Existence and Attributes of God
There is a threefold Dominion of God.
1. Natural, which is absolute over all Creatures, and is founded in the Nature of God as Creator.
2. Spiritual or Gracious, which is a Dominion over his Church as Redeemed, and founded in the Covenant of Grace.
3. A Glorious Kingdom at the winding up of all, wherein he shall Reign over all, either in the Glory of his Mercy, as over the glorified Saints; or in the Glory of his Justice in the condemned Devils, and Men. The first Dominion is founded in Nature. The second in Grace. The third in regard of the blessed, in Grace; in regard of the damned, in demerit in them, and Justice in him.
He is Lord of all things, and always in regard of propriety Psal. 24.1. The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the World and all that dwell therein. The Earth with the Riches and Treasures in the Bowels of it; the habitable World with everything that moves upon it, are his; he hath the sole right, and what right soever any others have, is derived from him. In regard also of possession, Gen. 14.22. The most high God, possessor of Heaven and Earth. In respect of whom, Man is not the proprietary nor possessor, but usufructuary at the Will of this Grand Lord.
In th • prosecution of this,
- I. I shall lay down Some general propositions for the clearing and confirming it.
- II. I shall show Wherein this right of Dominion is founded.
- III. What the nature of it is.
- IV. Wherein it consists; and how 'tis manifested.
I. Some general Propositions for the clearing and confirming of it.
1. We must know the difference between the Might or Power of God, and his Authority. We commonly mean by the Power of God the strength of God, whereby he is able to effect all his purposes. By the Authority of God, we mean the right he hath to act what he pleases. Omnipotence is his Physical power, whereby he is able to do what he will. Dominion is his moral Power, whereby it is lawful for him to do what he will. Among men, Strength and Authority are two distinct things. A Subject may be a Giant, and be stronger than his Prince, but he hath not the same Authority as his Prince. Worldly Dominion may be seated not in a brawny Arm, but a sickly and infirm Body. As knowledge and wisdom are distinguished; knowledge respects the matter, being, and nature of a thing. Wisdom respects the harmony, order, and actual usefulness of a thing. Knowledge searcheth the nature of a thing, and Wisdom employs that thing to its proper use. A man may have much Knowledge, and little Wisdom, so a man may have much Strength, and little or no Authority. A greater strength may be settled in the Servant, but a greater Authority resides in the Master; strength is the natural vigor of a Man. God hath an infinite strength, he hath a strength to bring to pass whatsoever he decrees; he acts without fainting and weakness, Isaiah 40.28. and impairs not his strength by the exercise of it. As God is Lord he hath a right to Enact; as he is Almighty, he hath a power to Execute. His strength is the executive power belonging to his Dominion: In regard of his Sovereignty he hath a right to Command all Creatures. In regard of his Almightiness he hath power to make his Commands be obeyed; or to punish men for the violation of them. His power is that whereby he subdues all Creatures under him, his Dominion is that, whereby he hath a right to subdue all Creatures under him.
This Dominion is a right of making what he pleases, of possessing what he made, of disposing of what he doth possess; whereas his power is an ability, to make, what he hath a right to Create, to hold what he doth possess, and to execute the manner, wherein he resolves to dispose of his Creatures.
2. All the other Attributes of God refer to this perfection of Dominion. They all bespeak him fit for it, and are discovered in the exercise of it, (which hath been manifested in the discourses of those Attributes, we have passed through hitherto.) His Goodness fits him for it, because he can never use his Authority but for the good of the Creatures, and conducting them to their true end. His Wisdom can never be mistaken in the exercise of it; his power can accomplish the Decrees, that flow from his absolute Authority. What can be more rightful, than the placing Authority in such an infinite Goodness, that hath Bowels to pity, as well as a Scepter to sway his Subjects? That hath a mind to contrive, and a will to regulate his contrivances for his own Glory, and his Creatures good; and an arm of power to bring to pass, what he Orders. Without this Dominion some perfections, as Justice, and Mercy, would lie in obscurity, and much of his Wisdom would be shrouded from our sight and knowledge.
3. This of Dominion, as well as that of Power, hath been acknowledged by all. The High Priest was to wave the Offering, or shake it to and fro. Exod. 29.24. which the Jews say, was customarily from East to West, and from North to South, the four quarters of the World, to signify God's Sovereignty over all the parts of the World. And some of the Heathens in their Adorations turned their Bodies to all quarters, to signify the extensive Dominion of God throughout the whole Earth. That Dominion did of right pertain to the Deity, was confessed by the Heathen in the name Baal, given to their Idols, which signifies Lord; and was not a name of one Idol, adored for a God, but common to all the Eastern Idols. God hath interwoven the notion of his Sovereignty in the Nature and Constitution of Man, in the noblest and most inward acts of his Soul, in that faculty or act which is most necessary for him, in his converse in this World either with God or Man. 'It is stamped upon the Conscience of Man, and flashes in his face in every act of self Judgment Conscience passes upon a Man. Every reflection of Conscience implies an obligation of man to some Law written in his Heart. Rom. 2.15. This Law cannot be without a Legislator, nor this Legislator without a Sovereign Dominion; these are but natural, and easy consequences in the mind of Man from every act of Conscience. The indelible Authority of Conscience in Man, in the whole exercise of it, bears a respect to the Sovereignty of God, clearly proclaims not only a supreme being, but a supreme Governor, and points man directly to it, that a man may as soon deny his having such a reflecting principle within him, as deny God's Dominion over him, and consequently over the whole World of rational Creatures.
4. This notion of Soveraingty is inseparable from the notion of a God. To acknowledge the Existence of a God, and to acknowledge him a Rewarder are linked together. Heb. 11.6. To acknowledge him a Rewarder, is to acknowledge him a Governor: Rewards being the marks of Dominion. The very name of a God includes in it a supremacy, and an actual rule. He cannot be conceived as God, but he must be conceived as the highest Authority in the World. 'It is as possible for him not to be God, as not to be supreme. Wherein can the exercise of his excellencies be apparent, but in his Sovereign rule? To fancy an infinite power without a supreme Dominion, is to fancy a mighty senseless Statue fit to be beheld, but not fit to be obeyed; as not being able or having no right to give out Orders, or not caring for the exercise of it. God cannot be supposed to be the chief being, but he must be supposed to give Laws to all, and receive Laws from none. And if we suppose him with a perfection of Justice and Righteousness (which we must do, unless we would make a lame and imperfect God) we must suppose him to have an entire Dominion, without which he could never be able to manifest his Justice. And without a supreme Dominion, he could not manifest the supremacy, and infiniteness of his Righteousness.
1. We cannot suppose God a Creator, without supposing a Sovereign Dominion in him. No Creature can be made without some Law in its Nature; if it had not Law, it would be Created to no purpose, to no regular end; it would be utterly unbecoming an infinite Wisdom, to create a lawless Creature, a Creature wholly vain; much less can a rational Creature be made without a Law; if it had no Law, it were not rational: For the very notion of a rational Creature implies reason to be a Law to it, and implies an acting by rule. If you could suppose rational Creatures without a Law, you might suppose, that they might blaspheme their Creator, and Murder their fellow Creatures, and commit the most abominable villainies destructive to human Society without sin; for where there is no Law, there is no transgression,. But those things are accounted sins by all mankind, and sins against the supreme being: So that a Dominion and the exercise of it is so fast linked to God, so entirely in him, so intrinsic in his Nature, that it cannot be imagined that a rational Creature, can be made by him without a stamp and mark of that Dominion in his very nature, and frame; 'tis so inseparable from God in his very act of Creation.
2. 'It is such a Dominion as cannot be renounced by God himself. 'It is so intrinsic and connatural to him, so inlaid in the nature of God, that he cannot strip himself of it, nor of the exercise of it, while any Creature remains. 'T •• preserved by him; for it could not subsist of its self; 'tis governed by him, it could not else answer its end. 'It is impossible there can be a Creature, which hath not God for its Lord. Christ himself though in regard of his Deity equal with God, yet in regard of his created state, and assuming our nature, was God's servant, was governed by him in the whole of his office, acted according to his command and directions; God calls him his servant. Isaiah 42.1. And Christ in that Prophetick Psalm of him, calls God his Lord. Psal. 16.2. Oh my Soul, Thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. It was impossible it should be otherwise; Justice had been so far from being satisfied, that it had been highly incensed, if the order of things in the due subjection to God had been broke, and his terms had not been complied with. It would be a Judgment upon the World, if God should give up the Government to any else, as it is when he gives Children to be Princes. Isaiah 3.4. i. e. Children in understanding.
3. 'It is so inseparable, that it cannot be communicated to any Creature. No Creature is able to exercise it, every Creature is unable to perform all the offices that belong to this Dominion. No Creature can impose Laws upon the Consciences of men: Man knows not the inlets into the Soul, his pen cannot reach the inwards of man. What Laws he hath power to propose to Conscience, he cannot see executed: because every Creature wants omniscience, he is not able to perceive all those breaches of the Law, which may be committed at the same time in so many Cities, so many Chambers. Or suppose an Angel, in regard of the height of his standing, and the insufficiency of Walls, and darkness, and distance to obstruct his view, can behold men's actions, yet he cannot know the internal acts of men's minds, and Wills without some outward eruption and appearance of them. And if he be ignorant of them, how can he execute his Laws? If he only understand the outward fact without the inward thought, how can he dispense a Justice proportionable to the crime? He must needs be ignorant of that, which adds the greatest aggravation sometimes to a sin, and inflict a lighter punishment upon that which receives a deeper tincture from the inward posture of the mind, than another fact may do, which in the outward act may appear more base and unjust; and so while he intends Righteousness, may act a degree of injustice. Besides, no Creature can inflict a due punishment for sin; that which is due to sin, is a loss of the Vision, and sight of God; but none can deprive any of that but God himself; nor can a Creature reward another with Eternal Life, which consists in Communion with God, which none but God can bestow.
II. Thing, Wherein the Dominion of God is founded.
1. On the Excellency of his Nature. Indeed a bare excellency of Nature bespeaks a fitness for Government, but doth not properly convey a right of Government. Excellency speaks aptitude, not Title: A Subject may have more Wisdom than the Prince, and be fitter to hold the Reins of Government, but he hath not a Title to Royalty. A man of large capacity, and strong virtue, is fit to serve his Country in Parliament, but the Election of the People conveys a Title to him. Yet a strain of Intellectual and Moral abilities beyond others, is a foundation for Dominion. And it is commonly seen that such eminences in men, though they do not invest them with a Civil Authority, or an Authority of Jurisdiction, yet they create a veneration in the minds of men; their virtue attracts reverence, and their advice is regarded as an Oracle. Old men by their age, when stored with more Wisdom and Knowledge by reason of their long experience, acquire a kind of power over the younger in their Dictates and Counsels, so that they gain by the strength of that excellency a real Authority in the minds of those men they converse with, and possess themselves of a deep respect from them. God therefore being an incomprehensible ocean of all perfection, and possessing infinitely all those virtues, that may lay a claim to Dominion, hath the first foundation of it in his own nature. His incomparable and unparalleled excellency, as well as the greatness of his work, attracts the voluntary Worship of him as a Sovereign Lord. Psal. 86.8. Among the God's there is none like unto thee, neither are there any works like unto thy work. All Nations shall come and Worship before thee. Though his benefits are great engagements to our Obedience, and Affection, yet his infinite Majesty and perfection requires the first place in our acknowledgements and adorations. Upon this account God claims it, Isaiah 46.9. I am God, and there is none like me, I will do all my pleasure: And the Prophet Jeremy upon the same account acknowledgeth it. Jer. 10.6, 7. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, Oh Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in might: who would not fear thee O King of Nations? For to thee doth it appertain: Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee. And this is a more noble Title of Dominion, It being an uncreated Title, and more eminent than that of Creation or Preservation. This is the natural order, God hath placed in his Creature's, that the more excellent should rule the inferior. He committed not the Government of lower Creatures to Lions, and Tigers, that have a delight in blood, but no knowledge of virtue; but to man, who had an eminence in his nature above other Creatures, and was formed with a perfect rectitude, and a height of reason to guide the reins over them. In man the Soul being of a more sublime nature, is set of right to rule over the Body; the Mind, the most excellent Faculty of the Soul, to rule over the other Powers of it; and Wisdom the most excellent habit of the Mind, to guide and regulate that in its determinations; and when the Body and sensitive Appetite control the Soul and Mind, 'tis an Usurpation against Nature, not a rule according to Nature; the excellency therefore of the Divine Nature is the natural foundation for his Dominion. He hath Wisdom to know what is fit for him to do, and an immutable Righteousness whereby he cannot do anything base and unworthy. He hath a fore-knowledge whereby he is able to order all things to answer his own glorious designs, and the end of his Government; that nothing can go awry, nothing put him to a stand, and constrain him to meditate new Counsels. So that if it could be supposed, that the World had not been created by him, that the parts of it had met together by chance, and been compacted into such a Body; none but God the supreme and most excellent being in the World, could have merited, and deservedly challenged the Government of it: Because nothing had an excellency of Nature, to capacitate it for it, as he hath, or to enter into a contest with him for a sufficiency to Govern.
2. 'It is founded in his act of Creation. He is the Sovereign Lord, as he is the Almighty Creator. The relation of an entire Creator, induceth the relation of an absolute Lord; he that gives Being, Life, Motion, that is the sole cause of the being of a thing, which was before nothing, that hath nothing to concur with him, nothing to assist him, but by his sole power Commands it to stand up into being, is the unquestionable Lord and Proprietor of that thing, that hath no dependence but upon him. And by this act of Creation which extended to all things, he became universal Sovereign over all things. And those that wave the excellency of his Nature as the foundation of his Goverment, easily acknowledge the sufficiency of it upon his actual Creation. His Dominion of Jurisdiction results from Creation. When God himself makes an oration in defense of his Sovereignty, Job 38. His chief arguments are drawn from Creation, and Psal. 95.3, 5. The Lord is a great King above all God's, the Sea is his, and he made it. And so the Apostle in his Sermon to the Athenians. As he made the World and all things therein, he is styled Lord of Heaven and Earth. Acts 17.24. His Dominion also of Property stands upon this Basis. Psal. 89.7. The Heavens are thine, the Earth also is thine, as for the World and the fullness thereof thou hast founded them. Upon this Title of forming Israel as a Creature, or rather as a Church, he demands their service to him as their Sovereign. Oh Jacob and Israel, thou art my Servant, I have formed thee, thou art my servant Oh Israel. Isaiah 44. 21. The Sovereignty of God naturally ariseth from the relation of all things to himself as their entire Creator, and their natural and inseparable dependence upon him in regard of their being, and well beings. It depends not upon the election of Men; God hath a natural Dominion over us as Creatures, before he hath a Dominion by consent over us as converts. As soon as ever anything began to be a Creature, it was a vassal to God, as a Lord. Every man is acknowledged to have a right of possessing what he hath made, and a power of Dominion over what he hath framed. He may either cherish his own work, or dash it in pieces; he may either add a greater comeliness to it, or deface what he hath already imparted. He hath a right of property in it; no other man can without injury pilfer his own work from him. The work hath no propriety in its self: the right must lie in the immediate framer, or in the person that employed him. The first Cause of everything hath an unquestionable Dominion of propriety in it upon the score of Justice. By the Law of Nations, the first finder of a Country, is esteemed the rightful possessor, and Lord of that Country, and the first inventor of an Art hath a right of exercising it. If a man hath a just claim of Dominion over that thing, whose materials were not of his framing, but from only the addition of a new figure from his skill; as a Limner over his picture, the Cloth whereof he never made, nor the colors wherewith he draws it, were ever endued by him with their distinct qualities, but only he applies them by his art, to compose such a figure; much more hath God a rightful claim of Dominion over his Creatures, whose entire being both in matter and form, and every particle of their excellency was breathed out by the word of his mouth. He did not only give the matter a form, but bestowed upon the matter its self a being; It was formed by none to his hand, as the matter is on which an Artist works. He had the being of all things in his own power, and it was at his choice whither he would impart it or no; there can be no juster, and stronger ground of a claim than this. A man hath a right to a piece of brass, or Gold by his purchase, but when by his engraving he hath formed it into an excellent Statue, there results an increase of his right upon the account of his artifice. God's Creation of the the matter of man gave him a right over man; but his Creation of him in so eminent an excellency, with reason to guide him, a clear eye of understanding to discern Light from Darkness, and Truth from falsehood, a freedom of Will to act accordingly, and an original Righteousness as the varnish and beauty of all: Here is the strongest foundation for a claim of Authority over man, and the strongest obligation on man for subjection to God. If all those things had been past over to God by another hand, he could not be the supreme Lord, nor could have an absolute right to dispose of them at his pleasure: That would have been the invasion of another's right. Besides, Creation is the only first discovery of his Dominion. Before the World was framed there was nothing but God himself, and properly nothing is said to have Dominion over its self; this is a relative Attribute, reflecting on the works of God. He had a right of Dominion in his Nature from eternity, but before Creation he was actually Lord only of a nullity: Where there is nothing, it can have no relation, nothing is not the subject of possession, nor of Dominion. There could be no exercise of this Dominion without Creation; What exercise can a Sovereign have without Subjects? Sovereignty speaks a relation to Subjects; and none is properly a Sovereign without Subjects. To conclude, from hence doth result God's universal Dominion: For being maker of all, he is the Ruler of all. And his perpetual Dominion: For as long as God continues in the relation of Creator, the right of his Sovereignty as Creator cannot be abolished.
