"Say not unto the angel, There is no providence; lest God should be angry at your voice, and destroy the works of your hands."

      The Sadducees, like the Atheists, denied the superintendence of God over the universe. This indeed is implied in what is said of them (Acts xxii. 8), viz., that "they say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." For the exclusion of angel and spirit, necessarily excluded, among the Jews, the idea of providence, which the word ANGEL with them was frequently employed to express. Thus Abraham says, "God shall send his angel before thee to take a wife for Isaac"--that is, God shall superintend and direct you in this matter. And Jacob--"The God who fed me all my life long--the angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads"--signifying the protecting, preserving, guiding providence of God which he had experienced during his life. Thus also David--"The angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him;" and again, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee," etc. We may observe here that this last passage is evidently restricted to ordinary preservation and protection by our Lord's answer to Satan, "Thou shalt not TEMPT the Lord thy God"--that is, by rushing into unnecessary hazards. In Isa. xxxvii. 36, also, it is said, "the angel of the Lord" smote Sennacherib's army. What this "angel" was, we learn from II. Kings. xix. 7--"Behold, I will send a BLAST upon him;" i. e., the samiel or simoon. Thus too in Ps. lxxviii. 49, the plagues of Pharaoh are called "evil angels;" so that it is evident that the Jews were accustomed often to use the term angel as expressive of the providential interference of God, and applicable to the natural agency by which he accomplished his purposes. Thus Paul quotes the 104th Psalm--"Who makes winds his angels [AGENTS] and flames of fire his ministers;" the emphasis here being evidently upon the word angel as distinguished from Son. Hence too the parting salutation among the Jews--"The angel of God keep you company" (Tobit. v. 10). Hence also the phrases, "The good angel will keep him company" (ver. 21); and "Mine angel is with you" (Baruch vi. 7).

      The Sadducees among the Jews, were, in this respect, like the Epicureans among the Greeks, who, as we formerly mentioned, admitted the existence of a God, but denied a providence, supposing that the Deity delighted in calm and undisturbed repose.

      Thus speaks Lucretius, who has embodied the tenets of their philosophy in his celebrated poem De rer. nat., which, to use the language of Gillies, "is the boldest monument which the world is ever likely to witness, of learning, genius, and impiety."

      It would be unnecessary to attempt to disprove the notion that there is no Providence, except by showing it to be congenial with the absurdities of Epicureans, Sadducees, and Atheists, were it not that few properly appreciate the necessary connection which exists between the belief in a Supreme Being, and in his preservation and government of the world. It is certainly unreasonable to suppose that such a Being, who has created the beautiful universe, adorned it with so many glorious objects, and furnished so many sources of happiness, should nevertheless be wholly unconcerned about his creatures, and indifferent to their welfare. But apart from this consideration, it is as great an absurdity to suppose that the world can preserve and govern itself, as that it could make itself. "For it is not with the being and nature of things," as Sherlock well observes, "as it is with the works of art, which, though they can not make themselves, yet, when they are made, can subsist without the artist that made them--the workman does not give being to the materials, but only to the form--but whatever receives its being from another, as all creatures do, has nothing to support its being but the cause that made it;" that is, there is nothing created which has a self-subsisting nature, or a necessary and independent existence. This may be regarded as abstruse reasoning. There is no one, however, who will consider the incessant changes which occur in the universe, the constant activity of animated nature, and the systematic arrangements, operations, and motions of all created things, who can for a moment suppose that these do not require an agent as much as creation--and the same agent, since he only who created, knows how to govern and preserve them. To be sure, we do not comprehend how they are sustained, but neither do we comprehend how they were originally created. And certainly it requires as much power, and is as striking a proof of divine agency, to clothe, in the spring of the year, the naked earth with verdure and the fields with flowers--to unfold the leafy umbrellas of the grove, or bend the boughs of the orchard and present to the hand the golden fruits of autumn, as to create them at the first. No one can show how an oak can be brought out of an acorn without divine agency, any more than how it could be created out of nothing without such agency. The argument therefore drawn from nature, proves as much for a Providence as it does for a Creator; and every consistent Deist must admit the superintendence of God over the universe upon the same principles upon which he infers his existence. [9]

      It is not a little strange that any one who believes in revelation should deny the doctrine in question. For the fact that a revelation has been given, apart from anything contained in that revelation, at once refutes the Epicurean hypothesis, and proves that the Divine Being does interest himself in the affairs of men.

