to create. And though the apostle seems to deny God's care of brutes,—1 Cor. 9:9, 'Doth God