Chapter 16. That God by His Power Maintains and Upholds the World Which He Himself Has Created, and by His Providence Does Govern All the Parts Thereof

But it were very foolish and bare to make God a creator for a moment, which does nothing since he has once made an end of his work. And in this point principally ought we to differ from the profane men, that the presence of the power of God may shine to us no less in the continual state of the world, than in the first beginning of it. For though the minds of the very wicked in only beholding of the heaven and earth are compelled to rise up to the creator, yet has faith a certain peculiar manner by itself whereby it gives to God the whole praise of creation. And therefore serves that saying of the Apostle, which we before alleged, that we do not understand but by faith, that the world was made by the word of God. For unless we pass forward even to his providence, we do not yet rightly conceive what this means that God is the creator, however we do seem to comprehend it in mind, and confess it with tongue. When the sense of the flesh has once set before it the power of God in the very creation, it rests there, and when it proceeds furthest of all, it does nothing but weigh and consider the wisdom, power, and goodness of the workman in making such a piece of work (which things do of themselves offer and thrust themselves in sight of men whether they will or no) and a certain general doing in preserving and governing the same, upon which depends the power of moving. Finally it thinks that the lively force at the beginning put into all things by God, does suffice to sustain them. But faith ought to pierce deeper, that is to say, whom it has learned to be the creator of all things, immediately to gather that the same is the perpetual governor and preserver of them: and that, not by stirring with a universal motion as well the whole frame of the world, as all the parts thereof, but by sustaining, cherishing and caring for, with singular providence every one of those things that he has created even to the least sparrow. So David after he had first said that the world was created by God, immediately descends to the continual course of his providence. By the word of the Lord (says he) the heavens were established, and all the power thereof by the spirit of his mouth. Immediately he adds, The Lord looked down upon the sons of men. And so the rest that he says further to the same effect. For although they do not all reason so orderly, yet because it were not likely to be believed that God had care of men's matters, unless he were the maker of the world, nor any man does earnestly believe that God made the world, unless he be persuaded that God has also care of his works: therefore not without cause David does by good order convey us from the one to the other. Generally indeed both the philosophers do teach, and men's minds do conceive that all parts of the world are quickened with the secret inspiration of God. But yet they attain not so far as David both himself proceeds and carries all the godly with him, saying: all things wait upon you, that you may give them food in due season. You give it to them and they gather it. You open your hand and they are filled with good things. But if you hide your face they are troubled. If you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Again if you send forth your Spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. Yes, although they agree to the saying of Paul, that we have our being and are moved, and do live in God, yet are they far from that earnest feeling of grace, which he commends to us: because they taste not of God's special care by which alone his fatherly favor is known.

That this difference may the better appear, it is to be known, that the Providence of God, such as it is taught in the Scripture, is in comparison set as contrary to fortune and chances that happen by chance. Now forasmuch as it has been commonly believed in all ages, and the same opinion is at this day also in a manner in all men, that all things happen by fortune, it is certain, that that which ought to have been believed concerning Providence, is by that wrong opinion not only darkened but also in manner buried. If a man light among thieves, or wild beasts, if by wind suddenly risen he suffer shipwreck on the sea, if he be killed with the fall of a house or of a tree: if another wandering in desert places find remedy for his poverty, if having been tossed with the waves, he attain to the haven, if miraculously he escape but a finger's breadth from death: all these chances as well of prosperity as of adversity the reason of the flesh does ascribe to fortune. But whoever is taught by the mouth of Christ, that all the hairs of his head are numbered, will seek for a cause further off, and will firmly believe that all chances are governed by the secret counsel of God. And as concerning things without life, this is to be thought, that although every one of them has its own property naturally put into it, yet do they not put forth their power but only so far, as they be directed by the present hand of God. They are therefore nothing else but instruments, whereby God continually pours in so much effect as pleases him, and at his will bows and turns them to this or that doing. Of no creature is the power more marvelous or more glorious than of the sun. For beside that it gives light to the whole world with its brightness, how great a thing is this that it cherishes and quickens all living creatures with its heat? That it breathes fruitfulness into the earth with its beams? That out of seeds warmed in the bosom of the ground, it draws a budding greenness, and sustaining the same with new nourishments does increase and strengthen it, till it rise up in stalks? That it feeds it with continual vapor till it grow to a flower, and from a flower to fruit? That then also with baking it he brings it to ripeness? That trees likewise and vines being warmed by him, do first bud and shoot forth branches, and after send out a flower, and of a flower do engender fruit? But the Lord because he would claim the whole glory of all these things to himself, made the light first to be, and the earth to be furnished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before that he created the sun. A godly man therefore will not make the sun to be either a principal or a necessary cause of those things which were before the creation of the sun, but only an instrument which God uses because it so pleases him, whereas he might leave it and do all things as easily by himself. Then when we read that the sun stood still two days in one degree at the prayer of Joshua, and that the shadow thereof went back ten degrees for Hezekiah's sake, by those few miracles God has declared that the sun does not daily so rise and go down by blind instinct of nature, but that he to renew the remembrance of his fatherly favor toward us, governs the course thereof. Nothing is more natural than springtime to come immediately after winter, summer after spring, and harvest in course after summer. But in this orderly course is plainly seen so great and so unequal diversity, that it may easily appear that every year, month and day, is governed by a new and special Providence of God.

