The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 1, Part 2 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Of the Necessity of acknowledging the divine Providence to oblige us to be truly Religious.
THE main Influence which the Belief of a God hath upon the Minds of Men, proceeds immediately from the Belief of his Providence, without which we are no way concerned or Interested in him. For a God without a Providence is a solitary kind of Being that lives alone from the World, altogether retired within himself, and never looks abroad or any ways intermeddles with any thing without; and what have we to do with a Being that hath nothing to do with us or our Affairs, but lives apart from us in some unaccessible Retirement, where neither we can go to him nor he come to us? So that it is by his Providence that all Correspondence and Intercourse between God and his Creatures is maintained; which being taken away, he is as nothing to us, and we are as nothing to him. For what doth it signifie to us that there is a certain excellent Being, called God, sitting on the Top of the Heavens with his Arms folded in his Bosom, and who doth nothing there but enjoy himself in a quiet Contemplation of his own Perfections, without regarding any thing without him, or doing either good or hurt to the World? Such a God is nothing but a great Cypher in the World, that only makes a glorious Flourish, but is as insignificant as no God at all. For to what purpose should we pray to a God that is not at leisure to hear us, or hope in a God that is not concerned to help us? What should move us to love a God that bestows no Good, or to fear a God that inflicts no Evil, or to obey a God that hath no Regard of our Actions? Why should we thank him if we receive nothing from him? For what should we praise him if he be no ways beneficial to the World? And wherein should we imitate him if he sits still and does nothing, and exercises neither Wisdom, nor Goodness, nor Justice, nor Mercy towards any thing without him? All which Perfections of the Deity without a Providence are utterly void and useless. For his Providence is the great Sphere of Activity wherein he exercises and displays his Perfections, wherein his Power executes the Contrivances of his Wisdom, and his Wisdom contrives the Methods of his Goodness; so that without his Providence all his Perfections will signifie nothing. For what doth that Wisdom signifie that contrives nothing? Or that Power which doth nothing? Or that Goodness that is good for nothing? Or that Justice which distributes nothing? And yet just such Cyphers are all the Perfections of God suppose there is no Providence wherein to employ and exercise them. And if once we vacate and extinguish these Perfections of God which are the Graces which render him so Sublime and Adorable, what Reason can move us to adore and Worship him? For why should we concern our selves with a God who concerns himself with no Body, and that either hath neither Power, nor Wisdom, nor Goodness, or which to us is the same, makes no use of them? So that the denial of Gods Providence, you see, directly cuts in sunder all the Ties of Religion, by rendering him an insignificant Being to the World.
IN the Prosecution of this Argument I shall shew, First, What of the divine Providence it is that is necessary to be believed in order to our being truly Religious. Secondly, What Evidence there is to create in us this Belief. Thirdly, The Insufficiency and Vnreasonableness of the common Pretences to Infidelity in this matter.