3. As God is the final Cause, or End of all, he is Lord of all. The End hath a greater Sovereignty in actions, than the Actor itself: The Actor hath a Sovereignty over others in action, but the end for which any one works hath a Sovereignty over the Agent himself. A Limner hath a Sovereignty over the Picture he is framing, or hath framed, but the end for which he framed it, either his profit he designed from it, or the honor and credit of skill he aimed at in it, hath a Dominion over the Limner himself. The end moves, and excites the Artist to work, it spirits him in it, conducts him in his whole business, possesses his mind, and sits triumphant in him in all the progress of his work; 'It is the first cause for which the whole work is wrought. Now God in his actual Creation of all, is the Sovereign end of all; for thy pleasure they are, and were created, Rev. 4.11. The Lord hath made all things for himself, Prov. 16.4. Man indeed is the subordinate and immediate end of the lower Creation: And therefore had the Dominion over other Creatures granted to him. But God being the ultimate and principal end, hath the Sovereign and principal Dominion; all things as much refer to him as the last end, as they flow from him as the first Cause. So that as I said before, if the World had been compacted together by a jumbling chance without a wise hand, as some have foolishly imagined, none could have been an Antagonist with God for the Government of the World, but God in regard of the excellency of his nature would have been the Rector of it, unless those Atoms that had composed the World, had had an ability to Govern it. Since there could be no universal end of all things but God, God only can claim an entire right to the Government of it: For though man be the end of the lower Creation, yet man is not the end of himself, and his own being, he is not the end of the Creation of the supreme Heavens, he is not able to govern them, they are out of his ken, and out of his reach. None fit in regard of the excellency of Nature, to be the chief end of the whole World but God: And therefore none can have a right to the Dominion of it but God. In this regard God's Dominion differs from the Dominion of all Earthly Potentates. All the subjects in Creation were made for God as their end, so are not People for Rulers, but Rulers made for People for their protection, and the preservation of Order in Societies.
4. The Dominion of God is founded upon his preservation of things. Ps. 95.3, 4. The Lord is a great King above all God's. Why? In his hand are all the deep places of the Earth. While his hand holds things, his hand hath a Dominion over them. He that holds a stone in the Air, exerciseth a dominion over its natural inclination in hindering it from falling. The Creature depends wholly upon God in its preservation; as soon as that Divine hand which sustains everything, were withdrawn, a languishment and swooning would be the next turn in the Creature. He is called Lord, Adonai in regard of his sustentation of all things by his continual influx. The Word coming of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifies a basis or pillar, that supports a building. God is the Lord of all, as he is the sustainer of all by his power, as well as the Creator of all by his Word. The Sun hath a Sovereign dominion over its own beams, which depend upon it, so that if he withdraws himself, they all attend him, and the World is left in darkness. God maintains the vigor of all things, conducts them in their operations; so that nothing that they are, nothing that they have, but is owing to his preserving power. The Master of this great Family may as well be called the Lord of it, since every member of it depends upon him for the support of that being, he first gave them, and holds of his Empire. As the right to govern resulted from Creation, so it is perpetuated by the preservation of things.
5. The dominion of God is strengthened by the innumerable benefits, he bestows upon his Creatures. The benefits he conferrs upon us after Creation, are not the original ground of his dominion. A man hath not Authority over his Servant, from the kindness he shows to him, but his Authority commenceth before any act of kindness, and is founded upon a right of purchase, conquest, or compact. Dominion doth not depend upon mere benefits: Then Inferiors might have dominion over Superiors. A Peasant may save the Life of a Prince, to whom he was not subject; he hath not therefore a right to step up into his Throne, and give Laws to him. And Children that maintain their Parents in their poverty, might then acquire an Authority over them, which they can never climb to: Because the benefits they confer, cannot parallel the benefits they have received from the Authors of their Lives. The bounties of God to us add nothing to the intrinsic right of his natural dominion, they being the effects of that Sovereignty, as he is a Rewarder and Governor. As the benefits a Prince bestows upon his favorite increases not that right of Authority, which is inherent in the Crown; but strengthens that dominion, as it stands in relation to the receiver, by increasing the obligation of the favorite to an observance of him, not only as his natural Prince, but his gracious Benefactor. The beneficence of God adds, though not an original right of power, yet a foundation of a stronger upbraiding the Creature, if he walks in a violation and forgetfulness of those benefits, and pull in pieces the links of that ingenuous duty they call for; and an occasion of exercising of Justice in punishing the delinquent; which is a part of his Empire. Isaiah 1.2. Hear O Heavens, and give Ear O Earth, the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished Children, and they have rebelled against me. Thus the fundamental right as Creator, is made more indisputable by his relation as a Benefactor, and more as being so after a forfeiture of what was enjoyed by Creation. The benefits of God are innumerable, and so magnificent, that they cannot meet with any compensation from the Creature: And therefore do necessarily require a submission from the Creature, and an acknowledgement of Divine Authority. But that benefit of Redemption doth add a stronger right of dominion to God: Since he hath not only as a Creator given them Being, and Life as his Creatures, but paid a price, the price of his Sons blood for their rescue from Captivity, so that he hath a Sovereignty of Grace as well as Nature, and the ransomed ones belong to him as Redeemer, as well as Creator. 1 Cor. 6.19, 20. Ye are not your own: For ye are bought with a price, therefore your Body and your Spirit are God's. By this he acquired a right of another kind, and bought us from that uncontrollable Lordship, we affected over ourselves by the sin of Adam, that he might use us as his own peculiar for his own glory and service, By this Redemption there results to God a right over our bodies, over our Spirits, over our services, as well as by Creation, and to show the strength of this right, the Apostle repeats it; you are bought, a purchase cannot be without a price paid; but he adds price also [bought with a price.] To strengthen the Title, purchase gave him a new right; and the greatness of the price established that right. The more a man pays for a thing, the more usually we say, he deserves to have it, he hath paid enough for it. It was indeed price enough, and too much for such vile Creatures as we are.
III. The third thing is, The Nature of this Dominion.
1. This Dominion is Independent. His Throne is in the Heavens; the Heavens depend not upon the Earth, nor God upon his Creatures. Since he is Independent in regard of his Essence, he is so in his dominion, which flows from the excellency and fullness of his Essence. As he receives his Essence from none, so he derives his dominion from none. All other dominion except paternal Authority is rooted originally in the wills of men. The first Title was the consent of the People, or the conquest of others by the help of those People that first consented. And in the exercise of it, Earthly dominion depends upon assistance of the Subjects, and the Members being join'd with the head carry on the work of Government, and prevent Civil dissensions; in the support of it, it depends upon the Subjects Contributions, and Taxes. The Subjects in their strength are the Arms, and in their Purses the Sinews of Government. But God depends upon none in the foundation of his Government; he is not a Lord by the Votes of his Vassals. Nor is it successively handed to him by any Predecessor, nor constituted by the power of a Superior. Nor forced he his way by War, and conquest, nor precariously attained it by suit or flattery, or bribing promises. He holds not the right of his Empire from any other; he hath no Superior to hand him to his Throne, and settle him by Commission. He is therefore called King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's, having none above him. A great King above all God's, Psal. 95.3. Needing no Licence from any when to act, nor direction how to act, or assistance in his action: He owes not any of those to any person; he was not ordered by any other to Create, and therefore receives not orders from any other to rule over what he hath created. He received not his power and wisdom from another, and therefore is not Subject to any for the rule of his Government. He only made his own Subjects, and from himself hath the sole Authority; his own will was the cause of their beings, and his own will is the director of their actions. He is not determined by his Creatures, in any of his motions, but determines the Creatures in all. His actions are not regulated by any Law without him, but by a Law within him, the Law of his own Nature. 'It is impossible he can have any rule without himself: because there is nothing Superior to himself. Nor doth he depend upon any in the exercise of his Government, he needs no Servants in it, when he uses Creatures it is not out of want of their help, but for the manifestation of his wisdom and power. What he doth by his Subjects, he can do by himself: The Government is upon his Shoulder, Isaiah 9.6. To show that he needs not any supporters. All other governments flow from him, all other Authorities depend upon him; Dei Gratiâ, or Dei Providentiâ is in the style of Princes. As their being is derived from his power, so their Authority is but a branch of his dominion. They are governors by Divine Providence; God is Governor by his sole nature. All motions depend upon the first Heaven, which moves all; but that depends upon nothing. The Government of Christ depends upon God's increated dominion, and is by Commission from him; Christ assumed not this honor to himself, But he that said unto him thou art my Son, bestowed it upon him. He put all things under his feet, but not himself. 1 Cor. 15.27. When he saith all things are put under him, he is excepted, which did put all things under him. He sits still as an independent Governor upon his Throne.
2. This dominion is Absolute. If his Throne be in the Heavens, there is nothing to control him. If he be independent, he must needs be • bsolute; since he hath no cause in conjunction with him as Creator, that can share with him in his right, or restrain him in the disposal of his Creature. His Authority is unlimited; in this regard the Title of Lord becomes not any but God properly. Tiberius though • ght none of the best, though one of the subtilest Princes, accounted the Title of Lord a reproach to him: Since he was not absolute.
1. Absolute in regard of Freedom and Liberty.
1. Thus Creation is a work of his mere Sovereignty; he Created, because it was his pleasure to Create. Rev. 4.11. He is not necessitated to do this or that. He might have chosen, whether he would have framed an Earth, and Heavens, and laid the foundations of his Chambers in the Waters. He was under no obligation, to reduce things from nullity to existence.
2. Preservation is the fruit of his Sovereignty. When he had called the World to stand out, he might have ordered it to return into its dark den of nothingness, ripped up every part of its foundation, or have given being to many more Creatures, than he did. If you consider his absolute sovereignty, why might he not have devested Adam presently of those rational perfections, wherewith he had endowed him? And might he not have metamorphos'd him into some Beast, and elevated some Beast into a rational nature? Why might he not have degraded an Angel to a Worm, and advanced a Worm to the nature and condition of an Angel? Why might he not have revokt that grant of dominion, which he had passed to man over all Creatures? It was free to him to permit sin to enter into the Earth, or to have excluded it out of the Earth, as he doth out of Heaven.
3. Redemption is a fruit of his Sovereignty. By his absolute Sovereignty he might have confirmed all the Angels in their standing by Grace, and prevented the revolt of any of their members from him; and when there was a revolt both in Heaven and Earth, it was free to him, to have called out his Son to assume the Angelical, as well as the human nature, or have exercised his dominion in the destruction of Men and Devils, rather than in the Redemption of any; he was under no obligation, to restore either the one or the other.
4. May he not impose what terms he pleases? May he not impose what Laws he please, and exact what he will of his Creature without promising any Rewards? May he not use his own for his own honor, as well as men use for their credit what they do possess by his indulgence?
5. Affliction is an act of his Sovereignty. By this right of Sovereignty may not God take away any man's Goods, since they were his doles? As he was not indebted to us, when he bestowed them, so he cannot wrong us, when he removes them. He takes from us what is more his own, than it is ours, and was never ours but by his gift, and that for a time only, not forever. By this right, he may determine our times, put a period to our days, when he pleases, strip us of one member, and lop off another. Man's being was from him, and why should he not have a Sovereignty to take, what he had a Sovereignty to give? Why should this seem strange to any of us, since we ourselves exercise an absolute Dominion over those things in our possession, which have sense, and feeling; as well as over those that want it? Doth not every man think, he hath an absolute Authority over the Utensils of his house, over his Horse, his Dog, to preserve, or kill him, to do what he please with him, without rendering any other reason, than 'tis my own? May not God do much more? Doth not his dominion over the work of his hands transcend that which a man can claim over his Beast, that he never gave life unto? He that dares dispute against God's absolute right, fancies himself as much a God as his Creator; understands not the vast difference between the Divine nature and his own; between the Sovereignty of God and his own, which is all the theam God himself discourseth upon in those stately Chapters. Job 38, 39. &c. Not mentioning a Word of Job's sin, but only vindicating the rights of his own Authority. Nor doth Job in his reply, Job 40.4. speak of his sin, but of his natural vileness as a Creature in the presence of his Creator.
By this right; God unstops the Bottles of Heaven in one place, and stops them in another, causing it to Rain upon one City, and not upon another, Amos 4.7. Ordering the Clouds to move to this or that quarter where he hath a mind to be a Benefactor or a Judge.
6. Unequal dispensations are acts of his Sovereignty. By this right, he is patient toward those, whose sins by the common voice of men deserve speedy Judgments, and pours out pain upon those, that are patterns of virtue to the World. By this he gives sometimes the worst of men an Ocean of wealth and honor to swim in, and reduceth an useful and exemplary grace to a scanty poverty. By this he Rules the Kingdoms of men, and sets a Crown upon the head of the basest of men, Dan. 4.17. While he deposeth another, that seemed to deserve a weightier Diadem. This is, as he is the Lord of the Ammunition of his Thunders, and the Treasures of his Bounty.
