Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe With His Vision of the Angelick World

SERIOUS REFLECTIONS DURING THE LIFE...

tempting us with its beauty, and within our reach, and then a prohibition upon pain of death; but blessed be God, we may eat of all the trees in the garden, and all those of which we are not allowed to take are placed both out of our sight and out of our reach.

I am making way here to one of the trees of sacred knowledge, which, though it may grow in the thickest of the wood, and be surrounded with some briars and thorns, so as to place it a little out of sight, yet I hope to prove that it is our duty to taste of it, and that the way to come at it is both practicable and plain.

But to waive the allegory, as I am entering into the nicest search of Divine things that perhaps the whole scheme of religion directs us to, it is absolutely necessary at our entrance, if possible, to remove every difficulty, explain every principle, and lay down every foundation so undeniably clear, that nothing may appear dark or mysterious in our first conceptions of things — no stumbling-block lie at the threshold, and the humble reader may meet with no repulse from his own apprehensions of not understanding what he is going to read.

Listening to the voice of Providence is my subject; I am willing to suppose, in the first place, that I am writing to those who acknowledge the two grand principles upon which all religion depends. 1. That there is a God, a first great moving cause of all things, an eternal Power, prior, and consequently superior, to all power and being. 2. That this eternal Power,

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which I call God, is the Creator and Governor of all things, viz., of heaven and earth.

To avoid needless distinctions concerning which of the persons in the Godhead are exercised in the creating power, and which in the governing power, I offer that glorious text, Psalm xxxiii. 6, as a repulse to all such cavilling inquiries, where the whole Trinity is plainly entitled to the whole creating work: — “By the Word (God the Son) of the Lord (God the Father) were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath (God the Holy Ghost) of His mouth.”

Having thus presupposed the belief of the being and the creating work of God, and declared that I am writing to such only who are ready to own they believe that God is, and that He created the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, I think I need not make any preamble to introduce the following propositions, viz.:

That this eternal God guides by His providence the whole world, which He has created by His power.

That this Providence manifests a particular care over and concern in the governing and directing man, the best and last created creature on earth.

Natural religion proves the first, revealed religion proves the last of these beyond contradiction. Natural religion intimates the necessity of a Providence guiding and governing the

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world, from the consequence of the wisdom, justice, prescience, and goodness of the Creator.

It would be absurd to conceive of God exerting infinite power to create a world, and not concerning His wisdom, which is His providence, in guiding the operations of Nature, so as to preserve the order of His creation, and the obedience and subordination of consequences and causes throughout the course of that nature, which is in part the inferior life of that creation.

Revealed religion has given such a light into the care and concern of this Providence, in an especial manner, in and over that part of the creation called man, that we must likewise deny principles if we enter into disputes about it.

For him the peace of the creation is preserved, the climates made habitable, the creatures subjected and made nourishing, all vegetative life made medicinal; so that indeed the whole creation seems to be entailed upon him as an inheritance, and given to him for a possession, subjected to his authority, and governed by him as viceroy to the King of all the earth; the management of it is given to him as tenant to the great Proprietor, who is Lord of the manor, or Landlord of the soil. And it cannot be conceived, without great inconsistency of thought, that this world is left entirely to man’s conduct, without the supervising influence and the secret direction of the Creator.

This I call Providence, to which I give the whole power of guiding and directing of the creation, and managing of it, by

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man who is His deputy or substitute, and even the guiding, influencing, and over-ruling man himself also.

Let critical annotators enter into specific distinctions of Providence, and its way of acting, as they please, and as the formalities of the schoolmen direct; the short description I shall give of it is this, that it is that operation of the power, wisdom, justice, and goodness of God by which He influences, governs, and directs not only the means, but the events, of all things which concern us in this world.

I say it is that operation, let them call it what they will, which acts thus; I am no way concerned to show how it acts, or why it acts thus and thus in particular; we are to reverence its sovereignty, as it is the finger of God Himself, who is the Sovereign Director; and we are to observe its motions, obey its dictates, and listen to its voice, as it is, and because it is, particularly employed for our advantage.

It would be a very proper and useful observation here, and might take up much of this work, to illustrate the goodness of Providence, in that it is, as I say, particularly employed for the advantage of mankind. But as this is not the main design, and will come in naturally in every part of the work I am upon, I refer it to the common inferences, which are to be drawn from the particulars, as I go on.

It is, indeed, the most rational foundation of the whole design before me; it is therefore that we should listen to the voice

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of Providence, because it is principally determined, and determines all other things, for our advantage.

But I return to the main subject — the voice of Providence, the language or the meaning of Providence.

Nothing is more frequent than for us to mistake Providence, even in its most visible appearances; how easy, then, must it be to let its silent actings, which perhaps are the most pungent and significant, pass our observation.

I am aware of the error many fall into, who, determining the universal currency of events to Providence, and that not the minutest thing occurs in the course of life but by the particular destination of Heaven, by consequence entitle Providence to the efficiency of their own follies; as if a person presuming to smoke his pipe in a magazine of gun-powder should reproach Providence with blowing up the castle, for which indeed he ought to be hanged; or a man leaving his house or shop open in the night, should charge Providence with appointing him to be robbed, and the like. Nay, to carry it farther, every murderer or thief may allege Providence, that determines and directs everything, directed him to such wickedness; whereas Providence itself, notwithstanding the crimes of men, is actively concerned in no evil.

But I pass all these things; the subject I am treating upon is of another nature. The design here is to instruct us in some particular things relating to Providence and its government

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of men in the world, which it will be worth our while to observe, without inquiring how far it does or does not act in other methods. There is, it is true, a difficulty to shake off all the wry steps which people take to amuse themselves about Providence, and for this reason I take so much pains at first to avoid them. Many men entitle Providence to things which it is not concerned about, speaking abstractedly; but, which is a much worse error, many also take no notice of those things which Providence particularly, and even in a very remarkable manner, distinguishes itself by its concern in.