      When, however, we examine the Scriptures themselves--when we reflect upon the history of the human family, mark the fulfillment of prophecy, and contemplate the judgments, the deliverances, and the innumerable acts of love and condescending mercy experienced by the race of Adam at the hands of the beneficent Creator, no language can be found adequate to express the unmeasured depth of his goodness, and no human power able to enumerate the countless instances of his watchful care and superintendence.

      Some arguments, drawn from the Scriptures, we will briefly notice:

      1. In the sacred oracles God has delivered to the human family from the beginning great and precious promises--promises which have been accomplished in every age, which are now in the act of accomplishment, or which are yet to be accomplished; and which, involving as they do the fates and fortunes of empires as well as individuals, of cities and the globe itself, necessarily depend entirely upon the divine agency for their fulfillment. Without supposing such an agency in human affairs, such directing, governing, and overruling power over the destinies of the kingdoms and inhabitants of the earth, and the laws and elements of the material universe, no one can explain the accomplishment of these promises and predictions.

      2. It is upon this doctrine, too, that all prayer is founded. It is the belief that God will hear--the confident assurance that he will grant the just petitions of his people, by which they are emboldened to approach the throne of favor--by which even they are entitled to expect the boon--for he that doubts must not suppose "he will receive anything from the Lord." Without a sincere conviction and lively sense, then, of the divine agency in the preservation and government of the world, prayer, one of the most important and necessary duties and highest privileges of the Christian, becomes nothing but a ceremonious mockery--an absurd theory--and a useless practice.

      3. The denial of the doctrine is characteristic of the wicked. Thus David says, "They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they commune of laying snares secretly; they say, Who shall see them?" (Ps. lxiv. 5). "He hath said it in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see it" (Ps. x. 11). "Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it" (Ps. xciv. 7). "Is not this great Babylon," said Nebuchadnezzar, "that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of MY power, and for the honor of MY majesty?" But "while the word was yet in the king's [10] mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will."

      4. The superintending care of God is, on the other hand, the frequent theme of the righteous under former institutions. Thus Job xxi. 4, "Doth he not see my ways and count all my steps?" And David (Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19), "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him--upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine." Again, Ps. xciv. 8, 9, 10, "Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? And he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chasteneth the heathen, shall not he correct? And he that teacheth men knowledge, shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity." From this belief Hezekiah prays, "Incline thine ear, O Lord, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to reproach the living God." And Jeremiah exclaims, "0 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."

      5. In the New Testament the same doctrine is expressly taught. Paul declares to the Lycaonians (Acts xiv. 17), "He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." And again, to the Athenians, "In him we live, are moved, and have our being, as certain of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." And finally, he "who spoke as never man spoke," thus in his own beautiful and impressive manner, taught his disciples: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? yet neither of them falleth to the ground without the will of your Father. Nay, the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. x. 29, 30). No language can more emphatically express the notice and superintendence of God. No man can tell the number of the hairs of his own head--but God has numbered them every one!

      It would, however, require me to transcribe much of both Old and New Testament, were all the references and allusions to the divine agency in the preservation and government of the world, to be noticed and enumerated. Enough of evidence has been presented from reason and revelation to place the doctrine beyond dispute, and lead every one, we trust, to say with David, "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and up-rising: thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and [11] my lying-down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me--it is too high, I can not attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me--yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light to thee are both alike." To Him, therefore, "through whom and by whom and to whom are all things," be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

R. R., 1836.      

Source:

Robert Richardson. "The Providence of God.--No. 4: Proof." The Millennial Harbinger 7 (August 1836): 360-364.

[MHA1 8-12]