And truly God does claim and will have us give to him an almightiness, not such as the Sophisters do imagine, vain, idle, and as it were sleeping, but waking, effectual, working and busied in continual doing. Nor such a one as is only a general beginning of a confused motion, as if he would command a river to flow by his appointed channels, but such a one as is bent and ready at all his particular movings. For he is therefore called almighty, not because he can do and yet sits still and does nothing, or by general instinct only continues the order of nature that he has before appointed: but because he governing both heaven and earth, by his Providence so orders all things that nothing happens but by his advised purpose. For whereas it is said in the Psalm that he does whatever he will, therein is meant his certain and determined will. For it were very foolish to expound the Prophet's words after the Philosophers' manner, that God is the first Agent or doer, because he is the beginning and cause of all moving: whereas the faithful ought rather in adversity to ease themselves with this comfort, that they suffer nothing but by the ordinance and commandment of God, because they are under his hand. If then the government of God does so extend to all his works, it is a very childish caviling to enclose it within the influence of nature. And yet they do no more defraud God of his glory than themselves of a most profitable doctrine, whoever does restrain the Providence of God within so narrow bounds, as if he suffered all things to be carried with an ungoverned course according to a perpetual law of nature. For nothing were more miserable than man if he should be left subject to every motion of the heaven, the air, the earth and the waters. Besides that by that means the singular goodness of God toward every man is too much dishonorably diminished. David cries out that babes yet hanging on their mothers' breasts are eloquent enough to magnify the glory of God, because even so soon as they are come out of the womb, they find food prepared for them by his heavenly care. This is indeed generally true, so that yet our eyes and senses overlook not that unmarked which experience plainly shows, that some mothers have full and plentiful breasts, some other almost dry, as it pleases God to feed one more liberally, and another more scarcely. But they which give the due praise to the almightiness of God, do receive double profit thereby, the one that he has sufficiently large ability to do them good, in whose possession are both heaven and earth, and to whose command all creatures do attend upon, to yield themselves to his obedience: the other, that they may safely rest in his protection, to whose will are subject all these hurtful things that may any way be feared, by whose authority as with a bridle Satan is restrained with all his furies and all his preparation, upon whose command does hang all that ever is against our safety. And no other way but this can the immeasurable and superstitious fears be corrected or appeased, which we oftentimes conceive by dangers happening to us. Superstitiously fearful I say we be, if where creatures do threaten us or give us any cause of fear, we be so afraid thereof, as if they had of themselves any force or power to do us harm, or did unforeseen or by chance hurt us, or as if against the hurts that they do, there were not sufficient help in God. As for example: the Prophet forbids the children of God that they should not fear the stars and signs of the heaven, as the unbelievers are accustomed to do. He condemns not every kind of fear. But when the unbelievers to give away the government of the world from God to Planets, do feign that their felicity or misery does hang on the decrees and foreshowings of the stars, and not on the will of God, so comes it to pass that their fear is withdrawn away from that only one, whom they ought to have regarded, to the stars and comets. Whoever therefore will beware of this unfaithfulness, let him keep always in remembrance that there is not in the creatures a wandering power, working or motion, but that they are governed by the secret counsel of God, so that nothing can happen but that which is decreed by him both knowing and willing it so to be.

First therefore let the readers learn, that Providence is called that, not with which God idly beholds from heaven what is done in the world, but with which as guiding the stern he sits and orders all things that come to pass. So does it no less belong to his hands than to his eyes. For when Abraham said to his son, God shall provide, he meant not only that God did foreknow the success then to come, but that he did cast the care of a thing to him unknown upon the will of God, which is wont to bring things doubtful and confused to a certain end. Whereby it follows that Providence consists in doing: for too foolishly do many trifle in talking of bare foreknowledge. Their error is not altogether so gross which give to God a government but disordered, and without advised choice, (as I have before said,) that is to say such as whirls and drives about with a general motion the frame of the world with all the parts thereof, but does not peculiarly direct the doing of every creature. Yet is this error not tolerable. For as they teach, it may be (notwithstanding this Providence which they call universal) that all creatures may be moved by chance, or man may turn himself here or there by free choice of his will. And so do they part the government between God and man, that God by his power inspires into man a motion whereby he may work according to the nature planted in him, and man orders his own doings by his own voluntary advice. Briefly they mean that the world, men's matters, and men themselves are governed by the power, but not by the appointment of God. I speak not of the Epicureans (which pestilence the world has always been filled with) which dream of an idle and slothful God: and other as mad as they, which in old time imagined that God did so rule above the middle region of the air, that he left things beneath to Fortune: for against so evident madness the dumb creatures themselves do sufficiently cry out. For now my purpose is to confute that opinion that is in a manner commonly believed, which giving to God a certain blind, and I know not what uncertain motion, takes from him the principal thing, that is by his incomprehensible wisdom to direct and dispose all things to their end: and so in name only and not in deed it makes God a ruler of the world, because it takes from him the government of it. For what (I beseech you) is it else to govern, but so to be over them that are under you, that you may rule them by appointed order? Yet do I not altogether reject that which is spoken of the universal Providence: so that they will again grant me this, that the world is ruled by God, not only because he maintains the order of nature which himself has set, but also because he has a peculiar care of every one of his works. True it is that all sorts of things are moved by a secret instinct of nature, as if they did obey the eternal commandment of God, and that that which God has once determined does of itself proceed forward. And to this may be applied what Christ says, that he and his Father were even from the beginning always working. And that which Paul teaches that in him we live, are moved and have our being, and that which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, meaning to prove the Godhead of Christ says, that by his mighty commandment all things are sustained. But they do wrong which by this color do hide and darken the special Providence, which is confirmed by so certain and plain testimonies of Scripture, that it is a marvel that any man could doubt of it. And surely they themselves that draw the same veil which I speak of to hide it, are compelled by way of correction to add, that many things are done by the peculiar care of God, but then they do wrongfully restrain the same only to peculiar doings. Therefore we must prove that God does so give heed to the government of the outcomes of all things, and that they all do so proceed from his determined counsel that nothing happens by chance.

