PROOF OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT.

515 ed conditions, the loss of the good which he had hoped for is to be ascribed to himself, and not to God.

These considerations are overlooked by the great body of mankind; and hence it is, that when affairs do not take the turn which they wish, they complain and murmur respecting the divine government. The mistakes most frequent on the subject of divine providence are the following: viz. (a) Men are apt to consider their whole happiness as placed in the enjoyment of a certain kind of advantages, perhaps that very kind of which they are deprived; perhaps too, advantages which possess no intrinsic value, which are transient and uncertain, and which, if obtained, could not make the possessor truly happy. The poor often desire most of all things, that they may be rich; and the sick, that they may enjoy good health. But how undesirable is it often, both for their temporal and eternal welfare, that their wishes should be gratified! (b) Men are prone to forget, that the good of the whole is to be consulted for, and that individuals must often sacrifice to the general welfare, some private advantages, for which, however, they are to receive an equivalent in other ways, as they may confidently expect from the goodness of God, and as experience even in the present world has often proved. (c) Men are prone to regard disproportionately the present pain and unhappiness which they experience, and to forget that under their sufferings and deprivations, there may be concealed the germ of a greater temporal and eternal good. (d) Men are disposed to charge God unjustly with denying them, or depriving them of certain advantages, the loss of which is wholly their own fault. How many of the sick and the destitute complain of God as the author of their suferings, while their own consciences must assure them, that they alone are to blame!

II. Proof of this doctrine.

1. From the natural constitution of the world (argumentum physicum). It is impossible for the human mind to conceive, how the admirable order and harmony which appear in the universe, where all things are so intimately connected, run into, and depend upon one another, like the links of a chain, should exist without the superintendence and control of an infinitely wise and almighty being. Consider here the influence of the atmosphere upon the

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growth of plants, upon the life, health, and support of animate beings. Reflect too, that one country has a surplus of certain useful productions, of which another country is wholly destitute. The former cannot use its surplus productions; the latter is compelled to seek elsewhere what its own soil does not produce, and to obtain it where it can be found in the greatest abundance. This gives rise to trade, activity, enterprise; and these bring in wealth, etc.

2. From experience (argumentum historicum). This may be either personal or general, and so is called by Morus duplicem providentiæ scholam, p. 83, §8. This proof, when rightly exhibited, is very obvious and intelligible, even to the unlearned. In the events which take place around us, let the attention be directed to the causes by which they are effected,-to the time, place, and other circumstances in which these causes acted. By their slow and often unnoticed combination, effects are produced, at which every one is astonished. The smallest occurrences often lead to the greatest revolutions; wicked actions are made the means of good, and result in the advantage of those, whom they were designed to injure; so that many can say with Joseph (Gen. 50. 20), “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it for good." Men who are to be the means of eminent good to the world, or to perform some distinguished service, must be called forth upon the stage of action, at exactly the most proper time, in exactly the most suitable place, and at precisely the most favorable juncture of other circumstances. When history is studied with these considerations kept in mind; (and in the study of history they should never be omitted, as they are now, alas! too frequently, by those who teach this branch to the young ;) what to the ignorant and thoughtless might appear to be chance or accident, exhibits clear marks of a guid ing providence. And this is the high position, from which those who have the Scriptures in their hand, can survey all the events recorded in the history of the world. We may refer to the history of Joseph, to the ancient history of the Jews, that of the diffusion of Christianity, of the Reformation, and the more important events of our own times, as remarkable examples. Vid. Schroeckh, Disp. historia providentiam divinam, quando et quam clare loquatur, Viteberga, 1776. J. G. Müller, Briefe über das Studium der Wissenschaften, besonders der Geschichte, Zürch, 1798, 8vo,—a work full of valuable remarks drawn from experience, which deserve to

FROM EXPERIENCE AND THE BIBLE.

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be considered especially by the teachers of religion, and to be carefully applied by them to practice.-But we ought by no means to confine our attention to the great events which are recorded in the history of the world. To one who is an attentive observer of all the changes through which he himself passes, his own life will furnish abundant materials for the most interesting and useful observations respecting the providence of God. And such observations are uncommonly useful in popular instruction. They tend to awaken and cherish religious dispositions. If men suppose that God exercises no care over them, they have no ground or motive to love and worship him.— But since holiness is the true end for which we, as moral beings, were made, and since our capacity for happiness is in exact proportion to our holiness; we ought to pay particular attention to those dealings of divine providence with us, by which this great end is promoted. To every man whose moral character is in any considerable degree improved and advanced, whatever he has experienced himself, or noticed in others, tending to the promotion of holiness, possesses an inexpressible interest; and any who are destitute of feeling on this point, and can ridicule the spiritual experiences of pious Christians, and what they communicate of their experiences to others, either by writing or by oral relation, give mournful proof, that they themselves are as yet unreformed, and are turning aside from the true end of their being.-One who is taught in his youth to refer every thing in his own life to God, and to search for the traces of divine providence in what befalls himself, will learn to look at the lives of others, and at the history of nations in the same manner, and with the same interest; and will of course be dissatisfied when he sees, that in opposition to the example of the sacred writers, God is wholly left out of the account by so many historians. But on the contrary, he who himself lives in the world without God, may be content with a history in which the hand of God is unnoticed, and indeed will be displeased with any other.

