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50 Providence
PROVIDENCE The superintendence and care which God exercises over creation. The arguments for the providence of God are generally drawn from the light of nature; the being of a God; the creation of the world; the wonderfully disposing and controlling the affairs and actions of men; from the absolute necessity of it; from the various blessings enjoyed by his creatures; the awful judgments that have been inflicted; and from the astonishing preservation of the Bible and the church through every age, notwithstanding the attempts of earth and hell against them. Providence has been divided into immediate and mediate, ordinary and extraordinary, common and special, universal and particular. Immediate providence is what is exercised by God himself, without the use of any instrument or second cause;…
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49 Government Of God
GOVERNMENT OF GOD Is the disposal of his creatures, and all events relative to them, according to his infinite justice, power, and wisdom. His moral government is his rendering to every man according to his actions, considered as good or evil.
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48 Dominion Of God
DOMINION OF GOD Is his absolute right to, and authority over, all his creatures, to do with them as he pleases. It is distinguished from his power thus: his dominion is a right of making what he pleases, and possessing what he makes, and of his disposing what he doth possess; whereas his power is an ability to make what he hath a right to create, to hold what he doth possess, and to execute what he hath purposed or resolved.
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42 Decrees Of God
DECREES OF GOD Are his settled purposes, whereby he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, Dan. 4:24. Acts 15:18. Eph. 1:11. This doctrine is the subject of one of the most perplexing controversies that has occurred among mankind; it is not, however, as some think, a novel doctrine. The opinion, that whatever occurs in the world at large, or in the lot of private individuals, is the result of a previous and unalterable arrangement by that Supreme Power which presides over Nature, has always been held by many of the vulgar, and has been believed by speculative men. The ancient stoics, Zeno and Chrysippus, whom the Jewish Essenes seem to have followed, asserted the existence of a Deity, that, acting wisely but necessarily, contrived the general…
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He Hath Done All Things Well
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November 12—Morning Devotion
"And they shall come which were ready to perish."—Isaiah 27:13 What a blessed promise is this to a poor sinner, that is conscious of his being in perishing circumstances? My soul, pause over it this morning. Art thou not, if considered out of Christ, in perishing circumstances, by reason of the captivity of sin? Art thou not perishing under the sentence of God's broken law; under the just judgment of God, the alarms of thine own guilty conscience, the accusations of Satan, the fear of death, and the prospect of judgment and eternity? And doth this sweet scripture hold forth a provision for such perishing circumstances? Doth it really say that such shall come; nay, that they shall come, whatever obstructions, either from within or…