If we grant that the beginning of motion belongs to God, but that all things are either of themselves or by chance carried wherever the inclination of nature drives them, the mutual succeeding by turns of days and nights, of winter and summer, shall be the work of God, insomuch as he, appointing to every one their duties, has set them a certain law — that is, if they should always keep one measure in equal proportion, as well the days that come after the nights, the months after months, and years after years. But when sometimes immoderate heat with dryness does burn up all the grain, sometimes unseasonable rains do mar the corn, when sudden harm comes by hail and tempests — that shall not be the work of God, unless perhaps it be because the clouds or fair weather or cold or heat have their beginning of the meeting of the planets or other natural causes. But by this means there is no room left, neither for the fatherly favor nor for the judgments of God. If they say that God is beneficial enough to mankind because he pours into the heaven and earth an ordinary power, by which they find him nourishment — that is too vain and profane an invention, as though the fruitfulness of one year were not the singular blessing of God, and dearth and famine were not his curse and vengeance. But because it would be too long to gather together all the reasons that serve for this purpose, let the authority of God himself suffice us. In the law and in the Prophets he does oftentimes pronounce, that so often as he waters the earth with dew and rain, he declares his favor, and that when by his commandment the heaven is hardened like iron, when corn is consumed with blasting and other harms, when the fields are struck with hail and tempests, it is a token of his certain and special vengeance. If we grant these things, then it is assured that there falls not a drop of rain but by the certain commandment of God. David praises the general providence of God, that he gives meat to the ravens, birds that call upon him (Psalm 146:9): but when God himself threatens famine to living creatures, does he not sufficiently declare that he feeds all living things sometimes with scarce and sometimes with more plentiful portion as he thinks good? It is a childish thing, as I said before, to restrict this to particular doings, whereas Christ speaks without exception, that not a sparrow of never so small a price does fall to the ground without the will of his Father (Matthew 10:29). Surely if the flying of birds be ruled by the purpose of God, then must we needs confess with the Prophet, that he so dwells on high, that yet he humbles himself to look upon all things that chance in heaven and earth (Psalm 12:5).

But because we know that the world was made principally for mankind's sake, we must therefore consider this end in the governance of man. The prophet Jeremiah cries out: "I know, Lord, that the way of man is not his own, neither does it belong to man to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). And Solomon says, "The steps of man are ruled by the Lord, and how shall a man dispose his own way?" (Proverbs 20:24). Now let them say that man is moved by God according to the inclination of his own nature, but that man himself does turn the moving wherever it pleases him. But if that were truly said, then should man have the free choice of his own ways. Perhaps they will deny that, because he can do nothing without the power of God. But seeing it is certain that the Prophet and Solomon do give to God, not only power but also choice and appointment, they cannot so escape away. But Solomon in another place does finely rebuke this rashness of men, that appoint to themselves another end without respect of God, as though they were not led by his hand. "The preparations," says he, "of the heart are in man, but the answer of the tongue is of the Lord" (Proverbs 16:1). It is a foolish madness that men will take upon them to do things without God, which cannot so much as speak but what he wills. And the Scripture, to express more plainly that nothing at all is done in the world but by his appointment, shows that those things which seem most to happen by chance are subject to him. For what can you more ascribe to chance, than when a broken bough falling from a tree kills a wayfaring man passing by it? But the Lord says far otherwise, who confesses that he has delivered him into the hand of the slayer (Exodus 21:13). Likewise, who does not leave the happening of lots to the blindness of fortune? But the Lord suffers it not, who claims the judgment of them to himself: for he says that it comes not to pass by a man's own power that stones are cast into the lap and drawn out again, but that thing which only might be said to come of chance he testifies to come from himself (Proverbs 16:33). For the same purpose makes that saying of Solomon: "The poor man and the usurer meet together, God lightens both their eyes." For although poor men and rich be mingled together in the world, while every one has his state assigned him from God, he admonishes that God, which gives light to all men, is not blind, and so he exhorts the poor to patience, because whoever are not contented with their own state, they seek to shake off the burden that God has laid upon them. So another Prophet rebukes the ungodly men, who ascribe to the diligence of men or to Fortune, that some lie in misery and some arise up to honor. "To come to preferment is neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, for God is the judge, he makes low and he makes high" (Psalm 75:7). Because God cannot put off the office of a judge, thereupon the Prophet proves that by his secret purpose some are in honor, and others remain in contempt.

And also I say that the very particular successes are generally witnesses of God's singular providence. God raised in the desert a south wind to bring the people plenty of fowls: when his pleasure was to have Jonah thrown into the sea, he sent out a wind to raise up a tempest. But they that think that God governs not the world, will say that this chanced beside common use. But thereby I do gather that never any wind does rise or increase but by the special commandment of God. For otherwise it should not be true, that he makes the winds his messengers, and fiery flame his ministers, that he makes the clouds his chariots and rides upon the wings of the wind, unless he did by his will drive about the clouds and winds, and show in them the singular presence of his power. So in another place we are taught that so often the sea swells with blast of winds, those violences do testify a singular presence of God. He commands and raises up the stormy winds and it lifts up the waves thereof, and then he turns the storm to calm, so that the waves thereof are still. And in another place he says, that he scourged the people with burning winds. So whereas the power of engendering is naturally given to men, yet God wills that it be imputed to his special grace, that he leaves some in barrenness, and vouchsafes to grant issue to others, the fruit of the womb is his gift. Therefore said Jacob to his wife, am I as God that I can give you children? But to make an end: there is nothing more ordinary in nature than that we be fed with bread. But the Holy Ghost pronounces that not only the growing of the fruits of the earth is the special gift of God, but also that men live not by only bread, because it is not the very full feeding that nourishes, but the secret blessing of God: as on the other side he threatens that he will break the stay of bread. Neither could we earnestly pray for our daily bread, unless God did give us food with his fatherly hand. Therefore the Prophet, to persuade the faithful, that God in feeding them does fulfill the office of a good father of a household, does put them in mind that he gives meat to all flesh. Finally when we have on the one side: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears bent to their prayers: on the other side: The eye of the Lord is upon the ungodly to destroy the memory of them out of the earth: let us know that all creatures both above and beneath are ready to obedience that he may apply them to whatever use he will, whereupon is gathered that not only his general providence remains in his creatures to continue the order of nature, but also by his marvelous counsel is applied to a certain and proper end.

