Chapter 17. To What End This Doctrine Is to Be Applied, That We May Be Certain of the Profit Thereof

Now forasmuch as men's wits are bent to vain curious subtleties, it is scarcely possible but that they shall encumber themselves with entangled doubts, whoever does not know the true and right use of this doctrine. Therefore it shall be expedient here to touch shortly to what end the Scripture teaches, that all things are ordered by God. And first of all is to be noted, that the Providence of God ought to be considered as well for the time to come as for the time past: secondarily that the same is in such sort the governor of all things, that sometimes it works by means, sometimes without means, and sometimes against all means. Last of all, it tends to this end, that God may show that he has care of all mankind, but specially that he does watch in ruling of his church, which he vouchsafes more nearly to look to. And this is also to be added, that although either the fatherly favor and bountifulness of God, or oftentimes the severity of his judgment do brightly appear in the whole course of his Providence: yet sometimes the causes of those things that happen are secret, so that this thought creeps into our minds, that men's matters are turned and whirled about with the blind sway of fortune, or so that the flesh stirs us to murmur, as if God did to make himself pastime to toss men like tennis balls. True it is that if we were with quiet and still minds ready to learn, the very success itself would at length plainly show, that God has an assured good reason of his purpose, either to train them that are his to patience, or to correct their evil affections and tame their wantonness, or to bring them down to the renouncing of themselves, or to awake their drowsiness: on the other side to overthrow the proud, to disappoint the subtlety of the wicked, to confound their devices. But however the causes be secret and unknown to us: we must assuredly hold that they are laid up in hidden store with him, and therefore we ought to cry out with David, God, you have made your wonderful works so many, that none can count in order to you your thoughts toward us. I would declare and speak of them, but they are more than I am able to express. For although always in our miseries we ought to think upon our sins, that the very punishment may move us to repentance, yet we see how Christ gives more power to the secret purpose of his Father, than to punish every one according to his deserving. For of him that was born blind he says: neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the glory of God may be shown in him. For here natural sense murmurs when calamity comes even before birth, as if God did unmercifully so punish the poor innocent, that had not deserved it. But Christ does testify that in this looking glass the glory of his Father does shine to our sight, if we have clear eyes to behold it. But we must keep modesty, that we draw not God to yield cause of his doings, but let us so reverence his secret judgments, that his will be to us, a most just cause of all things. When thick clouds do cover the heaven, and a violent tempest arises, then because both a heavy mistiness is cast before our eyes, and the thunder troubles our ears, and all our senses are amazed with terror, we think that all things are confounded and tumbled together: and yet all the while there remains in the heaven the same quietness and calmness, that was before. So must we think that while the troublesome state of things in the world takes from us ability to judge, God by the pure light of his righteousness and wisdom, does in well framed order govern and dispose even those very troublesome motions themselves to a right end. And surely very monstrous is the rage of many in this behalf, which dare more boldly call the works of God to account and examine his secret meanings, and to give unadvisedly sentence of things unknown, than they will do of the deeds of mortal men. For what is more disorderly than to use such modesty toward our equals, that we had rather suspend our judgment than to incur the blame of rashness, and on the other side proudly to triumph upon the dark judgments of God, which it became us to regard with reverence.

Therefore no man shall well and profitably weigh the Providence of God but he that, considering that he has to do with his creator and the maker of the world, does with such humility as he ought submit himself to fear and reverence. Hereby it comes to pass, that so many dogs at this day do with venomed bitings, or at least barking, assail this doctrine, because they will have no more to be lawful for God, than their own reason informs them. And also they rail at us with all the spitefulness that they are able, for that, not contented with the commandments of the law, wherein the will of God is comprehended, we do further say, that the world is ruled by his secret counsels. As though the thing that we teach were an invention of our own brain, and as though it were not true that the Holy Spirit does everywhere expressly say the same, and repeats it with innumerable forms of speech. But because some shame restrains them, that they dare not vomit out their blasphemies against the heaven: they feign that they contend with us, to the end they may the more freely play the madmen. But if they do not grant that whatever happens in the world is governed by the incomprehensible purpose of God, let them answer to what end the Scripture says, that his judgments are a deep bottomless depth. For whereas Moses cries out that the will of God is not to be sought afar off in the clouds, or in the depths, because it is familiarly set forth in the law: it follows, that his other hidden will is compared to a bottomless depth. Of which Paul also says: O depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out? For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? And it is indeed true, that in the gospel and in the law are contained mysteries which are far above the capacity of our sense: but forasmuch as God, for the comprehending of these mysteries which he has vouchsafed to open by his word, does lighten the minds of those that are his, with the Spirit of Understanding: now there is therein no bottomless depth, but a way wherein we must safely walk, and a candle to guide our feet, and the light of life, and the school of certain and plainly discernible truth. But his marvelous order of governing the world is worthily called a bottomless depth: because while it is hidden from us, we ought reverently to worship it. Rightly has Moses expressed them both in few words. The secret things (says he) belong to the Lord our God: but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. We see how he bids us not only to study in meditation of the law, but also reverently to look up to the secret Providence of God. And in the book of Job is rehearsed one title of this depth, that it humbles our minds. For after that the author of that book, in surveying up and down the frame of the world, had honorably treated of the works of God, at length he adds: Lo, these are part of his ways, but how little a portion hear we of him? According to which reason in another place he makes difference between the wisdom that remains with God, and the measure of wisdom that he has appointed for men. For after he has preached of the secrets of nature, he says that wisdom is known to God only, and is hidden from the eyes of all living creatures. But by and by after he says further, that it is published to the end it should be searched out, because it is said to man, behold the fear of God is wisdom. For this purpose makes the saying of Augustine: Because we know not all things which God does concerning us in most good order, that therefore in only good will we do according to the law, because his Providence is an unchangeable law. Therefore since God does claim to himself the power to rule the world, which is to us unknown, let this be to us a law of sobriety and modesty, quietly to obey his sovereign authority, that his will may be to us the only rule of justice, and the most just cause of all things. I mean not that absolute will, of which the Sophists do babble, separating by wicked and profane disagreement his justice from his power, but I mean that Providence, which is the governor of all things, from which proceeds nothing but right: although the causes thereof be hidden from us.

Whoever shall be framed to this modesty, they neither for the time past will murmur against God for their adversities, nor lay upon him the blame of wicked doings, as Agamemnon in Homer did, saying, I am not the cause, but Jupiter and Destiny: nor yet again as carried away with Destinies, they will by desperation throw themselves into destruction, as that young man in Plautus who said: Unstable is the chance of things: the Destinies drive men at their pleasure, I will get me to some rock there to make an end of my goods and life together. Neither yet (as another did) they will pretend the name of God to cover their own mischievous doings: for so says Lyconides in another comedy: God was the mover. I believe it was the will of the gods: for if it had not been their will, I know it should not so come to pass. But rather they will search and learn out of the Scripture what pleases God, that by the guiding of the Holy Spirit they may travel to attain to it. And also being ready to follow God, wherever he calls, they show in deed that nothing is more profitable than the knowledge of his doctrine. Very foolishly do profane men turmoil with their fondnesses, so that they in manner confound heaven and earth together as the saying is: If God has marked the point of our death, we cannot escape it: then it is labor vainly lost in taking heed to ourselves. Therefore whereas one man dares not venture to go the way that he hears to be dangerous, lest he be murdered by thieves: another sends for physicians, and wearies himself with medicines to succor his life: another forbears gross meats for fear of impairing his feeble health: another dreads to dwell in a ruinous house: Finally whereas men devise all ways and endeavor with all diligence of mind whereby they may attain that which they desire: either all these remedies are vain, which are sought, as to reform the will of God, or else life and death, health and sickness, peace and war, and other things, which men as they covet or hate them, do by their labor endeavor to obtain or escape, are not determined by his certain decree. And further they gather, that the prayers of the faithful are disordered, or at the least superfluous, wherein petition is made that it will please the Lord to provide for those things which he has already decreed from eternity. To be short, they destroy all counsels that men do take for time to come as things against the Providence of God, which has determined what he would have done, without calling them to counsel. And then whatever is already happened, they so impute it to the Providence of God, that they wink at the man whom they know to have done it. Has a ruffian slain an honest citizen? he has executed (say they) the purpose of God. Has one stolen, or committed fornication? because he has done the thing that was foreseen and ordained by the Lord, he is a minister of his Providence. Has the son carelessly, neglecting all remedies, waited for the death of his father? he could not resist God who had so before appointed from eternity. So all mischievous doings they call virtues because they obey the ordinance of God.

