1. God the great Creator of all things doth uphold (Heb. 1:3), direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things (Dan. 4:34–35; Ps. 135:6; Acts 17:25–26, 28; Job 38; 39; 40; 41), from the greatest even to the least (Matt. 10:29–31), by His most wise and holy providence (Prov. 15:3; Ps. 104:24; 145:17), according to His infallible foreknowledge (Acts 15:18; Ps. 94:8–11), and the free and immutable counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11; Ps. 33:10–11), to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy (Isa. 63:14; Eph. 3:10; Rom. 9:17; Gen. 45:7; Ps. 145:7).
God upholds everything. He directs everything; He disposes and governs every creature, every action, and every thing that is. This is something He does effortlessly, whether the creature in question is a cluster of galaxies, or a cluster of atoms. The hairs of our head are numbered. This He does in holiness and wisdom. His providence (for this is what we call it) is according to a foreknowledge that cannot be shown to be in error, and also according to His free and unalterable counsel. The reason He does this is so that His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy might be glorified. It follows that we should not whisper this doctrine or keep silent about it for fear that it might not glorify Him. Our fears for His glory are nothing compared to His zeal for His glory.
2. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly (Acts 2:23); yet, by the same providence, He ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently (Gen 8:22; Jer. 31:35; Exod. 21:13; Deut. 19:5; 1 Ki. 22:28, 34; Isa. 10:6–7).
His providence determines that all things will come to pass; the end is known and cannot be changed. But that same providence also knows what will happen causatively the moment before. God oversees the end, but also the means. And His providence of the means is fully consistent with the nature of secondary causes—some things happen necessarily, like a rock tumbling in an avalanche. Other things happen freely, as when a man chooses to go left instead of right. Other things happen contingently, as when one thing depends upon another.
3. God, in His ordinary providence, maketh use of means (Acts 27:31, 44; Isa. 55:10–11. Hos. 2:21–22), yet is free to work without (Hos. 1:7; Matt. 4:4; Job 34:10), above (Rom 4:19–21), and against them (2 Ki. 6:6; Dan. 3:27), at His pleasure.
The fact that we have asserted that God uses means does not mean that we hold He is bound to use means. This would be to deny Him the power to work miracles. But He is the Lord, He dwells in the highest heaven, and He does as He pleases.
4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men (Rom. 11:32–34; 2 Sam. 24:1; 1 Chron. 21:1; 1 Ki. 22:22–23; 1 Chron. 10:4, 13–14; 2 Sam. 16:10; Acts 2:23; 4:27–28); and that not by a bare permission (Acts 14:16), but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding (Ps. 76:10; 2 Ki. 19:28), and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends (Gen. 50:20; Isa. 10:6–7, 12); yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin (James 1:13–14, 17; 1 John 2:16; Ps. 50:21).
What we have extended with the right hand we do not take back with the left. If God orders all things, then He orders sin. If He orders sin, then He ordered the sin of our first parents. Every sin ever committed takes its perfect place in the plans and counsels of the Almighty. As it has been well said, God draws straight with crooked lines. God’s determination that these sins would occur does not occur by “bare permission,” but with the permission He that gives He bounds, orders, and governs the sin to His own holy purposes. Notice that God does what He does by means of permission, but it is not a bare permission; it is permission accompanied. Despite this, and despite the demands of our own sinful hearts, the guilt of any such sin adheres to the sinful creatures only, and not to Him who does not approve it. He is the author of the fact of the sin, the limits of the sin, the place of the sin, the purpose of the sin, the meaning of the sin, but He is not the author of the sin itself. Judas was bound to betray the Lord, just as it was determined, but the God who determined it was not the traitor—Judas was.
5. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled (2 Chron. 32:25–26, 31; 2 Sam. 24:1); and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends (2 Cor. 12:7–9; Ps. 73; 77:1, 10, 12; Mark 14:66f.; John 21:15–17).
As God orders His world, His plan includes seasons when His own children are given over to various temptations and corruptions. Not only does He do this, but He does it often. The reason He does this is to chastise us for previous sin, or to teach us how bad we actually are. Without having our noses rubbed in it, we deceive ourselves on this point far too readily. God humbles us with our sins. When humbled, and aware of the deceitfulness of our own hearts, we are far more dependent upon Him, and far more wary than we would have been otherwise. In short, God works many wonderful things into the lives of His people through His practice of making us eat our own cooking.
6. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28; 11:7–8), from them He not only withholdeth His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts (Deut. 29:4); but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had (Matt. 13:12; 25:29), and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin (Deut. 2:30; 2 Ki. 8:12–13); and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan (Ps. 81:11–12; 2 Thess. 2:10–12), whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others (Exod. 7:3; 8:15, 32; 2 Cor. 2:15–16; Isa. 8:14; 1 Pet. 2:7–8; Isa. 6:9–10; Acts 28:26–27).
But God uses sin, not just as a wise Physician, but also as an indignant Judge and Executioner. Other men, no better or worse in themselves than the elect, are blinded and hardened because of their previous sins. Grace is withheld from them, but remember that grace is a gift, not a wage. If that withheld grace had been given then their understanding would have come into light, and a gracious work would have been done in their hearts. But God not only withholds grace, He sometimes also removes what gifts they had, and lets them run headlong. When His wrath is manifested, He gives free rein to their lusts, the lies of the world, and the power of the devil. When God lets go of a man, and the man runs headlong, this is the wrath of God. The result of all this is a continuing hardening, even when the same external means (used in the salvation of others) is being used.
7. As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it taketh care of His Church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof (1 Tim. 4:10; Amos 9:8–9; Rom. 8:28; Isa. 43:3–5, 14).
God’s providence is in everything. But in the affairs of the Church, it is in everything for good. The Church is at the center of God’s plan and purpose for this creation, and since the world is governed according to God’s most wise counsel, we are not to approach trial and turmoil as Stoics. The world is not God’s monkey-house, despite the appearances. This means that God’s saints must look, by faith, for that good which God says He is working.