Those who would bring this doctrine into hatred, cavil that this is the teaching that the Stoics teach of fate or destiny, which was also once laid as a reproach to Augustine. As for us, although we are loath to strive about words, yet we do not allow this word fate, both because it is one of those whose profane novelty Saint Paul teaches us to flee, and because some men go about with the odiousness of it to bring God's truth into hatred. As for the very opinion of the Stoics, it is wrongfully laid to our charge. For we do not, as the Stoics do, imagine a necessity by a certain perpetual knot and entangled order of causes which is contained in nature: but we make God the judge and governor of all things, which according to his wisdom has even from the furthest end of eternity decreed what he would do, and now by his power puts into execution that which he has decreed. Whereupon we affirm that not only the heaven and earth and other creatures without life, but also the purposes and wills of men are so governed by his Providence, that they are directly carried to the end that it appoints. What then? Will one say, does nothing happen by fortune or by chance? I answer that Basil the Great has truly said that fortune and chance are heathen men's words, with the signification of which the minds of the godly ought not to be occupied. For if every good success is the blessing of God, and every calamity and adversity is his curse, now is there in men's matters no place left for fortune or chance. We ought also to be moved with this saying of Augustine. In his books against the Academics he says: It displeases me that I have so often named fortune, although my meaning was not to have any goddess meant by it, but only a chanceable happening in outward things either good or evil. Of which word Fortune are derived those words which no religion forbids us to use: forte, forsan, forsitan, fortasse, fortuito, that is perhaps, peradventure, by fortune and by chance, which yet must all be applied to the Providence of God. And that I did not leave unspoken when I said, for perhaps even the same that is commonly called Fortune is also ruled by secret order. And we call chance in things nothing else but that of which the reason and cause is unknown. I said this indeed, but it repents me that I did there so name Fortune. Forasmuch as I see that men have a very evil custom, that where they ought to say, thus it pleased God, they say thus it pleased fortune. Finally he does commonly in his books teach, that the world should be disorderly whirled about if anything were left to Fortune. And although in another place he determines that all things are done partly by the free will of man, and partly by the Providence of God, yet does he a little after sufficiently show that men are subject to and ruled by Providence, taking this for a principle, that nothing is more against the convenience of reason, than to say that anything happens but by the ordinance of God, for else it should happen without cause or order, by which reason he also excludes that happening that hangs upon the will of men: and by and by after he more plainly says that we ought not to seek a cause of the will of God. And as often as he makes mention of sufferance, how that is to be understood shall very well appear by one place where he proves that the will of God is the sovereign and first cause of all things, because nothing happens but by his commandment or sufferance. Surely he does not feign God to sit still idle in a watchtower, when it is his pleasure to suffer anything, whereas he uses an actual will (as I may so call it) which otherwise could not be called a cause.

But forasmuch as the dullness of our understanding can not by a great way attain to the height of God's providence, we must use a distinction to help to lift it up. I say therefore, however all things are ordained by the purpose and certain disposition of God, yet to us they are chancy, not that we think that fortune rules the world and men, and unadvisedly tosses all things up and down (for such beastliness ought to be far from a Christian heart) but because the order, means, end, and necessity of those things that happen, does for the most part lie secret in the purpose of God, and is not comprehended with the opinion of man, therefore those things are as it were chancy, which yet it is certain will come to pass by the will of God. For they seem no otherwise, whether we consider them in their own nature, or whether we esteem them according to our knowledge and judgment. As for an example, let us put the case, that a merchant being entered into a wood in company of true men, does unwisely stray away from his fellows, and [reconstructed: in] his wandering chances upon a den of robbers, falls among thieves and is killed; his death was not only foreseen with God's eye, but also determined by his decree. For it is not said that he did foresee how far each man's life should extend, [reconstructed: but] that he has set and appointed marks which can not be passed. And yet so far as the capacity of our mind conceives, all things herein seem to happen by chance. What shall a Christian here think? Even this: whatever happened in such a death, he will think it in nature chancing by fortune as it is indeed, but yet he will not doubt that the providence of God did govern to direct fortune to her end. In like manner are the happenings of things to come. For as all things that are to come are uncertain to us, so we hold them in suspense, as if they might fall on either side, yet this remains settled in our hearts, that nothing shall happen but that which God has already foreseen. In this meaning is the name of chance often repeated in Ecclesiastes, because at the first sight men do not attain to see the first cause which is far hidden from them. And yet that which is declared in the Scriptures concerning the secret providence of God, was never so blotted out of the hearts of men, but that even in the darkness there always shined some sparks thereof. So the soothsayers of the Philistines, although they waver in doubtfulness, yet they ascribe adversity partly to God and partly to fortune. If (say they) the ark goes that way, we shall know that it is God that has struck us: but if it goes the other way, then a chance has fallen upon us. Indeed they did foolishly, when their cunning of soothsaying deceived them, to flee to fortune, but in the meantime we see them constrained, so that they dare not think that the evil happening which chanced to them did come of fortune. But how God with the bridle of his providence turns all successes wherever it pleases him, may appear by one notable example. Behold even at one moment of time, when David was found out and nearly taken in the desert of Mahon, even then the Philistines invaded the land, and Saul was compelled to depart. If God meaning to provide for the safety of his servant did cast this hindrance in Saul's way, surely although the Philistines going to arms were sudden and beyond the expectation of men, yet may we not say that it came by chance. But those things that seem to us to happen by chance, faith will acknowledge to have been a secret moving of God. I grant there does not always appear the like reason, but undoubtedly we ought to believe that whatever changes of things are seen in the world, they come by the secret stirring of the hand of God. But that which God purposes is so of necessity to come to pass, that yet it is not of necessity precisely nor by the nature of itself. As thereof is a familiar example in the bones of Christ: forasmuch as he had put on a body like to ours, no wise man will deny that his bones were naturally able to be broken, yet was it impossible that they should be broken — whereby we see again that not without cause were in schools invented the distinctions of necessity in respect, and necessity absolute, of consequent and consequence, where God had subjected to breakableness the bones of his Son, which he had exempted from being able to be broken, and so brought to necessity by reason of his own purpose, that that thing could not be, which naturally might have been.

