"I will say of the LORD, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God: in him will I trust."--DAVID.

      The general idea of Divine Providence may be expressed in the periphrasis--The care of God in the preservation and government of the world. Or, it is the superintendence of the Creator over the affairs of the universe.

      The idea of creation, then, is by no means included. Creation must necessarily precede, since it gives occasion to, both preservation and government. For if nothing were created, there would be nothing to take care of--nothing to superintend. The creation of the world, then, was just what we are accustomed to style it--an act of creation and not a work of providence.

      The notion of miracle is also excluded. A miracle consists essentially in a sudden change or suspension of what are termed the known or established laws of nature. We can have no idea of a miracle without including such a change or contravention of the regular course of things. On this account, as we have no information of what was the regular course of things before creation, we can not say, correctly speaking, that even the creation of the world was a miracle. "HE spoke, and it was done--HE commanded, and it stood fast"--but the records of eternity are not before us, and we have not the tongues nor the vocabulary of angels. How it may be termed by those glorious inhabitants of heaven who "can not die," who were "with the Lord in the beginning of his way before his works of old--when there were no depths nor fountains abounding with water; before the mountains were settled and before the hills"--we know not. In our language we call it CREATION, and can not consistently with soundness of speech term it miracle. No more can the agency termed Providence, which sustains and regulates the universe, be styled miraculous. For a miracle interrupts that very order which this agency preserves, and which by being thus preserved in unvaried regularity through a long succession of ages, has become known as the order of nature. So long, then, as it is one thing to sustain the order of the universe, and another to interrupt it--one thing to enforce a law, and another to break it; so long will the idea of miracle be different from that of the divine agency in the preservation and government of the world. [5]

      These distinctions we conceive to be of the greatest importance, and absolutely essential to the correct understanding of the subject. It is not a question of power; it is a question of definition--of the use of words. If it were a question of power, we could easily grant that there is a stupendous power displayed in creating the world, as in any miracle; and it could as easily be shown that A requires as great power to sustain as to create the universe. The creating of Adam an adult displayed as much power as would be exhibited in raising a man from the dead--but not any more than is required to clothe the little germ contained in a grain of corn with a new body, twelve or fourteen feet high, with its tassel, its silk, its ears, and its shining leaves. Any one of these is just as possible as another, and no one of them is a whit more wonderful than another, if power were the question. But it is simply the application of terms. The first we call creation--the second, a miracle--the third, the providence of God, who gives "to every seed its own body." It is necessary, in order to avoid confusion of ideas, to employ these terms in their legitimate signification.

      Further: when we thus distinguish between creation, miracles, and providences, we do not thereby exclude from the latter the idea of divine interference, any more than from the two former. The hand of the Almighty is indeed displayed in all, and in one as much as in another. In the former, indeed, his purposes may be more suddenly accomplished, but not more certainly, nor in many cases more unexpectedly than in the latter. The mode and means of action may be different, but there is an agent in all, and that agent is the same. It is very unreasonable to suppose that every Divine interference must of necessity be miraculous--that a Creator is not required to sustain those very laws whose operation a miracle for a moment interrupts, or that this momentary interruption is a greater interference than was required to sustain for ages these principles in constant action--that a greater degree of power is needed or a different agent to produce cessation or change of action, than to originate and sustain that action--that it requires an agent to produce an effect by other than the ordinary means; and that none is needed to accomplish as great a purpose by the wise control, direction, and employment of influences with which we happen to be more familiar. It is indeed the very idea and definition of Providence, that it is the Divine agency exerted in sustaining and governing the universe. It differs from miracle in this, that its designs are brought to pass by means of the established laws and through the ordinary channels; while a miracle is the accomplishment of a purpose by other means.

      We are indeed fallen upon "evil days and evil times" when infidelity and atheism seem to have taken the place of the opposite extremes, [6] credulity and idolatry. Formerly every hero and every hearth--every object of beauty and every element of nature had a tutelar deity. But now the chief wisdom is made to consist in a stupid attempt to explain everything by referring and restricting it to what are called natural principles, and a still more absurd halting at what are termed secondary causes; as though the mere knowledge of the mode in which a principle acts could explain the principle itself, or as if the idea of secondary causes did not absolutely involve that of a First Cause. And it is most unfortunate that even those who believe in a Supreme Ruler have partaken more or less of the deleterious influence of this vain philosophy, and that they have permitted the foolish wisdom of this world to substitute any unexplained explanation for the power of God; or any unmeaning or undefinable "Nature" for the Deity himself. Such was not the doctrine nor the language of the ancient Christians. With them it was not the mere operations of Nature--the mere clouds, but "God" who gave them "showers of rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." It was not to any "electric influence" or any "internal heat" they attributed their enjoyment of life; but it was "in God they lived, were moved, and had their being." Nor was it to any concurrence of "secondary causes" they were wont to refer the judgments they witnessed and the deliverances they experienced. These were with them the "wrath of God," the chastenings of "the Lord"--It was "the Lord" who "stood" with them and "delivered" them--who "supplied all their need," and "of whom, and through whom, and to whom" were "all things"--to whom they gave the glory. By the Providence of God, then, we mean His care and superintendence in preserving and governing the world. By the preservation of the world is implied the upholding the being, the powers, and attributes of all created things; and by its government is signified a controlling and overruling power over everything which is thus upheld.

      The subject, therefore, is naturally divided into preservation and government. And as the Divine Being exercises a particular care over certain departments of His universal empire, it will be convenient to make a further division into a general and a special providence, either of which may include preservation as well as government.

      How important is it that in returning to the institutions of primitive Christianity, we should return also to that constant dependence upon God for all things, and that deep sense of the unceasing and watchful care and presence of our Heavenly Father, by which the disciples were characterized in the beginning!--Blessed are they who put their trust in Him!--HE sustains all things--HIS dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

[ROBERT RICHARDSON]      

Source:

Robert Richardson. "The Providence of God.--No. 3: Definition." The Millennial Harbinger 7 (July 1836): 305-307.

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