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b. Inferential proof.
The idea of divine preservation follows from the doctrine of the
sovereignty of God. This can only be conceived of as absolute; but it would not be absolute, if
anything existed or occurred independently of His will. It can be maintained only on condition
that the whole universe and all that is in it, is in its being and action absolutely dependent on
God. It follows also from the dependent character of the creature. It is characteristic of all that
is creature, that it cannot continue to exist in virtue of its own inherent power. It has the
ground of its being and continuance in the will of its Creator. Only He who created the world by
the word of His power, can uphold it by His omnipotence.
2. THE PROPER CONCEPTION OF DIVINE PRESERVATION.
The doctrine of preservation
proceeds on the assumption that all created substances, whether they be spiritual or material,
possess real and permanent existence, distinct from the existence of God, and have only such
active and passive properties as they have derived from God; and that their active powers have
a real, and not merely an apparent, efficiency as second causes, so that they are able to
produce the effects proper to them. Thus it guards against Pantheism, with its idea of a
continued creation, which virtually, if not always expressly, denies the distinct existence of the
world, and makes God the sole agent in the universe. But it does not regard these created
substances as self-existent, since self-existence is the exclusive property of God, and all
creatures have the ground of their continued existence in Him and not in themselves. From this
it follows that they continue to exist, not in virtue of a merely negative act of God, but in virtue
of a positive and continued exercise of divine power. The power of God put forth in upholding
all things is just as positive as that exercised in creation. The precise nature of His work in
sustaining all things in being and action is a mystery, though it may be said that, in His
providential operations, He accommodates Himself to the nature of His creatures. With Shedd
we say: “In the material world, God immediately works in and through material properties and
laws. In the mental world, God immediately works in and through the properties of mind.
Preservation never runs counter to creation. God does not violate in providence what He has
established in creation.”[Dogm. Theol. I, p. 528.] Preservation may be defined as that
continuous work of God by which He maintains the things which He created, together with the
properties and powers with which He endowed them.
3. ERRONEOUS CONCEPTIONS OF DIVINE PRESERVATION.
The nature of this work of God is not
always properly understood. There are two views of it which ought to be avoided: (a) That it is
purely negative. According to Deism divine preservation consists in this, that God does not
destroy the work of His hands. By virtue of creation God endowed matter with certain
properties, placed it under invariable laws, and then left it to shift for itself, independently of all
support or direction from without. This is an unreasonable, irreligious, and an un-Biblical
representation. It is unreasonable, because it implies that God communicated self-subsistence