A Treatise on Providence, pt 1, by William Plumer  (1802–1880)   [Here, we begin a study by William Plumer, concerning God’s providence.]—Ed.   “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said to this day,  ‘In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen’” - Gen. 22:14     Providence Asserted   “Behold the fowls of the air:  they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns:  yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they? … Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in alol his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall Henot much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” – Jesus (Matt. 6:26,28-30)   “In the hand of the Lord is the soul of every living thing, and the heart of all mankind” - Job (Job 12:10)   “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So now it was not you that sent me hither but God” - Joseph (Gen. 45:7)   “As thy days, so shall thy strength be” - Moses (Deut. 33:25)   “The Lord is King for ever and ever” - David (Ps. 10:16)   “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth” - Hezekiah (Isa. 37:16)   “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:  that bringeth the princes to nothing: he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity” - Isaiah (Isa. 40:22)   “The Lord is the true God, He is the living God and an everlasting King… O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself” - Jeremiah (Jer. 10:10,23)   “In Him we live and move and have our being” - Paul (Acts 17:28)   “Ye ought to say, ‘If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that’” - James (James 4:15)   “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” - Peter (II Peter 2:9)   “Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” - The Multitudes in Heaven (Rev. 19:6)   God reigns is a logical sequence from God is.  To deny God’s providence is as atheistical as to deny His existence.  A God, who neither sees, nor hears, nor knows, nor cares, nor helps, nor saves, is a vanity, and can never claim homage from intelligent men.  Such a god should be derided, not worshipped.  He might suit the mythology of Paganism, or meet the demands of an infidel heart, but could never command the allegiance, or win the confidence of an enlightened and pious man.  Yet there have been and still are those, who deny Providence.  They “encourage themselves in an evil matter; they commune of laying snares privily; they say, ‘Who shall see them?’” (Ps. 44:5).  Some say outright, “God hath forgotten, He hideth His face, He will never see it” (Ps. 10:11).  Nothing more derogatory to the character of God can possibly be said, than that He does not rule the world.  To bring into existence and then forsake a race of beings, and care no more for them would argue a total want of the moral attributes of divinity.  Such conduct may well comport with the character of false gods, but is wholly abhorrent to the nature of Jehovah.  The world may as well be without a God, as have one who is incompetent to rule it, or, who, wrapping Himself in infinite indifference, abandons creation to the governance of puny mortals, to the rule of devils, or to the sway of a blind fortuity.  “The ostrich leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.  She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers” (Job 39:14–16).  Thus this bird fulfills the instincts of her nature.  Yet in so doing she proves that she is one of the lowest orders of irrational animals.  But God’s tender mercies are over all His works.  His kingdom rules over all.   Providence Defined   “Providence is the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures” - Webster   “Providence is that by which anything is foreseen before it takes place” - Cicero   “The doctrine of divine Providence is, that all things are sustained, directed, and controlled by God” - Dr. Leonard Woods   “By the law of providence, I intend God’s sovereign disposal of all the concernments of men in this world, in the variety, order, and manner, which He pleaseth, according to the rule and infinite reason of His own goodness, wisdom, righteousness, and truth” - John Owen   “The word providence is taken from the Latin, and by its etymology means foresight, not merely in the sense of seeing before but in the sense of taking care for the future, or rather an ordering of things and events after a pre-determened and intelligent plan; it supposes wisdom to devise and power to execute” - Bethune   “Providence is the care which God takes of all things, to uphold them in being and to direct them to the ends which He has determined to accomplish by them, so that nothing takes place in which He is not concerned in a manner worthy of His infinite perfections, and which is not in unison with the counsels of His will” - Dick   “God’s conserving all things means His actual operation and government in preserving and continuing the being, powers, dispositions, and motions of all things” - Clarke   “The providence of God is His almighty and everywhere present power, whereby as it were by hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand” - Heidelberg Catechism   According to preceding views and to the Scriptures, God’s providence consists: 1. In His preserving all that He has made.  He upholds all things by the word of His power (see Heb. 1:3).  “The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season” (Ps. 145:15–16).  This dependence of creatures is universal and perpetual.  Could one link in the chain thereof be broken, the least evil that would follow would be annihilation. 2.  In governing all that He has made.  First, He restrains the creature.  By the law of gravitation He keeps solid worlds in their places.  By the power of His hand He withholds free agents from evil both natural and moral.  Secondly, He guides His creatures.  It is His voice that rolls the stars along, and marshals all the host of heaven, and works wonders among the inhabitants of the earth.  Without Him atoms and planets, angels and devils, saints and sinners can do nothing.  (See John 19:11; II Chron. 32:31; Acts 14:16; Ps. 76:10).     -------------- This article is taken from:  Plumer, William S.  Jehovah- Jireh: A Treatise on Providence. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincot & Co., 1866.  A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com