I will give an illustration from our own time. The astronomers threatened a flood and the general break up of the universe for the year fifteen hundred and twenty-four, and the preachers, especially among the Christians, are still proclaiming that the end of the world is upon us. The one based their calculations upon the conjunction and clashing of the heavenly bodies, the others upon the wickedness and corruption of the times, and when the latter have invaded human society the preachers become more certain that the divine vengeance is at hand, than any astronomers are from their scheme of lucky and unlucky years. That year has gone by and left the earth for us still further to dwell upon, and though there were freshets in some places, the streams of Switzerland were lower than for many years. But there is reason to fear that this jungle of wrongs, suppression of public justice, pride, luxury and the utter shamelessness of all evil will bring on a far more destructive deluge than one in which the bodies of men and brutes should be drowned. In this the preachers predicted much more correctly than the astronomers. Meanwhile they despise each other vigorously, when they ought, on the contrary, to have more regard for each other. When the astronomers saw the stars in a sinister and threatening position, they ought to have looked with admiring wonder upon the wisdom of the Deity, which from the creation of the firmament had so regulated the course of the heavenly bodies that a fatal calamity should be threatened by them at the period when all things had become thoroughly corrupt. The preachers are right in disparaging the wanton and
unrestrained divination of the astrologers, but they ought not to scorn the benefits of astronomy any more than they should the stars themselves, For as these are instruments by which the Divine Power pours Itself out, so the knowledge of their course is nothing else than the knowledge of the course of the divine activity. Hence the preachers, as far as I can see, should respect astronomy as highly as any branch of knowledge.
The disturbances by which the world is shaken at present are not caused by chance or by the anger of the stars, but by Divine Providence, which so orders all things that the preachers are able to threaten divine vengeance, and the astronomers to foretell coming calamity. Both of these things are manifested by the goodness of God, that the way to repentance and salvation be opened more clearly before us. So far, therefore, is it from the truth that the stars run outside of the course appointed for mortals that rather since the foundation of the world their power and course have been adapted to the course of human affairs. And when we now see that these have been such that the might of thé stars has evidently been angry with mortals, corresponding to the wrath of God, and the stars are nothing but instruments of the Divine Power, it is clear that they are continuously under the sway and rule of God’s beck and call, and never do anything at random. For if any one thing were done by them at random and without God’s providence, by the same fact everything would take place at random. For he who thinks that Providence neglects one single thing, does away with Providence altogether, as has been shown before. And if the theologians and the asironomers will both reflect upon this, there will, I hope, be no more quarrels between them hereafter. The one class [astronomers] will refrain from trivial divination, and the others [theologians] will not decline to defend Providence, because they failed to regard these as instruments of the Divine Power, so constituted by the Divine Wisdom that they are ever obedient to the call of the Deity, and, stopping with the stars themselves, things without life, and not reverencing their author and mover, have limited Providence too boldly.
The astronomers, may, therefore, give warning according to the fixed and indubitable axioms of their science, that is, propositions and prineiples demanding immediate acceptance, but they may not set limits to things, partly, because many
trivial things have crept into their science, and partly because the Deity, the soul of the stars, regulates them at His will, and through them works what He will, and gives them what He will, not what we wish or teach is given them. On the other hand, the theologians can more plainly recognize Providence when they regard the stars not as some special thing apart from the Deity but as the instruments of His power.
So much about the movements of the heavenly bodies. In these I want included the celestial phenomena, the constellations, as they are called, the lightning flashes and thunderbolts, what goes down and comes up, the changes of the wind, earthquakes and storms, and everything above or below that takes place by the influence of the heavenly or upper bodies, because all these things which come from the heavens are done by the providence and immediate power of the Deity.
Nor should we think that the stars do, at God’s command and ordination, to be sure, many things that it is still not necessary for God Himself to know or pay attention to. As if that power which is the Deity could be wearied or could wear out under excessive labor, so that we must spare it, lest by seeing, ordering, and doing all things, it became weary and need some Atlas to put his shoulders under the burden, while it takes breath. Such is the nature and power of the Deity that it consists of activity and is absolutely foreign to rest. For where rest is needed, there is need of taking breath. Where taking breath is necessary, there labor is oppressive. Where labor is oppressive, fatigue follows. Where there is fatigue, there is also weakness, and this must be absolutely foreign to the Deity. Divine Power is not, therefore, exhausted by doing, surveying, and arranging all things. It delights in it, loves it, is used to it, that means, its nature requires it. For when it is made clear in regard to chance happenings that the Deity takes account of them, as I shall presently show, will there be anything from which He can withhold His hand?
The name “chance happenings” is inconsistent with real religion. For nothing can happen by accident of fortune, if all things are regulated by Providence. Furthermore, when I have shown that the things which are believed to be accidental proceed from the direct action of the Deity, I hope that though the name ehanee happenings,” or, as the new school says,
“contingent happenings,” remain, it will be plain that the things which are attributed to fortune or chance are the work of God in reality. 1
In approaching this matter, I shall first bring forward illustrations from the realm of inanimate things or things without intelligence, where yet the evident work and care of the Deity are discoverable, and afterwards illustrations that have to do with man. When the hatchet of the prophet’s pupil slipped from its shaft and fell into the river [II Kings 6:5], it was, at first sight, an accident. But when the prophet teacher threw in the piece of wood to bring back the metal and 1t obediently floated back from the bottom, we see both from the strangeness and the greatness of the miracle that the metal fell in for the purpose of making plain the prophet’s holiness and his close relationship with God.
