g to be; no more can we
account for the world continuing to exist, without supposing it to be
preserved; for it is as evidently absurd to suppose any creature
prolonging as producing its own being. A second proof of Providence
results from the admitted fact of creation. Whoever has made any piece
of mechanism, therefore takes pains to preserve it.

Parental affection moves those who have given birth to children to
provide for their sustenation and education. It is both reasonable and
scriptural to contemplate God as sustaining the universe because He made
it. Thus David, having promised that the world was made by God,
immediately descends to the course of his Providence. (Ps. xxiii. 6.)
The creation also evinces a Providence by proving God's right to rule,
on the admitted principle that every one may do what he will with his
own.

A third proof of Providence is found in the divine perfections. Since,
among the divine perfections, are all power and all knowledge, the
non-existence of Providence, if there be none, must result from a want
of will in God. But no want of will to exercise a Providence can exist,
for God wills whatever is for the good of the universe, and for His own
glory; to either of which a Providence is clearly indispensable. God
therefore has resolved to exercise His power and knowledge so as to
subserve the best ends with His creation. "He that denies Providence,"
says Charnock, "denies most of God's attributes; he denies at least the
exercise of them; he denies his omniscience, which is the eye of
Providence; mercy and justice, which are the arms of it; power, which is
its life and motion; wisdom, which is the rudder whereby Providence is
steered; and holiness, which is the compass and rule of each motion."
This argument for a Providence might be made much more impressive, did
our limits allow us to expand it, so as to show, step by step how almost
every attribute, if not directly, yet by implication, demands that God
put forth an unceasing sovereignty over all His works.

A fourth proof of God's Providence appears in the order which prevails
in the universe. We say the order which prevails, aware of the
occasional apparent disorder that exists, which we have already noticed,
and shall soon treat of again. That summer and winter, seed time and
harvest, cold and heat, day and night, are fixed by law, was obvious
even to man who never heard of God's covenant with Noah. Accordingly the
ancient Greeks d