Welcome to tape number two of A Defense of the Secret Providence of God by John Calvin, as read by Michael Wyatt. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs and much more at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. If you do have a web connection and would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to addd.com with the word add in the subject line. And now to our reading of A Defense of the Secret Providence of God by John Calvin, which we pray you find to be a great blessing and which we hope draws you near to the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. We must here also carefully bear in mind that principle which I have before laid down, that when God displays His power through means, media, and secondary causes, that power of His is never to be separated from those means or inferior causes. It is the excess of a drunkard to say, God has decreed all that is to come to pass, and that must come to pass. Therefore to interpose any care or study or endeavor of ours is superfluous and vain. But since God prescribes to us what we ought to do, and wills that we should be the instruments of the operation of His power, let us ever deem it unlawful in us to sunder those things which He hath joined together. For instance, God in the beginning commanded the earth to bring forth every kind of herb and fruit without any human art or culture, but now he makes use of the hand of man as the instrument of his operation. If anyone should boastingly desire to receive bread by merely opening his indolent mouth, Because the blessing of God fructifies the earth, he would not only, by such a boast, trample underfoot the providence of God, but would do away with it altogether, for he would separate and rend asunder those things which God has joined together by an inseparable connection. Therefore, with reference to the time future, since the events of things are, as yet, hidden Everyone ought to be as intent upon the performance of his duty as if nothing whatever had been decreed concerning the issue in each particular case. Or, to speak more properly, every man ought so to hope for success in all things which he undertakes at the command of God as to be freely prepared to reconcile every contingency with the sure and certain providence of God. The Lord, moreover, promises His blessing upon the work of our hands, but this promise each godly man will acknowledge himself to be appointed of God, an instrument of His glorious providence. And such godly one, relying on this same promise, will gird himself with alacrity to his undertaking, and will be persuaded that he is not casting into the air labor in vain, but, resting on the word of God, he will believe that God, not by his secret counsel, will direct all his labor to the issue that shall be best. Any word, as the providence of God rightly considered, does not bind our hands, but free them for work. So it is not only does So it not only does not hinder prayer, but strengthens and confirms its earnestness. A like sobriety of mind ought to temper our judgments concerning the time past and in reference to things which may have already taken place. There is no exhortation more conducive to patience than our hearing that nothing happens by chance, but that whatever takes place is the fulfillment of that which has been decreed by the good pleasure of God. But meanwhile, it by no means follows that our own indolence or rashness or thoughtlessness or some other fault is not the immediate cause of any adversity under which we may be suffering. And though the causes of events are not always clearly seen or understood, yet godly minds will not, even under such ignorance, cease to render unto God the praise of His wisdom amid justice in every event that transpires. Where, however, the counsels, the wills, the purposes, and the attempts of men intervene, a greater difficulty of argument and judgment presents itself to our thoughts, especially when we desire to show how the providence of God reigns and rules in all such cases also, not only to prevent anything from being done otherwise than according to His will, but also that men may not agitate anything in their deliberations but what He inspires. God gives, indeed, daily and marvelous proofs of His providence, where He gives full reign to the foolish counsels of men, and, seeming not to notice their great preparation, frustrates by the issue all their hopes. The Scripture also reveals another field wherein God manifests His dominion in the mighty workings of His hand, when He makes the wicked mad, when He strikes them with a bewildered giddiness, or deprives them of their senses, or stuns them with stupefaction, and when also he takes away their spirit, strips them of their courage, and so fills them with fear that they are death-struck by the fall of a leaf. Pygius therefore wants common consideration when he would confine God within the narrow limits of his material creation, when he would make of God nothing more than a kind of wise manager or a skillful general who, well-versed in military tactics, foresees the plans of his enemies, and forms his counterplots as remedies according to circumstances. As if the scripture did not plainly represent God as He who taketh away the wise in their own craftiness, cutteth off the spirit of princes, and makes their knowledge foolishness. It is therefore the grossest ignorance in Pigaeus By the way, Albertus Pigius, P-I-G-H-I-U-S, when he denies that when a man is killed designedly by his fellow man, he dies by the will and decree of God. He entertains this idea, I suppose, imagining that where the will of man is engaged, the will of God is not concerned. What is to become, then, of all those testimonies of the Scripture which declare that the swords of men are wielded by the hand of God? Were the sons of Eli killed without the will of man? Yet the praise is given to God that it was He who righteously willed that they should be slain. 