The straying asses [I Sam. 9:3], in search of which Saul had left his father’s house, show clearly enough that they went astray at the ordination of God, since the son sought asses and found a kingdom that he had not sought, and the father got not only the asses he was troubled about but a king for a son, which he had never thought of. Will the ass that stood with the colt [Matth. 21:2] at the cross roads for the use of the poor be believed to have been driven thither by chance, when the King of kings and Lord of lords mounted it to enter Jerusalem, according to the words of the prophets? Shall we say that the small cords which Christ gathered at random in the temple [John 2: 15] and made into a scourge lay there at random, since with them He drove the money changers from the sacred edifice? Shall the fig tree [Matth. 21: 19], which, sterile by nature or worn out with bearing, stood there with nothing but leaves, be thought to have been planted accidentally all those years before, since Christ cursed it with such indignation as an everlasting illustration of His detestation of hypocrisy? The fish certainly had not kept away from Simon’s net all night by accident, when they rushed into it in crowds after Christ came [Lk. 5: 4-6] and bade him be of good cheer. For they were the instruments for the great miracle, by which such a vast quantity of fish was caught. The five barley loaves and two fishes [John 6:9] were not at hand by chance, nor the honey in the honeycomb, with the portion of cooked fish left over [Lk. 24: 42], since in
both cases the miracle which followed bears witness to Providence. But I shall be overloaded with abundance of testimony rather than refuted by the want of it, so full of illustrations is everything. I pass by the clear testimony of Scripture, by which we see that everywhere the things we say occur by accident are done and regulated by Providence. I pass on, therefore, to the illustrations which have to do with man.
The case of Joseph is altogether of such a kind that more than anything else it shows the hand of Providence in all things. It is no accident that as a boy he was clothed with the coat of many colors. For afterwards it was more surely recognized, although it had been so soaked with the blood of goats that it presented the appearance of a garment torn by a wild beast. He has a dream; it is no accident, for he rouses the hatred of his brothers against himself in consequence of his interpretation, and foretells what was some time to come true. He falls unwittingly into his brothers’ wicked machinations; it is no accident, for when he relates the crime to his father [Gen. 37: 2], he displays the magnanimity of his nature and incites his brothers to doing what God had determined. When on his way to see his brothers as they pastured their herds in the fields, he loses his way and is brought back to the path; it is no accident, for thus is manifested the alertness of the still young lad and the care of Providence which gave him a guide to set his wandering steps in the right road. What need of lengthy detail? He is thrown into the pit, drawn out, sold, the Ishmaelites pass by. What is accidental in these things? We see clearly that the traders, a class of men not always useful, took their journey to the best advantage through the region in which they bought a Joseph, a man who was one day to be the father of his country. He is charged with adultery, and languishes among prisoners. Others have a dream which becomes the occasion of his deliverance. He shows by his interpretations that even dreams are never so vain that they are not sent by Providence for some purpose.
Now, to say nothing of the physicians who easily discover the constitution of the body from dreams, to say nothing also of those kinds of dreams by which something important is told or taught or by which the drunkard condemns his drunkenness or the passionate man his rage or lust, if we got nothing else from
dreams than the fact that remembering them we discover that the soul 15 immortal (for since it does not rest even in sleep, but fashions phantom shapes, even as animals also do, which, though it [the soul] generally discovers them to be vain, yet cling to the memory afterwards, while they vanish for the animals, by which manner is it not proved that real being is ours, that is, substance whose nature is unresting and unwearying?)—if, I say, we brought away from dreams this advantage only, it would be enough to show that not even such a trifling thing as a dream makes its appearance without Providence. Thus Joseph’s whole life is nothing else than a testimony to the fact that all things are done by Providence. There is no event in it which has not been shown to have taken place at its own good time by command and ordination of God.
But, having made this little digression about dreams, I know that there will be people who say that this reasoning is too thin and even vain, chiefly on the ground that some dreams are so trivial and others so vile that it seems wicked to drag Providence down to such low things. Let them have this answer:— Since Providence Himself has condescended (for nothing is too much for His kindness; consider in detail the humanity which the Son of God actually put on)—condescended, I say, to declare important things by dreams, why should any one venture to accuse me of boldness, when I attribute dreams as well as everything else to Providence, especially when in this matter the argument from one to all, from the individual to the universal, is sound? For it is a logical argument:—fProvidence has once been found to have decreased the harvest by drought and again to have restored it by rain; therefore Providence always has a care for the harvest. Therefore He never neglects the things that pertain to this care, whether He wills to withhold or to pour out abundantly. For one instance of neglect would utterly do away with both the clear vision and the power of Providence, as has been sufficiently shown above.
Then again, from what dreams can it be said that nothing results, even if we look only at the foolish telling or thinking about the dream, nay a vain effort to remember it? The man who tells a vain dream to others sometimes interrupts serious or harmful discourse, and this God uses for some good purpose, although we may sometimes not discover the good until later,
sometimes never. Or he gives himself or others occasion for repeated reflection. So the man who recalls a dream, brings his attention to something good or bad which Providence wishes him to think about. And if he seeks in vain and cannot bring up again a dream that has disappeared, this also happens not without profit, calling him from harm or relaxing him for the lighter things of life. For all these things tend to advance or stimulate men’s plans and thoughts, and deeds follow plans.
