Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

a whole could subsist independently of its parts. It is by this particular
providence that God governs the multitude of the isles, notices the fall of
a sparrow, bottles the tears of the mourner, and numbers the hairs of his
followers. Now, as God is an infinitely wise and good being, and governs
the world in wisdom and goodness, the earth may well rejoice and the
multitude of the isles be glad.
It is granted that this is a subject which cannot be comprehended. And
why? Because God is infinite: he acts from his own counsels, which are
infinite, in reference to ends which are also infinite; therefore the reasons
of his government cannot be comprehended by the feeble limited powers
of man.
The providence of God in renewing the wastes of nature, and in
fructifying barren tracts, so as to make the wilderness a fruitful field, and
even the steril rocks a vegetable surface, is a subject of astonishing beauty
and contrivance; and as such is worthy of the contemplation of angels and
men; and is a sovereign proof of the being and love of the great First
Cause and Preserver of all things.
God disposes and governs the affairs of the universe, descending to the
minutest particulars, and managing the great whole by directing and
influencing all its parts. This particular or especial providence is not
confined to work by general laws; it is wise and intelligent, for it is the
mind, the will, and energy of God; it steps out of common ways, and
takes particular directions, as endlessly varied human necessities may
need, or the establishment and maintenance of godliness in the earth may
require.
That divine providence which arranges and conducts the whole, and
under whose especial guidance and control the course of the present state
is ordered, so that all operations in the natural, civil, and moral world,
issue in manifesting the glory, justice, and mercy of the supreme Being,
lies farther out of the view of men, and by most is little regarded: hence
a multitude of events appear to have either no intelligent cause, or no one