1 Samuel 4 10-12 But that God continually rules the hands of men, that he sometimes binds them fast and at other times turns them this way and that to execute his eternal decrees, no one will call in question who has the least acquaintance whatever with the scriptures. Nay, it is a fact universally admitted by common sense that whatsoever men undertake, the issue thereof is in the hand of God. But since even this knowledge in men is generally weak and unsettled through the dense darkness of the human mind, the scripture has erected for us a loftier place of observation, by standing on which we may look around us and behold God so ruling and overruling all the works of men as to bring them to the issue which himself hath decreed. The sum and substance, however, of the whole divine matter is this. Although men, like brute beasts confined by no chains, rush at random here and there, yet God by His secret vitals so holds and governs them that they cannot move even one of their fingers without accomplishing the work of God much more than their own. But the faithful who render unto Him their willing service, as do the angels, are to be considered in a peculiar manner the hands of God. I am now, however, speaking more immediately of those men whose purposes are anything but a desire to do the will of God, or to adopt any counsel consistent or in harmony with His counsel, or in accordance with His will. The wicked do indeed frequently glory in themselves any accomplishment of their wishes, but the event at length proves that they were only fulfilling all the while that which had been ordained of God, and that too against their own will, while they knew nothing about it. Moreover, God Himself very frequently makes use of the wicked to punish the sins of men, especially of His own people, and sometimes He drags them by the neck, as it were, to make them the instruments of His goodness to man-land saints. To reduce instances of the former marvelous dispensations of his providence would be a labor too great and too extensive for our present purpose. It would, however, be better perhaps just to touch with our finger a few examples. God had excited the Assyrian to make war on Judah, calls him the rod of his anger, and declares that he was armed with the staff of his indignation for his weapon, Isaiah 10.5. But the same adorable God afterward invades against his pride and rebukes him for not acknowledging himself to be an axe and a saw waged and forged by another's, that is, God's hand. In this same manner, those whom their own ambition or cruelty or avarice urges on to violent deeds are said to be sanctified of God to do his work and to be his hired soldiers to accomplish his purposes. The Lord himself, moreover, testifies that he calls such together by his hiss or by his trumpet to take up arms in his cause to perform his decrees. That the way of God's goodness is prepared by the evil deeds of men, one single portion of the writings of Moses will fully demonstrate. The conspiracy of the brethren of Joseph against him was more than wicked, perfidious, and cruel when they sold him to the Midianites. But Joseph himself transfers the cause of this selling him, though with a different motive, to God himself. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God." That's Genesis 45, verses 5 and 8. It is evident, therefore, that though they did wickedly, God nevertheless did his work by their means, that they might find life in death. They, as far as their own intent was concerned, had killed their brother, but out of that intent life, that is, provision for their natural life and that of their whole family, shone upon them. We may see the same working of God in Satan, the captain of all the wicked and the prince of all darkness and iniquities. God sends Satan to Ahab with his own divine command that he should be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the king's prophets. Thus the imposter spirit becomes the minister of the wrath of God to blind the wicked who would not be obedient to his truth. On the other hand, the apostle Paul calls the thorn in the flesh that was sent upon him, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him. Here the poison of Satan is made of God an antidote to cure the apostles' pride. Now what kind of a physician, I pray you, is Satan in himself, who has never learned anything but to kill and to destroy? But God, who once commanded the light to shine out of darkness, can marvelously bring, if he pleases, salvation out of hell itself, and thus turn darkness itself into light. But what work hath Satan? in a certain sense, the work of God. That is, God, by holding Satan fast bound in obedience to his providence, turns him whithersoever he will and thus applies the great enemy's devices and attempts to the accomplishment of his own eternal purposes. Now, if the scripture did not clearly express God's secondary or instrumental mode of operation, this knot would not, even then, be very difficult to untie. The other and more difficult question is whether it is God that works in the hearts of men, directs all their counsels and turns their wills this way or that, and prevents them from doing anything but that which he hath decreed they should do. We are not here inquiring whether or not God works all the godly and holy affections which are found in the hearts of his people, because that is, beyond all dispute, certain. whether