But as touching things to come, Solomon does well bring into agreement together the purposes of men with the Providence of God. For as he laughs to scorn their folly, which boldly do enterprise anything without the Lord, as though they were not ruled by his hand: so in another place he speaks in this manner. The heart of man purposes his way, but the Lord does direct his steps, meaning that we are not hindered by the eternal decrees of God, but that under his will we may both provide for ourselves, and dispose all things belonging to us. And that is not without a manifest reason. For he that has limited our life within appointed bounds, has therewith left with us the care thereof, has furnished us with means and helps to preserve it, has made us to have knowledge beforehand of dangers, and that they should not oppress us unaware, he has given us provisions and remedies. Now it is plain to see what is our duty: that is to say: If God has committed to us our own life to defend, our duty is to defend it. If he offers us helps, our duty is to use them. If he shows us dangers before, our duty is not to run rashly into them. If he ministers us remedies, our duty is not to neglect them. But no danger shall hurt, unless it be fatal, which by all remedies cannot be overcome. But what if dangers be therefore not fatal, because God has assigned you remedies to repulse and overcome them? See how your manner of reasoning agrees with the order of God's disposition. You gather that danger is not to be taken heed of, because forasmuch as it is not fatal, we shall escape it without taking heed at all: but the Lord does therefore enjoin you to take heed of it, because he will not have it fatal to you. These mad men do not consider that which is plain before their eyes, that the skill of taking counsel and heed is inspired into men by God, whereby they may serve his Providence in preserving of their own life: as on the other side by negligence and sloth they procure to themselves those evils that he has appointed for them. For how does it come to pass, that a circumspect man while he provides for himself, does wind himself out of evils that hang over him, and the fool perishes by unadvised rashness, but for that both folly and wisdom are the instruments of God's disposition on both parts? Therefore it pleased God to hide from us all things to come, to this end that we should meet with them as things doubtful, and not cease to set prepared remedies against them, till either they be overcome or be past all help of care. And for this cause I have before admonished that the Providence of God does not always show itself naked, but as God by using of means does in a certain manner clothe it.

The same men do disorderly and unadvisedly draw the chances of time past to the naked providence of God. For because upon it do hang all things whatever happen, therefore (say they) neither robberies, nor adulteries, nor manslaughters are committed without the will of God. Why then (say they) shall a thief be punished, for that he despoiled him whom the Lord's will was to punish with poverty? Why shall the murderer be punished, which has slain him whose life the Lord had ended? If all such men do serve the will of God, why shall they be punished? But I deny that they serve the will of God. For we may not say that he who is carried with an evil mind does service to God as commander of it, where in deed he does but obey his own wicked lust. He obeys God, who being informed of his will does labor to that end, to which God's will calls him. But by what are we informed of his will, but by his word? Therefore in doing of things we must see that same will of God, which he declares in his word. God requires of us only that which he commands. If we do anything against his commandment, it is not obedience but obstinacy and transgression. But unless he would, we should not do it. I grant. But do we do evil things to this end to obey him? But he does not command us to do them, but rather we run on headlong, not minding what he wills, but so raging with the intemperance of our own lust, that of set purpose we bend our effort against him. And by these means in evil doing we serve his just ordinance, because according to the infinite greatness of his wisdom, he has good skill to use evil instruments to do good. And see how foolish is their manner of arguing. They would have the doers unpunished for mischievous acts, because they are not committed but by the disposition of God. I grant more: that thieves and murderers and other evildoers are the instruments of God's Providence, whom the Lord does use to execute those judgments which he has with himself determined. But I deny that their evil doings ought to have any excuse thereby. For why? Shall they either entangle God in the same wickedness with them, or shall they cover their naughtiness with his righteousness? They can do neither of both. Because they should not be able to excuse themselves, they are accused by their own conscience. And because they should not be able to blame God, they find all the evil in themselves, and in him nothing but a lawful use of their evilness. But he works by them. And from where, I pray you, comes the stink in a dead carrion, which has been both rotted and disclosed by heat of the sun? All men do see that it is raised by the beams of the sun. Yet no man does therefore say that the sunbeams do stink. So when there rests in an evil man the matter and guiltiness of evil, what cause is there why it should be thought that God is anything defiled with it, if he use their service at his pleasure? Away therefore with this doggish frowardness, which may indeed afar off bark at the justice of God, but cannot touch it.

But these cavillations, or rather doting errors of frantic men, shall easily be shaken away by godly and holy meditation of the Providence, which the rule of godliness teaches us, so that thereof may grow to us a good and most pleasant fruit. Therefore a Christian heart, when it is most assuredly persuaded that all things come to pass by the disposition of God, and that nothing happens by chance, will always bend his eyes to him as to the principal cause of things, and yet will consider the inferior causes in their place. Then he will not doubt that the singular Providence of God does watch for his preservation, which Providence will suffer nothing to happen, but that which shall turn to his good and salvation. And because he has to do first of all with men, and then with the other creatures, he will assure himself that God's Providence does reign in both. As touching men, whether they be good or evil, he will acknowledge that all their counsels, wills, enterprises and powers are under the hand of God, so that it is in God's will to bow them wherever he pleases, and to restrain them as often as pleases him. That the singular Providence of God does keep watch for the safety of the faithful, there are many and most evident promises to witness. Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he shall nourish you, and shall not suffer the righteous to fall forever, because he cares for us. He that dwells in the help of the highest, shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven. He that touches you, touches the apple of my eye. I will be your shield, a brazen wall: I will be enemy to your enemies. Although the mother forget her children, yet will I not forget you. And also this is the principal intent in the histories of the Bible, to teach that the Lord does with such diligence keep the ways of the saints, that they do not so much as stumble against a stone. Therefore as a little before we have rightly rejected their opinion who do imagine a universal Providence of God, that stoops not specially to the care of every creature: yet principally it shall be good to acknowledge the same special care toward ourselves. Whereupon Christ, after he had affirmed that not the sparrow of least value does fall to the ground without the will of the Father, does by and by apply it to this end, that we should consider that how much more we are worth than sparrows, with so much nearer care does God provide for us, and he extends that care so far that we may be bold to trust that the hairs of our head are numbered. What can we wish ourselves more, if not so much as a hair can fall from our head but by his will? I speak not only of all mankind, but because God has chosen his church for a dwelling house for himself, it is no doubt but that he does by singular examples show his care in governing of it.

