We must consider that
the Providence of God, as taught in Scripture, is opposed to fortune
and fortuitous causes. By an erroneous opinion prevailing in all ages,
an opinion almost universally prevailing in our own day, viz., that all
things happen fortuitously, the true doctrine of Providence has not only
been obscured, but almost buried. If one falls among robbers, or
ravenous beasts; if a sudden gust of wind at sea causes shipwreck; if
one is struck down by the fall of a house or a tree; if another, when
wandering through desert paths, meets with deliverance; or, after being
tossed by the waves, arrives in port, and makes some wondrous
hair-breadth escape from death - all these occurrences, prosperous as
well as adverse, carnal sense will attribute to fortune. But whose has
learned from the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his head are
numbered, (Matt 10:30) will look farther for the cause, and hold that
all events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God. With
regard to inanimate objects again we must hold that though each is
possessed of its peculiar properties, yet all of them exert their force
only in so far as directed by the immediate hand of God. Hence they are
merely instruments, into which God constantly infuses what energy he
sees meet, and turns and converts to any purpose at his pleasure.
No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the
sun. For, besides illuminating the whole world with its brightness, how
admirably does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat, and
fertilise the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap,
and thereby calling forth the verdant blade! This it supports,
increases, and strengthens with additional nurture, till it rises into
the stalk; and still feeds it with perpetual moisture, till it comes
into flower; and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till
it attains maturity. In like manner, by its warmth trees and vines bud,
and put forth first their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit.
And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as
his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should
be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the
sun. No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or
principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the
sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases;
though he can lay it aside, and act equally well by himself: Again, when
we read, that at the prayer of Joshua the sun was stayed in its course,
(Josh. 10: 13;) that as a favour to Hezekiah, its shadow receded ten
degrees, (2 Kings 20: 11;) by these miracles God declared that the sun
does not daily rise and set by a blind instinct of nature, but is
governed by Him in its course, that he may renew the remembrance of his
paternal favour toward us. Nothing is more natural than for spring, in
its turns to succeed winter, summer spring, and autumn summer; but in
this series the variations are so great and so unequal as to make it
very apparent that every single year, month, and day, is regulated by a
new and special providence of God.
- John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.16.2)
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