he holds also in the hand of his power all the depraved and impious or impious affections of the wicked. It turns them hither and thither that they might desire to do that which he hath decreed to accomplish by their means. Most certainly, when Solomon declares that the heart of the king is in the hand of God, and that as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will, That's Proverbs 21.1. His intention is to show, generally, that not only the wills of kings, but all their external actions are overruled by the will and disposal of God. Moses saith that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened by the Lord himself. It is in vain here to flee the common refuge of God's permission, as if God could be said to have done that which He only permitted to be done. and Moses positively affirms that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was the work of God. Nor, indeed, is the cruelty of the heart of Pharaoh ascribed to the counsel of God in any other sense than when elsewhere he is said to have given unto his people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. For who does not see that savage and ferocious beasts were tamed and made gentle by the power of God, when such men as the Egyptians were turned on Hesedin to clemency. From what cause and to what end then can we say that Pharaoh evinced such inhuman cruelty but because it pleased the Lord partly that he might thereby prove the patience of his people and partly that he might show forth his own almighty power. In this same manner God is said to have turned the heart of their enemies to hate his people Psalm 105, 25. Nor does that passage at all alter the case where it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also. Exodus 8, 32. Because we do not make it appear that the minds of men are impelled by any outward influence to do violently, nor do we impute to God the cause of their being hardened, as if cruel and hard-hearted persons did not act spontaneously from their own malice, and become of themselves excited to obstinacy and presumption. What we maintain is that when men act perversely, they do so according to the testimony of Scripture, by the ordaining purpose of God. This is also set forth in another part of the Scripture where it is said that when the inhabitants of Gibeon set themselves in opposition to Israel, they did so according to the decree and purpose of God, who hardened their hearts, as it is said in Joshua 11.20. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly. The very manner in which God thus works is also set forth in the Scripture. For in one place it testifies that God, being angry with the people, moved the hearts of David to number the people. That's 2 Samuel 24 verse 1. But in another place it is said concerning this very same act of David that the instigator of this pride in David was Satan and that it was he who moved David to number the people. 1 Chronicles 21.1 From which we see that Satan was the rod of God's wrath and that God by such means of devils and of men impels the hearts of men whithersoever he will. This is still more expressly set forth in another part of the Word of God where it is said that an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. 1 Samuel 16.24 and 1 Samuel 16.23. Now Saul acted indeed from his own wickedness. He exercised the malice concealed within by a voluntary action. Nevertheless, it was Satan that urged Timon in that, not while God was a mere inactive observer, but while God willed it. Indeed, the evil spirit could not with propriety have been said to have been from the Lord's unless he had been the Lord's ordained minister to execute his vengeance and to be, as it were, his executioner. Nor is Satan merely the minister of God's wrath by his instigating men's minds to evil passions and acts. but by effectually dragging them and leading them captive at his will into wicked action. It is in this same momentous sense that Paul speaks when he testifies that effectual error and strong delusions are sent on men that they might believe a lie because they would not obey the truth. Hence you see that Satan is not only a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets at the express command of God, but also that his impostors so ensnare the reprobate that in being utterly deprived of their reason they are of necessity dragged headlong into error. In this same manner also must we understand the apostle when he says that those who were ungrateful to God were delivered over to a reprobate mind and given up to vile and foul affections, that they should work that which is unseemly and defile their own natural bodies. one among another, upon which scripture Augustine remarks that those reprobate characters were not given up to the corrupt affections of their hearts by mere permission of God as an unconcerned spectator, but by His righteous decree, because they had basely profaned His glory. In what manner this was done, that same passage of Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2.11, plainly declares, God sent upon them strong delusion. Whence that which I have just stated is perfectly plain, that the internal affections of men are not less ruled by the hand of God than their external actions are preceded by His eternal decree. And moreover, that God performs not by the hands of men the things which He has decreed, without first working in their hearts the very will which precedes the acts they are to perform. Wherefore the sentiments of Augustine on these momentous points are to be fully received and maintained. When God says he willeth that to be done which cannot be effected in the course of the things of this world without the