The servant of God being strengthened with these both, promises and examples, will join with them the testimonies which teach that all men are under God's power, whether it be to win their minds to good will, or to restrain their malice that it may do no hurt. For it is the Lord that gives us favor not only with them that wish us well, but also in the Egyptians, and as for the maliciousness of our enemies, he knows how by diverse ways to subdue it. For sometimes he takes away their wit from them, so that they can conceive no sound or sober advice, like as he sent forth Satan to fill the mouths of all the Prophets with lying to deceive Ahab. He made Rehoboam mad by the young men's counsel, that he might be spoiled of his kingdom by his own folly. Many times when he grants them wit, yet he makes them so afraid and astonished, that they can neither will nor go about that which they have conceived. Sometimes also when he has suffered them to go about that which lust and rage did counsel them, he does in convenient time break off their violence, and suffers them not to proceed to the end that they purposed. So did he before the time bring to nothing the counsel of Ahithophel that should have been to David's destruction. So also he takes care to govern all his creatures for the benefit and safety of those that be his, yes and to govern the devil himself, which as we see dared enterprise nothing against Job without his sufferance and commandment. Of this knowledge necessarily ensues both a thankfulness of mind in prosperous success of things, and also patience in adversity, and an incredible assuredness against the time to come. Whatever therefore shall befall him prosperously and according to his heart's desire, all that he will ascribe to God, whether he feel the bounty of God by the ministry of men, or be helped by lifeless creatures. For thus he will think in his mind: Surely it is the Lord which has inclined their minds to me, which has joined them to me to be instruments of his goodness toward me. In plenty of the fruits of the earth, thus he will think, that it is the Lord which hears the heaven, that the heaven may hear the earth, that the earth also may hear her fruits. In other things he will not doubt that it is the only blessing of the Lord, whereby all things prosper, and being put in mind by so many causes he will not abide to be unthankful.

If any adversity happen, he will by and by therein also lift up his mind to God, whose hand avails much to imprint in us a patience and quiet moderation of heart. If Joseph had still continued in recording the falsehood of his brethren, he could never have taken a brotherly mind toward them. But because he bowed his mind to the Lord, he forgot the injury, and inclined to meekness and clemency, so far that of his own accord he comforted his brethren and said: It is not you that sold me into Egypt, but by the will of God I was sent before you to save your lives. You indeed thought evil of me, but the Lord turned it to good. If Job had had respect to the Chaldeans, by whom he was troubled, he would forthwith have been kindled to revenge. But because he did therewith acknowledge it to be the work of God, he comforted himself with this most excellent saying: The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, the Lord's name be blessed. So David: when Shimei had railed and cast stones at him, if he had looked upon man, he would have encouraged his soldiers to requite the injury. But because he understood that Shimei did it not without the moving of the Lord, he rather appeased them. Let him alone (said he) for the Lord has commanded him to curse. With the same bridle in another place does he restrain the intemperance of sorrow. I held my peace (says he) and became as mute, because you, O Lord, did it. If there be a more effectual remedy against wrath and impatience: surely he has not a little profited which has learned in this behalf to think upon the Providence of God, that he may always call back his mind to this point. It is the Lord's will, therefore it must be suffered, not only because it is not lawful to strive against it, but also because he wills nothing but that which is both just and expedient. In sum this is the end, that being wrongfully hurt by men, we leaving their malice (which would do nothing but enforce our sorrow, and whet our minds to revenge) should remember to climb up to God, and learn to believe assuredly, that whatever our enemy has mischievously done against us, was both suffered and sent by God's disposition. Paul, to refrain us from recompensing of injuries does wisely put us in mind, that we are not to wrestle with flesh and blood, but with the spiritual enemy the devil, that we may prepare ourselves to strive with him. But this is the most profitable lesson for the appeasing of all rages of wrath, that God does arm as well the devil as all wicked men to strive with us, and that he sits as judge to exercise our patience. But if the misfortunes and miseries that oppress us, do chance without the work of men, let us remember the doctrine of the law: whatever is prosperous flows from the fountain of God's blessing, and that all adversities are his cursings: and let the most terrible warning make us afraid: If you walk stubbornly against me, I will also walk stubbornly against you. In which is rebuked our sluggishness, when according to the common sense of the flesh accounting all to be but chance that happens, of both sorts we are neither encouraged by the benefits of God to worship him, nor urged forward with his scourges to repentance. This same is the reason, why Jeremiah and Amos did so sharply rebuke the Jews, because they thought that things as well good as evil came to pass without the commandment of God. To the same purpose serves that sermon of Isaiah: I the God that create light and fashion darkness, that make peace and create evil — I God do make all these things.

And yet in the mean time a godly man will not wink at the inferior causes. Neither will he, because he thinks them the ministers of God's goodness by whom he has received benefit, therefore let them pass unconsidered, as though they had deserved no thanks by their gentleness: but he will heartily think himself bound to them, and will willingly confess his bond, and endeavor as he shall be able and as occasion shall serve, to recompense it. Finally in benefits received he will reverence and praise God as the principal author, but he will honor men as the ministers, and as the truth is indeed he will understand that he is by the will of God bound to them, by whose hand it was God's will to be beneficial to him. If he suffer any loss by negligence or want of foresight, he will determine in his mind that the same was done indeed with the will of God, but he will impute it also to himself. If any man be dead by sickness whom he has negligently handled, whereas of duty he should have taken good heed to him: although he be not ignorant that the man was come to his appointed time beyond which he could not pass, yet will he not thereby lessen his offense, but because he had not faithfully discharged his duty toward him, he will so take it as if he had perished by fault of his negligence. Much less when there is used any fraud, and conceived malice of mind in committing either murder or theft, will he excuse it under pretense of God's Providence, but he will in one selfsame evil act severally behold both the righteousness of God and the wickedness of man, as both do manifestly show themselves. But principally in things to come he will have consideration of such inferior causes. For he will reckon it among the blessings of God if he be not disappointed of the helps of men which he may use for his safety. And so he neither will be negligent in taking of counsel, nor slothful in craving their help whom he sees to have sufficient whereof he may be succored: but thinking that whatever creatures can anything profit him, the same are offered into his hand by God, he will apply them to his use as the lawful instruments of God's Providence. And because he does not certainly know what success the business will have that he goes about, (saving that in all things he knows that the Lord will provide for his benefit) he will with study endeavor to that which he shall think expedient for himself, so far as he can conceive in mind and understanding. And yet in taking of counsels he will not be carried on by his own wit, but will commit and yield himself to the wisdom of God, that by the guiding thereof he may be directed to the right end. But his confidence shall not so stay upon outward helps, that if he have them he will carelessly rest upon them, or if he want them he will be afraid as left destitute, for he will have his mind always fastened upon the Providence of God, neither will he suffer himself to be drawn away from the steadfast beholding thereof, by consideration of present things. So though Joab acknowledged that the success of battle is in the will and hand of God, yet he gave not himself to slothfulness but did diligently execute that which belonged to his calling, but he leaves it to the Lord to govern the end. We will stand valiant (says he) for our nation, and for the cities of our God. But the Lord do what is good in his eyes. This knowledge shall despoil us of rashness and wrongful confidence, and shall drive us to continual calling upon God: and also shall uphold our minds with good hope, so as we may not doubt assuredly and boldly to despise those dangers that compass us about.