See how things, whose importance we do not rightly estimate, are not necessarily of no consequence. We fancy that the swarms of bugs, lice, and fleas, since these are hateful to man, are unworthy of Divine Providence, but if we consider the decayed matter from which they are produced for the purpose of delivering us of it without harm, we shall see that cruel plagues are sometimes averted by these insignificant things. The insects produced from the decayed matter of the wild fig tree soften the figs unto ripeness. These facts have been discovered to be such. Others though not equally understood are equally sure, namely that from rottenness and decay are produced things into which these pass and are thus prevented from causing greater harm.
Every one admits that this is the proper view of worms, flies, gadflies, roaches, spiders, locusts, and that kind of little insects, namely, that they are produced from poisonous rottenness that would do harm unless it passed into the little beast which is made to deliver man from it without injury. Since, therefore, the things outside of man are thus changed and puri fied for his good, how much more are the things within man, namely, thoughts, dreams, visions, counsels, interests, and indifferenees, not without purpose but always taken up or allowed to drop for some good end!
I do not regard this as pointing to our being unduly care less of ourselves, though this itself is from the Deity. On the contrary, we ought to understand that a man does all things according to his election or rejection. He who has been rejected of God directs all his schemes to getting riches and pleasures, and, wishing to acquire or striving to retain the name of a good man, he conceals all his wrong doings by hypocrisy or parades
[For the correct interpretation see Driver in “Cambridge Bible,” The]
[Book of Amos, p. 2071.]
them with polish and adornment as virtues. Who will regard plans of this kind a little thing? They are as much greater than works as the cause is superior to the work that follows from it. For unless planning goes before, no works will follow. If anything is accomplished without the thought of the doer, it is not credited to him, so much higher is purpose reckoned than achievement. We grant that the works of the unregenerate and accursed are done by Providence, shall we deny this of their plans? Now, if we grant the plans, why should we not with equal propriety attribute all that belongs to the plans to Providence?
He who has been elected of God turns all his zeal towards acquiring real virtue, not counterfeit, not on his own account, but to the glory of God and the good of his neighbors. He devotes his efforts to their advantage, not his own. It is his highest pleasure to give glory to God or win advantage for his neighbor. Whatever he listens to, thinks upon, undertakes, he manages skillfully, is undaunted and does not retreat. Whatever happens, he recognizes must happen so, and understands that by these events the goal at which he is aiming is to be attained. Who would deny that all his designs and thoughts and efforts are from God, since he regards and reverences the Deity in all things, even when he sins through weakness, he interprets even his sin to the glory of God, as will presently be made clear in the case of David?
Nothing, therefore, is done or achieved which is not done and achieved by the immediate care and power of the Deity. 1 pass by willingly and knowingly both the dream which the Midianite told to his fellow soldiers on awaking [Jdg. 7:13], and the chance coming of the reconnoitering Gideon to him. In these things we see that the dream which in form was most absurd did not come by accident, and that Gideon, without his own knowledge to be sure, but not without God’s providence, came upon that place where he found evident hope of accomplishing his whole purpose.
Bathsheba seems to have gone accidentally to bathe and David to have been an accidental spectator thereof [II Sam. 11: 2], but when we hear the tragic end of the story, are we not seized with wondering horror? David had violated the wife of his most faithful champion, and, having inflamed rather than
satisfied his lust, formed the wicked design of destroying the innocent husband who had no thought of vengeance, and of thus being able to satisfy his desire for the woman to his heart’s content. Everything proceeded according to his wish, so that the prophet expressed in two words the greatness of the crime, which no words were adequate and strong enough to describe fully—Thou hast ravished and killed. Then David, coming to himself, was so humbled and cast down that this great fall was a bar to any self-exaltation on his part that might have led to his death. David was elected of God, and was a man after His own heart. Therefore, this great sin turned out well for him. But what other thought can we believe that he had all his life than this: —“The Lord, thy God, willed that thou shouldst fall into this sin, that thou mightest recognize that thou art but a man. He gave thee first the gift of prophecy, He gave thee strength, greatness of soul, a crown, a kingdom, riches, and promised thee a Saviour. All this might have turned thy head if He had willed, but He is kinder to thee than thou wouldst thyself have been. He has humbled thee by this monstrous crime, that thou mightest not think of thyself as something greater than man. Thus does thy God make thee an example of His bounty and His mercy.” For so long as the world lasts when we want to encourage any one who sees himself a sinner, we shall hold up before him the case of David as an illustration of pardon, like a mirror or painting from which he may learn the readiness of the Lord to show mercy. Shall we say, then, that all these things happened by accident, when they furnish such instructive examples?