7. He may inflict what torments he pleases. Some say by this right of Sovereignty he may inflict what torments he pleaseth upon an innocent person; which indeed will not bear the nature of a punishment as an effect of Justice, without the supposal of a crime; but a torment, as an effect of that Sovereign right he hath over his Creature, which is as absolute over his work, as the Potters power is over his own Clay, Jerem. 18.6. Rom. 9.21. May not the Potter after his labor, either set his vessel up to adorn his House, or knock it in pieces, and fling it upon the Dunghill; separate it to some noble use, or condemn it to some sordid service. Is the right of God over his Creatures less than that of the Potter over his Vessel, since God contributed all to his Creature, but the Potter never made the Clay, which is the substance of the Vessel, nor the water which was necessary, to make it tractable, but only molded the substance of it into such a shape? The Vessel that is framed, and the Potter that frames it differ only in Life, the body of the Potter whereby he executes his Authority, is of no better a mould than the Clay the matter of his Vessel; shall he have so absolute a power over that, which is so near him, and shall not God over that which is so infinitely distant from him? The Vessel perhaps might plead for its self, that it was once part of the Body of a man, and as good as the Potter himself; whereas no Creature can plead, it was part of God, and as good as God himself. Though there be no man in the World, but deserves affliction, yet the Scripture sometimes lays affliction upon the score of God's dominion, without any respect to the sin of the afflicted person. James 5.15. Speaking of a sick person, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him, whereby is implied, that he might be struck into sickness by God without any respect to a particular sin, but in a way of Trial; and that his affliction sprung not from any exercise of Divine Justice, but from his absolute sovereignty. And so in the case of the blind man, when the Disciples asked, for what sin it was, whether for his own, or his Parents sin he was born blind, John 9.3. Neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents; which speaks in its self not against the whole current of Scripture; but the words import thus much, that God in this blindness from the birth, neither respected any sin of the man's own, nor of his Parents, but he did it as an absolute sovereign, to manifest his own Glory in that miraculous cure, which was wrought by Christ. Though afflictions do not happen without the desert of the Creature, yet some afflictions may 〈◊〉 sent without any particular respect to that desert, merely for the manifestation of God's Glory, since the Creature was made for God himself, and his honor, and therefore may be used in a serviceableness to the Glory of the Creator.
2. His Dominion is absolute in regard of unlimitedness by any Law without him. He is an absolute Monarch, that makes Laws for his Subjects, but is not bound by any himself, nor receives any rules, and Laws from his Subjects for the management of his Government. But most Governments in the World are bounded by Laws made by common consent. But when Kings are not limited by the Laws of their Kingdoms, yet they are bounded by the Law of Nature, and by the Providence of God. But God is under no Law without himself, his rule is within him, the rectitude and Righteousness of his own nature, he is not under that Law he hath prescribed to man. The Law was not made for a Righteous man, 1 Tim. 1.9. Much less for a Righteous God. God is his own Law, his own nature is his rule, as his own Glory is his end, himself is his end, and himself is his Law. He is moved by nothing without himself, nothing hath the dominion of a motive over him but his own will, which is his rule for all his actions in Heaven and Earth. Dan. 4.32. He rules in the Kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will. And Rom. 9.18. He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy; As all things are wrought by him according to his own eternal Ideas in his own mind, so all is wrought by him according to the inward motive in his own will, which was the manifestation of his own honor. The greatest motives therefore that the best persons have used, when they have pleaded for any grant from God, was his own Glory, which would be advanced by an answer of their Petition.
3. His dominion is absolute in regard of Supremacy and uncontroulableness. None can implead him, and cause him to render a reason of his actions. He is the Sovereign King, Who may say unto him what dost thou? Eccles. 8.4. 'It is an absurd thing for any to dispute with God. Rom. 9.20. Who art thou, O Man, that repliest against God? Thou a man, a piece of dust, to argue with a God, incomprehensibly above thy reason about the reason of his works. Let the Potsheards strive with the Potsheards of the Earth, but not with him that fashioned them. Isaiah 45.9. In all the desolations he works, he asserts his own Supremacy to silence men. Psal. 46.10. Be still, and know, that I am God? Beware of any quarrelling motions in your minds, 'tis sufficient, that I am, God, that is supreme, and will not be impleaded, and censured, or worded with by any Creature about what I do. He is not bound to render a reason of any of his proceedings. Subjects are accountable to their Princes, and Princes to God, God to none; since he is not limited by any Superior, his Prerogative is supreme.
4. His dominion is absolute in regard of Irresistibleness. Other Governments are bounded by Law, so that what a Governor hath strength to do, he hath not a right to do. Other Governors have a limited ability, that what they have a right to do, they have not always a strength to do, they may want a power, to execute their own Counsels. But God is destitute of neither; he hath an infinite right, and an infinite strength; his word is a Law, he commands things, to stand out of nothing, and they do so. He commanded, or spake 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , light to shine out of darkness, 2 Cor. 4.6. There is no distance of time between his word, Let there be Light, and there was Light. Gen. 1.3. Magistrates often use not their Authority for fear of giving occasion to insurrections, which may overturn their Empire. But if the Lord will work, Who shall let it? Isaiah 43.19. And if God will not work, who shall force him? He can check, and overturn all other powers, his decrees cannot be stopped, nor his hand held back by any; if he wills to dash the whole World in pieces, no Creature can maintain its being against his order. He sets the Ordinances of the Heavens, and the dominion thereof in the Earth. And sends Lightnings, that they may go, and say unto him, here we are. Job 38.33.34.
3. Yet this dominion though it be absolute, is not Tyrannical, but 'tis managed by the rules of Wisdom, Righteousness, and Goodness. If his Throne be in the Heavens, it is Pure, and Good: Because the Heavens are the purest parts of the Creation, and influence by their Goodness the lower Earth. Since he is his own rule, and his nature is infinitely Wise, Holy, and Righteous, he cannot do a thing, but what is unquestionably agreeable with Wisdom, Justice and Purity. In all the exercises of his Sovereign right, he is never unattended with those perfections of his Nature. Might not God by his absolute power have pardoned men's guilt, and thrown the invading sin out of his Creatures? But in regard of his Truth pawn'd in his threatening, and in regard of his Justice, which demanded satisfaction, he would not. Might not God by his absolute sovereignty admit a man into his Friendship, without giving him any Grace? But in regard of the incongruity of such an act to his Wisdom and Holiness, he will not. May he not by his absolute power, refuse to accept a man, that desires to please him, and reject a purely innocent Creature? But in regard of his Goodness and Righteousness he will not. Though innocence be amiable in its own Nature, yet it is not necessary in regard of God's sovereignty, that he should love it; but in regard of his goodness it is necessary, and he will never do otherwise. As God never acts to the utmost of his power, so he never exerts the utmost of his sovereignty: because it would be inconsistent with those other properties, which render him perfectly adorable to the Creature. As no intelligent Creature, neither Angel nor Man can be framed without a Law in his Nature; so we cannot imagine God without a Law in his own Nature, unless we would fancy him a rude, Tyrannical, foolish Being, that hath nothing of Holiness, Goodness, Righteousness, Wisdom. If he made the Heavens in Wisdom, Psal. 136.5. He made them by some rule, not by a mere will, but a rule within himself, not without. A wise work is never the result of an absolute unguided Will.
1. This dominion is managed by the rule of Wisdom. What may appear to us, to have no other spring than absolute sovereignty, would be found to have a depth of amazing Wisdom, and accountable reason, were our short capacities long enough to fathom it. When the Apostle had been discoursing of the eternal Counsels of God, in seizing upon one man, and letting go another, in rejecting the Jews and gathering in the Gentiles, which appears to us to be results only of an absolute dominion, yet he resolves not those amazing acts into that, without taking it for granted, that they were governed by exact Wisdom, though beyond his ken to see, and his line to sound. Rom. 11.33. Oh the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his Judgments, and his Ways past finding out? There are some things in matters of state, that may seem to be acts of mere Will, but if we were acquainted with the Arcana Imperii, the inward Engines which moved them, and the ends aimed at in those undertakings, we might find a rich vein of prudence in them, to incline us to Judge otherwise than bare Arbitrary proceedings. The other Attributes of Power and Goodness are more easily perceptible in the works of God, than his Wisdom. The first view of the Creation strikes us with this sentiment, that the Author of this great Fabric was mighty, and beneficial; but his Wisdom lies deeper, than to be discerned at the first glance without a diligent enquiry. As at the first casting our eyes upon the Sea, we behold its motion, color, and something of its vastness, but we cannot presently fathom the depth of it, and understand those lower Fountains, that supply that great Ocean of Waters: 'It is part of God's Sovereignty, as it is of the wisest Princes, that he hath a Wisdom beyond the reach of his Subjects; 'tis not for a finite nature to understand an infinite Wisdom, nor for a foolish Creature that hath lost his understanding by the fall, to judge of the reason of the methods of a wise Counselor. Yet those actions that savor most of Sovereignty, present men with some glances of his Wisdom. Was it mere will, that he suffered some Angels to fall? But his Wisdom was in it for the manifestation of his Justice; as it was also in the case of Pharaoh. Was it mere will, that he suffered sin to be committed by man? was not his Wisdom in this for the discovery of his mercy, which never had been known without that, which should render a Creature miserable? Rom. 11.32. He hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have Mercy upon all. Though God had such an absolute right, to have annihilated the World, as soon as ever he had made it, yet how had this consisted with his Wisdom, to have erected a Creature after his own image one day, and despised it so much the next, as to Cashier it from Being? What Wisdom had it been, to make a thing, only to destroy it? To repent of his work as soon as ever it came out of his hands, without any occasion offered by the Creature. If God be supposed to be Creator, he must be supposed to have an end in Creation; what End can that be but himself and his own Glory, the manifestation of the perfections of his Nature? What perfection could have been discovered in so quick an annihilation, but that of his power in Creating, and of his Sovereignty in snatching away the Being of his Rational Creature, before it had laid the methods of acting? What Wisdom to make a World, and a reasonable Creature for no use? Not to Praise, and Honor him, but to be broken in pieces, and destroyed by him?
2. His Sovereignty is managed according to the rule of Righteousness. Worldly Princes often fancy Tyranny and Oppression to be the chief marks of Sovereignty, and think their Scepters not beautiful, till died in blood, nor the Throne secure, till established upon slain Carkasses. But Justice and Judgment are the Foundation of the Throne of God, Psal. 89.14. Alluding perhaps to the supporters of Arms, and Thrones, which among Princes are the figures of Lions, Emblems of Courage, as Solomon had, 1 Kings 10.19. But God makes not so much might, as right the support of his. He sits on a Throne of Holiness. Psal. 47.8. As he reigns over the Heathens, referring to the calling of the Gentiles after the rejecting the Jews; the Psalmist here praising the Righteousness of it, as the Apostle had the unsearchable Wisdom of it. Rom. 11.33. In all his ways he is Righteous, Psal. 145.17. In his ways of Terror, as well as those of sweetness; in those works wherein little else but that of his Sovereignty appears to us. 'It is always linked with his Holiness, that he will not do by his absolute right anything but what is conformable to it: since his dominion is founded upon the excellency of his Nature, he will not do anything but what is agreeable to it, and becoming his other perfections. Though he be an absolute Sovereign, he is not an Arbitrary Governor; Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? Gen. 18.25. i. e. 'It is impossible, but he should act righteously in every punctilio of his Government, Since his Righteousness capacitates him to be a Judge, not a Tyrant of all the Earth. The Heathen Poets represented their chief God Jupiter with Themis, or Right, sitting by him upon his Throne in all his Orders. God cannot by his absolute Sovereignty command some things: Because they are directly against unchangeable Righteousness as to command a Creature to hate, or blaspheme the Creator, not to own him, nor praise him. It would be a manifest unrighteousness, to order the Creature not to own him, upon whom he depends both in its being and well being: This would be against that natural duty, which is indispensably due from every rational Creature to God. This would be to order him, to lay aside his reason while he retains it, to disown him to be the Creator, while man remains his Creature. This is repugnant to the Nature of God, and the true nature of the Creature: Or to exact anything of man, but what he had given him a capacity, in his original nature to perform. If any command were above our natural power, it would be unrighteous; as to command a man to grasp the Globe of the Earth, to stride over the Sea, to lave out the waters of the Ocean; these things are impossible, and become not the Righteousness and Wisdom of God to enjoin. There can be no obligation on man to an impossibility. God had a free dominion over nullity before the Creation, he could call it out into the being of man and beast: But he could not do anything in Creation foolishly because of his infinite Wisdom; nor could he by the right of his absolute Sovereignty make man sinful, because of his infinite purity. As it is impossible for him not to be Sovereign; 'It is impossible for him to deny his Deity, and his purity. 'It is Lawful for God to do what he will, but his will being ordered by the Righteousness of his nature, as infinite as his will, he cannot do anything but what is just; and therefore in his dealing with men, you find him in Scripture submitting the reasonableness and equity of his proceedings to the Judgment of his depraved Creatures, and the inward dictates of their own Consciences. Isaiah 5.3. And now, Oh Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge I pray you, between me and my Vineyard. Though God be the great Sovereign of the World, yet he acts not in a way of absolute Sovereignty.
He rules by Law, he is a Lawgiver, as well as a King, Isaiah 33.22. It had been repugnant to the nature of a rational Creature, to be ruled otherwise; to be governed as a beast, this had been to frustrate those Faculties of Will and Understanding, which had been given him. To conclude this; when we say, God can do this or that, or command this or that his Authority is not bounded, and limited properly. Who can reasonably detract from his Almightiness, because he cannot do anything, which savors of weakness; and what detracting is it from his Authority, that he cannot do anything unseemly for the dignity of his nature? 'It is rather from the infiniteness of his Righteousness than the straitness of his Authority; at most it is but a voluntary bounding his dominion by the Law of his own Holiness.
3. His Sovereignty is managed according to the rule of Goodness. Some Potentates there have been in the World, that have loved to suck the blood, and drink the tears of their Subjects, that would rule more by fear than love, like Clearchus the Tyrant of Heraclia, who bore the figure of a Thunderbolt instead of a Scepter, and named his Son Thunder; thereby to Tutor him, to terrify his Subjects. But as God's Throne is a Throne of Holiness, so it is a Throne of Grace. Heb. 4.16. A Throne encircled with a Rainbow. Revel. 4.23. In sight like to an Emerald. An Emblem of the Covenant, that hath the pleasantness of a green color, delightful to the eye, betokening Mercy. Though his Nature be infinitely excellent above us, and his power infinitely transcendent over us, yet the Majesty of his Government is tempered with an unspeakable Goodness. He acts not so much as an absolute Lord, as a gracious Sovereign and obliging Benefactor. He delights not to make his Subjects slaves. Exacts not of them any servile and fearful, but a generous and cheerful obedience. He requires them not to Fear or Worship him so much for his power as his Goodness. He requires not of a rational Creature anything repugnant to the Honor, Dignity, and Principles of such a nature; not anything that may shame, disgrace it, and make it weary of its own being, and the service it owes to its Sovereign. He draws by the cords of a man; his Goodness renders his Laws as sweet as Honey or the Honey Comb to an unvitiated Palate, and a renewed mind. And though it be granted, he hath a full dispose of his Creature, as the Potter of his Vessel, and might by his absolute Sovereignty inflict upon an innocent an eternal torment, yet his Goodness will never permit him to use this Sovereign right to the hurt of a Creature, that deserves it not. If God should cast an innocent Creature into the furnace of his wrath, who can question him? But who can think, that his Goodness will do so? Since that is as infinite as his Authority? As not to punish the sinner, would be a denial of his Justice, so to torment an innocent, would be a denial of his Goodness. A man hath an absolute power over his Beast, and may take away his Life, and put him to a great deal of pain; but that moral virtue of Pity and Tenderness would not permit him to use this right, but when it conduceth to some greater good, than that can be evil; either for the good of man which is the end of the Creature, or for the good of the poor beast itself, to rid him of a greater misery: None but a savage nature, a disposition to be abhor'd, would torture a poor beast merely for his pleasure. 'It is as much against the nature of God, to punish one eternally, that hath not deserved it, as it is to deny himself, and act anything foolishly, and unbeseeming his other perfections, which render him Majestical, and adorable. To afflict an innocent Creature for his own good, or for the good of the World, as in the case of the Redeemer, is so far from being against Goodness, that it is the highest Testimony of his tender Bowels to the Sons of men. God though he be Mighty, withdraws not his Eyes, i. e. his tender respect from the Righteous, Job 36.5, 7, 8.9, 10. And if he bind them in Fetters, 'tis to show them their Transgressions, and open their Ear to Discipline, and renewing commands in a more sensible strain, to depart from iniquity. What was said of Fabritius, you may as soon remove the Sun from its course, as Fabritius from his honesty; may be of God, you may as soon dash in pieces his Throne, as separate his Goodness from his Sovereignty.