It would be very foolish and empty to make God merely a creator for a moment — one who does nothing after completing His work. This is precisely where we must distinguish ourselves from irreligious people: God's presence and power should shine to us no less in the ongoing sustaining of the world than in its first creation. Even the most wicked minds, simply looking at heaven and earth, are compelled to acknowledge a Creator. But faith has its own distinct way of giving God the full credit for creation. This is the point of the apostle's statement we cited earlier — that it is by faith we understand the world was made by the word of God. For unless we go further and grasp His providence, we have not yet rightly understood what it means to call God the Creator, however much we may think we understand it or confess it with our lips. When the physical mind first perceives God's power in creation, it stops there. At most it goes on to consider the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Maker displayed in such a work — qualities that press themselves on people's attention whether they want to see them or not — along with some general idea of God's ongoing role in preserving and governing the world, on which the power of motion depends. Finally the physical mind concludes that the life-force God placed in all things at the beginning is sufficient to sustain them on its own. But faith must go deeper: having learned that God is the Creator of all things, it must immediately conclude that He is also their perpetual governor and sustainer — not by driving the whole frame of the world and all its parts with a single general motion, but by caring for, sustaining, and providing for each and every thing He created with individual providence, down to the smallest sparrow. So David, after first affirming that the world was created by God, immediately moves to His ongoing providence: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.' He then adds: 'The Lord looks down upon the sons of men.' And what follows continues in the same direction. While it might not seem obvious that God cared for human affairs unless He first made the world, nor would any person seriously believe God made the world without being persuaded that He also cares for His works — for this reason David rightly moves from one truth to the other. Philosophers generally teach, and most minds agree, that all parts of the world are stirred by God's hidden impulse. But they do not go as far as David goes, and leads all the godly with him: 'All things wait on You, to give them their food in due season. You give to them, and they gather it. You open Your hand, and they are satisfied with good things. But if You hide Your face, they are troubled. If You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.' Even those who agree with Paul's statement that in God we live and move and have our being are far from the earnest sense of grace he commends to us — for they do not taste God's particular care for individuals, through which alone His fatherly love becomes known.

To make this distinction clearer, note that the providence of God as taught in Scripture is presented as the opposite of fortune and random chance. Since it has been commonly believed in every age — and the same opinion still prevails among nearly all people today — that all things happen by chance, the true teaching about providence has been not only obscured but effectively buried by that false assumption. If a man falls among thieves or wild animals; if he suffers shipwreck in a sudden storm at sea; if he is killed by a falling house or tree — or on the other side, if a wanderer in the desert finds relief for his poverty, if a storm-tossed sailor reaches the harbor safely, if someone miraculously escapes death by the width of a finger — human reason ascribes all these events, both good and bad, to fortune. But whoever has been taught by Christ's own words that every hair of his head is numbered will look further for a cause, and will firmly believe that all such events are governed by the secret counsel of God. As for lifeless things: although each has its own natural properties, these properties exert their effect only as far as the present hand of God directs them. Created things are therefore nothing but instruments through which God continually pours out as much effect as He pleases, bending and turning them at His will to this purpose or that. No creature's power is more marvelous or more glorious than the sun's. Beyond filling the whole world with its light, how great a thing it is that it warms and quickens all living creatures with its heat! That it breathes fruitfulness into the earth through its rays! That from seeds warmed in the lap of the ground it draws out tender shoots of green, sustains them with fresh nourishment, strengthens them as they rise into stalks! That it feeds them continually until they reach flower, and from flower to fruit! That it then ripens that fruit with its warmth! That trees and vines, warmed by it, first bud and shoot forth branches, then send out blossoms, and from blossoms bring forth fruit! Yet because the Lord willed to keep all glory of these things for Himself, He created light and filled the earth with every kind of plant and fruit before He made the sun. A godly person will therefore not make the sun either the primary or the necessary cause of what existed before the sun was created — only an instrument God uses because it pleases Him, though He could just as easily do everything Himself without it. And when we read that the sun stood still for two days at Joshua's prayer, and that its shadow went back ten degrees for the sake of Hezekiah, God by those few miracles declared that the sun does not rise and set each day by a blind law of nature — but that He Himself governs its course to continually remind us of His fatherly care. Nothing seems more natural than spring following winter, summer following spring, and harvest following summer in due order. Yet within that regular sequence there is such variety and unevenness that it easily appears that every year, month, and day is governed by a fresh and specific act of God's providence.