In this point does the inestimable felicity of a godly mind show forth itself. Innumerable are the evils that do besiege man's life, and do threaten him so many deaths. As, not to go further than ourselves: for as much as our body is a receptacle of a thousand diseases, yea [reconstructed: has] enclosed and does nourish within it the causes of diseases, man cannot carry himself but he must needs also carry about with him many forms of his own destruction, and draw forth a life as it were entangled with death. For what may it else be called, where he neither is cold, nor sweats without peril? Now wherever you turn, all things that are about you are not only untrustworthy friends to you, but do in manner openly threaten and seem to show you present death. Go into a ship, there is but a foot thickness between you and death. Sit on horseback, in the slipping of one foot your life is in danger. Go through the streets of the city: even how many tiles are upon the houses, to so many perils are you subject. If there be an iron tool in your hand or your friend's, the harm is ready prepared. How many wild beasts you see, they are all armed to your destruction. If you mean to shut yourself up, even in a garden well fenced, where may appear nothing but pleasantness of air and ground, there sometimes lurks a serpent. The house which is continually subject to fire does in the daytime threaten you with poverty, and in the nighttime with falling upon your head. Your field, forasmuch as it lies open to hail, frost, drought and other tempests, it warns you of barrenness, and thereby famine. I speak not of imprisonments, treasons, robberies, open violence, of which part do besiege us at home, and part do follow us abroad. In these straits must not man needs be most miserable, which even in life half dead does painfully draw forth a careful and fainting breath as if he had a sword continually hanging over his neck. But you will say that these things chance seldom, or at least not always, nor to all men, and never all at once. I grant, but seeing we are put in mind by the examples of others, that the same things may happen to ourselves, and that our life ought of duty no more to be free than theirs, it cannot be but that we must dread and fear them as things that may light upon us. Now what can a man imagine more miserable than such a fearfulness? Beside that, it is not without dishonorable reproach of God to say, that he has set open man the noblest of all his creatures to their blind and unadvisable strokes of fortune. But here my purpose is to speak only of the misery of man, which he should feel if he should be brought subject under fortune's dominion.

But when that light of God's Providence has once shined upon a godly man, he is now relieved and delivered not only from the extreme anguish and fear with which he was before oppressed, but also from all care. For as justly he fears fortune, so he dare boldly commit himself to God. This is (I say) his comfort, to understand that the heavenly father does so hold all things with his power, so rules them with his authority and countenance, so orders them with his wisdom, that nothing befalls but by his appointment: and that he is received into God's protection, and committed to the charge of angels, and cannot be touched with any hurt of water, nor fire, nor weapon, but so far as it shall please God the governor to give them place. For so is it sung in the Psalm. For he shall deliver you from the hunter's snare, and from the noisome pestilence. He will cover you under his wings, and you shall be safe under his feathers. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the fear of the night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in the darkness, nor of the plague that destroys at noon day. And from there proceeds that boldness of the saints to glory: The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what flesh may do to me. The Lord is my protector, why shall I be afraid? If whole camps stand up against me, if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not cease to hope well. From where, I pray you, have they this that their assuredness is never shaken away from them? But hereby, that where the world seems in show to be without order whirled about, they know that God works everywhere, whose work they trust shall be for their preservation. Now if their safety is assailed either by the devil or by wicked men, in that case if they were not strengthened with remembrance and meditation of Providence, they must needs by and by be discouraged. But when they call to mind, that the devil and all the rout of the wicked, are so everywhere held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, that they can neither conceive any mischief against us, nor go about it when they have conceived it, nor if they go never so much about it, can stir one finger to bring it to pass but so far as he shall suffer, yes so far as he shall command, and that they are not only held fast bound with fetters, but also compelled with bridle to do service: here have they abundantly wherewith to comfort themselves. For as it is the Lord's work to arm their fury and to turn and direct it wherever it pleases him, so is it his work also to appoint a measure and end, that they do not after their own will licentiously triumph. With which persuasion Paul being established, did by the sufferance of God appoint his journey in another place which he said was in one place hindered by Satan. If he had only said that he had been stopped by Satan, he should have seemed to give him too much power, as if it had been in Satan's hand to overthrow the very purposes of God: but when he makes God the judge, upon whose sufferance all journeys do hang: he does therewith show, that Satan whatever he goes about, can attain nothing but by God's will. For the same reason does David — because of the sundry changes with which man's life is tossed and as it were whirled about — flee to this sanctuary, says that his times are in the hand of God. He might have said either the course of his life, or time in the singular number. But by the word 'times,' he meant to express that however the state of man be unsteadfast, whatever alterations do now and then happen, they are governed by God. For which cause Rezin and the king of Israel, when joining their powers to the destruction of Judah, they seemed as firebrands kindled to waste and consume the land, are called by the Prophet smoking brands, which can do nothing but breathe out a little smoke. So when Pharaoh was terrible to all men by reason of his riches, strength and number of men, he himself is compared to a beast of the sea, and his army to fishes. Therefore God says that he will take the captain and the army with his hook and draw them wherever he pleases. Finally, because I will not linger long upon this point, if a man marks it he shall easily see that the extremity of all miseries is the ignorance of God's Providence, and the chief blessedness stands in the knowledge of it.

Concerning the Providence of God, this that is said were enough for so much as is profitable both for the perfect learning and comfort of the faithful (for to fill the vain curiosity of men, nothing can be sufficient, neither is it to be wished that they be satisfied) were it not for certain places, which seem to mean otherwise than is above declared, that God has not a steadfast and stable purpose but changeable according to the disposition of inferior things. First, in some places is spoken of the repentance of God, as that he repented of the creating of man, of the advancing of Saul to the kingdom. And that he will repent of the evil that he had determined to lay upon his people, so soon as he perceives any conversion of them. Again there are rehearsed diverse repeals of his decrees. He had declared by Jonah to the Ninevites that after forty days once past Nineveh should be destroyed, but by and by he was turned with their repentance to a more gentle sentence. He had by the mouth of Isaiah pronounced death to Hezekiah, which he was moved by his tears and prayers to defer. Hereupon many do make argument, that God has not appointed men's matters by eternal decree, but yearly, daily, and hourly decrees this or that, as every man's deservings are, or as he thinks it equity and justice. Concerning his repentance this we ought to hold, that the same can no more be in God than ignorance, error, and weakness. For if no man does wittingly and willingly throw himself into the case that he needs to repent, we cannot say that God does repent, but that we must also say that God is ignorant of what will come to pass, or that he cannot avoid it, or that he headlong and unadvisedly runs into a purpose of which he straightway repents. But that is so far from the meaning of the Holy Spirit, that in the very mention of repentance he denies that God had any repenting at all, because he is not a man that may repent. And it is to be noted that in the same chapter they are both so joined together, that the comparison does very well bring the appearance of repugnancy to agreement. His changing is figuratively spoken, that God repented that he had made Saul king, and by and by after it is added: The strength of Israel shall not lie, nor shall be moved with repenting, because he is not a man that he may repent. In which words his unchangeableness is affirmed plainly without any figure. Therefore it is certain that the ordinance of God in disposing the matters of men is perpetual and above all repentance. And that his constancy should not be doubtful, his very adversaries have been compelled to bear him witness. For Balaam, whether he would or no, could not choose but burst out into this saying: that he is not like a man to lie, nor as a son of man to be changed, and that it is not possible that he should not do that he has said, and not fulfill whatever he has spoken.

What does this name of Repentance mean then? Even in the same sort that all the other phrases of speech which describe God to us after the manner of men. For, because our weakness does not reach to his [reconstructed: highness], that description of him which is taught us was fitting to be framed low to our capacity that we might understand it. And this is the manner how to frame it low for us, to paint out himself not such a one as he is in himself, but such a one as he is perceived by us. Whereas he himself is without all moving of a troubled mind, he yet testifies that he is angry with sinners. Just as therefore when we hear that God is angry, we ought not to imagine that there is any moving at all in him, but rather to consider that this speech is borrowed from our common sense, because God bears a resemblance of one chafed and angry so often as he exercises judgment: so ought we to understand nothing else by this word Repentance but a changing of deeds, because men by changing of their deeds are accustomed to declare that it displeases them. Because then every change among men is an amendment of that which displeases them, and amendment comes from repentance: therefore by the name of repentance is meant that which God changes in his works. In the meantime yet neither is his purpose nor his will turned, nor his affection changed, but he follows on with one continual course that which he had from eternity foreseen, approved, and decreed, however the alteration seems sudden in the eyes of men.