4. Proposition, This Sovereignty is extensive over all Creatures. He rules all, as the Heavens do over the Earth. He is King of Worlds, King of Ages, as the word translated eternal signifies, 1 Tim. 1.17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . And the same word is so translated, Heb. 1.2. By whom also he made the Worlds, the same word is rendered Worlds, Heb. 11.3. The Worlds were framed by the Word of God. God is King of Ages or Worlds, of the invisible World, and the sensible, of all from the beginning of their Creation, of whatsoever is measured by a time. It extends over Angels and Devils, over wicked and good, over rational, and irrational Creatures; all things bow down under his hand, nothing can be exempted from him: Because there is nothing but was extracted by him from nothing into being. All things Essentially depend upon him: And therefore must be Essentially Subject to him; the extent of his dominion flows from the perfection of his Essence, since his Essence is unlimited, his Royalty cannot be restrained. His Authority is as void of any imperfection, as his Essence is; it reaches out to all points of the Heaven above, and the Earth below. Other Princes Reign in a spot of ground. Every worldly Potentate hath the confines of his dominions. The Pyrenean Mountains divide France from Spain, and the Alps, Italy from France. None are called Kings absolutely, but Kings of this or that place. But God is the King, the spacious Firmament limits not his dominion. If we could suppose him bounded by any place in regard of his presence; yet he could never be out of his own dominion; whatsoever he looks upon, wheresoever he were, would be under his rule. Earthly Kings may step out of their own Country into the Territory of a Neighbor Prince; and as one leaves his Country, so he leaves his dominion behind him; but Heaven and Earth and every particle of both is the Territory of God. He hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens, and his Kingdom Rules over all.
1. The Heaven of Angels and other excellent Creatures belong to his Authority. He is principally called the Lord of Hosts in relation to his entire command over the Angelical Legions: Therefore Verse 21. following the Text, they are called his Hosts, and Ministers that do his pleasure. Jacob called him so before. Gen. 32.1, 2. When he met the Angels of God, he calls them the Host of God, and the Evangelist long after calls them so. Luke 2.13. A multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and all this Host he commands. Isaiah 45.12. My hands have stretched out the Heavens, and all their Host have I commanded. He employs them all in his service, and when he issues out his orders to them, to do this or that, he finds no resistance of his Will.
And the inanimate Creatures in Heaven are at his beck, they are his Armies in Heaven, disposed in an excellent order in their several ranks, Psalm 147.4. He calls the Starrs by Name; they render a due obedience to him, as Servants to their Master; when he singles them out, and calls them by Name, to do some special service, he calls them out to their several Offices, as the General of an Army appoints the station of every Regiment in a Battalia. Or he calls them by Name. i. e. He imposeth names upon them, a sign of dominion. The giving Names to the inferior Creatures being the first act of Adam 's derivative dominion over them. These are under the Sovereignty of God. The Starrs by their influences fight against Sisera. Judge. 5.20. And the Sun holds in its Reins, and stands stone still, to light Joshua to a complete victory, Josh. 10.12. They are all marshall'd in their ranks, to receive his word of command, and fight in close order, as being desirous to have a share in the ruin of the Enemies of their Sovereign. And those Creatures which mount up from the Earth, and take their place in the lower Heavens, Vapours whereof Hail and Snow are formed, are part of the Army, and do not only receive, but fulfill his word of Command, Psal. 148.8. These are his stores and Magazines of Judgment against a time of trouble, and a day of Battle and Warr, Job 38.22, 23. The Sovereignty of God is visible in all their motions, in their going and returning. If he says go, they go, if he say come, they come, if he say do this, they gird up their Loins, and stand stiff to their duty.
2. The Hell of Devils belong to his Authority. They have cast themselves out of the Arms of his Grace into the Furnace of his Justice; they have by their revolt forfeited the Treasure of his Goodness, but cannot exempt themselves from the Scepter of his dominion; when they would not own him as a Lord Father, they are under him as a Lord Judge, they are cast out of his affection, but not freed from his yoke. He rules over the good Angels as his Subjects, over the evil ones as his Rebels. In whatsoever relation he stands, either as a Friend or Enemy, he never loses that of a Lord. A Prince is the Lord of his Criminals, as well as of his Loyallest Subjects. By this right of his Sovereignty, he uses them to punish some, and be the occasion of benefit to others; on the wicked he employs them as instruments of vengeance, towards the Godly, as in the case of Job, as an Instrument of kindness for the manifestation of his sincerity against the intention of that malicious Executioner. Though the Devils are the Executioners of his Justice, 'tis not by their own Authority but God's; as those that are employed either to rack, or execute a Malefactor, are Subjects to the Prince not only in the quality of Men, but in the execution of their function. The Devil by drawing men to sin acquires no right to himself over the sinner: For man by sin offends not the Devil, but God; and becomes guilty of punishment under God. When therefore the Devil is used by God for the punishment of any, 'tis an act of his Sovereignty for the manifestation of the order of his Justice. And as most Nations use the vilest persons in Offices of execution, so doth God those vile Spirits. He doth not ordinarily use the good Angels in those Offices of vengeance, but in the preservation of his People. When he would solely punish, he employs evil Angels. Psal. 78.49. A Troop of Devils. His Sovereignty is extended over the deceiver and the deceived. Job 12.16. Over both the Malefactor and the Executioner, the Devil and his Prisoner. He useth the natural malice of the Devils for his own just ends, and by his Sovereign Authority orders them to be the Executioners of his Judgments upon their own vassals, as well as sometimes inflicters of punishments upon his own Servants.
3. The Earth of men, and other Creatures belongs to his Authority. Psal. 47.7. God is King of all the Earth, and rules to the ends of it. Psal. 59.13. Ancient Atheists confined God's dominion to the heavenly Orbs, and bounded it within the Circuit of the Celestial Sphere, Job 22.14. He walks in the Circuit of Heaven. i. e. he exerciseth his dominion only there. Pedum positio was the sign of the possession of a piece of Land, and the Dominion of the possessor of it; and Land was resigned by such a Ceremony, as now by the delivery of a Twig or Turf.
But his Dominion extends.
1. Over the least Creatures. All the Creatures of the Earth are listed in Christ's Muster-roll, and make up the number of his Regiments. He hath an Host on Earth, as well as in Heaven. Gen. 2.1. The Heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the Host of them. And they are all his Servants, Psal. 119.91. and move at his peasure. And he vouchsafes the Title of his Army to the Locust, Caterpillar, and Palmer Worm, Joel. 2.25. And describes their motions by Military Words, climbing the walls, marching not breaking their ranks. Verse 7. He hath the command as a great General over the highest Angel, and the meanest Worm; all the kinds of the smallest Insects he presseth for his service. By this Sovereignty he muzzled the devouring nature of the fire, to preserve the three Chi • dren, and let it loose to consume their adversaries; and if he speaks the word the stormy Waves are hush, as if they had no Principle of rage within them. Psal. 89.9. Since the meanest Creature attains it end, and no arrow that God hath by his power shot into the World, but hits the mark he aimed at; we must conclude, that there is a Sovereign hand, that governs all. Not a spot of Earth, or Air, or Water in the World, but is his possession, not a Creature in any Element, but is his Subject.
2. His Dominion extends over Men. It extends over the highest Potentate, as well as the meanest Peasant, the proudest Monarch is no more exempt than the most languishing Beggar. He lays not aside his Authority to please the Prince, nor strains it up to terrify the indigent. He accepts not the persons of Princes, nor regards the rich more than the Poor: For they are all the work of his hands. Job 34.19. Both the powers and weaknesses, the Gallantry and Peasantry of the Earth stand and fall at his pleasure. Man in innocence was under his Authority as his Creature, and man in his revolt, is further under his Authority as a Criminal. As a Person is under the Authority of a Prince as a Governor, while he obeys his Laws, and further under the Authority of the Prince as a Judge, when he violates his Laws. Man is under God's dominion in everything, in his settlement, in his calling, in the ordering his very Habitation. Acts 17.26. He determines the bounds of their Habitations. He never yet permitted any to be universal Monarch in the World, nor over the fourth part of it, though several in the Pride of their heart, have designed, and attempted it. The Pope who hath bid the fairest for it in Spirituals, never attained it, and when his power was most flourishing, there were multitudes, that would never acknowledge his Authority.
3. But especially this dominion in the peculiarity of its extent, is seen in the exercise of it over the Spirits and Hearts of Men. Earthly Governors have by his indulgence a share with him in a dominion over men's bodies, upon which account he graceth Princes and Judges with the Title of God's. Psal. 82.6. But the highest Prince is but a Prince according to the Flesh, as the Apostle calls Masters in relation to their Servants. Colos. 3.22.
God is the Sovereign; Man rules over the Beast in Man, the Body; and God rules over the Man in Man, the Soul. It sticks not in the outward surface, but pierceth to the inward Marrow. 'It is impossible God should be without this; if our wills were independent on him, we were in some sort equal with himself, in part God's as well as Creatures. 'It is impossible a Creature, either in whole or in part, can be exempted from it: Since he is the fashioner of hearts as well as of Bodies. He is the Father of Spirits: And therefore hath the right of a paternal dominion over them. When he established man Lord of the other Creatures, he did not strip himself of the propriety. And when he made man a free Agent, and Lord of the acts of his Will, he did not devest himself of the Sovereignty.
His Sovereignty is seen,
1. In Gifting of the Spirits of Men. Earthly Magistrates have hands too short, to inspire the Hearts of their Subjects with worthy sentiments. When they confer an employment, they are not able to convey an ability with it fit for the station. They may as soon frame a Statue of liquid water, and guild, or paint it over with the costliest colors, as impart to any a State-Head, for a State-Ministry. But when God chooseth a Saul from so mean an employment as seeking of Asses, he can treasure up in him a Spirit fit for Government. And fire David, in Age a stripling, and by Education a Shepherd, with Courage to Encounter, and skill to defeat a massy Goliath. And when he designs a person for Glory, to stand before his Throne, he can put a new and a Royal Spirit into him. Ezek. 36.26. God only can infuse habits into the Soul, to capacitate it to act nobly and generously.
2. His Sovereignty is seen in regard of the inclinations of men's Wills. No Creature can immediately work upon the will, to guide it to what point he pleaseth, though mediately it may, by proposing reasons which may Master the understandi • g, and thereby determine the Will. But God bows the Hearts of men by the 〈◊〉 of his dominion, to what Centre he pleaseth. When the more overweeni • g sort of men, that thought their own heads as fit for a Crown as Saul's, scornfully d • spis'd him, yet God touched the hearts of a band of men, to follow and adhere to him, 1 Sam. 10.26, 27. When the Anti-Christian Whore shall be ripe for destruction, God shall put it into the Heart of the ten Horns or Kings, to hate the Whore, burn her with Fire, and fulfil his Will. Rev. 17.16, 17. He Fashions the Hearts alike, and tunes one string to answer another, and both to answer his own design. Psal. 33.15. And while men seem to gratify their own ambition and malice, they execute the Will of God by his secret touch upon their Spirits, guiding their inclinations, to serve the glorious manifestation of his Truth. While the Jews would in a reproachful disgrace to Christ, Crucify two Thieves with him, to render him more uncapable to have any followers; they accomplisht a Prophesy, and brought to light a mark of the Messiah, whereby he had been charactered in one of their Prophets; Isaiah 53.12. That he should be numbered among Transgressors. He can make a man of not willing, willing; the wills of all men are in his hand. i. e. under the power of his Scepter, to retain, or let go upon this or that Errand, to bend this or that way, as Water is carried by Pipes, to what house or place the owner of it is pleased to order. Prov. 21.1. The Kings Heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the Rivers of waters he turns it, whithersoever he will, without any limitation. He speaks of the Heart of Princes: Because in regard of their height they seem to be more absolute and impetuous as waters; yet God holds them in his hand, under his dominion, turns them to acts of clemency or severity, like waters, either to overflow and damage, or to refresh and fructify. He can convey a Spirit to them, or cut it off from them. Psal. 76.12. 'It is with reference to his efficacious power, in graciously turning the Heart of Paul, that the Apostle breaks of his discourse off the story of his conversion, and breaks out into a magnifying, and glorifying of God's dominion. 1 Tim. 1.17. Now unto the King eternal, &c. be Honor and Glory forever and ever. Our Hearts are more subject to the divine Sovereignty, than our members in their motions are subject to our own wills. As we can move our hand East or West to any quarter of the World, so can God bend our Wills to what mark he pleases. The second Cause in every motion depends upon the first, and that will, being a second Cause, may be furthered, or hindered in its inclinations or executions by God; he can bend or unbend it, and change it from one actual inclination to another. 'It is as much under his Authority and Power to move, or hinder, as the vast engine of the Heavens is in its motion or standing still, which he can effect by a word. The work depends upon the workman; the Clock upon the Artificer for the motions of it.
3. His dominion is seen in regard of Terror or Comfort. The Heart or Conscience is God's special Throne on Earth, which he hath reserved to himself, and never indulged human Authority to sit upon it. He solely orders this in ways of conviction or Comfort. He can flash terror into men's Spirits in the midst of their Earthly jollities, and put death into the pot of Conscience, when they are boiling up themselves in a high pitch of worldly delights; and can raise men's Spirits above the sense of torment under Racks, and Flames. He can draw a hand Writing not only in the outward Chamber but the inward Closet, bring the Rack into the inwards of a Man. None can infuse Comfort, when he writes bitter things, nor can any fill the heart with Gall, when he drops in Honey. Men may order outward duties, but they cannot unlock the Conscience, and constrain men, to think them duties, which they are forced by human Laws, outwardly to act. And as the Laws of earthly Princes are bounded by the outward man, so do their executions and punishments reach no further than the case of the Body. But God can run upon the inward man as a Giant, and inflict wounds and gashes there.
5. Proposition, 'It is an Eternal Dominion. In regard of the exercise of it, it was not from Eternity: Because there was not from Eternity any Creature under the Government of it; but in regard of the foundation of it, his Essence, his Excellency, 'tis Eternal: As God was from eternity Almighty, but there was no exercise or manifestation of it, till he began to Create. Men are Kings only for a time, their lives expire like a Lamp, and their dominion is extinguished with their lives; they hand their Empire by Succession to others, but many times it is snapped off, before they are cold in their Graves. How are the famous Empires of the Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, and Greeks mouldred away, and their place knows them no more? And how are the wings of the Roman Eagle cut, and that Empire which overspread a great part of the World, hath lost most of its Feathers, and is confined to a narrower compass. The dominion of God flourisheth from one Generation to another. He sits King forever, Psal. 29.10. His session signifies the establishment and forever the duration, and he sits now, his Sovereignty is as absolute, as powerful as ever. How many Lord's and Princes hath this or that Kingdom had? In how many Families hath the Scepter lodged? When as God hath had an uninterrupted dominion. As he hath been always the same in his Essence, he hath been always glorious in his Sovereignty. Among men, he that is Lord today, may be stripped of it tomorrow; the dominions in the World vary, he that is a Prince may see his Royalty upon the Wings, and feel himself laden with Fetters. And a Prisoner may be lifted from his Dungeon to a Throne. But there can be no diminution of God's Government; His Throne is from Generation to Generation. Lament. 5.19. It cannot be shaken. His Scepter like Aaron's Rod is always's green. It cannot be wrested out of his hands; none raised him to it: N • ne therefore can depose him from it; it bears the same splendor in all human affairs, he is an eternal, an immortal King. 1 Tim. 1.17. As he is eternally Mighty, so he is eternally Sovereign, and being an eternal King, he is a King that gives not a momentary and perishing, but a durable and Everlasting Life to them that obey him: A durable and eternal punishment to them that resist him.
IIII. Wherein this Dominion and Sovereignty consists, and how 'tis manifested;
1. The first act of Sovereignty is the making Laws. This is Essential to God; no Creatures Will can be the first rule to the Creature but only the Will of God. He only can prescribe man his duty, and establish the rule of it; hence the Law is called the Royal Law. James 2.8. It being the first and clearest manifestation of Sovereignty; as the power of Legislation is of the Authority of a Prince. Both are join'd together in. Isaiah 53.22. The Lord is our Law-giver, the Lord is our King. Legislative power being the great mark of Royalty. God as a King enacts Laws by his own proper Authority, and his Law is a Declaration of his own Sovereignty, and of men's moral subjection to him, and dependence on him. His Sovereignty doth not appear so much in his promises as in his precepts: A man's power over another is not discovered by promising: For a promise doth not suppose the promiser either superior or inferior to the person, to whom the promise is made. 'It is not an exercising Authority over another, but over a man's self. No man forceth another to the acceptance of his promise, but only proposeth, and encourageth to an embracing of it. But commanding supposeth always an Authority in the person giving the precept. It obligeth the person, to whom the command is directed. A promise obligeth the person by whom the promise is made. God by his command binds the Creature, by his promise he binds himself. He stoops below his Sovereignty, to lay obligations upon his own Majesty. By a precept he binds the Creature, by a promise he encourageth the Creature to an observance of his precept. What Laws God makes, man is bound by virtue of his Creation to observe; that respects the Sovereignty of God. What promises God makes, man is bound to believe, but that respects the faithfulness of God. God manifested his dominion more to the Jews than to any other people in the World; He was their Lawgiver, both as they were a Church and a Commonwealth. As a Church, he gave them Ceremonial Laws, for the regulating their Worship. As a State, he gave them Judicial Laws, for the ordering their Civil Affairs; and as both he gave them Moral Laws, upon which both the Laws of the Church, and State were founded.
This dominion of God in this regard will be manifest.
1. In the Supremacy of it. The sole power of making Laws doth originally reside in him. James 4.12. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save, and to destroy. By his own Law he Judges of the eternal States of Men, and no Law of man is obligatory, but as it is agreeable to the Laws of this supreme Lawgiver, and pursuant to his righteous rules for the Government of the World. The power that the Potentates of the World have to makes Laws, is but derivative from God. If their dominion be from him, as it is: For by him Kings Reign. Prov. 8.15. Their Legislative power which is a prime flower of their Sovereignty, is derived from him also. And the Apostle resolves it into this original, when he orders us, to be subject to the higher powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake. Rom. 13.5. Conscience in its operations solely respects God: And therefore when it is exercised as the principle of Obedience to the Laws of Men, 'tis not with a respect to them singly considered, but as the Majesty of God appears in their station and in their decrees. This power of giving Laws was acknowledged by the Heathen, to be solely in God by way of original: And therefore the greatest Lawgivers among the Heathen pretended their Laws to be received from some Deity, or supernatural power by special Revelation; now whither they did this seriously, acknowledging themselves this part of the dominion of God: (For it is certain, that whatsoever just orders were issued out by Princes in the World, was by the secret influence of God upon their Spirits. Prov. 8.15. By me Princes Decree Justice, by the secret conduct of Divine Wisdom) or whither they pretended it only as a public Engine, to enforce upon people the observance of their Decrees, and gain a greater credit to their Edicts, yet this will result from it, that the people in general entertained this common notion, that God was the great Lawgiver of the World. The first founders of their Societies could never else have so absolutely gained upon them by such a pretence. These was always a Revelation of a Law from the mouth of God in every age: The exhortation of Eliphaz to Job, Job 22.22. Of receiving a Law from the mouth of God at the time before the Moral Law was published, had been a vain exhortation, had there been no revelation of the mind of God in all Ages.
2. The dominion of God is manifest in the extent of his Laws. As he is the Governor and Sovereign of the whole World, so he Enacts Laws for the whole World. One Prince cannot make Laws for another, unless he makes him his Subject by right of conquest. Spain cannot make Laws for England, or England for Spain. But God having the supreme Government as King over all, is a Lawgiver to all, to irrational, as well as rational Creatures. The Heavens have their Ordinances. Job 38.33. All Creatures have a Law imprinted on their beings. Rational Creatures have Divine Statutes Copied in their heart. For men it is clear. Rom. 2.14. Every Son of Adam at his coming into the World, brings with him a Law in his nature, and when reason clears itself up from the Clouds of sense, he can make some difference between Good and Evil; discern something of fit and just. Every man finds a Law within him, that checks him, if he offends it. No •• 〈◊〉 without a legal indictment, and a legal Executioner within them; God 〈…〉 was the Author of this as a Sovereign Lord, in establishing a Law i • man at the same time, wherein as an Almighty Creator he imparted a being. This Law proceeds from God's general power of governing, as he is the Author of nature, and binds not barely as it is the reason of man, but by the Authority of God, as it is a Law engraven on his Conscience. And no doubt but a Law was given to the Angels, God did not Govern those intellectual Creatures as he doth brutes, and in a way inferior to his rule of Man. Some sinned, all might have sinned in regard of the changeableness of their nature. Sin cannot be but against some rule: Where there is no Law, there is no Transgression; what that Law was, is not revealed, but certainly it must be the same in part with the Moral Law, so far as it agreed with their spiritual natures; a love to God, a Worship of him, and a love to one another in their Societies and Persons.
3. The dominion of God is manifest in the reason of some Laws, which seem to be nothing else than purely his own Will. Some Laws there are for which a reason may be rendered from the nature of the thing enjoined, as to Love, Honor and Worship God. For others, none but this, God will have it so; such was that positive Law to Adam of not eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Gen. 2.17. which was merely an asserting his own dominion, and was different from that Law of Nature God had written in his heart. No other reason of this seems to us but a resolve, to try man's Obedience in away of absolute Sovereignty, and to manifest his right over all Creatures, to reserve what he pleased to himself, and permit the use of what he pleased to man, and to signify to man, that he was to depend on him, who was his Lord, and not on his own will. There was no more hurt in itself, for Adam to have eaten of that, than of any other in the Garden; the Fruit was pleasant to the Eye, and Good for Food, but God would show the right he had over his own goods, and his Authority over man, to reserve, what he pleases of his own Creation from his touch; that since man could not claim a propriety in anything, he was to meddle with nothing but by the leave of his Sovereign; either discovered by a special or general License. Thus God shown himself the Lord of Man, and that man was but his Steward, to act by his Orders. If God had forbidden man the use of more Trees in the Garden, his command had been just: Since as a Sovereign Lord he might dispose of his own Goods; and when he had granted him the whole compass of that pleasant Garden, and the whole World round about for him and his posterity, it was a more tolerable exercise of his dominion, to reserve this one Tree, as a mark of his Sovereignty, when he had left all others to the use of Adam. He reserved nothing to himself as Lord of the Manor but this, and Adam was prohibited nothing else but this one, as a sign of his subjection. Now for this no reason can be rendered by any man but merely the Will of God, this was merely a fruit of his Dominion.
For the moral Laws a reason may be rendered; to Love God, hath reason to enforce it besides God's Will, viz. The Excellency of his Nature, and the greatness and multitudes of his benefits. To love our Neighbor, hath enforcing reasons, viz. the Conjunction in blood, and the preservation of human Society, and the need we may stand in of their love ourselves. But no reason can be assigned of this positive command about the Tree of knowledge of good and evil but merely the pleasure of God. It was a branch of his pure dominion, to try man's Obedience, and a mark of his Goodness to try it by so easy and light a precept, when he might have extended his Authority further. Had not God given this or the like order, his absolute dominion had not been so conspicuous. 'It is true, Adam had a Law of Nature in him, whereby he was obliged to perpetual Obedience, and though it was a part of God's dominion to implant it in him, yet his supreme dominion over the Creatures had not been so visible to man, but by this, or a precept of the same kind. What was commanded, or prohibited by the Law of Nature, did bespeak a comeliness in itself, it appeared Good or Evil to the reason of man, but this was neither Good nor Evil in itself, it received its sole Authority from the absolute Will of God, and nothing could result from the fruit itself, as a reason why man should not taste it, but only the sole Will of God. And as God's dominion was most conspicuous in this precept, so man's obedience had been most eminent in observing it. For in his obedience to it, nothing but the sole power and Authority of God, which is the proper rule of obedience, could have been respected, not any reason from the thing itself.
To this we may refer some other Commands, as that of appointing the time of solemn and public Worship, the seventh day; though the Worship of God be a part of the Law of Nature, yet the appointing a particular day, wherein he would be more formally and solemnly acknowledged than on other days, was grounded upon his absolute right of Legislation: For there was nothing in the time itself, that could render that day more Holy than another, though God respected his finishing the work of Creation in his institution of that day. Gen. 2.3. Such were the Ceremonial Commands of Sacrifices, and Washings under the Law, and the Commands of Sacraments under the Gospel: The one to last till the first Coming of Christ, and his Passion; the other to last till the second Coming of Christ, and his Triumph. Thus he made natural and unavoidable uncleannesses to be sins, and the touching a dead Body to be pollution, which in their own nature were not so.
4. The Dominion of God appears in the Moral Law, and his Majesty in publishing it. As the Law of Nature was writ by his own Fingers in the Nature of man, so it was Engraven by his own finger in the Tables of Stone; Exod. 31.18. Which is very emphatically expressed, to be a mark of God's Dominion. Exodus 32.16. And the Tables were the work of God, and the writing, was the writing of God Engraven upon the Tables; and when the first Tables were broken, though he orders Moses to frame the Tables, yet the writing of the Law, he reserves to himself. Exod. 34.1. 'It is not said of any part of the Scripture, that it was writ by the finger of God, but only of the Decalogue; herein he would have his Sovereignty eminently appear; it was publishit by God in state, with a numerous attendance of his heavenly Militia, Deut. 32.2. And the Artillery of Heaven was shot off at the solemnity: And therefore it is called a fiery Law, coming from his right hand, i. e. His Sovereign power. It was published with all the marks of supreme Majesty.
5. The Dominion of God appears in the Obligation of the Law, which reacheth the Conscience. The Laws of every Prince are framed for the outward conditions of Men; they do not by their Authority bind the Conscience; and what obligations do result from them upon the Conscience, is either from their being the same immediately with divine Laws, or as they are according to the just power of the Magistrate, founded on the Law of God. Conscience hath a protection from the King of Kings, and cannot be arrested by any human power. God hath given man but an Authority over half the man, and the worst half too, that which is of an Earthly original; but reserved the Authority over the better and more heavenly half to himself. The Dominion of earthly Princes extends only to the bodies of men, they have no Authority over the Soul, their punishment and rewards cannot reach it: And therefore their Laws by their single Authority cannot bind it, but as they are co-incident with the Law of God, or as the equity of them is subservient to the preservation of human Society, a regular and Righteous thing, which is the Divine end in Government, and so they bind, as they have a relation to God as the supreme Magistrate. The Conscience is only intelligible to God in its secret motions; and therefore only guidable by God; God only pierceth into the Conscience by his Eye: And therefore only can conduct it by his Rule. Man cannot tell whither we embrace this Law in our Heart and Consciences, or only in appearance. He only can Judge it. Luke 12.3, 4. And therefore he only can impose Laws upon it; 'tis out of the reach of human penal Authority, if their Laws be transgressed inwardly by it. Conscience is a Book in some sort as Sacred as the Scripture, no addition can be lawfully made to it, no subtraction from it. Men cannot diminish the duty of Conscience, or raze out the Law, God hath stamped upon it. They cannot put a supersedeas to the Writ of Conscience, or stop its mouth with a Noli Prosequi. They can make no addition by their Authority, to bind it; 'tis a flower in the Crown of Divine Sovereignty only.
2. His Sovereignty appears in a power of dispensing with his own Laws. 'It is as much a part of his Dominion, to dispense with his Laws, as to enjoin them; he only hath the power of relaxing his own right, no Creature hath power to do it; that would be to usurp a superiority over him, and order above God himself. Repealing or dispensing with the Law is a branch of Royal Authority. 'It is true, God will never dispense with those Moral Laws, which have an eternal reason in themselves, and their own nature; as for a Creature, to Fear, Love, and Honor God: this would be to dispense with his own Holiness, and the Righteousness of his Nature, to fully the purity of his own Dominion; it would write folly upon the first Creation of man after the Image of God, by writing mutability upon himself, in framing himself after the corrupted Image of man. It would null and frustrate the excellency of the Creature, wherein the Image of God mostly shines; nay it would be to dispense with a Creatures being a Creator, and make him independent upon the Sovereign of the World in Moral Obedience.
But God hath a right to dispense with the ordinary Laws of Nature in the inferior Creatures; he hath a power to alter their course by an arrest of Miracles, and make them come short, or go beyond his Ordinances established for them. He hath a right to make the Sun stand still, or move backward; to bind up the Womb of the Earth, and bar the influences of the Clouds, bridle in the rage of the fire, and the fury of Lions, make the liquid waters stand like a Wall, or pull up the dam, which he hath set to the Sea, and command it to overflow the neighbouring Countries. He can dispense with the natural Laws of the whole Creation, and strain every string beyond its ordinary pitch.
Positive Laws he hath reversed; as the Ceremonial Law given to the Jews: The very nature indeed of that Law required a repeal, and fell of Course; when that, which was intended by it, was come, it was of no longer significancy; as before it was a useful shadow, it would afterwards have been an empty one. Had not God took away this, Christianity had not in all likelihood been propagated among the Gentiles. This was the partition wall beetween Jews and Gentiles, Eph. 2.14. Which made them a distinct Family from all the World, and was the occasion of the enmity of the Gentiles against the Jews. When God had by bringing in, what was signified by those Rites, declared his decree for the ceasing of them; and when the Jews, fond of those Divine Institutions, would not allow him the right of repealing, what he had the Authority of enacting, he resolved for the asserting his Dominion, to bury them in the ruins of the Temple and City, and make them forever uncapable of practicing the main and Essential parts of them: For the Temple being the pillar of the legal Service, by demolishing that, God hath taken away their right of sacrificing, it being peculiarly annexed to that place; they have no Altar dignifyed with a fire from Heaven to consume their sacrifices, no legal High Priest to offer them, God hath by his Providence changed his own Law, as well as by his precept.
Yea he hath gone higher by virtue of his Sovereignty, and changed the whole scene and methods of his Government after the fall, from King Creator to King Redeemer. He hath revok'd the Law of works as a Covenant, released the penalty of it from the believing sinner, by transferring it upon the surety, who interposed himself by his own will and divine designation. He hath established another Covenant upon other promises in a higher root, with greater Privileges and easier terms. Had not God had this right of Sovereignty, not a man of Adam 's posterity could have been blessed; he, and they, must have lain groaning under the misery of the fall, which had rendered both himself and all in his Loins, unable to observe the Terms of the first Covenant.