I will add another illustration to corroborate the above. In the last chapter of the second book of Samuel is written, “And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah” [II Sam. 24:1]. No passage can be adduced to show more plainly than this that not only our deeds and works but our thoughts and plans are suggested and inspired by the Lord, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
What sort of man Jeroboam was from his early years until he divided Israel and brought in idolatry, I do not need to expound. But however wicked and reckless he was, he was yet installed as it were in royal power by the prophet Abijah, when
he cut his cloak into twelve parts and gave ten to the future king of the ten tribes [I Kings 11: 30, 31]. Since, therefore, he had set up golden calves to be worshipped, why did God not only suffer but order him to seize the kingdom? It so pleased Him. He was going to reject Israel. He undertook this affair, therefore, with these methods, that we might see that things are done according to His will and not according to our decisions.
Be it enough, therefore, to have brought forward all these examples in proof of the fact that everything that is done, whether we call it accidental or premeditated and determined upon, is done by the immediate providence of God, whether it has to do with inanimate things or with things endowed with life, mind and understanding—however much we, being immersed in such deep darkness of ignorance, on account of the gross sluggishness of the flesh, fail to see all this clearly; And if to any it is given to look at these things from a somewhat higher point of view, good Lord, what delight they feel, when they detect everywhere the wisdom and goodness of the Deity, so that the contemplation of the universe, beautiful as it 1s, 1s a sordid thing beside the delightfulness that meets them when they mount to God, and consider the architect of the structure of the universe! For what wondering admiration do you think enters the pious heart, when (to offer several confirmatory illustrations of this gracious dispensation also) it considers the aforesaid Jeroboam who was ordained by God to separate Israel into two kingdoms, and presently abandoned him whom He had installed, after he had set up golden calves to be worshipped! This thing first brought Israel and then Judah to destruction, for it was an unworthy deed to lead men away from the true God to idolatry, but it would have been an ill considered plan on God’s part to raise a man like this to the throne who was going to revolt against him, unless He had determined to use his treachery for the thing that he was preparing.
When, I say, piety considers what follows, so far is it from passing judgment against God that it even wonders and extols His ways. Supreme Goodness had determined to give up the Jewish race at last and choose the nations given over to idols That downfall, therefore, which It was going to bring upon Israel, It paved the way for, by means of Jeroboam. For
[παρασκευάζεται,]
from this point Israel began to totter until she fell into the Babylonian and Roman captivities. But the peoples of the Gentiles, put in her place, then triumphed in the knowledge of the Deity. When the religious heart sees this so clearly, is it not carried away with a wonderful joy?
Consider also the value of the lesson that by this deed a warning is set before our eyes showing whither dissension and division lead and how sure a sign it is of an angry God and impending loss of freedom when violent and irreligious men are set over affairs. If we had looked at this lesson, we should long have had a clear view of the pitiable downfall of the Christian cause. When effeminate and reckless men rule the Church, and boys, not to say anything worse, govern kingdoms, what sign is lacking, not of a tottering but of an already falling Christianity? What hope is left us? How often has any people remained in safety after discipline and religion have collapsed? The preachers are at the head of religion. These have now become fawning tails” [Isa. 9:15], to use the words of the prophet. The magistrates as guardians of justice are the maintainers of good order. May I perish if you can go through Europe and find that there have ever been any rulers more corrupt, unjust, and violent than those of today. But I talk to deaf ears. They do not listen to a warning, nor look at wholesome lessons, nay, nor attend to an accusing conscience that trembles with fear.
These things are, therefore, sure signs of the wrath of God and that He is going to visit us with dire punishment as He did those of old. The poet says that “nothing can be said which has not been said before,” but I believe that nothing is done which has not been done before. Since, then, the Deity 18 always of the same character, what madness is it not to see that in equalling the ancients in our sins we are also bound to meet equal punishment! So useful to us would be the lessons of ancient times if we would only look at them. But godlessness drags us elsewhere.
[Zwingli was probably thinking of the words of Terence: “Nihil]
[dictum quod non dictum prius,” see Terence, Eunuchus, Prol. 10. But the]
[form of his sentence seems to be influenced by a saying of Cicero: “Nihil]
[tam absurdum dici potest ut mon dicatur a philosopho,” for he writes:]
[Nihil dici perhibet Poeta posse, quod non olim quoque dictum sit.”]
But I return to my subject. This much good followed the insurrection of Jeroboam that the Jews then began to be an example of faithlessness and afterwards of divine rejection, and the door was opened to the Gentiles for the knowledge of God. For after the Babylonian captivity the Jews never came to their own, and finally under the Romans were utterly ruined on account of the crucifixion of Christ.
That God made man to let him fall fills many with wonder, but when they consider that matter more deeply and see how at the time He determined to fashion man, He also determined to redeem him through His Son (for as soon as He began to think of fashioning man, He saw how he was going to fall, to speak as we must after the manner of men), they at once understand that it was an inestimable blessing that man was so made that he could fall. Otherwise the Son of God would never have put on human nature. Thus good always follows from the works of God, even though the beginnings may not be free from some marked crime.
Jacob lamented that his son Joseph had been torn to pieces by wild beasts, when his brothers had committed their capital offence against him. But what a glad ending came to the matter as a whole! The father believed he would be killed by his grief, but to him and to all his many descendants that event became a source of life which in the beginning had been so wicked. Nor is God acting unjustly and violently when He afflicts the father with grief and the son with disaster.
