Providence is the care of God over created being; divine
superintendence. (Johnson)
Providence is the care and superintendence which God
exercises over his creatures. (Webster)
Providence is the divine superintendence over all created
beings; the care of God over his creatures. (Worcester)
The doctrine of divine Providence is that all things
are sustained, directed, and controlled by God. (Leonard Woods)
By the law of providence, I mean God's sovereign disposal
of all the concerns of men in this world—in the variety, order, and manner,
which he pleases—according to the rule and infinite reason of his own
goodness, wisdom, righteousness, and truth. (John Owen)
The word providence is taken from the Latin, and by its
etymology means foresight, not merely in the sense of seeing before—but in
the sense of taking care for the future, or rather an ordering of things and
events after a pre-determined and intelligent plan. It supposes wisdom
to devise, and power to execute. (Bethune)
Providence is the superintendence and care which God
exercises over creation. (Buck)
Providence is the care which God takes of all things, to
uphold them in being and to direct them to the ends which he has determined
to accomplish by them, so that nothing takes place in which he is not
concerned in a manner worthy of his infinite perfections, and which is not
in unison with the counsels of his will. (Dick)
God's conserving all things means his actual operation
and government in preserving and continuing the being, powers, dispositions,
and motions of all things. (Clarke)
The providence of God is his almighty and everywhere
present power, whereby as it were by hand, he upholds and governs heaven,
earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought,
fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and
poverty, yes, and all things come, not by chance—but by his fatherly hand.
(Heidelberg Catechism)
God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and
powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.
(Westminster Assembly)
According to preceding views and to the Scriptures, God's
providence consists—
1. In his preserving all that he has made. He upholds all
things by the word of his power. Heb. 1:3. "All eyes look to You, and You
give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire
of every living thing." Psalm 145:15, 16. This dependence of creatures is
universal and perpetual. Could one link in the chain thereof be broken, the
least evil that would follow would be annihilation.
2. In governing all that he has made. First, he restrains
the creature. By the law of gravitation he keeps solid worlds in their
places. By the power of his hand he withholds free agents from both natural
and moral evil. Secondly, he guides his creatures. It is his voice that
rolls the stars along, and marshals all the stars of heaven, and works
wonders among the inhabitants of the earth. Without him atoms and planets,
angels and devils, saints and sinners can do nothing.
"Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases!"
Psalm 115:3
"For I know that the Lord is great; our Lord is greater
than all gods. The Lord does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth, in
the seas and all the depths!" Psalm 135:5-6
"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!"
Revelation 19:6