Proclaimer Blog
Two great books on God’s providence
I don't think we talk enough today about God's providence. So here are two books that are excellent on the subject – and, remarkably, one is not Christian.
Christian book first. Surely the go-to book is the one by my favourite Puritan John Flavel. The mystery of providence is in his collected works, on kindle for 99; (here), as a Puritan paperback from Banner, in simplified form from Grace Publications (as God willing) or online for free through google books. It has to be read, like all Puritan works, carefully and thoughtfully with a Bible in hand (the Puritans can digress very easily and not always helpfully), but it remains a classic.
And now suffer me to expostulate a little with thy soul. Reader, hast thou been duly sensible of thy obligation to providence for this inestimable favour [salvation]? O what he hath done for thee! There are divers kinds of mercies conveyed to men by the hand of providence; but none like this; in all the treasury of its benefits none is found like this…. How dear and sweet should the remembrance of it be to thy soul! Methinks it should astonish and melt you every time you reflect upon it. Such mercies should never grow stale or look like common things to you.
The second book is a history book I've been reading: Michael Wood's excellent The Story of England. It basically tells the story of England through the history of one village, Kibworth in Leicestershire. As it happens, Kibworth is close to where we hold our residential conferences and I often cycle through it. It has a remarkable protestant history – being a centre of Wycliffe influenced teaching, instrumental in the Reformation and the Civil War. It also played a key role in the history of non conformity, with a dissenting academy overseen by Philip Doddridge, no less.
What is interesting about this book is seeing God's hand at work. Indeed, Michael Wood says that the reason that the Reformation was so easily adopted in places like Kibworth, despite it being a top down change, was the work of Lollards in the area 150 years before. He develops this theme quite extensively, and it's easy for a Christian to read such a book with a deep rejoicing at God's sovereign hand. It is, without knowing it, a book about God's providence.