all things, and according to the diversity of secondary causes which he hath created: whereof, some are necessary, some free, others contingent, which produce their effects, nec παντῶς nec ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ sed κατὰ συμβεβηκός, merely by accident.

The providence of God in governing the world, is plentifully made known unto us, both by his works and by his word. I will give a few instances of either sort. 1. In general, that the Almighty Snuoúpyos, and framer of this whole universe, should propose unto himself no end in the creation of all things; that he should want either power, goodness, will, or wisdom, to order and dispose the works of his own hands is altogether impossible. 2. Take a particular instance, in one concerning accident, the knowledge whereof by some means or other, in some degree or other, hath spread itself throughout the world; and that is, that almost universal destruction of all by the flood, whereby the whole world was well-nigh reduced to its primitive confusion,-is there nothing but chance to be seen in this? was there any circumstance about it that did not shew a God, and his providence? Not to speak of those revelations whereby God foretold that he would bring such a deluge; what chance, what fortune, could collect such a small number of individuals of all sorts, wherein the whole kind might be preserved ? What hand guided that poor vessel from the rocks, and gave it a resting place on the mountains? Certainly, the very reading of that story, Gen. vii. having for confirmation, the catholic tradition of all mankind, were enough to startle the stubborn heart of an atheist.

The word of God doth not less fully relate it, than his works do declare it; Psal. xix. 'My Father worketh hitherto,' saith our Saviour; John v. 17. but did not God end his work on the seventh day, and did he not then rest from all his works?' Gen. ii. 2. True, from his work of creation by his omnipotence; but his work of gubernation by his providence, as yet knows no end: yea, and divers particular things he doth, besides the ordinary course, only to make known that he thus worketh;' John ix. 3. as he hath framed all things by his wisdom, so he continueth them by his providence in excellent order; as is at large declared in that golden Psal. civ. and this is not bounded to any particular

places or things, but his eyes are in every place beholding the evil, and the good;' Prov. xv. 3. 'so that none can hide himself, in secret places, that he shall not see him;' Jer. xxiii. 24. Acts xvii. 24. John v. 10, 11. Exod. iv. 11. and all this, he saith, that men may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides him, he is the Lord, and there is none else; he formeth the light, and createth darkness, he maketh peace, and createth evil, he doth all these things;' Isa. xlv. 7. in these and innumerable like places, doth the Lord declare that there is nothing which he hath made, that with the good hand of his providence he doth not govern and sustain.

Now, this general extent of his common providence to all, doth no way hinder, but that he may exercise certain special acts thereof, towards some in particular: even by how much nearer than other things they approach unto him, and are more assimilated unto his goodness. I mean his church here on earth, and those whereof it doth consist: for what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them;' Deut. iv. 7. in the government thereof he most eminently sheweth his glory, and exerciseth his power; join here his works with his word, what he hath done with what he hath promised to do for the conservation of his church and people, and you will find admirable issues of a more special providence: against this he promiseth' the gates of hell shall not prevail;' Matt. xvi. 18. amidst of these he hath promised to remain;' Matt. xviii. 20. supplying them with an addition of all things necessary; Matt. vi. 33. desiring, that all their care might be cast upon him, who careth for them; 1 Pet. v. 7. forbidding any to touch his anointed ones; Psal. cv. 15. and that because they are unto him as the apple of his eye;' Zech. ii. 8. Now this special providence hath respect unto a supernatural end, to which that and that alone is to be conveyed.

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For wicked men, as they are excepted from this special care and government, so they are not exempted from the dominion of his almighty hand: he 'who hath created them for the day of evil;' Prov. xvi. 4. and provided a place of their own, Acts i. 25. for them to go unto; doth not in this world, suffer them to live without the verge of his allruling providence, but by suffering and enduring their ini

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quities with great patience, and long-suffering;' Rom. ix. 20. defending them oftentimes, from the injuries of one another; Gen. iv. 15. by granting unto them many temporal blessings; Matt. v. 45. disposing of all their works to the glory of his great name; Prov. xxi. 1, 2. he declareth, that they also live, and move, and have their being in him, and are under the government of his providence. Nay, there is not the least thing in this world to which his care and knowledge doth not descend: ill would it become his wisdom not to sustain, order, and dispose, of all things by him created, but leave them to the ruin of uncertain chance. Jeromed then was injurious to his providence, and cast a blemish on his absolute perfection, whilst he thought to have cleared his majesty, from being defiled with the knowledge and care of the smallest reptiles and vermin every moment; and St. Austin is express to the contrary, Who,' saith he, 'hath disposed the several members of the flea and gnat, that hath given unto them order, life, and motion?' &c. even most agreeable to holy Scriptures; so Psal. civ. 20, 21. cxlv. 15. Matt. vi. 26. He feedeth the fowls and clotheth the grass of the field;' John xxxix. 1, 2. Jonah iv. 6. 7. Sure it is not troublesome to God to take notice of all that he hath created; did he use that great power in the production of the least of his creatures, so far beyond the united activity of men and angels, for no end at all? Doubtless, even they also must have a well disposed order, for the manifestation of his glory, not a sparrow falls to the ground, without our Father;' Matt. x. 29, 30.' even the hairs of our head are numbered, he clotheth the lilies and grass of the field which is to be cast into the oven;' Luke xii. 27, 28. Behold his knowledge and care of them; again he used frogs and lice, for the punishment of the Egyptians; Exod. viii. with a gourd and a worm, he exercised his servant Jonah, chap. iii. yea, he calls the locusts his terrible army, and shall not God know and take care of the number of his soldiers, the ordering of his dreadful host?