Who would accuse the husbandman when of the forest which he maintains he keeps part for timbers and beams and posts, with which to build a house, and uses part to feed a fire? Is not the use of both parts profitable and advantageous, nay, even necessary to the owner? Indeed, is not the part which is consumed in the fire more necessary than that which goes into the building? So the pitiable misfortunes of Jacob and Joseph, most righteous of men, do not convict God of cruelty and violence, partly because all things are His more completely than the wood is the husbandman’s, partly because all His works turn out happily, not at the time we desire, but at the seasonable time which He alone knows.
Herod perpetrated an atrocious deed when he slaughtered the young and wailing children [Matth. 2: 16], but two bless-
ings came therefrom for us,—first, that in Christ’s escaping the plot, we see that God was guarding and leading, and that it is vain to fight against God, and, secondly, that an illustration was left us that impotent anger, cruelty, and fear of losing the kingdom raged in vain. Would that the princes of this century would oftener take that to heart!
In short, two sparrows which are bought for a farthing Matth. 10: 29], are not separated so that one falls to the earth without God’s providence, and this we see applies to all the chance events, as we call them. Again, the hairs of our heads are numbered [Lk. 12: 7], and this applies to the smallest and humblest and most indifferent of all things. Nothing, therefore, however worthless in our judgment, is of too little value for God’s providence to have a care for it. Nothing can escape Him. As the householder who has his house filled with all kinds of goods and arms and furniture and instruments of the most varied assortment, yet knows where each thing is and in what condition, whether worn, bright or covered with rust, whether whole or broken, now brings out one thing to use and leaves another put away so that none can complain that it is used too much or too little nor ean find fault with the householder that he uses the thing already worn oftener than that which is going to pieces from disuse; so God, the householder of the whole universe, must know all the things that are in His house and cannot neglect to look after them. He knows how one is dull through idleness and, as Cato says, perishes from lack of use. He knows how another is worn out with constant labors and calamities and yet uses him more and more. He employs one constantly for His glory and His work, then puts him aside, and takes into His hand another, yet cannot be accused meanwhile of any injustice or lack of knowledge. Milo is banished,t Cato suffers defeat, David is prevented from entering his kingdom, Caleb, easily the bravest of all the Hebrews, is the last to meet his fate. Thus it pleases Providence to use until they are used up and consumed; while, meantime, Clodius and Piso, Manasseh and Absalom decline through pleasure and riotous living, and are ruined with the rust of idleness. Peter’s
[ἐγχειρίζεται, This is Titus Annius Milo, banished from Rome in 52 B. C., in spite]
[of Cicero’s defense.]
mother-in-law and Timothy, both constant in the work of the Lord, fall ill with fever; Herod and Nero, both unclean with all lewdness, revel in health. Thus is Providence that disposes all things free to use the one constantly for the general good. setting up a pattern of living virtue and showing what a great thing virtue is and how it is acquired, or to show others as a sink and sewer of vices into which they all discharge their foul filth.
A man complains that he has been confined to his bed many months and learns shortly after how much good it brought to him or how much harm he has escaped. A house is burned but a better one is raised in its place, and he to whom this dis aster happened is humbled by it. Girls dance, some to learn to move their limbs with proper grace, others to advertise by unseemly gesture to an admirer that their chastity is for sale. Cato becomes drunk for a month, to relieve the burden of his cares and thoughts. Anthony prolongs last night’s intoxication, to plunge into lust and riot and destroy himself. Caesar seizes a monarchy, Brutus destroys one, the first sending headlong to ruin the Roman power already tottering to its fall, the other to tear out the tyranny of a Tarquin and make room for justice in a future democracy. So God uses for good all deeds both good and ill, though with the distinction that He turns to good for the elect even the evil they do, and the contrary for the rejected, while we meanwhile complain through impatience or ignorance. Thus all things happen, because all things are done by His dispensation and command.
Epilogue
Now that, having been borne over a vast sea of wonderful things, which we have just touched with the tips of our oars, because our fear made us fly rather than sail, we see at length some harbor, it is time to haul in the sails. 1 will, therefore, gather up the gist of all the above into a brief epilogue in the form of aphorisms as it were. And I will do it in such a way that one proposition will seem to follow necessarily from the other.
[Paul speaks of Timothy’s infirmities, I. Tim. 5: 23, but there is no]
[reference to fever.]
If the Deity exists (and He must exist, for there is one first principle of all things, and this we call God), Providence also must exist.
Now this Deity or First Principle must be intelligent, good, and powerful. For unless He were intelligent, how could He create intellects or produce works in certain shapes? If He were not good, how could He exist by virtue of His own excellence? The cause of destruction and decay is to have had in one’s constitution something unsound and defective.
And He must exist of Himself. For if He depended upon something else, that something else would be the supreme. I am speaking of the supreme above which nothing exists or can be imagined. If He were not powerful, He would not be the supreme good nor intelligent. For intelligence is power and moral excellence, and the good is nothing but the moral excellence, and moral excellence is nothing but right working. In general, unless that supreme thing which is God were supreme moral excellence and power, it would not be God.
That intelligence must be supreme just as much as the power. Intelligence is not supreme unless it knoweth all things. So also power is not supreme unless it means the ability to do all things, as far as lawful ability is concerned. The ability to do 11] or to supplant one’s self or to turn like a foe upon one’s self or to be inconsistent with one’s self is weakness, not power.