Neither does the holy history show that God's decrees were repelled, when it shows that the destruction was pardoned to the Ninevites which had been before pronounced, and that the life of Hezekiah was prolonged after warning given him of death. They that so construe it are deceived in understanding of threatenings: which although they do simply affirm, yet by the success it shall be perceived that they contained a secret condition in them. For why did God send Jonah to the Ninevites to tell them beforehand of the ruin of their city? Why did he by Isaiah give Hezekiah warning of death? For he might have brought to nothing both him and them without sending them any word of their destruction. He meant therefore another thing, than to make them by foreknowing of their death to see it coming from afar. Even this he meant: not to have them destroyed: but to have them amended that they should not be destroyed. Therefore this that Jonah prophesied that Nineveh should fall after 40 days, was done to this end that it should not fall. That hope of longer life was cut off from Hezekiah, was done for this purpose that he might obtain longer life. Now who does not see that God meant by such threatenings to awake them to repentance, whom he made afraid to the end that they might escape the judgment which they had deserved by their sins? If that be so agreed, the nature of the things themselves does lead us to this, to understand in the simple threatening a secret implied condition, which is also confirmed by like examples. The Lord rebuking the king Abimelech for that he had taken away Abraham's wife from him, uses these words. Behold you shall die for the woman that you have taken, for she has a husband. But after he had excused himself, God said thus. Restore the wife to her husband, for he is a Prophet and shall pray for you that you may live. If not: know that you shall die the death and all that you have. You see how in his first sentence he vehemently strikes his mind to bring him to be more heedfully bent to make amends, and in the other does plainly declare to him his will. Seeing the meaning of other places is like: do not gather of these that there was anything withdrawn from the first purpose of God, by this that he made void the thing which he had before pronounced. For God does prepare the way for his eternal ordinance, when in giving warning of the punishment he moves those to repentance whom his will is to spare, rather than varies anything in his will, no not in his word saving that he does not express the same thing in syllables which it is yet easy to understand. For that saying of Isaiah must needs remain true: The Lord of Hosts has determined, and who shall be able to undo it? His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it away?

Since human minds tend toward idle and curious speculation, those who do not know the true and proper use of this doctrine will almost certainly become entangled in knotty doubts. It is therefore useful to say briefly what purpose Scripture has in teaching that all things are ordered by God. First, note that God's providence must be considered both for the future and the past. Second, it governs all things in such a way that it sometimes works through means, sometimes without means, and sometimes against all means. Finally, it aims at this: to show that God cares for all humanity, but especially that He watches over the governance of His church, which He is pleased to oversee more closely. We must also add this: although God's fatherly favor and generosity, or at other times the severity of His judgment, shines clearly throughout the course of His providence, the causes of particular events are sometimes hidden. This can lead us to think that human affairs are tossed and driven by the blind sway of fortune — or it stirs the flesh to grumble, as if God were amusing Himself by bouncing people about like tennis balls. If we were willing to learn with quiet and receptive minds, the very outcomes would in time make plain that God has a sure and good reason for His purpose — whether to train His people in patience, to correct their evil inclinations and tame their willfulness, to bring them to self-denial, or to awaken their spiritual drowsiness. On the other side, His purpose may be to overthrow the proud, to foil the schemes of the wicked, or to confound their plans. But however hidden and unknown those causes may be to us, we must hold firmly that they are stored in God's hidden counsel — and therefore we should cry out with David: 'O God, Your thoughts toward us are more than can be counted. I would declare and speak of them, but they are more than I am able to express.' Although in our miseries we should always reflect on our sins, so that the very punishment may move us to repentance, we see that Christ points to the secret purpose of His Father more than to a strict punishment proportioned to each person's desert. Of the man born blind He says: 'Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.' Here natural instinct murmurs when calamity strikes even before birth — as if God were harshly punishing a poor innocent who had done nothing to deserve it. But Christ declares that in this very case the glory of His Father shines before us, if only we have clear eyes to see it. Yet we must observe restraint: we must not drag God before us to give account for His actions, but must reverence His hidden judgments, holding His will to be the most just cause of all things. When thick clouds cover the sky and a violent storm breaks out, a heavy darkness shuts off our view, thunder fills our ears, and all our senses are stunned with terror — we think everything is in chaos. Yet all the while the sky above remains as calm and clear as it was before. So we must understand that while the troubling course of earthly events clouds our judgment, God by the pure light of His righteousness and wisdom governs and orders even those very turbulent movements toward a right end. It is a monstrous arrogance for many people to call God's works to account and presume to examine His hidden intentions — pronouncing judgment rashly on things they do not know — while they would never dare to treat the actions of other people so boldly. For what is more disordered than this: to be so careful with our equals that we would rather withhold judgment than be accused of rashness, and yet to triumph proudly over God's judgments — which ought to be held in reverence.

Therefore no one will weigh the doctrine of God's providence rightly and profitably unless, recognizing that he has to do with his Creator and the maker of the world, he submits himself with fitting humility to fear and reverence. This explains why so many people today attack this doctrine with venomous biting, or at least with barking — because they will not allow God any more authority than their own reason approves. They also rail at us with all the spite they can muster, because — not content with the commandments of the law in which God's will is set out — we also say that the world is governed by His hidden counsels. As if what we teach were an invention of our own minds, and as if the Holy Spirit did not say the same thing everywhere, repeating it in countless ways. But because some sense of shame keeps them from pouring out their blasphemies openly against heaven, they pretend to argue with us — so they can behave more freely as madmen. If they will not grant that whatever happens in the world is governed by the incomprehensible purpose of God, let them explain why Scripture says His judgments are a deep abyss. For when Moses cries out that God's will is not to be sought far off in the clouds or in the depths — since it is set before us plainly in the law — it follows that His other, hidden will is like an unfathomable deep. Of which Paul also says: 'Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?' It is true that the gospel and the law contain mysteries far above the reach of our minds. But since God, for the understanding of the mysteries He has been pleased to open in His word, illumines the minds of His own with the Spirit of understanding — there is in those things no unfathomable depth, but a path to walk safely, a lamp to guide our feet, the light of life, and the school of certain and clearly discernible truth. But His marvelous order of governing the world is rightly called an abyss — because it is hidden from us, and we must worship it with reverence. Moses expressed both sides well in a few words: 'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.' We see how he calls us both to meditate on the law and to look up with reverence to God's hidden providence. In the book of Job one aspect of this depth is recounted to humble our minds. After surveying the whole frame of the world and treating God's works with great dignity, the author finally adds: 'Behold, these are but the fringes of His ways — how small a whisper do we hear of Him!' In keeping with this, elsewhere he distinguishes between the wisdom that remains with God and the measure of wisdom He has appointed for human beings. After speaking of the secrets of nature, he says that wisdom is known to God alone and hidden from the eyes of all living creatures. But then he adds that wisdom has been made known to humanity in this way: it is said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord — that is wisdom.' Augustine's statement serves the same purpose: 'Because we do not know all that God does for us in perfect order, we must in simple good will follow the law — for His providence is an unchanging law.' Therefore, since God claims for Himself the power to govern the world in a way that remains unknown to us, let this be our law of sobriety and modesty: to yield quietly to His sovereign authority, and to let His will be to us the only rule of justice and the most just cause of all things. I do not mean that 'absolute will' about which the speculators babble — who wicked divide His justice from His power — but that providence which governs all things, from which nothing proceeds but what is right, even though its causes are hidden from us.

