Psalm 113:5-8 Who is like to the LORD our God, who dwells on high, I. STATE THE DOCTRINE OF A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE. 1. We must not expect that God's particular providence would interpose, where our own endeavours are sufficient. For that would be to encourage sloth and idleness, instead of countenancing and supporting virtue. Nor ought we to expect to be relieved from difficulties and distresses, into which our own mismanagement and criminal conduct have plunged us. 2. We must not expect that Providence would so far consult our private interest, as to counterwork that of the whole. 3. We are not to expect that Providence upon our repeated requests would grant what we imagine a blessing; there being several things which we think to be blessings, that are not so upon the whole, or not so to us. And Providence is not like an over-indulgent parent, who destroys the future happiness of His children, by complying with their importunate petitions, and removing their present uneasiness. 4. Nor must we hope that Providence will prevent every calamity that may befall good men. All that the assertors of a particular providence contend for is that, if He does not think fit to prevent it, He will either support them under it, or rescue them from it; or make all things, at the last winding up of the drama, work together for good to them who love Him. II. Having stated the doctrine of a particular providence, PROVE THE POSSIBILITY OF IT. We must distinguish between the grand and fundamental laws of nature, and those of an inferior and subordinate nature. The economy of Nature may be in a great measure unalterable, as to the grand and fundamental laws, by which the universe is steered: such are those respecting the revolution of the heavenly bodies, the succession of day and night, and the round of the seasons. But there are subordinate and inferior laws, which God may alter without any seeming or visible alteration. And to recede from them, under proper limitations, occasionally at the instance of particular persons, may be no detriment to the universe, and yet of great importance to them. Such are the laws relating to the course of infectious and pestilential vapours, the state of the atmosphere, etc. III. PROVE THE TRUTH AND CERTAINTY OF A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE. 1. That the Deity should not grant every particular good man what is really for his good upon the whole, and no ways inconsistent with that of the public, must either argue that He is unwilling or that He is unable to grant it. Infinite goodness cannot but be willing to communicate happiness to every individual, who is not wanting to himself, and infinite power cannot but be able to bring about whatever His goodness wills. 2. God will respect and treat every man agreeably to what he is, and therefore there can be no irrespective course of things. 3. Instinct is a proof that providence extends itself to every particular brute; instinct being the immediate energy of the Deity acting upon each of the brute creation. Now, if Providence condescends to regard every individual in the brute creation so far as to act constantly in it and upon it, shall He not much more extend His care to every particular person in the rational world, and adapt His dispensations to the necessities of each single person in it? 4. Those who admit a general providence, but deny a particular one, seem to forget that generals are nothing but a collection of particulars; they are nothing but the sum total of individuals. And consequently as generals include particulars, a general providence must imply a particular one. 5. The surprising discoveries of murder, the fall of the wicked into the pit which they made for others; the strange and judicial infatuation of men, wise at all other times, when some great event was to be brought about, which can only be resolved into His power, who maketh the knowledge of the wise foolish, and turneth their counsels backwards; the indiscretion of others succeeding, when well-concerted plots have failed; the disproportion of the visible means to the effect; these are so many arguments to prove a particular providence at the helm, who has a perfect view of all things, whether great or small, at all times, and in all places, with infinitely more ease, than we can attend to one thing at once. IV. REFLECTIONS. 1. Let. us learn from hence to form the most august ideas of the Divine nature of which ours is capable. 2. Instead of scaring yourself with melancholy views, let it be a matter of joy and comfort to you, that, amidst all the confusion and madness of the world, men cannot faster perplex and entangle things than God can unravel them; or embroil the world, than He can bring order out of confusion. 3. Let us never do anything to throw ourselves out of His protection. While we enjoy the light of the Divine countenance, we need not be dejected at the frowns of the whole world. For if God be for us, it will in a short time signify little or nothing who was against us: but if He be against us, what will it signify who was for us? (J. Seed.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high, |
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