, which has great influence in the human affairs, and
ought therefore to be worshiped. But take away this influence in the
human affairs, and you cut off all motive to worship. To the same
purpose is the text in Hebrews: "He that cometh to God must believe that
He is, and He is a rewarder of such as diligently seek Him." If then the
religious sentiments thrill us not in vain--if all attempts of all men
to commune with God have not always and everywhere been idle--there must
be a Providence.

In the eighth place, we may advert for a moment to the proof of
Providence from the common consent of mankind, with the single exception
of atheists. The Epicureans may be classed with atheists, as they are
generally thought to have been atheists in discourse, and a God after
their imaginations would be, to all intents and purposes, no God. The
Stoics were also atheists, believing only in a blind fate arising from a
perpetual concatenation of causes contained in nature. The passages
acknowledging a Providence in Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and all the
ancient moralists, are numerous and decisive, but too accessible or
well-known to need being quoted.

In the last place, the doctrine of Providence is abundantly proved by
the Scriptures. Some times it is declared that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will; as much as to
say that nothing can withstand His power. Again, lest we may think some
things beneath His notice, we read that He numbereth the hairs of our
heads, careth for lilies, and disposeth all the lots which are cast. The
care of God for man is generally argued, a fortiori, from His care for
inferior creatures. One Psalm (xci) is devoted to show the providential
security of the Godly: another (xciii) shows the frailty of man; and a
third (civ) the dependence of all orders in creation on God's Providence
for food and breath. In Him, it is elsewhere added, we live, and move,
and have our being. He, in the person of Christ, sustaineth all things
by the Word of His power, and from Him cometh down every good and
perfect gift. But nowhere perhaps is a Providence so pointedly asserted
and so sublimely set forth as in some of the last chapters of Job; and
nowhere so variously, winningly, and admirably exhibited as in the
history of Joseph.

And nowhere could be found more brilliantly illuminating its substance
than in our own hearts and lives. The fool hath said in his heart, there
is no God