Whoever is shaped by this humility will neither grumble against God for past adversities nor blame Him for wicked deeds — as Agamemnon does in Homer, saying, 'I am not the cause, but Jupiter and Destiny.' Nor will they, as if swept away by fate, throw themselves into destruction in despair — like that young man in Plautus who says: 'The chances of things are unstable; the Fates drive men as they please; I will go find some cliff and end my possessions and my life together.' Nor will they, like another character in a comedy, use God's name to cover their own wickedness: as Lyconides says, 'God was the mover. I believe it was the will of the gods; for if it had not been their will, I know it would not have come to pass.' Rather, they will search and learn from Scripture what pleases God, so that led by the Holy Spirit they may strive to attain it. And being ready to follow wherever God calls, they show by their lives that nothing is more useful than the knowledge of this doctrine. Worldly people throw themselves into foolish confusion with their objections, nearly turning everything upside down, as the saying goes. They argue: 'If God has fixed the hour of our death, we cannot escape it — so all caution about our safety is wasted effort. Therefore, when one man refuses to take a dangerous road for fear of being murdered by thieves, another calls for physicians and exhausts himself with medicines to preserve his life, another avoids rich food for fear of ruining his frail health, another will not live in a crumbling house — and when people in general devise every means and apply all their ingenuity to get what they desire — either all these remedies are pointless, as if people were trying to override God's will, or else life and death, health and sickness, peace and war, and all the other things people strive to gain or avoid, are not actually determined by His fixed decree.' They further conclude that the prayers of the faithful are disordered, or at least superfluous, since they petition God to provide what He has already decreed from eternity. In short, they sweep aside all human planning for the future as something contrary to God's providence, which has already determined what will happen without consulting anyone. And when it comes to what has already happened, they ascribe everything to God's providence in a way that lets the actual human perpetrator go unnoticed. Has a violent man murdered an honest citizen? 'He carried out God's purpose,' they say. Has someone stolen or committed fornication? 'He did only what the Lord had foreseen and ordained — he was an instrument of His providence.' Has a son carelessly waited for his father's death without seeking any remedy? 'He could not resist what God had appointed from eternity.' And so every evil act is called a virtue, because it obeys the ordinance of God.

As for things to come, Solomon rightly brings together human planning and God's providence without contradiction. On one hand, he mocks the folly of those who boldly undertake anything without the Lord, as if they were not guided by His hand. On the other hand he says: 'The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps' (Proverbs 16:9). His meaning is that God's eternal decrees do not prevent us from making provision for ourselves and ordering our affairs under His will. The reason for this is plain. He who has set the boundaries of our life has also left us the responsibility of caring for it. He has given us the means and resources to preserve it. He has given us the ability to see dangers ahead so they do not overwhelm us without warning, and He has provided us with remedies. It is therefore plain what our duty is: if God has entrusted us with the care of our own life, we must defend it. If He offers us helps, we must use them. If He shows us dangers in advance, we must not rush recklessly into them. If He provides us with remedies, we must not neglect them. No danger will harm us unless it is fatal — that is, unless it cannot be overcome by any remedy. But what if a danger is not fatal precisely because God has provided you with remedies to repel and overcome it? Notice how your own reasoning contradicts the order of God's arrangement. You conclude that a danger need not be heeded because, since it is not fatal, you will escape it without any care at all. But God commands you to take heed of it precisely because He has not appointed it to be fatal for you. These confused thinkers do not see what is plain before them: that God Himself inspires prudence and foresight into human beings, so that they may serve His providence in preserving their own lives — just as on the other side, through negligence and carelessness, they bring upon themselves the evils He has appointed for the careless. Why does a careful person, by making provision for himself, escape the dangers that threaten him, while the fool perishes by reckless impulsiveness? Because both wisdom and folly are instruments of God's ordering on each side. Therefore it pleased God to hide all things to come from us precisely so that we would meet them as uncertain, and would not stop making ready preparations against them — until those dangers are either overcome or beyond all power to address. This is why I said earlier that God's providence does not always appear in the open, but — in using means — clothes itself, as it were.

These same people also wrongly and carelessly apply the events of the past to God's bare providence. Since all things hang on it, they argue, no robberies, adulteries, or murders are committed without God's will. Why then, they ask, should a thief be punished for robbing the one whom the Lord willed to punish with poverty? Why should the murderer be punished for killing the one whose life the Lord had brought to its end? If all such men serve the will of God, why should they be punished? But I deny that they serve the will of God. We cannot say that a person driven by evil intent serves God as though God commanded it, when in reality the person is only obeying his own wicked desires. The person who obeys God is the one who, knowing His will, works toward the end to which God's will calls him. And by what are we informed of His will? By His word. Therefore in what we do, we must look to that will of God which He declares in His word. God requires of us only what He commands. If we do anything against His commandment, it is not obedience but stubbornness and transgression. But without His will, we would not do it. I grant that. But do we do evil things in order to obey Him? No — He does not command us to do them. Rather, we rush forward blindly, paying no attention to His will, raging with the intemperance of our own lust, bending our efforts deliberately against Him. And in doing evil in this way, we nonetheless serve His just order — because His infinite wisdom knows how to use evil instruments for good purposes. Notice how foolish their argument is. They would have evildoers go unpunished for wicked acts on the grounds that these acts do not happen apart from God's ordering. I will grant even more: that thieves, murderers, and other evildoers are instruments of God's providence, whom the Lord uses to execute the judgments He has determined. But I deny that their evil deeds are therefore excusable. Why? Can they pull God into the same wickedness with them? Can they cover their guilt with His righteousness? They can do neither. Since they have no excuse, they stand condemned by their own conscience. Since they cannot blame God, all the evil lies in themselves — and in God there is nothing but a lawful use of their wickedness. But He works through them, you say. Where, then, does the stench come from when a dead carcass lies rotting in the sun? Everyone sees that the sun's heat raises it. Yet no one says the sunbeams stink. So when the matter and guilt of evil reside in an evil person, what reason is there to think God is defiled by it if He makes use of their service as He pleases? Away, then, with that stubborn insolence, which may bark at the justice of God from a distance but can never reach it.

But these arguments — or rather the raving errors of frantic minds — will be easily swept away by the godly and holy meditation on providence that the rule of true faith teaches us, producing in us a rich and deeply satisfying fruit. Therefore a Christian heart, being firmly persuaded that all things come to pass by God's ordering and that nothing happens by chance, will always look to God as the principal cause of things, while still considering secondary causes in their proper place. He will not doubt that God's particular providence watches for his preservation — a providence that will allow nothing to happen except what will turn to his good and salvation. Since he has to do first with people, and then with other creatures, he will be assured that God's providence reigns over both. Regarding other people, whether good or evil, he will recognize that all their counsels, wills, enterprises, and powers are under God's hand — so that it is in God's will to bend them wherever He pleases and to restrain them whenever He chooses. That God's individual providence keeps watch for the safety of the faithful is attested by many very clear promises. 'Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be moved' — for He cares for us. 'He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.' 'Whoever touches you touches the apple of My eye.' 'I will be your shield, a wall of bronze; I will be an enemy to your enemies.' 'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Yet I will not forget you.' Moreover, it is the principal purpose of the biblical histories to teach that the Lord guards the ways of His saints so carefully that they do not so much as stumble against a stone. Therefore, just as we rightly rejected the view of those who imagine only a universal providence that does not stoop to care for each creature specifically, so it is especially important to recognize that same special care toward ourselves. Accordingly, after Christ affirmed that not even the least valuable sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father's will, He immediately applies it to this conclusion: since we are worth far more than sparrows, God provides for us with proportionally nearer care — and He extends that care so far that we may confidently trust that the very hairs of our head are numbered. What more could we want, if not even a single hair can fall from our head without His will? I am speaking not only of all humanity in general, but since God has chosen His church as a dwelling for Himself, He undoubtedly shows His care in governing it through particular and unmistakable examples.

