It were cold and lifeless to represent God as a momentary Creator, who completed his work once for all, and then left it. Here, especially, we must dissent from the profane, and maintain that the presence of the divine power is conspicuous, not less in the perpetual condition of the world then in its first creation. For, although even wicked men are forced, by the mere view of the earth and sky, to rise to the Creator, yet faith has a method of its own in assigning the whole praise of creation to God. To this effect is the passage of the Apostle already quoted that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God (Heb. 11:3); because, without proceeding to his Providence, we cannot understand the full force of what is meant by God being the Creator, how much soever we may seem to comprehend it with our mind, and confess it with our tongue. The carnal mind, when once it has perceived the power of God in the creation, stops there, and, at the farthest, thinks and ponders on nothing else than the wisdom, power, and goodness displayed by the Author of such a work (matters which rise spontaneously, and force themselves on the notice even of the unwilling), or on some general agency on which the power of motion depends, exercised in preserving and governing it. In short, it imagines that all things are sufficiently sustained by the energy divinely infused into them at first. But faith must penetrate deeper. After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith infer that he is also a Governor and Preserver, and that, not by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe as well as in each of its parts, but by a special providence sustaining, cherishing, superintending, all the things which he has made, to the very minutest, even to a sparrow. Thus David, after briefly premising that the world was created by God, immediately descends to the continual course of Providence, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens framed, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth;” immediately adding, “The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth the children of men,” (Ps. 33:6, 13, &c;). He subjoins other things to the same effect. For although all do not reason so accurately, yet because it would not be credible that human affairs were superintended by God, unless he were the maker of the world, and no one could seriously believe that he is its Creator without feeling convinced that he takes care of his works; David with good reason, and in admirable order, leads us from the one to the other. In general, indeed, philosophers teach, and the human mind conceives, that all the parts of the world are invigorated by the secret inspiration of God. They do not, however reach the height to which David rises taking all the pious along with him, when he says, “These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth,” (Ps. 104:27-30). Nay, though they subscribe to the sentiment of Paul, that in God “we live, and move, and have our being,” (Acts 17:28), yet they are far from having a serious apprehension of the grace which he commends, because they have not the least relish for that special care in which alone the paternal favour of God is discerned.
1. Are the examples given last week (Joseph, Pharoah, Judas, etc.) special cases, or to be taken as normative? (Does God work the same today (post-Pentacost) as then?) PS 104, MT 10:29-30, PS 139:13-16.
2. I say: If this is so, there is no such thing as chance or fate. Why?
3. Why are we happy to acknowledge Him as provider but not as governor?
NEH 9:6, PS 145:14-16, PR 19:21, DAN 4:35.
4. There are two errors ruled out by this section of the Confession: the first teaches that things happen by________________. The second teaches that things happen by ______________________.
II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. AC 2:23
5. God’s will in bringing to pass whatsoever He decrees is called His __________ will. His revealed law or commandments that we have the power but not the right to break is called His _______________ will. That which describes God’s attitude or what pleases Him is His will of ______________ .
III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.
AC 27:24, 31; RO 4:19-21; 2KI 6:6.
IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
JA 1:13-14, 17; AC 2:23; 2 TH 2:11, IS 45:7. False assumptions for discussion:
6. “If God controls everything, then I am not responsible for what I do.”
7. “If God controls everything, then things will turn out the same no matter what I do.”
8. “If God controls everything, then He must be the author of sin.”
9. Did God ordain the fall of man?
V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.
2CH 32:25-26; 2CO 12:7-9.
10. Why does God sometimes seem to abandon us or let believers fall into grievous sin?
VI. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, does blind and harden, from them He not only withholds His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had, and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others.
RO 1:18-28; 1PE 2:7; IS 6:9.
11. Why do the wicked prosper?
VII. As the providence of God does, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it takes care of His Church, and disposes all things to the good thereof.
1TM 4:10b; RO 8:28; MT 16:18.
12. Does God play favorites?
13. In light of God’s sovereignty, why bother praying? In light of God’s sovereignty, how should we therefore live?