He hath, as some speak, dispensed with his own Moral Law in some cases; in commanding Abraham to Sacrifice his Son, his only Son, a Righteous Son, a Son whereof he had the promise, that in Isaac should his Seed be called; yet he was commanded to Sacrifice him by the right of his absolute Sovereignty as the supreme Lord of the Lives of his Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm, whereby he bound his Subjects to this Law, not himself. Our Lives are due to him, when he calls for them, and they are a just for •• it to him, at the very moment we sin, at the very moment we come into the World by reason of the venom of our nature against him, and the disturbance the first sin of man (whereof we are inheritors) gave to his Glory. Had Abraham sacrificed his Son of his own head, he had sinned, yea in attempting it; but being Authoriz'd from Heaven, his act was Obedience to the Sovereign of the World, who had a power to dispense with his own Law; and with this Law he had before dispensed, in the case of Cain's Murder of Abel as to the immediate punishment of it with death, which indeed was settled afterwards by his Authority, but then omitted because of the paucity of men, and for the peopling the World; but settled afterwards, when there was almost, though not altogether, the like occasion of omitting it for a time.
3. His Sovereignty appears in punishing the Transgression of his Law.
1. This is a branch of God's Dominion as Lawgiver. So was the vengeance God would take upon the Amalekites. Exod. 17.16. The Lord hath sworn, that the Lord will have War. The Hebrew is, the hand upon the Throne of the Lord, as in the margent. As a Lawgiver he saves or destroys. James 4.12. He acts according to his own Law, in a congruity to the sanction of his own precepts; though he be an Arbitrary Lawgiver, appointing what Laws he pleases, yet he is not an Arbitrary Judge. As he commands nothing, but what he hath a right to command, so he punisheth none, but whom he hath a right to punish, and with such punishment as the Law hath denounced. All his acts of Justice and inflictions of Curses, are the effects of this Sovereign Dominion. Psal. 29.10. He sits King upon the Flouds. Upon the deluge of Waters wherewith he drowned the World, say some. 'It is a right belonging to the Authority of Magistrates, to pull up the infectious weeds, that corrupt a Common-Wealth. 'It is no less the right of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of all the Earth, to subject Criminals to his vengeance, after they have rendered themselves abominable in his Eyes, and carried themselves unworthy Subjects of so great and glorious a King. The first name whereby God is made known in Scripture, is Elohim. Gen. 1.1. In the beginning God Created the Heaven and Earth. A name which signifies his power of judging in the opinion of some Critics; from him it is derived to earthly Magistrates; their Judgment is said therefore to be the Judgment of God, Deut. 1.17. When Christ came, he proposed this great motive of Repentance from the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand; the Kingdom of his Grace, whereby to invite men; the Kingdom of his Justice in the punishment of the neglecters of it, whereby to terrify men. Punishments as well as Rewards belong to Royalty; it issued accordingly; those that believed and repented, came under his gracious Scepter; those that neglected, and rejected it, fell under his Iron Rod. Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple demolished, the Inhabitants lost their lives by the edge of the Sword, or linger'ed them out in the chains of a miserable Captivity. This term of Judge which signifies a Sovereign right to govern and punish Delinquents, Abraham gives him, when 〈◊〉 came, to root out the People of Sodom, and make them the examples of his ve • geance. Gen. 18.25.
2. Punishing the Transgressions of his Law; This is necessary branch of Dominion. His Sovereignty in making Laws would be a trifle, if there were not also an Authority to vindicate those Laws from Contempt and Injury; he would be a Lord only spurn'd at by Rebels. Sovereignty is not preserved without Justice. When the Psalmist speaks of the Majesty of God's Kingdom, he tells us, that Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne. Psal. 97.1, 2. These are the Engines of Divine dignity, which render him glorious and majestic. A Legislative power would be trampled on without executive; by this the reverential apprehensions of God are preserved in the W • rld. He is known to be Lord of the World, by the Judgments which he executes. Psal. 9.16. When he seems to have lost his dominion, or given it up in the World, he recovers it by punishment. When he takes some away with a Whirlwind, and in his Wrath, the natural consequence men make of it, is this, Surely there is a God that Judgeth the Earth. Psal. 58.9.11. He reduceth the Creature by the lash of his judgments, that would not acknowledge his Authority in his precepts. Those sins which disown his Government in the Heart and Conscience, as Pride, inward blasphemy, &c. he hath reserved a time hereafter to reckon for. He doth not presently shoot his arrows into the marrow of every delinquent, but those sins which traduce his Government of the World, and tear up the Foundations of human converse, and a public respect to him, he reckons with particularly here, as well as hereafter, that the Life of his Sovereignty might not always faint in the World.
3. This of punishing was the second discovery of his dominion in the World. His first act of Sovereignty was the giving a Law, the next, his appearance in the State of a judge. When his orders were violated, he rescues the honor of them by an execution of Justice. He first judged the Angels, punishing the evil ones for their crime; the first Court he kept among them as a Governor, was to give them a Law, the second Court he kept, was as a Judge trying the Delinquents, and adjudging the Offenders, to be reserved in Chains of darkness till the final Execution. Jude 6. And at the same time probably he confirmed the good ones in their obedience by Grace. So the first discovery of his dominion to man, was the giving him a precept, the next was the inflicting a punishment for the breach of it. He summons Adam to the Bar, indicts him for his Crime, finds him guilty by his own Confession, and passeth sentence on him, according to the rule he had before acquainted him with.
4. The means whereby he punisheth shows his dominion. Sometimes he musters up Hail and Mildew, sometimes he sends regiments of wild Beasts; so he threatens Israel. Levite. 26.22. Sometimes he sends out a party of Angels, to beat up the quarters of men, and make a carnage among them. 2 King 19.35. Sometimes he mounts his Thundring battery, and shoots forth his Ammunition from the Clouds; as against the Philistines, 1 Sam. 7.10. Sometimes he sends the slightest Creatures to shame the Pride, and punish the sin of man; as Lice, Frogs, Locusts; as upon the Egyptians, the 8, 9, 10. chap. of Exodus.
2. This Dominion is manifested by God as a proprietor and Lord of his Creatures and his own Goods.
And this is evident.
1. In the choice of some persons from Eternity. He hath set a part some from Eternity, wherein he will display the invincible efficacy of his Grace, and thereby infallibly bring them to the fruition of Glory. Eph. 1.4, 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World, that we should be Holy and without blame before him in Love, having Predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Why doth he write some names in the Book of Life, and leave out others? why doth he enroll some, whom he intends to make Denizons of Heaven, and refuse to put others in his register? The Apostle tells us, 'tis the pleasure of his Will. You may render a reason for many of God's actions, till you come to this the top and Foundadation of all; and under what head of reason can man reduce this act but to that of his Royal Prerogative? Why doth God save some, and condemn others at last? Because of the Faith of the one, and unbelief of the other. Why do some men believe? Because God hath not only given them the means of Grace, but accompanied those means with the efficacy of his Spirit. Why did God accompany those means with the efficacy of his Spirit in some, and not in others? Bccause he had decreed by Grace, to prepare them for Glory. But why did he decree, or choose some, and not others? Into what will you resolve this but into his sovereign pleasure? Salvation and Condemnation at the last upshot, are acts of God as the Judge conformable to his own Law of giving life to Believers, and inflicting death upon unbelievers; for those a reason may be rendered; but the choice of some and preterition of others, is an act of God as he is a sovereign Monarch, before any Law was actually transgressed, because not actually given. When a Prince redeems a Rebel, he acts as a Judge according to Law; but when he calls some out, to pardon, he acts as a sovereign by a Prerogative above Law; into this the Apostle resolves it. Rom. 9.13.15. When he speaks of God's loving Jacob, and hating Esau, and that before they had done either good or evil: It is, Because God will have Mercy, on whom he will have Mercy, and Compassion on whom he will have Compassion. Though the first scope of the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter, was to declare the reason of God's rejecting the Jews, and calling in the Gentiles; had he only intended to demolish the pride of the Jews, and flat their opinion of merit, and aimed no higher than that Providential act of God; he might, convincingly enough to the reason of men, have argued from the Justice of God, provoked by the obstinacy of the Jews, and not have had recourse to his absolute Will; but since he asserts this latter, the strength of his argument seems to lie thus; if God by his absolute sovereignty may resolve, and fix his love upon Jacob and estrange it from Esau, or any other of his Creatures before they have done good or evil, and man have no ground to call his infinite Majesty to account, may he not deal thus with the Jews, when their demerit would be a bar to any complaints of the Creature against him? If God were considered here in the quality of a Judge, it had been fit to have considered the matter of Fact in the Criminal; but he is considered as a Sovereign, rendering no other reason of his action but his own Will, whom he will he hardens, ver. 18. And then the Apostle concludes. Ver. 20. Who art thou, O Man, that repliest against God? If the reason drawn from God's Sovereignty, doth not satisfy in this enquiry, no other reason can be found, wherein to acquiesce? For the last condemnation there will be sufficient reason to clear the Justice of his proceedings. But in this case of Election, no other reason but what is alleged, viz. The Will of God, can be thought of, but what is liable to such knotty exceptions, that cannot well be untied.
1. It could not be any merit in the Creature, that might determine God to choose him. If the decree of Election falls not under the merit of Christ's passion, as the procuring cause, it cannot fall under the merit of any part of the corrupted mass. The decree of sending Christ, did not precede, but followed in order of nature the determination of choosing some. When men were chosen as the subjects for Glory, Christ was chosen as the means, for the bringing them to Glory, Eph. 1.4. Chosen us in him, and predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ. The choice was not merely in Christ, as the moving cause; that the Apostle asserts, to be the good pleasure of his will; but in Christ, as the means of conveying to the chosen Ones the fruits of their Election. What could there be in any man, that could invite Gpd to this act, or be a cause of distinction of one branch of Adam from another? Were they not all hew'd out of the same Rock, and tainted with the same corruption in blood? Had it been possible to invest them with a power of merit at the first, had not that venom contracted in their nature, degraded all of power for the future? What merit was there in any but of wrathful punishment, since they were all considered as Criminals, and the cursed brood of an ungrateful Rebel? what dignity can there be in the nature of the purest part of clay, to be made a Vessel of Honor, more than in another part of Clay as pure as that which was formed into a Vessel for mean and sordid use? What had any one to move his mercy more than another; since they were all Children of wrath, and equally daub'd with Original guilt and filth? Had not all an equal proportion of it, to provoke his Justice? What merit is there in one dry bone more than another, to be inspired with the breath of a spiritual life? Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood, and what could the steam, and noysomness of that, deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty, but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight? Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poison in their nature, when God first took his pen, and singled out some Names, to write in the Book of life? It could not be merit in any one piece of this abominable Mass, that should stir up that resolution in God, to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory, while he permitted another to putrefy in his own gore. He loved Jacob, and hated Esau, though they were both parts of the common Mass, the Seed of the same Loins, and lodged in the same Womb.
2. Nor could it • e any foresight of works to be done in time by them, or of Faith, that might determine God to choose them. What good could he foresee resulting from extreme corruption, and a nature alienated from him? What could he foresee of good to be done by them, but what he resolved in his own will, to bestow an ability upon them, to bring forth? His choice of them was to a Holiness, not for a Holiness preceding his determination, Eph. 1.4. He hath chosen us, that we might be Holy before him, he ordained us to good works, not for them, Eph. 2.10. What is a Fruit, cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit. Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love; the branch is not the cause of the Root, but the Root of the Branch, nor the stream the cause of the spring, but the spring the cause of the stream. Good works suppose Grace, and a good and right habit in the person; as rational acts suppose reason. Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation, were a cause why God Created him? This would make Creation and everything else not so much an act of his will, as an act of his Understanding. God foresaw no rational act in man, before the act of his will to give him reason; nor foresees faith in any, before the act of his will determining to give him Faith. Eph. 2.8. Faith is the gift of God. In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God, he regards not the works we have done, as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness, but his own purpose, and the Grace given in Christ. 2 Timothy 1.9. Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy Calling, not according to our own works, but according to his own purpose, and Grace, which was given to us in Christ, before the World began. The honor of our Salvation cannot be challenged by our works, much less the honor of the Foundation of it. It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual, much less natural, perfection. Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance, when he speaks of God's loving Jacob, and hating Esau, when neither of them had done good or evil, Rom. 9.11. if there were any foresight of men's works, as the moving cause of his love or hatred? God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice, but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions, which were to be done by them in time. If Faith be the fruit of Election, the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God. Tit. 1.1. 'It is called the Faith of God's Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of God's Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith. If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith, or not chosen till they have Faith, they are not so much God's Elect, as God their Elect; they choose God by Faith, before God chooseth them by love. It had not been the Faith of God's Elect, i. e. Of those already chosen, but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards. Election is the cause of Faith, and not Faith the cause of Election. Fire is the cause of heat, and not the heat of Fire; the Sun is the cause of the day, and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun. Men are not chosen because they believe, but they believe because they are chosen: The Apostle did ill else, to appropriate that to the Elect, which they had no more interest in by virtue of their Election, than the veriest Reprobate in the World. If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures, was the motive of his choosing them, why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption, who could have done him better service, by the strength of their Nature, than the whole Mass of Adam 's posterity?
Well then, there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election, and preterition in anything but the absolute Sovereignty of God.
Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case. There is no debt, which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting: If he had pleased, he might have chosen all, if he had pleased, he might have chosen none. It was in his supreme power, to have resolved to have left all Adam 's posterity under the rack of his Justice; if he determined to snatch out any, it was a part of his dominion, but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt. Did he not pass by the Angels, and take man? And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass, and lay aside others, to bear the punishment of their Crimes. Are they not all his Subjects? All are his Criminals, and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Sovereign? This is a work of arbitrary power: Since he might have chosen none, or chosen all, as he saw good himself. 'It is at the liberty of the Artificer, to determine his Wood, or Stone to such a figure, that of a Prince or that of a Toad; and his materials have no right to complain of him, since it lies wholly upon his own liberty. They must have little sense of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation, that will contend, that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures, than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone. If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man, or send Christ upon such an undertaking; 'tis as much at his liberty, and the prerogative is to be allowed him, what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption. One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another; as they all lay in their orginal guilt. Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man, as well as upon his Neighbor? There was no cause in the Creature, but all in God, it must be resolved into his own will.
Yet not into a Will without Wisdom. God did not choose hand over head, and act by mere Will without Reason and Understanding; an infinite Wisdom is far from such a kind of procedure; but the reason of God is inscrutable to us: unless we could understand God, as well as he understands himself; the whole ground lies in God himself, no part of it in the Creature. Rom. 9.15, 16. Not in him that Wills, nor in him that Runs, but in God that shows Mercy. Since God hath revealed no other cause than his will, we can resolve it into no other than his Sovereign Empire over all Creatures. 'It is not without a stop to our curiosity, that in the same place where God asserts the absolute Sovereignty of his mercy to Moses, he tells him he could not see his face. Exod. 33.19, 20. I will be Gracious, to whom I will be Gracious: and he said, Thou canst not see my face. The rays of his infinite Wisdom, are too bright and dazzling for our weakness. The Apostle acknowledged not only a Wisdom in this proceeding, but a riches and treasure of Wisdom; not only that but a depth and vastness of those riches of Wisdom, but was unable, to give us an Inventory, and Scheme of it. Rom. 11.33. The secrets of his Counsels are too deep for us to wade into; in attempting to know the reason of those acts we should find ourselves swallowed up into a bottomless Gulf. Though the understanding be above our capacity, yet the admiration of his Authority and Submission to it are not. We should cast ourselves down at his feet with a full resignation of ourselves to his Sovereign pleasure . This is a more comely carriage in a Christian than all the contentious endeavors to measure God by our line.