Since, therefore, He knows all things, He has the ideas of all things within Him, and since He can do all things, power over all things is at His command. Since, at the same time, He who knows all things and can do all things is as truly and simply good as He is intelligent and powerful, we have Providence at once before us. For He who knows all things and can do all things would not be good, unless He cared for all things in accordance with His wisdom and power.
And as He cares for all things, it must be that all things are of Him and in Him. Indeed it follows from His goodness and power that all things are of Him, through Him and in Him. For the things he cares for are certainly His. If they were another’s, there would be two deities at the head of the universe. But in admitting that Providence is at the head of all things, we ought not to understand this in so confused a manner as certain of the theologians do, who, while recognizing Prov-
dence with their lips, yet in speaking of man allow him some freedom, albeit very little, which little they insist upon having to some extent defined.
But we ought to recognize Providence as so broad of scope and so complete that, if there were anything which escaped Its notice or could evade It, the Deity would either not be supreme intelligence or not be supreme power. For in whatever quarter He failed to know anything, at that point there would be a lack of supreme and perfect wisdom, and at whatever point He could not do anything, therein there would be a lack of supremely effective excellence. If, on the other hand, He passed by anything knowingly and of His own will, or neglected anything from idleness and laziness when He had the power to do it, He would not be the supreme good. The latter must be so good that absolutely no good can be imagined which is not from it, in it and, in fact, itself. For as the Deity exists of Himself, so there is nothing else which is of itself and not of Him. To be of the universe is, therefore, to be of the Deity. Hence the opinion of those philosophers is no absurdity who said that all things are one, if we only understand them rightly, namely, in the sense that to be of all things is to be of the Deity, in that all things are endowed and maintained by Him. Hence nothing can be neglected by Him. For, since all things are of Him and in Him, there can be nothing of Him or in Him which is either unknown to or esteemed lightly by Him. His wisdom and goodness forbid it. From this we may infer that nothing so humble exists that it has not existence from Divine Providence, and nothing so humble can be thought of, nay dreamed of, that it 15 not thought of by Divine Providence. That we, however, disregard many things, are ignorant of many things, in short, despise many things, comes from the fact that we are not the Deity. To Him nothing is mean, because He cannot be influenced by loathing. To be subject to loathing, is to be miserable. The Deity cannot be miserable, and therefore cannot be influenced by loathing for anything.
And since Providence cares not only for things themselves and their end, but also for the series of things, namely, the course of action, life, performances, thoughts, and what leads to or attends their end (for unless He did so, He would again fall under suspicion of lack of knowledge or lack of good will),
it is clear that there is nothing, however worthless in our judgment, that is not thoroughly worthy in its kind and valuable in His sight.
How much more is that rarest of all works, man, not pitiable, as far as his kind is concerned! For, being endowed with intellect, he is raised in dignity above all the things that have sensation. For all except man are without the intellect which is chief among the prime endowments of the Deity. Since, therefore, man has it in common with the Deity, albeit as a loan, he is as much nobler than other creatures endowed with sensation, as the light is than darkness, the bird than the reptile, the soul than the body. Man so made that he can fall is, therefore, not the work of inattention or displeasure upon God’s part, and we must hold the same view of the angels. For, since these two alone share with the Deity that intellect which is the supremely divine endowment, and nothing is so weak and lowly that it is not thoroughly good and valuable in its kind, man must have been made by Divine Providence most perfect in his class. What we thoughtlessly put down as misfortune is, therefore, really a blessing. The ability to fall has been implanted by the Deity. Therefore it was for the sake of some marked good.
Now, since the fall brought disaster, the fall itself was evidently not a blessing, nor can the disaster which followed from it be called a blessing either. But when we consider that which dawned npon man in consequence of the fall, namely, the knowledge of righteousness, which could not be learned except by gazing upon the face of unrighteousness, and this God could not show in His own person, we see that the fall was imposed upon our race for our good, that we might learn by the fall and by erring what could not have been done by earnest striving and endeavor.
Hence we may infer that man’s nature was so constituted by the Deity that he should learn more clearly by his own fall what the true, the right, and the holy were. But if Divine Goodness had not provided a remedy for the fall of man at the time when It saw he was going to fall in this way, he would have been created with his endowment of intellect to no purpose. For what would have been the use of an intellect to him, if he was to perish like cattle or to be carried off to condign punishment?
But since man has been endowed with mind, it is clear that he was so endowed in order to have intercourse with the Supreme Mind. But all hope of such intercourse would have been cut off, if Providence had not provided a remedy for the fall. Nay, it would have been a random work for Providence to make man, unless He had determined to redeem him, at the time He saw he was going to fall. The counsels of God are everlasting. Therefore the plan of redemption is just as eternal as that of creation.
The election of God, therefore, stands secure and immovable, though he ordained to take the elect to Himself by means of His Son. For when righteousness was to be learned through its opposite, unrighteousness, and unrighteousness had not yet been born, though righteousness existed from everlasting, it could have been forced out prematurely through transgression of the law, and when it came forth, it had no real vital force. Whatever was born of it, therefore, must have the same condition, so that in the innermost heart of Providence the redemption must have been conceived as early as the creation of man.