wills of men, he at the same time inclines their hearts to will to do it, and also himself does it, not only by aiding their hearts to desire to do it, but also by decreeing it, that they cannot but do it. Whereas these same persons had in their own minds no such purpose as to do that which the hand and the counsel of God had aforedecreed to be done." Augustine, moreover, most widely proposes that to be considered concerning the very seeds and principles of nature upon the consideration of which so many are unwilling to enter, that that great diversity which is seen in the dispositions of men, and which is evidently implanted in them of God, affords a manifest evidence of that which his secret operation, by which he moves and rules the hearts of all mankind. From all that has been said, we cannot at once gather how vain and fluctuating is that flimsy defense of the divine justice which desires to make it appear that the evil things that are done are so done not by the will of God but by His permission only. As far indeed as those evil things which men perpetrate with an evil mind are in themselves evil, I willingly confess, as I will immediately more fully explain, that they by no means please God, but for men to represent as sitting unconcerned and merely permitting those things to be done which the Scripture plainly declares to be done, not only by his will but by his authority, is a mere way of escape from the truth, utterly frivolous and vain. Augustine did indeed sometimes give way to this popular method of speaking, but where he devotes himself more closely to the consideration of the matter, and examines it more thoroughly, he by no means suffers the permission to be substituted for the act of God. I will not cite verbatim all that the Holy Father says upon this subject in the fifth book of his discussion of it written against Julian. Let the production of one passage from it suffice on this occasion. He who knoweth his own just judgments doeth all these things by working in a marvelous and inexpressible manner, not only in the bodies, but in the hearts of men. He doth not make wills evil, but uses the wills of men already evil as he pleases. Nor can he of himself will anything that is evil." Just in this same manner, continues Augustine, does the scripture if diligently considered, show that not only the good wills of men, which God Himself hath made out of evil wills, but also the wills which He hath made good by His grace, are directed by Him to good actions and to the attainment of eternal life, and moreover that those wills of men which preserve the good order of things in the world from age to age, as kings and princes and rulers, etc., are so under the power of God that he inclines them, whithersoever he will, either to confer kindness on these or to inflict punishment on those according to his will and pleasure." The Holy Father then adds, "...who does not tremble before these stupendous judgments of God, by which he does whatsoever he will, even in the hearts of men, rendering unto them all the while according to their works." It is fully evident from the testimonies of Scripture that God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills whithersoever He pleases, whether it be to confer good according to His mercy, or to inflict evil according to their deserts, and all according to His purpose and decree which is sometimes manifest and sometimes hidden, but always just, for it ought ever to be deeply fixed in our hearts that there is no iniquity in God." But the reason why the decree of God is sometimes utterly hidden may be seen in the former part of his book, where, after he had frequently testified that the sins of men are often in themselves punishments which God justly inflicts upon them, on account of former sins which they had committed, he at length carries up his contemplation to that higher and still more hidden secret of God, namely, that God finds just materials in all men except those whom He has chosen by His grace for making them the executors of His wrath. As to all mortals besides saith Augustine, who are not of this number of God's elect, but are of the common mass of mankind, from which mass these were also chosen, they are made the vessels of God's wrath, and are born for the use and service of God's chosen. For God doth not create one of these vessels of his wrath at random or by chance, and he knows full well every particle of good which he works by their means. One part of which good is that he creates in them the excellency of human nature, and adorns by their means, as kings, princes, magistrates, etc., the order of things in the world. But why God sometimes paralyzes the hearts of men with fear and dread, and sometimes inspirits them with courage, why he takes away the spirit of princesses, and turns the counsels of the wise into foolishness, why he gifts some with the spirit of temperance and makes others drunk with the spirit of confusion and madness, for these his marvelous judgments he sometimes manifests a plain and conspicuous reason, while it is equally evident that his secret counsel so rules over all men that he turns the wills of whomsoever he pleases wheresoever he pleases." For human nature is common to all men, but not so divine grace as the same Holy Father in another part of his works also strikingly observes. Taking, then, an honest and sober review of the whole of this high and divine matter, the plain and indubitable conclusion will be that the will of God is the one principle and all-high cause of all things in heaven and earth. Our minds, therefore, ought ever to be bridled with the knowledge of this mighty fact, that they may not intemperately and