2. In bestowing Grace where he pleases. God in Conversion and Pardon works not as a natural Agent, putting forth strength to the utmost, which God must do, if he did renew man naturally, as the Sun shines, and the fire burns, which always act ad extremum virium, unless a Cloud interpose, to eclipse the one, and water to extinguish the other. But God acts as a voluntary Agent, which can freely exert his power, when he please, and suspend it, when he please. Though God be necessarily good, yet he is not necessitated to manifest all the Treasures of his Goodness to every Subject; he hath power to distill his dews upon one part, and not upon another. If he were necessitated to express his Goodness without a liberty, no thanks were due to him. Who thanks the Sun for shining on him, or the fire for warming him? None: Because they are necessary Agents, and can do no other.
What is the reason, he did not reach out his hand to keep all the Angels from sinking, as well as some, or recover them, when they were sunk? What is the reason, he engrafts one man into the true Vine, and lets another remain a wild Olive? Why is not the efficacy of the Spirit always linked with the motions of the Spirit? Why doth he not mould the Heart into a Gospel frame, when he fills the Ear with a Gospel sound? Why doth he strike off the chains from some, and tear the veil from the Heart, while he leaves others under their natural slavery, and Egyptian darkness? Why do some lie under the bands of death, while another is raised to a spiritual life? What reason is there for all this but his absolute Will? The Apostle resolves the question, if the question be asked, why he begets one, and not another? Not from the Will of the Creature, but his own Will is the determination of one. James 1.18. Why doth he work in one, to will, and to do, and not in another? Because of his good pleasure, is the answer of another. Phil. 2.13. He could as well new create everyone, as he at first created them, and make Grace as universal as Nature and Reason, but it is not his pleasure so to do.
1. 'It is not from want of strength in himself. The power of God is unquestionably able to strike off the chains of unbeleief from all; he could surmount the obstinacy of every child of wrath, and inspire every Son of Adam with Faith as well as Adam himself. He wants not a virtue superior to the greatest resistance of his Creature; a victorious beam of light might be shot into their understandings, and a flood of Grace might overspread their Wills with one word of his mouth without putting forth the utmost of his power. What hindrance could there be in any created spirit, which cannot be easily pierced into, and new molded by the Father of Spirits? Yet he only breaths this efficacious virtue into some, and leaves others under that insensibility and hardness which they love, and suffers them to continue in their benighting ignorance, and consume themselves in the embraces of their dear, though deceitful, Delilah's.
He could have conquered the resistance of the Jews, as well as chased away the darkness and ignorance of the Gentiles. No doubt, but he could over power the Heart of the most malicious Devil, as well as that of the simplest and weakest man. But the breath of the Almighty Spirit is in his own power, to breath where he lists. John 3.8. 'It is at his liberty, whither he will give to any the feeling of the invincible efficacy of his Grace. He did not want strength to have kept man as firm as a Rock against the temptation of Satan, and poured in such fortifying Grace, as to have made him impregnable against the powers of Hell, as well as he did secure the standing of the Angels against the Sedition of their fellows. But it was his will to permit it to be otherwise.
2. Nor is it from any prerogative in the Creature. He converts not any for their natural perfection: Because he seizeth upon the most ignorant. Nor for their moral perfection: Because he converts the most sinful. Nor for their Civil perfection: Because he turns the most despicable.
1. Not for their natural perfection of knowledge. He opened the minds and hearts of the more ignorant. Were the nature of the Gentiles better manured than that of the Jews, or did the Tapers of their understandings burn clearer? No, the one were skilled in the Prophesies of the Messiah, and might have compared the Predictions they owned with the Actions and Sufferings of Christ, which they were spectators of. He let alone those that had expectations of the Messiah, and expectations about the time of Christ's appearance, both grounded upon the Oracles wherewith he had entrusted them. The Gentiles were unacquainted with the Prophets, and therefore destitute of the expectations of the Messiah. Eph. 2.12. They were without Christ. Without any Revelation of Christ, because aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant of Promise, having no hope and without God in the World, without any knowledge of God, or promises of Christ. The Jews might sooner in a way of reason have been wrought upon, than the Gentiles who were ignorant of the Prophets, by whose writings they might have examined the Truth of the Apostles Declarations; thus are they refused, that were the kindred of Christ according to the Flesh, and the Gentiles that were at a greater distance from him, brought in by God. Thus he catcheth not at the subtle and mighty Devils, who had an original in spiritual nature more like to him, but at weak and simple man.
2. Not for any Moral perfection: Because he converts the most Sinful. The Gentiles steeped in Idolatry and Superstition. He sowed more Faith among the Romans than in Jerusalem, more Faith in a City that was the common Sewer of all the Idolatry of the Nations conquered by them; than in that City which had so signally been owned by him, and had not practiced any Idolatry since the Babylonish Captivity. He planted Saintship at Corinth, a place notorious for the infamous Worship of Venus, a Superstition attended with the grossest uncleanness. At Ephesus, that presented the whole World with a Cup of Fornication in their Temple of Diana. Among the Colossians, Votaries to Cybele in a manner of Worship attended with beastly and lascivious Ceremonies. And what character had the Cretans from one of their own Poets, mentioned by the Apostle to Titus, whom he had placed among them, to further the progress of the Gospel, but the vilest and most abominable? Tit. 1.12. Liars, not to be credited, Evil Beasts not to be associated with, Slow Bellies fit for no service. What prerogative was there in the nature of such putrefaction. As much as in that of a Toad to be elevated to the dignity of an Angel. What steam from such Dunghils could be welcome to him, and move him, to cast his eye on them, and sweeten them from Heaven? What treasures of worth were here, to open the treasures of his Grace? Were such filthy snuffs fit of themselves to be kindled by, and become a lodging for a Gospel beam? What invitements could he have from Lying, Beastliness, Gluttony, but only from his own Sovereignty? By this he plucked firebrands out of the fire, while he left straiter and more comely sticks to consume to ashes.
3. Not for any Civil Perfection: Because he turns the most despicable. He elevates not nature to Grace upon the account of Wealth, Honor, or any Civil station in the World; he dispenseth not ordinarily those Treasures to those that the mistaken World foolishly admire, and dote upon, 1 Cor. 1.26. Not many Mighty, not many Noble. A purple Robe is not usually decked with this Jewel. He takes more of mouldy Clay, than refined dust, to cast into his Image; and lodges his Treasures more in the earthly Vessels, than in the World's Golden ones. He gives out his richest doles, to those that are the scorn and reproach of the World. Should he impart his Grace most to those that abound in wealth, or honor, it had been some foundation for a conception, that he had been moved by those vulgarly esteemed excellencies, to indulge them more than others. And such a conceit languisheth, when we behold the Subjects of his Grace as void originally of any allurements, as they are full of provocations.
Hereby he declares himself free from all Created engagements, and that he is not led by any external motives in the object.
4. 'It is not from any obligation which lies upon him. He is indebted to none, disoblig'd by all. No man deserves from him any Act of Grace, but every man deserves, what the most deplorable are left to suffer. He is obliged by the Children of wrath to nothing else but showers of wrath, owes no more a debt to fallen man, than to fallen Devils, to restore them to their first station by a superlative Grace; how was he more bound, to restore them, than he was to preserve them, to catch them after they fell, than to put a bar in the way of their falling? God as a Sovereign gave Laws to men, and a strength sufficient to keep those Laws. What obligation is there upon God to repair that strength man willfully lost, and extract him out of that condition, into which he voluntarily plunged himself? What if man sinned by temptation, which is a reason alleged by some? Might not many of the Devils do so too? Though there was a first of them, that sinned without a temptation, yet many of them might be seduced into Rebellion by the Ringleader. Upon that account, he is no more bound, to give Grace to all men, than to Devils. If he promised life upon Obedience, he threatened death upon Transgression. By man's disobedience God is quit of his promise, and owes nothing but punishment upon the violation of his Law. Indeed man may pretend to a claim of sufficient strength from him by Creation, as God is the Author of Nature, and he had it; but since he hath extinguished it by his sin, he cannot in the least pretend any obligation on God for a new strength. If it be a peradventure whither he will give Repentance, as it is, 2 Tim. 2.25. There is no tie in the case; a tie would put it beyond a peradventure with a God, that never forfeited his obligation. No Husbandman thinks himself obliged, to bestow cost and pains, manure and tillage upon one field more than another; though the nature of the ground may require more, yet he is at his liberty whither he will expend more upon one than another. He may let it lie Fallow as long as he please. God is less obliged, to till, and prune his Creatures, than man is obliged to his Feild or Trees. If a King proclaim a pardon to a company of Rebels upon the condition of each of them paying such a sum of Money; their Estates before were capable of satisfying the condition, but their Rebellion hath reduced them to an indigent condition; the proclamation itself is an act of Grace, the condition required is not impossible in itself, the Prince out of a tenderness to some, sends them that sum of Money, he hath by his Proclamation obliged them to pay, and thereby enabled them to answer the condition he requires; the first he doth by a Sovereign Authority, the second he doth by a Sovereign bounty, he was obliged to neither of them; punishment was a debt due to all of them; if he would remit it upon condition, he did relax his Sovereign right, and if he would by his largess make any of them capable to fulfil the condition by sending them presently a sufficient sum to pay the fine, he acted as proprietor of his own goods, to dispose of them in such a quantity to those, to whom he was not obliged to bestow a mite.
5. It must therefore be an Act of his mere Sovereignty. This can only sit arbitrator in every gracious act. Why did he give Grace to Abel and not to Cain, since they both lay in the same womb, and equally derived from their Parents a taint in their Nature: But that he would show a standing example of his Sovereignty to the future ages of the World in the first posterity of man? Why did he give Grace to Abraham, and separate him from his Idolatrous Kindred, to dignify him to be the root of the Messiah? Why did he confine his promise to Isaac, and not extend it to Ishmael the Seed of the same Abraham by Hagar, or to the Children he had by Keturah after Sarah's death? What reason can be alleged for this but his Sovereign Will? Why did he not give the fallen Angels a moment of Repentance after their sin, but condemned them to irrevocable pains? Is it not as free for him, to give Grace, to whom he please, as Create what Worlds he please; to form this corrupted clay into his own Image, as to take such a parcel of dust from all the rest of the Creation, whereof to compact Adam 's body? Hath he not as much jurisdiction over the sinful mass of his Creatures in a new Creation, as he had over the Chaos in the old? And what reason can be rendered, of his advancing this part of matter to the nobler dignity of a Star, and leaving that other part, to make up the dark body of the Earth? To compact one part into a glorious Sun, and another part into a hard Rock; but his Royal Prerogative? What is the reason a Prince subjects one Malefactor to punishment, and lifts up another to a place of truth and profit? That Pharaoh honored the Butler with an attendance on his Person, and remitted the Baker to the hands of the Executioner? It was his pleasure. And is not as great a right due to God, as is allowed to the worms of the Earth? What is the reason he hardens a Pharaoh, by a denying him that Grace, which should mollify him; and allows it to another? 'It is because he will. Rom. 9.18. Whom he will he hardens. Hath not man the liberty to pull up the sluice, and let the water run into what part of the ground he pleases? What is the reason some have not a heart to understand the beauty of his ways? Because the Lord doth not give it them. Deut. 29.4. Why doth he not give all his converts an equal measure of his sanctifying Grace, some have Mites, and some have Treasures? Why doth he give his Grace to some, sooner, to some, later, some are inspired in their infancy, others not till a full age, and after, some not till they have fallen into some gross sin, as Paul; some betimes, that they may do him service, others later, as the Thief upon the Cross, and presently snatcheth them out of the World? Some are weaker, some stronger in nature, some more beautiful, and lovely, others more uncomely and sluggish. 'It is so in supernaturals. What reason is there for this, but his own will? This is instead of all, that can be assigned on the part of God. He is the free disposer of his own Goods, and as a Father may give a greater portion to one Child than to another. And what reason of complaint is there against God; may not a Toad complain that God did not make it a man, and give it a portion of reason? Or a Fly complain, that God did not make it an Angel, and give it a Garment of Light, had they but any spark of understanding; as well as man complain, that God did not give him Grace, as well as another; Unless he sincerely desired it, and then was denied it, he might complain of God, though not as Sovereign, yet as a promiser of Grace to them that ask it. God doth not render his Sovereignty formidable; he shuts not up his Throne of Grace from any that seek him; he invites man, his Arms are open, and the Scepter stretched out; and no man continues under the arrest of his Lusts, but he that is unwilling to be otherwise, and such a one hath no reason to complain of God.
3. His Sovereignty is manifest in disposing the means of Grace to some, not to all. He hath caused the Sun to shine bright in one place, while he hath left others benighted, and deluded by the Devils Oracles. Why do the Evangelical dews fall in this or that place, and not in another? Why was the Gospel published in Rome so soon, and not in Tartary? Why hath it been extinguished in some places, as soon almost as it had been kindled in them? Why hath one place been honored with the beams of it in one age, and been covered with darkness the next? One Country hath been made a sphere for this Star, that directs to Christ, to move in, and afterwards it hath been taken away, and placed in another: Sometimes more clearly it hath shone, sometimes more darkly in the same place, what is the reason of this? 'It is true something of it may be referred to the Justice of God, but much more to the Sovereignty of God. That the Gospel is published latter, and not sooner, the Apostle tell us, is according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God. Rom. 16.26.
1. The means of Grace after the Families from Adam became distinct, were never granted to all the World. After that fatal breach in Adam 's Family by the death of Abel, and Cain's separation, we read not of the means of Grace continued among Cain 's Posterity; it seems to be continued in Adam's sole Family, and not published in Societies till the time of Seth. Gen. 4.26. Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. It was continued in that Family till the Deluge, which was 1523 years after the Creation according to some, or 1656 years according to others. After that, when the World degenerated, it was communicated to Abraham, and settled in the posterity that descended from Jacob: Though he left not the World without a witness of himself, and some sprinklings of revelations in other parts, as appears by the book of Job, and the discourses of his Friends.