If now election and redemption are co-eternal, election remains sure, even though the elect fall into such monstrous sins as characterize the godless and rejected. Only to the elect they are an incentive to regeneration, to the rejected a reason for despair. David, Paul, Mary Magdalene, the thief, and others are witnesses. Therefore, for the same reason, the course of our lives is foreseen and arranged from eternity, so that Esau, though mortal, yet under the guardianship of Providence, could not die until by his heinous crimes he had given proof of his rejection, and Abel could not possibly have been saved, since Providence had ordained to transport him hence as a spotless victim, sacrificed by the murderous hand of his brother.
Therefore, all the fortunes of life are to be borne with equanimity, but we must not explain Providence so as to say, “I will, therefore, indulge my inclinations. If I am elect, 1 shall attain felicity however I live.” Men who speak thus give evidence either that they are not elect or that they have not yet acquired faith and the knowledge of God. For those who have the knowledge of God know that life must be ordered according to God’s will, and those who have faith know that they are elect. And the elect, knowing this, cannot help seeing that they must
refrain from whatever the law forbids. All things, therefore, work together for good to the elect, all things that have to do with them are done by Divine Providence, and there is nothing trivial enough to be trivial in God’s dispensation and activity. Though the Catabaptists, who pretend to be so directed by the Spirit that if they stand still suddenly or go forward suddenly, they put it down to the Spirit, are not wrong (for we do not live, much less move, without the action of the Deity), yet however much things of this kind are done by God’s impulse, they are, nevertheless, done to publish the rejection, hypocrisy, and folly of these people.
In a word, the proper recognition of God’s providence is to the pious and God-fearing the greatest and most helpful antidote against the evils of both prosperity and adversity. For if riches, beauty, good health, children, honors and office fall to our lot, and we recognize them as given by the blessing of Providence, what a sense of rest and also of responsibility is called forth in our hearts! “The first, when we see that even the good things of the body are given by the Deity and may be enjoyed, the second in that we ean never guard enough against dispensing in a miserly manner what we have so generously received. From the one spring feelings of thankfulness, from the other watehfulness and the strietest integrity of life.
If, on the other hand, poverty, ugliness, illness, childlessness, lack of appreciation and defeats fall to our lot, and we attribute them to Providence, what comfort it brings us amid such hard lines! With what high spirit, think you, such a man rises above the world and seorns what is below him! Having said to himself, “These things are given me by Divine Providence. The cup must be drained, therefore, and the battle won by endurance with undaunted soul. You are God’s tool. He wills to wear you out by use, not by idleness. Oh, happy man, whom He calls to His work!”, he is ready to lay down his life, seeing that the whole world can promise nothing but varied misfortunes and hardships. Would not our friend gladly and willingly suffer the whole world, if he possessed it, to be taken from him again? Who would not give up a farm whence there was no return but profitless toil? “To this point the religion of Providence leads. For when we see the things we are in the habit of calling goods of fortune, so variable and uncertain that
they cannot remain in any fixed place, we shall, unless unbalanced in mind, bend all our efforts to standing firm ourselves and not tossing about with them, just as a ship seeks shelter from the blast behind some headland, gets ready and casts anchor there. Hence, what can strengthen us against the buffetings of these misfortunes but the contemplation of Providence? It suggests to the stoutest heart the thought, “Believe not that these things happen by accident. They are done at my command. They had to be. They could not be otherwise. If you bear them bravely, you will win a splendid triumph, not in the eyes of those who applaud even the most wicked, if he only achieves some bloody deed, but in the assembly of the blest, where of all the righteous, and brave, and wise, and learned, and pious, that have been since the foundation of the world, not one fails, where recklessness cannot sell itself for bravery, hypocrisy for religion, chatter for learning, empty oratory for wisdom. For there assemble only those who have sought the real gold of virtue, not dross. There presides a master of the contest whom none can deceive, and who himself cheats and deceives none. But if from idleness or despair you shun toil, none will be more disgraced than you. For the leader whom you betray cannot be deceived. He knoweth the secret recesses of the human heart. Your guilt cannot be denied or put upon some one else. For He sees written upon our foreheads, whatever we have done, and knows all the types of all things, so that no change or falsification in the superscription of the laws is possible. No hiding place can conceal the murder done by Cain and Romulus, the erime of David or Aegisthus. Hence, though before men you can give your sin another name, you cannot before God.”
Balaam’s example can give the strongest support to the wavering against this instability, through which our souls fail to put sufficient trust in the knowledge of Providence. Balak had summoned him to curse the people of Israel, and made him no mean promises. But God forbad him to undertake or utter anything against this people [Nu. 22: 12]. See what conflieting emotions rend his soul! God says that his prophecy and curse shall have no force, and he believes God without question. On the other side are pressing upon him the king, heaping up promises, and greed like a dropsy forever thirsty and forever
drinking, and they pull the man in different directions, so that however vigorously he declares he will not go, yet his greed urges him just as vigorously. At length God allowed him to set out, but on this condition, “Thou shalt contrive nothing against Israel.” When they came to the real scene of action, what efforts are made both by the king and the prophet! They gaze now upon part, now upon the whole, of the Israelite army in vain attempts to bewitch it. But whatever is devised by the one in his fear of losing his kingdom or by the other in his fear of losing his reward, the cursing comes out according to the command and providence of God, not the desires of man.
Thus, I say, we struggle and waver in the matter of Providence. When It presents Itself before our eyes so plainly that we are forced even against our will to see It, regard It, and execute Its commands, we yet bid ourselves to hope for results according to our own desires. This recklessness sometimes goes so far that it promises us the treasures of the Indies even in spite of the Deity. But however we clamor and whatever we devise, the plans of God remain unchanged. Tyrants scheme, and restless peasants, far less skillful and happy in plotting than they, also scheme, the one to strangle the sprouting germ of the Gospel, that the boundless extortions with which they keep up every lewdness and luxury may not be brought to light, nor the distinction between right and wrong be seen, lest the wiles of their crooked lives and words be discovered, and they be no longer able to cover up their violence with the name of righteousness, if ever the people understand what force and right are, the others to see how under pretense of championing the Gospel they can aim at unrestrained wantonness rather than at the liberty of a free man. Does not greed urge them on as much as it did Balak and Balaam? But what purpose will finally succeed? Certainly not Balak’s, however much he rages and fears for his kingdom, for the camp of Israel will be safe under the protection of the Lord; nor the purpose of Balaam boiling with greed, for the Gospel of Christ seeketh not wantonness nor wrong. But the purpose of the Lord will be victorious, in accordance with which He has determined to cleanse His Church of the worst rubbish, not to introduce it therein.
But, “why,” you say, “did the Lord allow Balaam to set out, when He was going to bring his journey to naught?” That
we poor fools might see that plans are vain when formed at the instigation of greed. For though they advance for a time towards success, they yet fail in the end. And also that we might see that this enmity between the flesh and the spirit can never be composed nor any agreement be reached that shall prevent either from working against the other according to its obstinate rebelliousness or its steadfast perseverance respectively. The angel blocks Balaam’s way, the ass balks, and dashes her rider’s foot against a wall. Why are these things done in this way by Providence, especially when he might have destroyed the rebellious prophet with one word? We might just as well ask why He made man to suffer so many hardships. Nay, why does He not take him to the realms above, as soon as he is born? But why do I say as soon as he is born? Why does He suffer him to be born, especially since there is hardly any distress equal to that of the birth of man?
Trees are things of beauty, but since they do not move, they are not of so high a class as the things that move. So the world was not made for no one to use it. And to whom has the use of it been assigned? To man. If he, as I showed early in my remarks, had never come into the world, would not that great work be in vain? Who would turn all these things upside down with building and tearing down, plowing and sowing? Man’s course and constitution, then, have been so ordained by Providence that he tarries a while in this world like the fruit on the trees, and as that, when ripe, is gathered and stored away, so he, after the vicissitudes of this world, is stored in the heavenly granary. Meantime the flesh rebels. This must, therefore, be restrained, now by blows, now by gifts and rewards. By the one is offered to it the taste of future blessings, by the other that of future woes. Hence the terror or the comfort that visions bring. At one time, angels bring their comfort, that man may see how he is regarded by the Deity. Then again, the doings of evil spirits and goblins display their terrors, that man may not be indifferent to the warnings of the Deity and go over to the side of the perverted spirits.
In general, if we do not assign the will of the Deity as the reason why everything has been made, we say either that it was enough for God to delight in Himself without any created things, since they are of no use to Him, or that there is no Deity.
For that anything should owe its origin to any one in a sort of random way only argues imperfection in him, and if the Deity is imperfect, He is no Deity. Both of these notions are equally wicked and foolish. For this also 15 altogether incontrovertible, either Providence cares for all things and is nowhere idle or listless, or there is no Providence at all. And if there is no Providence, there is no Deity. And how wicked and foreign to man that is, everybody can see. For to what end would he in that case have been endowed with a soul? To what end understand and know the true, the right, and the holy? If we lived and died like cattle, we should not be endowed with intelligence nor with aspirations towards the right and just. But since we are such, there is an object for which we are such. That, therefore, must be something beyond all the things in this world. Nay, unless the supreme good is supreme intelligence and supreme moral excellence, it will not satisfy the human mind. It is clear, therefore, that by ascending in this way from our intelligence we arrive at the Deity, and when we have reached Him we have searched out Providence also. I pray that He may show Himself more and more to them that worship Him and are eager to see Him, and after the exile of this world vouchsafe to them the blessing of companionship with Him. Amen.
Therefore, to conclude at last, do you, Most Christian Prince, and ye other brethren who serve under the banner of Christ, turn often to the contemplation of Providence. There you will find rest and deliverance from all storms and blasts. It may be that all that 1 have said may seem to have been said hurriedly, and, as it were, cursorily, and that I have made larger use of argument than of the testimony of Scripture, though this is not lacking on occasion and is, indeed, the foundation for the whole argumentation which can in no wise be shaken.
I hope, however, that I have offered to beginners and the inexperienced something to help them to a clearer appreciation of the subject. I was forced to write and to read over my words in sections. Hence it is that on reading them over I find numerous repetitions, which yet I have not wished to expunge. For experienced men know what happens to those who are every moment distracted by the call of new duties, so that 1 doubt not you will take it all in good part. Do you, excellent
Prince, continue to live up to your reputation, and may Divine Providence preserve you safe and sound to His Church. I frankly recognize that you demanded this service of me, that either some elucidation or my folly might come to light. ZURICH, August 20, 1530.
← 26. V. Reproduction from Memory of a Sermon · Contents · 28. VI. A Short and Clear Exposition of the →