Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. II. fke general Notion of Providence ; and particularly concerning a Preferving Providence, HAVING proved as largely as my prefent Defign required, That the fame God, who made the World, is the fupreme Lord and Governor of it, I proceed to confider the Nature of Pro-1 vidence. The general Notion of Providence, is, God's Care of all the Creatures he has made, which muft confift in preferving and upholding their Beings and Natures, and in fuch Acts of Government, as the good Order of the World, and the Happinefs of Mankind require; which divides Providence into Prefervation and Government; which muft be carefully diftinguifhed, in order to anfwer fome great Difficulties in Providence. I begin with Preferring Providence, which commences from the firft Inftant of the Creation ; for as foon as Creatures are made, they need a Divine Power to preferve them. For this is the ftrict Notion of Prefervation, as diftinguifh'd from a Governing Providence, That God upholds all Things in Being from falling back into their firft Nothing, and pre- ferves their natural Virtues, Powers and Faculties, and enables them to act, and to attain the Ends of their feveral Natures ; which diftinguifhes this Preferving Providence, from thofe many Acts of Prefervation which belong to Government; fuch as preferving the Lives of Men from unfeen Accidents, and vifible Dangers ; nay, of Beafts and of Birds too, as our Saviour affures us, That not a Mat. x. 29. Sparrow falls to the Ground without our Father. 'In which Senfe the Pfalmifl tells us, That God preferves both Man Pfal. xxxvi. 6. and Bsafis, fupplies them with Food, and all other Things neceflary to Life, and preferves their Lives from Violence or Accident as long as he fees fit. This Prefervation, as dift...