• Majestatem Dei dedecet, scire per momenta singula, quot nascantur culices, quæ pulicum et muscarum in terra multitudo. Hieron. in cap. 1. Haback.

Quis disposuit membra pulicis ac culicis, ut habeant ordinem suum, habeant vitam suam, habeant motum suum: &c. qui fecit in cœlo angelum, ipse fecit in terra vermiculum, sed angelum in cœlo pro habitatione cœlesti, vermiculum in terra pro habitatione terrestri, nunquid angelum fecit repere in cœno, aut vermiculum in colo; &c. August. tom. 8. in Psal. cxlviii,

That God by his providence governeth and disposeth of all things by him created, is sufficiently proved; the manner how he worketh all in all, how he ordereth the works of his own hands, in what this governing and disposing of his creatures doth chiefly consist, comes now to be considered. And here four things are principally to be observed: First, the sustaining, preserving, and upholding, of all things by his power: for he upholdeth all things by the word of his power; Heb. i. 3. Secondly, his working together with all things, by an influence of casuality, into the agents themselves, for he also hath wrought all our works in us;' Isa. xxvi. 12. Thirdly, his powerful overruling of all events, both necessary, free, and contingent, and disposing of them to certain ends for the manifestation of his glory: so Joseph tells his brethren, As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is at this day, to save much people alive;' Gen. 1. 20. Fourthly, his determining and restraining second causes to such and such effects: even the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will;' Prov. xxi. 1.

First, His sustentation or upholding of all things, is his powerful continuing of their being, natural strength, and faculties, bestowed on them at their creation; 'in him we live, and move, and have our being;' Acts xvii. So that he doth neither work all himself in them, without any co-operation of theirs, which would not only turn all things into stocks, yea, and take from stocks their own proper nature, but also is contrary to that general blessing he spread over the face of the whole world in the beginning, 'increase and multiply;' Gen. i. 22. nor yet leave them to a self-subsistence, he in the meantime only not destroying them, which would make him an idle spectator of most things in the world, not to work hitherto, as our Saviour speaks; and grant to divers things here below an absolute being, not derivative from him; the first whereof is blasphemous, the latter impossible.

Secondly, For God's working in and together with all second causes, for producing of their effects; what part or portion in the work punctually to assign unto him, what to the power of the inferior causes, seems beyond the reach Rem. apol. cap. 6.

of mortals; neither is an exact comprehension thereof any way necessary, so that we make every thing beholding to his power for its being, and to his assistance for its ope

ration.

Thirdly, His supreme dominion exerciseth itself in disposing of all things to certain and determinate ends for his own glory; and is chiefly discerned advancing itself over those things which are most contingent, and making them in some sort necessary, inasmuch as they are certainly disposed of to some proposed ends. Between the birth and death of a man, how many things merely contingent do occur? How many chances? how many diseases, in their own nature all evitable? and in regard of the event, not one of them but to some prove mortal; yet certain it is, that a man's days are determined, the number of his months are with the Lord, he hath appointed his bounds which he cannot pass;' Job xiv. 5. And oftentimes by things purely contingent and accidental, be executeth his purposes, bestoweth rewards, inflicteth punishments, and accomplisheth his judgments; as when he delivereth a man to be slain by the head of an axe, flying from the helve in the hand of a man cutting a tree by the way: but in nothing is this more evident, than in the ancient casting of lots, a thing as casual and accidental as can be imagined, huddled in the cap at a venture: yet God overruleth them to the declaring of his purpose, freeing truth from doubts, and manifestation of his power; Prov. xvi. 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is from the Lord;' as you may see in the examples of Achan; Josh. vii. 16, 17. Saul, 1 Sam. x. 21. Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiv. 41. Jonah, chap. i. 8. Matthias, Acts i. 26. And yet this overruling act of God's providence (as no other decree or act of his), doth not rob things contingent of their proper nature; for cannot he, who effectually causeth that they shall come to pass, cause also that they shall come to pass contingently?

Fourthly, God's predetermination of second causes (which I name not last as though it were the last act of God's providence about his creatures, for indeed it is the first that concerneth their operation), is that effectual working of his, according to his eternal purpose, whereby, though some agents, as the wills of men, are causes most free and indefinite, or unlimited lords of their own actions, in respect of their in