The first act of Providence is Conservative, and upholds all; the Creature cannot preserve and immortalize it self, for then it would be a Self-subsistence, and a God to it self: it stands juxta non esse, at the brink of nullity; and unless that Divine Power which brought it from thence into being, hold it up there, it naturally returns and falls back into Nothing as its Centre. Preservation is an influx of Being; and none but the Supreme Being, which is its own original, can afford such a thing. It is a continued Creation, and none but he who gives esse primo, the first being to a creature, can give esse porro, the second or protracted being to it. Should he withdraw his influence, or cease continuo facere, still to go on preserving and new-making, as it were, his Creature, ⟨p. 160⟩it would vanish into nothing; no creature could begin where he left, or carry on the work. Should all the Angels in Heaven try and put out all their strength, to guard and keep up in being the least particle of matter, and that but for one moment only, they could do nothing, they could not be Creators at second hand, I mean in point of Preservation. The Earth, being the Centre of the World, seems to stand fast, and yet without Providence it would waver into nothing. The Sea is a vast spreading. Element; and yet were it not in the hand of Providence, it would contract it self into nothing. The Heavens are strong bodies, and yet all those glorious Arches, unless kept in repair by Providence, would fall and totter down. The Angels are immortal Spirits, and yet their immortality is a donative and a continual spiration from the Father of spirits; the knot of their perpetuity is Providence, and without it they would break and dissolve into nothing. Providence, we see, contains and preserves all things: a great truth this is, but it was never so manifested as in Jesus Christ. If ever any creature might preserve it self, one would think that the highest, noblest of all should do so; his human nature was lifted above the top of the Creation, above the highest Angel: It was, which never any Creature was before, assumed into the Person of God; yet it had no subsistence of its own, it did not preserve it self; it was held by that Deity which it did cohabit with in the Person of the Word: still it was a Creature; it could not, like the Deity, spread it self over the World:
The first act of Providence is Conservative, and upholds all; the Creature cannot preserve and immortalize it self, for then it would be a Self-subsistence, and a God to it self: it stands juxta non esse, at the brink of nullity; and unless that Divine Power which brought it from thence into being, hold it up there, it naturally returns and falls back into Nothing as its Center. Preservation is an influx of Being; and none but the Supreme Being, which is its own original, can afford such a thing. It is a continued Creation, and none but he who gives esse primo, the first being to a creature, can give esse porro, the second or protracted being to it. Should he withdraw his influence, or cease continuo facere, still to go on preserving and new-making, as it were, his Creature, ⟨p. 160⟩it would vanish into nothing; no creature could begin where he left, or carry on the work. Should all the Angels in Heaventry and put out all their strength, to guard and keep up in being the least particle of matter, and that but for one moment only, they could do nothing, they could not be Creators at second hand, I mean in point of Preservation. The Earth, being the Center of the World, seems to stand fast, and yet without Providence it would waver into nothing. The Sea is a vast spreading. Element; and yet were it not in the hand of Providence, it would contract it self into nothing. The Heavens are strong bodies, and yet all those glorious Arches, unless kept in repair by Providence, would fall and totter down. The Angels are immortal Spirits, and yet their immortality is a donative and a continual spiration from the Father of spirits; the knot of their perpetuity is Providence, and without it they would break and dissolve into nothing. Providence, we see, contains and preserves all things: a great truth this is, but it was never so manifested as in Jesus Christ. If ever any creature might preserve it self, one would think that the highest, noblest of all should do so; his human nature was lifted above the top of the Creation, above the highest Angel: It was, which never any Creature was before, assumed into the Person of God; yet it had no subsistence of its own, it did not preserve it self; it was held by that Deity which it did cohabit with in the Person of the Word: still it was a Creature; it could not, like the Deity, spread it self over the World:
