All 8 Uses of
providence
in
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them success.†
providence = resulting from God's intervention or plan; or lucky
- From this instance, reader, Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, And distrust not Providence.†
*
- And this persuasion, with the kind hand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favorable circumstances and situations, or all together, preserved me, thro' this dangerous time of youth, and the hazardous situations I was sometimes in among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of my father, without any willful gross immorality or injustice, that might have been expected from my want of religion.†
- I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.†
- What reverses may attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence; but, if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoy'd ought to help his bearing them with more resignation.†
- That he governs the world by his providence.†
- The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon found too small, and we were looking out for a piece of ground, properly situated, with intention to build, when Providence threw into our way a large house ready built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve our purpose.†
- And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means.†
Definitions:
-
(1)
(providence as in: divine providence) resulting from God's intervention or plan; or lucky -- especially with regard to when something happened
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely providence may mean to prepare for the future. This is the sense that relates more directly to provident or improvident.