unlawfully indulge in searching into the causes of things. That saying of Augustine, quote, The will of God is the necessity of all things, end quote, seems harsh when first read. as does also that which he immediately adds by way of explanation that quote God so ordained all secondary causes that by their means that might be affected for the sake of which they were ordained but not necessarily so affected end quote but that quote God ordained all primary and remote causes that by them that might of necessity be affected which he had purposed to be affected by their causation." When the whole argument, however, is attentively investigated, its asperity soon vanishes. For that which the Holy Father elsewhere says, though expressed in different terms, is precisely the same in sentiment, nor does his argument contain anything which ought to offend. God retains, saith he, hidden in himself the causes of some of his actions, which he has not intermingled with his created things. These causes he brings out to their effects not by that operation of his providence, by which he has appointed certain natures and their powers to be and to act, but by that operation by which he rules and directs as he will the creatures that he has made." Herein indeed lies the grace by which those are saved who are lost. For what can be more true than that God, in the government of His creatures, retains hidden in Himself something more than He has made visible in their nature? But of all the things that are done, the will of God is therefore rightly considered to be the first cause, because He so rules at His pleasure the natures of all things created by Him. that he directs all the counsels and actions of men to that end which he has himself preordained. By this doctrine, as I have before justly observed, a reign is put upon our minds and spirits which ought to hold us within the bounds of modesty. For it is absurd in the last degree not to yield ourselves to that will of God which is high above all other causes. unless we can see, as we think, a plain reason for our doing so. We should ever, indeed, bear in mind that which I have said before, that God doth nothing without the highest of reasons. But as the will of God is the surest rule of all righteousness, that will ought ever to be to us the principal reason, yea, if I may so speak, the reason of all reasons. For that humility of faith which is the offspring of reverence for the divine justice, is by no means a stupid thing, as many imagine. For who but the man that hath the persuasion deeply forced on his heart that God is just, and all his works righteous, will rest satisfied with his good pleasure alone? That sarbonic dogma, therefore, in the promulgation of which the papal theologians so much pride themselves, quote, that the power of God is absolute and tyrannical, end quote, I utterly abhor. For it would be easier to force away the light of the sun from his heat or his heat from his fire than to separate the power of God from his justice. Away then with all such monstrous speculations from godly minds as that God can possibly do more or otherwise that he has done, or that he can do anything without the highest order and reason. For I do not receive that other dogma, that God, as being free from all law himself, may do anything without being subject to any blame for so doing. For whosoever makes God without law robs him of the greatest part of his glory, because he spoils him of his rectitude and justice. Not that God is indeed subject to any law, excepting as far as He is a law to Himself, but there is that inseparable connection and harmony between the power of God and His justice that nothing can possibly be done by Him but what is moderate, legitimate, and according to the strictest rule of right. And most certainly, when the faithful speak of God as omnipotent, they acknowledge Him at the same time to be the judge of the world and always hold his power to be righteously tempered with equity and justice. We have not yet, however, met the great objection of our adversaries. If all things are done, say they, according to the will of God, and man can do or design nothing but as he wills or ordains, God must be the author of all evils. That distinction which formerly prevailed in the schools, and is now everywhere current, is perfectly true, provided it be rightly understood, that the evil of the punishment, but not the evil of the fault, proceeds from God. But some inexperienced worms, imagining that the matter in question can be settled in one short word, pass by insecurity the very point at issue, namely, how God can be free from blame in that very deed which he himself condemns in Satan and in the reprobate in which he declares that men condemn in their fellow men." For both evils are often seen in the same work, not in different works, namely that the praise of the punishment must, of necessity, be ascribed to God and the fault of the act to men. For instance, robbers carry off the cattle of the holy Job, The deed is cruel and disgraceful. Satan by this means drives the patriarch to desperation, a machination still more detestable, but Job declares another to be the author of it all. The Lord gave, saith he, and the Lord hath taken away. Nor is Job wrong in attributing that to God, which, in another sense, could be imputed to the robbers only. For the patriarch, as if beholding with uplifted eyes the things that are decreed on the throne of God in heaven, confesses that the Lord took away by the hands of the robbers those things which they could not have touched but by his authority and command. All this Job explains in the word which follows, The Lord hath done whatsoever pleased