Strengthened by these promises and examples, God's servant will also take hold of the testimonies that teach all people are under God's power — whether to bend their minds toward goodwill toward him, or to restrain their malice so it cannot do harm. For the Lord grants us favor not only with those who already wish us well, but even in the eyes of the Egyptians — and as for the malice of our enemies, He knows many ways to subdue it. Sometimes He takes away their sound judgment, so they cannot form any reliable plan — as He sent a lying spirit to fill the mouths of all Ahab's prophets. He drove Rehoboam to foolishness through the advice of young men, so that he was stripped of his kingdom by his own stupidity. At other times, though God grants enemies clear thinking, He fills them with such fear and confusion that they cannot will or carry out what they have planned. Sometimes He allows them to pursue what their lust and rage have driven them to, then at the right moment breaks off their violence before they reach the end they intended. So He foiled Ahithophel's counsel in advance — counsel that would have been David's destruction. So He also governs all His creatures for the benefit and safety of His own people — and governs the devil himself, who as we see dared not touch Job without God's permission and command. From this knowledge necessarily follows gratitude in times of prosperity, patience in adversity, and an extraordinary confidence about the future. Whatever comes to him successfully and according to his desire, the servant of God will ascribe to God — whether God's goodness reaches him through other people or through lifeless things. He will think: 'It is the Lord who inclined their hearts toward me and made them instruments of His goodness to me.' When the earth produces abundant fruit, he will think: 'It is the Lord who commands the heavens, and the heavens obey the earth, and the earth brings forth her fruit.' In all other things he will not doubt that it is the Lord's blessing alone by which all things prosper — and being reminded by so many causes, he will not be able to remain ungrateful.

If any adversity comes upon him, he will immediately lift his mind to God — whose hand is most effective in producing patience and a calm, measured heart. If Joseph had dwelt on his brothers' treachery, he could never have regained a brotherly spirit toward them. But because he bent his mind to the Lord, he forgot the injury and inclined toward kindness and mercy — so much so that he comforted his brothers of his own accord and said: 'It was not you who sent me here, but God, who sent me ahead of you to save your lives. You intended evil against me, but God intended it for good.' If Job had focused on the Chaldeans who attacked him, he would immediately have burned with the desire for revenge. But because he recognized it as God's work, he comforted himself with that magnificent saying: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' So with David: when Shimei was cursing him and throwing stones, if he had been looking at the man, he would have urged his soldiers to repay the insult. But because he understood that Shimei did not act without the Lord's prompting, he held them back instead: 'Leave him alone, for the Lord has told him to curse.' With the same restraint he held back the overflow of his grief in another place: 'I kept silent and became mute, for it was You who did it.' If there is any more effective remedy against anger and impatience, he has certainly profited greatly who has learned to think about God's providence in this way — always bringing his mind back to this point: 'It is the Lord's will, and therefore it must be endured' — not only because resistance is not lawful, but because He wills nothing but what is both just and good. In short, the goal is this: when we are wrongfully hurt by people, setting aside their malice — which would only deepen our sorrow and sharpen our desire for revenge — we should remember to rise up to God and firmly believe that whatever our enemy has wickedly done against us was both permitted and sent by God's ordering. Paul, to keep us from repaying injury, wisely reminds us that our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the spiritual enemy, the devil, so that we would prepare ourselves to wrestle with him. But the most useful lesson for calming all outbursts of anger is this: God arms both the devil and all wicked people to test us, and He sits as judge to train our patience. If the misfortunes and miseries pressing on us happen without any human involvement, let us remember the teaching of the law: whatever is good flows from the fountain of God's blessing, and all adversity is His cursing. And let the most solemn warning make us afraid: 'If you walk stubbornly against Me, I will also walk stubbornly against you.' This rebukes our laziness — the laziness that, following the common instinct of the flesh and writing everything off as chance, is neither encouraged by God's blessings to worship Him nor driven forward by His disciplines to repentance. This is also why Jeremiah and Amos sharply rebuked the Jews: because they thought both good and evil came to pass without God's command. To the same purpose is the word of Isaiah: 'I am the Lord who creates light and makes darkness, who makes peace and creates calamity — I, the Lord, do all these things.'

Yet the godly person will not overlook secondary causes. Nor will he, because he regards those people as ministers of God's goodness through whom he has received benefit, pass over them without thought as if they deserved no thanks for their kindness. He will feel genuinely indebted to them, will freely acknowledge that debt, and will endeavor as far as he is able and opportunity allows to repay it. In short, in benefits received he will honor and praise God as the principal author — while honoring the people involved as His instruments. He will rightly understand that by God's will he is bound to those through whose hands God chose to show him goodness. If he suffers loss through negligence or lack of foresight, he will conclude in his mind that the loss came to pass by God's will — but he will also hold himself responsible for it. If someone dies from an illness that he handled carelessly, when he should have given the matter careful attention, he will not excuse himself by pointing out that the person had reached his appointed time beyond which he could not pass. Because he did not faithfully discharge his duty toward that person, he will take it as though the person perished through his own negligence. Still less, when fraud and deliberate malice are involved in murder or theft, will he excuse these things under the cover of God's providence. In one and the same evil act he will see distinctly both the righteousness of God and the wickedness of man, as both are plainly visible. Especially in future matters he will take careful account of secondary causes. He will count it among God's blessings if he is not deprived of the human help he may use for his safety. So he will neither be careless in taking counsel nor slow to seek help from those who have the means to assist him. But recognizing that whatever creatures can do to benefit him is placed in his hand by God, he will use them as the lawful instruments of God's providence. Since he cannot know for certain how the matter he is undertaking will turn out — knowing only that in all things the Lord will provide for his good — he will diligently pursue what he judges best for himself as far as his mind and understanding can see. Yet in making plans he will not be driven along by his own cleverness, but will commit himself to God's wisdom and be directed by it to the right end. Nor will his confidence rest so heavily on outward help that he becomes careless when he has it, or afraid as if abandoned when he lacks it. His mind will always be fixed on God's providence, and he will not allow himself to be pulled away from steadily resting on it by whatever present circumstances surround him. So although Joab acknowledged that the outcome of battle is in the will and hand of God, he did not give himself to idleness but diligently carried out what belonged to his calling — leaving the final outcome to the Lord: 'Let us be courageous for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to Him.' This knowledge will strip us of rashness and false confidence, and will drive us to unceasing prayer. It will also uphold our minds with good hope, so that we may confidently and boldly face down the dangers that surround us.

It is in this that the inestimable happiness of a godly mind shows itself. Countless evils besiege human life and threaten it with countless forms of death. Without even looking beyond ourselves: since the body is a receptacle for a thousand diseases — indeed, it carries within itself and nourishes the very seeds of those diseases — a person cannot carry himself through life without also carrying with him many forms of his own destruction, drawing out a life that is, as it were, tangled up with death. What else can we call a life in which neither cold nor heat comes without danger? Wherever you turn, all that surrounds you is not only an unreliable friend but seems to openly threaten you with death at every moment. Step into a ship: only a foot of timber separates you from death. Mount a horse: the slip of one hoof puts your life at risk. Walk through city streets: there are as many dangers as there are roof tiles above you. If there is an iron tool in your hand or your friend's, injury is already possible. Every wild animal you see is armed for your destruction. If you seek the peace of a well-fenced garden, where nothing seems present but pleasant air and ground, a serpent may still be lurking there. The house constantly exposed to fire threatens you with poverty by day and collapse by night. Your field, lying open to hail, frost, drought, and storms, warns you of crop failure, and through that, of famine. I say nothing of imprisonments, betrayals, robberies, and outright violence — some of which threaten us at home and some pursue us abroad. In these straits, must not a person be utterly miserable — dragging out a strained and failing breath in the midst of life, as if a sword were perpetually hanging over his neck? But you will say: these things happen rarely, or at least not always, not to everyone, and never all at once. I grant this. But since the examples of others remind us that the same things can happen to us — and our lives are no more exempt from them than theirs — we cannot help dreading and fearing them as things that may fall upon us. What more miserable condition can anyone imagine than to live in such fear? Beyond that, it is a disgraceful reproach against God to say that He has exposed humanity — the noblest of all His creatures — to the blind and random blows of fortune. But here my purpose is only to speak of the misery a person would feel if he were placed under fortune's dominion.