God claims for Himself — and wants us to ascribe to Him — an almightiness that is not the empty, idle, sleeping kind the speculators imagine, but a waking, effective, active power busy in continual action. Not the kind that is merely the general origin of some disorderly motion — as if He had simply commanded a river to flow within channels He appointed — but a power that is engaged and ready in every particular event. He is called almighty not because He could act but chooses to sit idle, or merely maintains through a general impulse the order of nature He once established — but because, governing both heaven and earth by His providence, He orders all things so that nothing happens except by His deliberate purpose. When the Psalm says He does whatever He wills, a fixed and definite will is meant. It would be very wrong to interpret the prophet's words in the philosophical sense — that God is the first Cause because He is the origin and source of all motion — when in fact the faithful are meant to ease their distress in adversity with this comfort: that they suffer nothing except by the ordinance and command of God, because they are under His hand. If God's government extends to all His works in this way, it is a childish quibble to confine it within the workings of nature. Yet those who restrict God's providence to so narrow a scope — as if He allowed all things to run their course by an unguided law of nature — do no less damage to themselves than they do dishonor to God, for they rob themselves of the most useful doctrine. Nothing would be more miserable than humanity if it were left subject to every movement of sky, air, earth, and water. Beyond that, such a view shamefully diminishes the singular goodness of God toward each individual person. David declares that infants still nursing at their mothers' breasts are eloquent enough to magnify God's glory — for as soon as they come from the womb, they find food prepared for them by His heavenly care. This is generally true, and yet our eyes and senses should not overlook what experience plainly shows: that some mothers have full and plentiful milk while others have almost none — as it pleases God to feed one more generously and another more sparingly. Those who give God's almightiness its proper honor receive a double benefit: first, they know He has more than enough power to do them good, since heaven and earth are in His possession and all creatures stand ready at His command. Second, they can rest safely in His protection — for under His authority are all the threatening and fearful things, and by His command Satan and all his fury and schemes are restrained, and everything that threatens our safety hangs on His word. Only in this way can the overwhelming and superstitious fears that frequently come upon us in times of danger be corrected and calmed. We are superstitious in our fear when, faced with threatening creatures or fearful circumstances, we act as if they have power to harm us on their own, or as if they strike us without foreknowledge or purpose, or as if God's help were not sufficient against the harm they bring. For example: the prophet forbids God's children to fear the stars and signs in the heavens as unbelievers do. He does not forbid every kind of fear. But when unbelievers, in transferring the government of the world from God to the planets, imagine that their happiness or misery depends on the decrees and omens of the stars rather than on God's will, their fear is drawn away from the one they should regard and fixed instead on stars and comets. Whoever will avoid this unfaithfulness, let him always keep in mind that there is no wandering power, action, or motion in created things — they are all governed by the secret counsel of God, so that nothing can happen that He has not both foreknown and willed.

First, let readers understand that providence is not the idle observation with which God watches from heaven what happens in the world — it is the active governing by which He, holding the helm, steers and directs all that comes to pass. It therefore belongs to His hands no less than to His eyes. When Abraham said to his son, 'God will provide,' he did not merely mean that God foresaw the outcome — he was casting the care of an unknown matter onto God's will, which is accustomed to bring uncertain and tangled things to a sure end. From this it follows that providence consists in doing: many err foolishly in reducing it to mere foreknowledge. Less gross — though still intolerable — is the error of those who grant God a government of sorts, but without deliberate purpose: a government that drives and swirls the whole frame of the world in a general motion without specifically directing the actions of each individual creature. Even this error cannot be accepted. For on that view, all creatures may still move by chance despite this so-called universal providence, and a person may turn himself in whatever direction he chooses by free will. So they divide government between God and humanity: God by His power gives humanity a general impulse to act according to planted nature, while the person manages his own actions by his own voluntary decision. In short, they hold that the world, human affairs, and human beings are governed by the power of God, but not by His appointment. I am not speaking of the Epicureans — a plague the world has always been full of — who imagine a God who is idle and indifferent, nor of others equally deluded who in ancient times imagined God ruled only the middle region of the air and left everything below to fortune. Even dumb creatures cry out loudly enough against such obvious madness. My purpose here is to refute the opinion that is almost universally held — which, by attributing to God some blind and uncertain motion I cannot quite describe, strips Him of the central thing: His incomprehensible wisdom by which He directs and orders all things toward their ends. In name it calls God the ruler of the world, but in reality it takes away His actual government. For what is it to govern, if not to be over those beneath you in such a way that you rule them by set order? I do not entirely reject talk of universal providence, provided people will also grant me this: that God rules the world not only by maintaining the order of nature He established, but also by exercising particular care over each of His works. It is true that all kinds of things move by a hidden impulse of nature, as if obeying God's eternal command, and that what God has once determined proceeds forward on its own. To this may be applied Christ's words that He and His Father have always been working from the beginning. And Paul's teaching that in God we live, move, and have our being. And what the author of Hebrews says — intending to prove the Godhead of Christ — that by His powerful word all things are sustained. But those who use this as a cover to conceal the doctrine of special providence do wrong — which is confirmed by such clear and certain Scripture testimony that it is remarkable anyone could doubt it. Even those who draw that veil are eventually compelled by their own inconsistency to admit that many things happen by God's particular care — but then they wrongly limit this only to extraordinary events. We must therefore establish that God attends so closely to the ordering of all outcomes that all things proceed from His deliberate counsel, and nothing happens by chance.