3. From the Bible. Morus, pp. 79-81, § 6. That God is the creator, proprietor, and governour of the world, that all things, even the smallest, depend upon him, and that with infinite wisdom he overrules all for the highest good, are principles every where assumed in the Bible. The texts which relate to providence in the more general view of it, were cited § 68, I. 2. The texts which re

518 ART. VIII. § 70. HOW NATURAL EVENTS SHOULD BE SPOKEN OF.

late more particularly to the divine government, may be divided into the following classes: (a) Those in which the guidance and direction of all events, both small and great, are expressly ascribed to God, Matt. 6: 31. Acts 17: 25, 26. 1 Chron. 29: (al. 30:) 12. (b) Those in which particular changes and occurrences, past, present, and to come, are referred to God as the author, Is. 43: 12. Acts 4: 28. Ps. xc. Prov. 16: 1, 33, "the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." (c) Those which contain divine promises and threatnings, and which would be without meaning on any supposition, but that God is the governour of the world, and the disposer of the destinies of men, Ex. 20: 12. Ps. xc. XCI. etc. (d) Those in which God is entreated to avert calamities, to put an end to distress, to bestow blessings, etc.; or those in which the granting of such requests is promised, Ps. 22: 5. CXXVIII. Matt. 26: 89. 1 Thess. 3: 10, 11.-In order that this may be correctly understood, it should be compared with what was before said respecting the will and the purposes of God, §§ 20, 32.

Note. It has been already frequently remarked, that according to a mode of thinking and speaking common among the ancients, many things were represented as resulting immediately from the agency of God, though they were in reality effected through the instrumentality of second causes, which perhaps were merely not mentioned, perhaps were overlooked, or possibly, at that early period of the world, not even known; vid. § 58, II. The mode of representation here referred to, and expressions and narrations founded upon it, occur frequently in the Bible, in Homer, and the ancient writers. Thus, for example, when we should say, it thunders, it rains, there is an earthquake, the ancients said, Gop thunders, etc. Ps. xxix. 104: 32. Gen. 11: 7, 8. 19: 24, "God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." Many events, therefore, which would seem, from the manner in which they are spoken of, to be the results of the immediate agency of God, and to be accomplished in an extraordinary way, were really effected by natural causes. However, since these natural causes depend upon the government of God, this mode of speaking is in itself correct. And it is because we, in the present age, have so little of the religious feeling of the ancient world, that we misunderstand their more pious and religious mode of expressing themselves, and even feel it to be offensive. The teacher of religion should, however, closely follow the example of the sacred writers in this respect, and ever imitate and preserve this more religious phraseology which they employ, and like them refer every thing to God. And if, in order to prevent superstition, he should think it necessary to say, that such an event took place naturally, he must be careful that he be not understood to mean, that it took place without God, and that he does not thus become the means of causing his hearers to forget God,

$71. DIVINE Government in relATION TO FREEDOM. 519

and to live at a distance from him. He ought, on the contrary, in such cases to show, that although a particular event may have been natural, it was not the less owing to the agency of God; that nature is only an instrument in the hands of God; and that nothing therefore takes place, which is not according to his will and purpose.

$71. The government of God in relation to the freedom of man, and to the evil existing in the world.

I. In relation to the freedom of man.

On the one hand, the freedom of the human will is unimpaired by the government of God; and on the other, the government of God is unobstructed and undisturbed by the free actions of men. The freedom of man must at all events be maintained, for morality and accountability depend upon it. If he is not free to choose and to act, he cannot be accountable for his actions; for they are not within his own power. We have already established the position (§ 22, I.), that God foresees those actions which result from the freedom of man, and the consequences of them, as well as those which are necessary, or less contingent; but that the former do not cease to be free, because they are foreknown. This principle must be assumed as true in reasoning on this subject. We are not to expect, therefore, that the government of God over moral beings will be shown, by his compelling them to perform good or bad actions. That men are free in what they do, is every where assumed in the Bible, and must be presupposed in every system of morals; vid. Luke 8: 5-15. 13: 6-9. James 1: 13-15.

Still, however, the free actions of moral beings are under the most minute inspection, and the most perfect control of God. For these actions are dependent (a) upon the powers which man possesses, and for these powers he is indebted to God alone; vid. § 69. (b) Upon the laws of his physical and moral nature; i. e. the laws (in one case of motion, and in the other of thought) according to which he exercises his peculiar powers; and these laws are given and established by God; vid. ubi supra. (c) Upon external circumstances,-upon things without the man himself; and these things,