But when the light of God's providence has once shone upon a godly person, he is relieved and set free not only from the extreme anguish and fear that previously pressed down on him, but from all anxious care. For as justly as he once feared fortune, he now boldly commits himself to God. This is his comfort: to understand that the heavenly Father so holds all things with His power, so rules them with His authority, so orders them with His wisdom, that nothing comes to pass except by His appointment. He knows he has been taken into God's protection, committed to the care of angels, and cannot be touched by any harm from water, fire, or weapon except insofar as God in His governance allows it. This is what is sung in the Psalm: 'He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His wings, and you will find refuge under His feathers. His faithfulness will be your shield and armor. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.' From this comes the boldness with which the saints declare: 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me.' 'The Lord is my strength; why should I be afraid?' 'Though a whole army encamp against me, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not cease to hope.' Where does such unshakeable confidence come from? From this: that while the world appears outwardly to be spinning in chaos, they know that God is at work in everything — and they trust that His work will be for their preservation. If their safety is threatened by the devil or by wicked people, they would immediately be overwhelmed if they were not strengthened by the remembrance and meditation of providence. But when they recall that the devil and the entire company of the wicked are held everywhere by God's hand as with a bridle — that they can neither conceive any evil against us, nor pursue it once conceived, nor stir even a finger to carry it out, except as far as God permits, indeed commands — and that they are not merely held in chains but also compelled and directed to serve: they have abundant reason for comfort. For as it is the Lord's work to arm the fury of the wicked and to turn and direct it wherever He pleases, so it is also His work to appoint the measure and end, preventing them from triumphing as freely as they wish. Grounded in this persuasion, Paul — in one place blocked by Satan from his intended journey — went ahead and planned it in another place by the permission of God. Had he said only that Satan had blocked him, he would have given Satan too much power, as if it were within Satan's hand to overturn the very purposes of God. But by making God the judge, on whose permission every journey depends, he shows that Satan can accomplish nothing except by God's will. For the same reason David — because of the constant changes by which human life is tossed and whirled about — fled to this refuge, saying that his times are in God's hand. He could have said the course of his life, or time in the singular. But by using 'times' he meant to express that however unstable the human condition may be, whatever changes occur now and then, they are all governed by God. For this reason, when Rezin and the king of Israel joined their forces to destroy Judah, appearing like blazing torches set to burn and consume the land, the prophet calls them 'smoking stumps of firebrands' — able to do nothing but breathe out a little smoke. So when Pharaoh was fearsome to everyone on account of his wealth, strength, and numbers, he is compared to a sea monster and his army to fish — and God declares that He will take the captain and his army with a hook and draw them wherever He pleases. Finally, not to linger long on this point: anyone who reflects carefully will easily see that the depth of all misery is ignorance of God's providence, and the chief happiness lies in the knowledge of it.

What has been said about God's providence would be enough for the thorough instruction and comfort of the faithful — for filling the vain curiosity of human beings nothing is ever sufficient, nor should it be — were it not for certain passages that seem to suggest something different from what has been set out above: that God does not have a fixed and stable purpose, but one that changes according to the circumstances of events below. First, in some places Scripture speaks of God repenting — such as that He repented of making humanity, and of raising Saul to the kingship. And that He would relent from the evil He had planned to bring on His people as soon as He saw any sign of their turning. In addition, several reversals of His decrees are recorded. Through Jonah He declared to the Ninevites that within forty days Nineveh would be destroyed — but immediately upon their repentance He was moved to a gentler sentence. Through Isaiah He declared death to Hezekiah — and was moved by his tears and prayers to delay it. From this many argue that God has not appointed human affairs by an eternal decree, but decides this or that from year to year, day to day, and hour to hour, according to each person's conduct and what He judges to be fair. Regarding His repentance, we must hold this: repentance can no more exist in God than ignorance, error, or weakness. For if no person deliberately and knowingly puts himself in a position that requires repentance, we cannot say that God repents without also saying that He is either ignorant of what will come to pass, or unable to prevent it, or plunges rashly into a course He immediately regrets. But this is so far from the intent of the Holy Spirit that in the very passage where repentance is mentioned, He denies that God repents at all — because He is not a man that He should repent. We should note that in the same chapter both statements appear side by side, and the comparison actually resolves the apparent contradiction. In figurative language it is said that God repented of having made Saul king — and immediately afterward it is added: 'The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind.' Here His unchangeableness is affirmed plainly and without any figure of speech. It is therefore certain that God's decree in ordering human affairs is perpetual and beyond all repentance. And to confirm that His constancy is not in doubt, even His adversaries were compelled to bear witness to it. For Balaam, whether he wanted to or not, could not keep himself from bursting out: 'God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?'

What then does the word 'repentance' mean in relation to God? It means the same thing as all the other expressions that describe God to us in human terms. Because our weakness cannot reach to His exalted nature, the description of Him that was given to us was rightly framed to our capacity so we could understand it. This is how it is framed for us: God is not painted as He is in Himself, but as He is perceived by us. Though in Himself He has no troubled movements of mind, He nonetheless testifies that He is angry with sinners. Just as when we hear that God is angry, we must not imagine any actual disturbance in Him — but recognize that this way of speaking is borrowed from our common experience, because God resembles an enraged and angry person whenever He executes judgment — so we must understand by 'repentance' nothing other than a change in God's works. For among people, every change is an amendment of something that displeased them, and amendment comes from repentance. Therefore the word 'repentance,' when applied to God, refers to a change in what He does. Yet in the meantime His purpose and will are not turned, nor is His attitude changed — He continues in one unbroken course what He had from eternity foreseen, approved, and decreed, however sudden the change may appear to human eyes.

Nor does the sacred history show that God's decrees were overturned when it records that the destruction pronounced against the Ninevites was pardoned, or that Hezekiah's life was extended after he had been warned of his death. Those who interpret it that way misunderstand the nature of threatenings. Although such warnings are stated plainly, the outcome shows they contained an implied condition. Why did God send Jonah to the Ninevites to announce the ruin of their city in advance? Why did He warn Hezekiah of his approaching death? He could have brought both of them to ruin without sending any advance word. His intent was not to let them see their death approaching from a distance. His intent was something else entirely: not that they should be destroyed, but that they should be amended so as not to be destroyed. So when Jonah prophesied that Nineveh would fall in forty days, the very purpose was that it should not fall. When hope of further life was cut off from Hezekiah, the very purpose was that he might obtain further life. Who does not see that God intended through such warnings to awaken to repentance those He frightened, so that they might escape the judgment their sins had earned? If that is agreed, the nature of the thing itself leads us to understand an implied condition within the plain warning — which is confirmed by similar examples. When the Lord rebuked king Abimelech for having taken Abraham's wife, He said: 'Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, for she is a man's wife.' But after Abimelech offered his defense, God said: 'Return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will surely die, you and all who are yours.' You see how in the first sentence God strikes hard at his mind to make him urgently seek to make amends, and in the second plainly declares His actual will. Since other similar passages work the same way, do not conclude from them that anything was taken back from God's original purpose when He reversed what He had previously pronounced. God prepares the way for His eternal decree when, in announcing punishment, He moves to repentance those He intends to spare — rather than changing anything in His will, or even truly in His word, which simply did not spell out in syllables what is nevertheless easy to understand. For that word of Isaiah must stand firm: 'The Lord of hosts has determined, and who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?'