If we grant that the beginning of motion belongs to God, but that all things afterward are carried wherever the inclination of nature drives them — on their own or by chance — then the alternation of days and nights, of winter and summer, would be the work of God only insofar as He gave each its appointed role by setting a regular law: that days follow nights, months follow months, years follow years in steady proportion. But when scorching heat and drought burn up the grain, when unseasonable rains ruin the crops, when sudden harm comes through hail and storms — these would not be God's work, except perhaps in the sense that clouds and weather and cold and heat have their origins in planetary conjunctions or other natural causes. This leaves no room for either God's fatherly favor or His judgments. If they say God is generous enough to humanity by pouring an ordinary power into heaven and earth through which people find nourishment — that is a vain and irreverent invention, as if a fruitful year were not the singular blessing of God, and scarcity and famine were not His curse and judgment. But rather than gather all the arguments that bear on this, let God's own authority be sufficient. In the law and the prophets He repeatedly declares that whenever He waters the earth with dew and rain, He is showing His favor — and that when He makes the sky as hard as iron, when the grain is blighted and damaged, when the fields are struck with hail and storms, it is a sign of His specific and particular judgment. If we grant these things, then it is certain that not a single drop of rain falls except by God's direct command. David praises the general providence of God, who gives food to the ravens that cry to Him (Psalm 146:9). And when God Himself threatens famine to living creatures, does He not make clear that He feeds all living things — sometimes with a sparse portion, sometimes with an abundant one — as He sees fit? It is childish, as I said before, to limit this to special cases, when Christ says without exception that not even the smallest sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of His Father (Matthew 10:29). If the flight of birds is governed by God's purpose, then we must confess with the prophet that though He dwells on high, He humbles Himself to watch over everything that happens in heaven and on earth (Psalm 113:5-6).

Since we know the world was made principally for humanity's sake, we must consider this purpose in the governance of human life. The prophet Jeremiah cries out: 'I know, Lord, that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps' (Jeremiah 10:23). And Solomon says: 'A man's steps are ordered by the Lord; how then can man understand his own way?' (Proverbs 20:24). Now let those say that God moves a person according to the inclination of his nature, but that the person himself turns this movement wherever he pleases. But if that were true, then a person would have free direction over his own ways. Perhaps they will deny this by saying he can do nothing without God's power. But since it is certain that the prophet and Solomon assign to God not only power but also choice and appointment, they cannot escape that way. Solomon also finely rebukes that rashness of people who plan their own path without regard for God, as if they were not led by His hand: 'The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord' (Proverbs 16:1). It is foolish madness for people to presume to do things without God — when they cannot even speak except what He wills. And to show even more plainly that nothing at all happens in the world except by His appointment, Scripture shows that even the things that seem most accidental are under His control. What could you more easily ascribe to chance than a broken branch falling from a tree and killing a traveler passing underneath? But the Lord speaks otherwise, confessing that He delivered that person into the hand of the slayer (Exodus 21:13). And who would not leave the outcome of a lot to the blindness of chance? But the Lord will not allow it — He claims the judgment of lots for Himself. Scripture says it is not by human power that lots are cast and drawn from the lap; what seems to come from chance, He declares comes from Himself (Proverbs 16:33). Solomon's saying serves the same purpose: 'The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the Lord gives light to the eyes of both.' Though the poor and the rich are mingled together in the world, each having his condition assigned by God, Solomon reminds us that God — who gives light to all — is not blind. He thus calls the poor to patience, since those who are not content with their condition are in effect trying to shake off the burden God has placed on them. Another prophet rebukes the wicked who attribute it to human diligence or fortune that some sink into misery while others rise to honor: 'For promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south; but God is the Judge — He puts down one and exalts another' (Psalm 75:6-7). Since God cannot set aside His role as judge, the prophet demonstrates that by His secret purpose some are honored and others remain lowly.

The particular events of history are also general witnesses to God's individual providence. God raised up a south wind in the desert to bring the people an abundance of quail. When He willed Jonah to be thrown into the sea, He sent a wind to stir up a storm. Those who deny that God governs the world will say these were departures from the common order. But from them I conclude that no wind ever rises or builds strength except by the specific command of God. Otherwise it would not be true that He makes the winds His messengers and flaming fire His ministers, that He makes the clouds His chariots and rides on the wings of the wind — unless He actually drives the clouds and winds by His will and displays in them the singular presence of His power. So we are taught elsewhere that whenever the sea swells with blasts of wind, those violent waves testify to a unique display of God's presence: 'He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves', and then 'He makes the storm be still, and the waves of the sea are hushed.' In another place He says He punished the people with scorching east winds. Likewise, although the power of reproduction is naturally given to humanity, God wills that it be attributed to His special grace — for He leaves some in barrenness while choosing to grant offspring to others; the fruit of the womb is His gift. Therefore Jacob said to his wife: 'Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?' To come to a conclusion: nothing is more ordinary in nature than being fed with bread. Yet the Holy Spirit declares not only that the growth of the earth's fruits is God's special gift, but also that people do not live by bread alone — because it is not the food itself that nourishes, but the secret blessing of God. On the other side, God threatens to break the staff of bread. Nor could we pray earnestly for our daily bread if God did not give us food with His fatherly hand. The prophet therefore, to assure the faithful that God in feeding them fulfills the office of a good household father, reminds them that He gives food to all flesh. Finally, on one side we have: 'The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their prayer.' On the other: 'The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.' From this we understand that all creatures, above and below, are ready to serve whatever use He chooses to apply them to — from which we gather that not only does His general providence continue the order of nature in His creatures, but by His marvelous counsel it is also directed toward each particular and fitting end.

