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DISCOURSE IV.

ON THE HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE.

TO CHRISTIANS.

ITS USE AND VALUE

GENESIS XXXix. 2, 3.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

HERE is one of the characteristics of the sacred records. They ascribe nothing to chance, fortune, fate, destiny. They make no use of those terms, half unmeaning, half irreligious, by which men would fain gloss over their ignorance of the secret causes of events, or their want of belief in the good providence of God".

The word "chance," indeed, occurs in the English Bible, 1 Sam. vi. 9. 2 Sam. i. 6. but as the expression of the Philistine and the Amalekite, not of the sacred historian. So Luke

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Not that we are taught by the Scriptures to

Every page of holy As there are events

doubt the free-agency of man. writ implies the very reverse. ordered and brought to pass by the Almighty, so are there others merely permitted by Him, and of which mankind, or other created beings, are the authors. These and all events, nevertheless, of every kind, whether they happen by the appointment of God, or only by His permission, are every one of them under the inspection and superintendence and control of His all-seeing providence. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being.' "His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of

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But this great fundamental truth, which prophets and apostles inculcate as a doctrine, is constantly asserted or implied by the sacred historians as a matter of fact. And this is one of their characteristics. It is their peculiar province to record the operations of Divine Providence as such. That is

x. 31. “by chance,” xarà σvyzvęíav, which Chrysostom even explains (as opposed to κατὰ συντυχίαν) ὅταν τις κατὰ πρόνοιαν Θεοῦ Toy but which no one can interpret as a denial of Providence. (See Schleusner in voc. σvyxvgia.) So we find “ time and chance," Eccles. ix. 11. (yaD an occurrence"); but the passage actually inculcates the doctrine of Providence.

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b Acts xvii. 28. Psalm xi. 4. xxxiii. 13. xxxiv. 15, 16. lxvi. 7.

to say, they are not only entrusted in an especial manner with the history of the extraordinary interpositions of Providence, but to assert of any event, ordinary or extraordinary, that it occurred by the immediate appointment of the Almighty, is the prerogative of inspiration alone. Any credible witness might have recorded the fact that Joseph "was a prosperous man;" but no other than an inspired historian was, strictly speaking, competent to declare that "the Lord was with him," and that "the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand."

Let us consider therefore the use and value to us of the sacred records in this their peculiar character, as the authorized expositors of DIVINE PROVIDENCE; confining our attention, however, to the Historical Books of the Old Testament.

But the administration of Providence has not always been the same. It is governed by different principles, in some respects under the Gospel, and under earlier dispensations. That we may not mistake, accordingly, the right application and real value of the inspired histories, we must first call to mind the state of the fact as to the system of Providence which they describe; and, secondly, endeavour to ascertain the amount of difference between the ancient system, and that under which we ourselves are placed.

I. The general state of the facts, then, recorded in the Old Testament, demands our attention in the first instance; but so far, and so far only, as they illustrate the administration of Providence at the time. For we are seeking the use not of the facts themselves, but of the record. It may be, for example, that every incident in the eventful life of Joseph, from the dreams which excited the envy of his brethren down to their miraculous accomplishment, was of use, as an event, to us. For our benefit he prospered in Egypt, and his master saw his prosperity, and perceived that it was from the Lord for hence his wonderful exaltation, and the consequent establishment of his family in the land of Goshen, there to be nurtured and trained a separate people, until they should be ripe for their redemption, and be prepared to occupy Canaan, to receive and preserve the oracles of God, and, in fine, to receive and to propagate the Gospel itself.

The most minute event, accordingly, in the history of any of the patriarchs may have been of use even to us, as a link in that great chain of causes, which connects the fall of man with our redemption. But this would be the use of the facts themselves; and they might thus have produced the several events of which they were the successive causes, whether they had or had not been recorded. Our immediate concern, on the other hand, is with

the use of the record. But it is essential to observe the general character of the facts related, lest, in applying past events to present uses, we fail to discriminate between the systems of Providence under the Christian, and under preceding dispensations.

And the great leading circumstance which distinguishes all the history under review is this; that throughout the whole of it the favour or the displeasure of the Almighty towards mankind was marked by outward temporal prosperity or adversity. For, taking the history as a whole, we may regard it. as describing the providence of God, on the one hand, over those who were gradually departing further and further from religious truth; on the other, over those whom He was gradually training for the ultimate reception of all truth. In the former case, in the records of the Patriarchal Churches and the Gentiles, we observe the light of true religion continually declining, and growing more and more feeble, till it was well nigh extinguished in utter darkness in the latter, a new flame and a new spirit lit up among the chosen people of God, and by degrees cherished, strengthened, expanded, until it shone with all the brightness of the perfect day. But in either case it was necessary, whether for the purpose of retarding the utter extinction of the light of truth, or of nursing the growing flame into life and usefulness-in either

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