him. We hear that in this instance the work of Satan was in common with that of God. We hear that nothing was done but by God's good pleasure. It may here be said, quote, how shall God be exempted from that fault of which Satan and his instruments are guilty? End quote. Why, if a distinction be made between the works of men derived from a consideration of their purpose and end in each particular case, and if the cruelty of that man is condemned who pierces the eyes of a crow or kills a crane, While the virtue of the judge is praised who cleanses his hands by the execution of the wicked person, shall the condition of God himself be worse than that of man? Shall not his justice keep him separate from the wicked actions of human or satanic offenders? But let us adopt a similitude somewhat more close and applicable. That prince will ever be praised among men who shall by a just and legitimate war, repel from his dominion violence, rapine, and plunder. For this end he will hasten to arm thousands of soldiers who will rush forward with cupidity to shed blood, to despoil the poor and helpless of their property, and to commit every act of licentiousness and violence, for which deeds of wickedness they certainly will not deserve praise. Two armies, in another part of the world, enter into the mighty battle. If you behold a prosperous issue of the skill of the general, under whose conduct and command the battle is fought, you absolve him from all blame, though he be but a mortal man, while you nevertheless condemn the soldiers who lend out their hands to murder their fellow men for nefarious hire. Will you then rob God of the glory of his justice, because he sometimes doth his work by means of Satan? Yet so it is. And as the mist which the earth exhales sometimes obscure the brightness of the sun, and intercept its view from the sight of men, while the sun still really remains the same in all its brightness, So the vanity of men creates many vaporous impediments, as it were, which obstruct their sight of the equity of God, while that equity remains nevertheless as pure and perfect as ever. Yet these ignorant reasoners would involve God and the wicked in the same guilt, where the act of God, working by the wicked, is in such sense common to him and them. But not so did David. When Shemi assaulted him with reproaches and stones, did he not stop at the man, but looked at the command of God? Let him curse, saith he, for God hath bidden him. 2 Samuel 16.6 And yet he does not rise up against God, but with all humility offers his back to the stripes, and says, Who shall then say, Wherefore hath thou done so? 10 As he speaks also in the Psalms, I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. Psalm 39.9 For what one of the godly will not the majesty of God in a moment reduce to silence? And from what one of them will not the justice of God force the expression of praise, and constrain him to break forth into that devoted exclamation of David? So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David, It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day. 2 Samuel 16, 11, 12. Wherefore, when the wickedness of men proceeds thus from the Lord, and from a just cause, but from a cause unknown to us, although the first cause of all things be his will, that he is therefore the author of sin, I most solemnly deny. Nevertheless, that difference of causes on which I have before dwelt is by no means to be forgotten, that one cause is proximate, another remote. The careful observance of this distinction is indispensable that we may clearly understand how wide a difference there is and how momentous a distinction between the just and equal providence of God and turbulent impetuosities of men. Our adversaries load us with illiberal and disgraceful calumny when they cast it in our teeth that we make God the author of sin by maintaining that His will is the cause of all things that are done. For when a man perpetrates anything unjustly, incited by ambition or avarice or lust or any other depraved passion, if God, by His just but secret judgment, performed his work by means of such in one's hands, the mention of sin cannot be made with reference to God and those righteous acts. It is perfidy, pride, cruelty, intemperance, envy, self-conceit, or some like the praved desire that constitutes sin in man. But no such desire can be found in God. Shimei attacks his king with brutal insolence. The sin is at once God uses such an instrument to affect the righteous humiliation of David. Such a rod it pleases God to use. But who will dare to charge God with sin in so doing? The Arabians and the Sabians carry off their plunder from another man's substance. The sin of robbery is evident. God exercises the patience of his servant by the violence of the plunderers. Let the heroic confession of the Patriarch, blessed be the name of the Lord, be heard rising from out the midst of these ravages, rather than the profane revilings of the wicked and the ignorant. In a word, such is God's manner of working by the sins of men, that when we come to deal with Him in the manner of His righteous judgment, His eternal purity wipes off in a moment every spot that the wicked reasonings of men may attempt to cast upon His glorious majesty. This ends tape number two of A Defense of the Secret Providence of God by John Calvin. Please go to the next tape in the series. Thank you. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. Many free resources, as well as SWRB's complete mail-order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs, and much more at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. 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