Those who want to make this doctrine unpopular object that it is the same teaching as the Stoics' doctrine of fate or destiny — a charge that was once leveled at Augustine as well. We are not eager to argue over words, yet we do not accept the word 'fate' — both because it is one of those profane novelties Paul tells us to avoid, and because some people use its offensive associations to make God's truth seem odious. As for the Stoic opinion itself, the comparison is falsely applied to us. The Stoics imagined a necessity formed by a perpetual knot and tangled chain of causes woven into the fabric of nature itself. We do not do this. Rather, we make God the judge and governor of all things, who in His wisdom has decreed from the farthest reach of eternity what He would do, and now by His power carries out what He has decreed. We therefore affirm that not only heaven and earth and other lifeless creatures, but also the purposes and wills of human beings are so governed by His providence that they are directly carried to the end He appoints. What then — will someone say that nothing happens by fortune or chance? I answer, as Basil the Great truly said, that fortune and chance are pagan words, whose meaning should not occupy the minds of the godly. For if every good success is the blessing of God and every calamity is His curse, there is no room left for fortune or chance in human affairs. We should also be moved by this statement from Augustine. In his books against the Academics he says: 'It displeases me that I have so often named fortune, though I did not intend any goddess by it, only the chance occurrence of external events, good or evil. From that word fortune are derived the common expressions we use without religious scruple — perhaps, by chance, possibly — yet all of these must be referred to God's providence. I did not leave this unsaid when I wrote, for perhaps even what is commonly called fortune is also governed by hidden order.' 'What we call chance in things is nothing other than that whose reason and cause is unknown to us.' 'I said this, but I regret having used the word fortune there, since I see that people have the very bad habit of saying 'thus it pleased fortune' where they ought to say 'thus it pleased God.'' He also consistently teaches throughout his books that the world would be in disordered chaos if anything were left to fortune. And though in another place he holds that all things are done partly by the free will of humanity and partly by the providence of God, a little later he clearly shows that people are subject to and ruled by providence. His principle is that nothing is more contrary to reason than to say that anything happens except by the ordinance of God — since otherwise it would happen without cause or order. By this reasoning he also excludes events that seem to depend on human will. And a little later he says even more plainly that we should not seek a cause for the will of God. When he speaks of God's permission, how that is to be understood becomes very clear from one passage where he proves that the will of God is the supreme and first cause of all things — since nothing happens except by His command or permission. He certainly does not imagine God sitting idle in a watchtower when He chooses to permit something. Rather, God exercises an active will — as one might say — which could not otherwise be called a cause.

Since our limited understanding cannot reach the full height of God's providence, we need a distinction to help raise it. I say, then, that while all things are ordered by the purpose and certain decree of God, they yet appear to us as chance events — not that we think fortune rules the world and tosses everything around blindly (such a view should be far from a Christian heart), but because the order, means, end, and necessity of events mostly lie hidden in God's purpose and are beyond human comprehension. To us, therefore, events that will certainly come to pass by God's will appear as though they might happen by chance — whether we consider them in their own nature or judge them by our knowledge. Here is an example: suppose a merchant, traveling through a forest with honest companions, unwisely wanders away from them and stumbles into a den of robbers, falls among thieves, and is killed. His death was not only foreseen by God's eye but was also determined by His decree. For it is not said merely that God foresaw how long each person's life would last, but that He has set and appointed bounds that cannot be crossed. Yet as far as our minds can grasp the situation, everything appears to have happened by chance. What should a Christian conclude? This: in such a death, he will recognize something that in its nature came about by fortune, as it appears — yet he will not doubt that God's providence directed that fortune toward its appointed end. The same is true for things yet to come. Since everything still ahead of us is uncertain to us, we hold events in suspense, as if they might turn out either way — yet this remains settled in our hearts: nothing will happen that God has not already foreknown. This is the sense in which the word 'chance' is often used in Ecclesiastes — because at first sight people do not perceive the first cause, which lies far beyond their view. Yet the truth of God's secret providence was never so completely erased from human hearts that not even in the darkness some sparks of it remained. Even the priests of the Philistines, though they wavered in uncertainty, attributed their adversity partly to God and partly to chance. 'If the ark goes that way,' they said, 'we will know that God has struck us; but if it goes the other way, then a chance has fallen upon us.' It was foolish of them to retreat to fortune when their divination failed them — yet we see they were still constrained from concluding that the disaster that fell on them had come from fortune alone. How God with the bridle of His providence turns all outcomes wherever He pleases is shown by one remarkable example. At the very moment when David was discovered and nearly captured in the wilderness of Maon, the Philistines invaded the land and Saul was compelled to withdraw. If God, intending to protect His servant, placed this obstacle in Saul's way, we cannot say it happened by chance — even though the sudden Philistine attack was completely unexpected. But what appears to us as chance, faith will acknowledge to have been a secret movement of God's hand. I grant that the reason does not always appear as clearly as in this case, but we must undoubtedly believe that whatever changes are seen in the world come through the hidden working of God's hand. Yet what God purposes must come to pass — but not necessarily by an absolute or inherent necessity of nature. A plain example: since Christ took on a body like ours, no sensible person will deny that His bones were naturally capable of being broken. Yet it was impossible for them to be broken. Here we see why the distinction between consequent necessity and absolute necessity was rightly invented in the schools. God subjected the bones of His Son to the natural possibility of being broken, while at the same time exempting them from actually being broken — and so brought it about by His own purpose that what was naturally possible became, by His decree, impossible.