If Providence guides the world, and directs the issues and events of things; if it commands causes and forms the connection of circumstances in the world, as no man that owns the principles mentioned above will deny; and, above all, if the general scope of Providence, and of the government of the world by its influence, be for our advantage, then it follows, necessarily, that it is our business and our interest to listen to its voice.

By listening to the voice of Providence, I mean to study its meaning in every circumstance of life, in every event; to learn to understand the end and design of Providence in everything that happens, what is the design of Providence in it respecting ourselves, and what our duty to do upon the particular occasion that offers. If a man were in danger of drowning in a shipwrecked vessel, and Providence presented a boat coming towards him, he would scarce want to be told that it was his business to make signals of distress, that the people in the said boat might not pass by ignorant of his condition, and give him

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no assistance; if he did, and omitted it, he would have little cause to concern Providence in his ruin.

There is certainly a rebellion against Providence, which Heaven itself will not always concern itself to overrule; and he that throws himself into a river to drown himself, he that hangs himself up to a beam, he that shoots himself into the head with a pistol, shall die in spite of all the notions of decree, destiny, fate, or whatever we weakly call Providence; in such cases, Providence will not always concern itself to prevent it; and yet it is no impeachment of the sovereignty of Heaven in directing, decreeing, and governing all events in the world.

Providence decrees that events shall attend upon causes in a direct chain, and by an evident necessity, and has doubtless left many powers of good and evil seemingly to ourselves, and, as it were, in our hands, as the natural product of such causes and consequences, which we are not to limit and cannot expressly determine about, but which we are account able for the good or evil application of; otherwise we were in vain exhorted and commanded to do any good thing, or to avoid any wicked one. Rewards and punishments would be incongruous with sovereign justice, and promises and threatenings be perfectly unmeaning, useless things — mankind being no free agent to himself, or intrusted with the necessary powers which those promises and threatenings imply.

But all these things are out of my present inquiry. I am for freely and entirely submitting all events to Providence; out

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not to be supinely and unconcernedly passive, as if there was nothing warning, instructing, or directing in the premonitions of God’s providence, and which He expected we should take notice of, and take warning by. The “ prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.” How does he foresee it, since it is not in man to direct himself? There are intimations given us, by which a prudent man may sometimes foresee evil and hide himself; and I must take these all out of the devil’s hands if possible, and place Providence at the head of the invisible world, as well as at the helm of this world; and though I abhor superstitious and sceptical notions of the world of spirits, of which I purpose to speak hereafter, either in this work or in some other by itself I say, though I am not at all a sceptic, yet I cannot doubt but that the invisible hand of Providence, which guides and governs this world, does with a secret power likewise influence the world, and may, and I believe does, direct from thence silent messengers on many occasions — whether sleeping or waking, whether directly or in directly, whether by hints, impulses, allegories, mysteries, or otherwise, we know not; and does think fit to give us such alarms, such previous and particular knowledge of things that, if listened to, might many ways be useful to the prudent man to foresee the evil, and hide himself.

The only objection, and which I can see no method to give a reason for and no answer to, is, why, if it be the work of Providence, those things should be so imperfect, so broken, so irregular, that men may either never be able to pass any right judgment of them, as is sometimes the case, or make a perfect

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judgment of them, which is often the case, and so the end of the intimation be entirely defeated, without any fault, neglect, or omission of the man.

This we can no more account for than we can for the handwriting upon the wall at the great feast of Belshazzar, viz., why it was written in a character which none could understand; and which, if the prophet had not been found, had perhaps never been known, or at least not till the king’s fate, which was even then irretrievable, had been over.

This, indeed, we cannot account for, and can only say it is our duty to study these things, to listen to the voice of them and obey their secret dictates, as far as reason directs, without an over-superstitious regard to them any more than a total neglect, leaving the reason of Providence’s acting thus to be better understood hereafter.

But to describe a little what I mean by listening to the voice of Providence: it is the reverse of the supine stupid man, whose character I shall come to by-and-by. The man I would recommend lives, first, in a general belief that Providence has the supreme direction of all his affairs, even of his in particular, as well as those of the world; that ‘tis his mercy that it is so, that ‘tis the effect of an infinitely wise and gracious disposition from above that he subsists; and that it is not below the dignity any more than ‘tis remote from the power of an infinite, wise, and good Being to take cognisance of the least thing concerning him.

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This, in the consequence, obliges him to all I say; for to him who firmly believes that Providence stoops to concern itself for him, and to order the least article of his affairs, it necessarily follows that he should concern himself in everything that Providence does which comes within his reach, that he may know whether he be interested in it or not.

If he neglects this, he neglects himself — he abandons all concern about himself; since he does not know but that the very next particular act of Providence, which comes within his reach to distinguish, may be interested in him and he in it.

It is not for me to dictate here to any man what particular things relating to him Providence is concerned in, or what not, or how far any incident of life is or is not the particular act and deed of the government of Providence. But as it is the received opinion of every good man that nothing befalls us without the active or passive concern of Providence in it, so it is impossible this good man can be unconcerned in whatever that Providence determines concerning him.

If it be true, as our Saviour Himself says, that not a hair falls from our heads without the will of our heavenly Father, then not a hair ought to fall from our heads without our having our eyes up to our heavenly Father in it.

I take the text in its due latitude, namely, that not the minutest incident of life befalls us without the active will of our Father directing it, or the passive will of our Father suffering it;

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