2. The Jews had this privilege granted them above other Nations to have a clearer Revelation of God. God separated them from all the World to honor them with the depositum of his Oracles. Rom. 3.2. To them were committed the Oracles of God. In which regard all other Nations are said to be without God, as being destitute of so great a privilege, Eph. 2.12. The Spirit blew in Canaan, when the Lands about it felt not the saving breath of it. He hath not dealt so with any Nation, and as for his Judgments they have not known them. Psal. 147.20. The rest had no warnings from the Prophets, no dictates from Heaven, but what they had by the light of Nature, the view of the works of Creation, and the Administration of Providence, and what remained among them of some ancient Traditions derived from Noah, which in tract of time were much defaced. We read but of one Jonah sent to Nineveh, but frequent Alarms to the Israelites by a multitude of Prophets commissioned by God. 'It is true, the door of the Jewish Church was open to what Proselytes would enter themselves, and embrace their Religion and Worship; but there was no public Proclamation made in the World; only God by his miracles in their deliverance from Egypt (which could not but be famous among all the Neighbor Nations) declared them to be a people favor'd by Heaven. But the Tradition from Adam and Noah was not publicly revived by God in other parts, and raised from that Grave of forgetfulness, wherein it had lain so long buried. Was there any reason in them for this Indulgence? God might have been as liberal to any other Nation, yea to all the Nations in the World, if it had been his Sovereign pleasure. Any other people were as fit to be entrusted with his Oracles, and be subjects for his Worship as that people; yet all other Nations till the rejection of the Jews, because of their rejection of Christ, were strangers from the Covenant of Promise. These people were part of the common mass of the World: They had no prerogative in nature above Adam 's posterity. Were they the extract of an innocent part of his Loins, and all the other Nations drain'd out of his putrefaction? Had the blood of Abraham, from whom they were more immediately descended anymore precious tincture than the rest of mankind? They as well as other Nations were made of one Blood. Acts 17.26. And that corrupted both in the spring and in the Rivulets. Were they better than other Nations, when God first drew them out of their slavery? We have Joshua 's Authority for it, that they had complied with the Egyptian Idolatry, and served other God's in that place of their servitude. Joshua 24.14. Had they had an abhorrency of the superstition of Egypt, while they remained there, they could not so soon have erected a Golden Calf for Worship in imitation of the Egyptian Idols. All the rest of mankind had as inviting reasons to present God with, as those people had. God might have granted the same privilege to all the World, as well as to them, or denied it them, and endowed all the rest of the World with his Statutes: but the enriching such a small Company of people with his Divine showers, and leaving the rest of the World as a barren Wilderness in Spirituals, can be placed upon no other account originally than that of his unaccountable Sovereignty of his love to them: There was nothing in them, to merit such high Titles from God as his first born, his peculiar Treasure, the Apple of his Eye. He disclaims any Righteousness in them, and speaks a word sufficient to damp such thoughts in them, by charging them with their wickedness, while he loaded them with his benefits. Deut. 9.4.6. The Lord gives thee not this Land for thy Righteousness: For thou art a stiff-necked people. It was an act of God's free pleasure, to choose them to be a people to himself. Deut. 7.6.
3. God afterwards rejected the Jews, gave them up to the hardness of their hearts, and spread the Gospel among the Gentiles. He hath cast off the Children of the Kingdom, those that had been enrol'd for his subjects for many ages, who seemed by their descent from Abraham, to have a right to the privileges of Abraham, and called men from the East and from the West, from the darkest corners of the World, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. i. e. To partake with them of the promises of the Gospel. Math. 8.11. The people that were accounted accursed by the Jews, enjoy the means of Grace, which have been hid from those, that were once dignified, this 1600 years; that they have neither Ephod, nor Teraphim, nor sacrifice, nor any true Worship of God among them. Hos. 3.4. Why he should not give them Grace, to acknowledge, and own the person of the Messiah, to whom he had made the promises of him for so many successive ages, but let their heart be fat, and their Ears heavy. Isaiah 6.10. Why the Gospel at length after the Resurrection of Christ should be presented to the Gentiles, not by chance, but pursuant to the resolution, and prediction of God declared by the Prophets, that it should be so in time? Why he should let so many hundreds of years pass over, after the World was peopled, and let the Nations all that while soak in their Idolatrous Customs? Why he should not call the Gentiles without rejecting the Jews, and bind them both up together in the bundle of Life? Why he should acquaint some people with it, a little after the publishing it in Jerusalem, by the descent of the Spirit, and others not a long time after? Some in the first ages of Christianity enjoyed it, others have it not, as those in America, till the last age of the World; can be referred to nothing but his Sovereign pleasure.
What merit can be discovered in the Gentiles? There is something of Justice in the case of the Jews rejection, nothing but Sovereignty in the Gentiles reception into the Church. If the Jews were bad, the Gentiles were in some sort worse: The Jews owned the One true God without mixture of Idols, though they owned not the Messiah in his appearance, which they did in a promise; but the Gentiles owned neither the one, nor the other. Some tell us, it was for the merit of some of their Ancestors. How comes the means of Grace then to be taken from the Jew, who had (if any people ever had) meritorious Ancestors for a plea? If the merit of some of their former progenitors were the Cause, what was the reason the debt due to their merit, was not paid to their immediate progeny, or to themselves, but to a posterity so distant from them; and so abominably depraved as the Gentile World was, at the day of the Gospel-Sun striking into their Horizon? What merit might be in their Ancestors (if any could be supposed in the most refined rubbish,) 'twas so little for themselves, that no Oil could be spared out of their Lamps for others. What merit their Ancestors might have, might be forfeited by the succeeding Generations. 'It is ordinarily seen, that what honor a Father deserves in a State for public Service, may be lost by the Son, forfeited by Treason, and himself attainted.
Or was it out of a foresight that the Gentiles would embrace it, and the Jews reject it, that the Gentiles would embrace it in one place and not in another? How did God foresee it but in his own Grace, which he was resolved to display in one, not in another? It must be then still resolved into his Sovereign pleasure. Or did he foresee it in their wills and nature? What, were they not all one common dross? Was any part of Adam by nature better than another? How did God forsee that which was not, nor could be, without his pleasure to give ability and Grace to receive?
Well then, what reason but the Sovereign pleasure of God can be alleged, why Christ forbad the Apostles at their first Commission to Preach to the Gentiles? Matth. 10.15. But at the second and standing Commission orders them to Preach to every Creature. Why did he put a demur to the resolutions of Paul and Timothy, to impart light to Bithynia, or Order them to go into Macedonia? Was that Country more worthy upon whom lay a great part of the blood of the world shed in Alexanders time? Acts 16.6, 7, 9, 10. Why should Chorazin and Bethsaida enjoy those means, that were not granted to the Tyrians and Sidonians, who might probably have sooner reached out their Arms to welcome it? Matth. 11.21. Why should God send the Gospel into our Island, and cause it to flourish so long here, and not send it, or continue it in the furthest Eastern parts of the World? Why should the very profession of Christianity possess so small a compass of ground in the world, but five parts in Thirty, the Mohammedans holding six parts, and the other nineteen overgrown with Paganism, where either the Gospel was never planted, or else since rooted up? To whom will you refer this, but to the same cause our Savior doth the Revelation of the Gospel to Babes, and not to the wise, even to his Father? For so it seemed good in thy sight. Matth. 11.25, 26. For so was thy good pleasure before thee (as in the original.) 'It is at his pleasure whither he will give any a clear Revelation of his Gospel, or leave them only to the light of Nature. He could have kept up the first beam of the Gospel in the promise in all Nations among the Apostasies of Adam 's posterity, or renewed it in all Nations, when it began to be darkened, as well as he first published it to Adam after his fall. But it was his Sovereign pleasure, to permit it to be obscured in one place, and to keep it lighted in another.
4. His Sovereignty is manifest in the various influences of the means of Grace. He saith to these waters of the Sanctuary, as to the Floods of the Sea, Hitherto you shall go and no further. Sometimes they wash away the filth of the flesh, and outward man, but 〈◊〉 th •• of the Spirit. The Gospel Spiritualizeth some, and only moralizeth others; some are by the power of it struck down to Conviction, but not raised up to Conversion. Some have only the gleams of it in their Consciences, and others more powerful flashes; some remain in their thick darkness under the beaming of the Gospel every day in their face, and after a long insensibleness are rouz'd by its light and w • rmth. Sometimes there is such a powerful breath in it, that it levels the haughty imaginations of men, and lays them at its feet, that before strutted against it in the pride of their Heart. The foundation of this is not in the Gospel itself, which is always the same, nor in the Ordinances which are Channels as sound at one time as at another, but divine Sovereignty that Spirits them as he pleaseth, and blows when and where it lists. It has sometimes conquered its thousands, Acts 2.41. At another time scarce its tens; sometimes the Harvest hath been great, when the Laborers have been but few; at another time, it hath been small, when the Laborers have been many. Sometimes whole sheaves, at another time scarce gleanings. The Evangelical Net hath been sometimes full at a cast, and at every cast; at another time many have labored all night and day too, and catched nothing. Acts 2.47. The Lord added to the Church daily. The Gospel Chariot doth not always return with Captives chained to the sides of it, but sometimes blur'd and reproached, wearing the marks of Hells spite, instead of imprinting the marks of its own beauty. In Corinth it triumphed over many people; Acts 18.10. In Athens 'tis mocked, and gathers but a few clusters. Acts 17.32.34. God keeps the Key of the heart as well as of the Womb. The Apostles had a power of publishing the Gospel, and working miracles, but under the Divine conduct. It was an instrumentality durante been placito, and as God saw it convenient. Miracles were not upon every occasion allowed to them to be wrought, nor success upon every Administration granted to them. God sometimes lent them the Key, but to take out no more Treasure, than was alloted to them.
There is a variety in the time of Gospel operation; some rise out of their Graves of Sin, and Beds of sluggishness at the first appearance of this Sun, others lie snorting longer. Why doth not God Spirit it at one season as well as at another, but set his distinct periods of time; but because he will show his absolute freedom?
And do we not sometimes experiment that after the most solemn preparations of the Heart, we are frustrated of those incomes we expected: Perhaps it was because we thought Divine returns were due to our preparations and God stops up the Channel, and we return dryer than we came, that God may confute our false opinion, and preserve the honor of his own Sovereignty. Sometimes we leap with John the Baptist in the Womb at the appearance of Christ; sometimes we lie upon a lazy bed when he knocks from Heaven. Sometimes the Fleece is dry and sometimes wet, and God withholds to drop down his dew of the morning upon it. The dews of his word, as well as the droppings of the Clouds belong to his Royalty. Light will not shine into the Heart, though it shine round about us, without the Sovereign order of that God, who commanded Light to shine out of the Darkness of the Chaos. 2 Cor. 4.6. And is it not seen also in regard of the refreshing influences of the word? sometimes the strongest arguments, and clearest promises prevail nothing towards the quelling black and despairing imaginations, when afterwards we have found them frighted away by an unexpected word, that seemed to have less virtue in itself, than any that passed in vain before it. The reasonings of Wisdom have dropt down like arrows against a braz • n wall, when the speech of a weaker person hath found an efficacy. 'It is God, by his Sovereignty spirits one word and not another. Sometim • s a s • cret word comes in, which was not thought of before, as dropt from Heaven, and gives a refreshing, when emptiness was found in all the rest. One word from the lips of a Sovereign Prince is a greater Cordial than all the Harang 〈◊〉 of subj •••• without it. What is the reason of this variety, but that God woe • l • increase 〈◊〉 proof of his own Sovereignty? That as it was a part of his Dominion to Create the be • uty of a World, so it is no less, to Create the peace as well as the Gra • e of • he heart. Isaiah 57.19. I create the fruit of the lips peace.
Let us learn from hence to have adoring thoughts of, not murmuring fanci • s against the Sovereignty of God. To acknowledge it with thankfulness in what we have, to implore it with a holy submission, in what w • w • nt. To o • n G •• as a Sovereign in a way of dependence, is the way to be owned by him as Subjects in a way of favor.
5. His Sovereignty is manifested in giving a great measure of knowledge to some, than to others. What Parts, Gifts, excellency of Nature any have above others, are God's donative. He gives Wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. Dan. 2.21. Wisdom the habit, and Knowledge the right use of it in discerning the right nature of objects, and the fitness of means conducing to the end; all is but a beam of Divine Light; and the different degrees of Knowledge in one man above another, are the effects of his Sovereign pleasure. He enlightens not the minds of all men, to know every part of his will; one eats with a doubtful Conscience, another in Faith without any staggering. Romans 14.2. Peter had a desire to keep up Circumcision, not fully understanding the mind of God in the abolition of the Jewish Ceremonies. While Paul was clear in the Truth of that Doctrine. A thought comes into our mind, that like a Sun-beam makes a Scripture Truth visible in a moment, which before we were poring upon without any success; this is from his pleasure. One in the primitive times had the gift of Knowledge, another of Wisdom, one the gift of Prophesy, another of Tongues, one the gift of Healing, another that of discerning Spirits; why this gift to one man, and not to another? Why such a distribution in several Subjects? Because it is his Sovereign pleasure. The Spirit divides to every man severally as he will, 1 Cor. 12.11. Why doth he give Bezaleel and Aholiah the gift of Engraving, and making curious works for the Tabernacle, Exod. 31.3. and not others? Why doth he bestow the Treasures of Evangelical Knowledge upon the meanest of Earthen Vessels, the poor Galileans, and neglect the Pharisees stored with the Knowledge both of Naturals and Morals? Why did he give to some, and not to others, to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Matth. 13.11. The reason is implied in the words: Because it was the mystery of his Kingdom, and therefore was the act of his Sovereignty. How would it be a Kingdom and Monarchy, if the Governor of it were bound to do what he did? 'It is to be resolved only into the Sovereign right of propriety of his own goods, that he furnisheth Babes with a stock of knowledge, and leaves the Wise and Prudent empty of it. Matth. 11.26. Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Why did he not reveal his mind to Eri a grown man, and in the highest office in the Jewish Church, but open it to Samuel a stripling? Why did the Lord go from the one to the other? Because his motion depends upon his own will. Some are of so dull a constitution, that they are uncapable of any impression, like Rocks too hard for a stamp; others like water, you may stamp what you please, but it vanisheth as soon as the Seal is removed. 'It is God forms men as he pleaseth. Some have parts to govern a Kingdom, others scarce brains to conduct their own affairs. One is fit to rule men, and another scarce fit to keep Swine. Some have capacious Souls in crazy and deformed Bodies, others contracted Spirits and heavier minds in a richer and more beautiful case. Why are not all stones alike? some have a more sparkling light, as gems, more orient than pebbles. Some are Stars of first, and others of a less magnitude, others as mean as Glo-worms, a slimy luster: 'It is because he is the Sovereign disposer, of what belongs to him; and gives here, as well as at the Resurrection, to one a Glory of the Sun, to another that of the Moon, and to a third a less, resembling that of a Star. 1 Cor. 15.40. And this God may do by the same right of Dominion, as he exercised, when he endowed some kinds of Crea ••• es with a greater perfection than others in their Nature. Why may he not as well garnish one man with a greater proportion of gifts, as make a man differ in excellency from the Nature of a Beast? Or frame Angels to a more purely spiritual Nature than a man? Or make one Angel a Cherubim, or Seraphim with a greater measure of light than another? Though the foundation of this is his Dominion, yet his wisdom is not uninterested in his Sovereign disposal; he garnisheth those with a greater ability, whom he intends for greater service, than those that he intends for less, or none at all: As an Artificer bestows more labor, and carves a more excellent figure upon those Stones, that he designs for a more honorable place in the building. But though the intending this or that man for service, be the motive of laying in a greater provision in him than in others, yet still it is to be referred to his Sovereignty, Since that first act of culling him out for such an end, was the fruit solely of his Sovereign pleasure. As when he resolved to make a Creature, actively to glorify him, in wisdom he must give him reason; yet the making such a Creature was an act of his absolute Dominion.
6. His Sovereignty is manifest in the calling some to a more special service in their Generation. God settles some in immediate Offices of his service, and perpetuates them in those Offices with a neglect of others, who seem to have a greater pretence to them. Moses was a great sufferer for Israel, the sollicitor for them in Egypt, and the conductor of them from Egypt to Canaan; yet he was not chosen to the High Priesthood, but that was an office settled upon Aaron, and his posterity after him in a lineal descent; Moses was only pitched upon for the present resscue of the Captiv'd Israelites, and to be the instrument of Divine Miracles; but notwithstanding all the success he had in his conduct, his faithfulness in his employment, and the transcendent familiarity he had with the great Ruler of the World, his posterity were left in the common level of the Tribe of Levi without any special mark of dignity upon them above the rest for all the services of that great man. Why Moses for a Temporary Magistracy, Aaron for a perpetual Priesthood above all the rest of the Israelites, hath little reason but the absolute pleasure of God who distributes his employments, as he pleaseth; and as a Master orders this Servant to do the noblest work, and another to labor in baser offices according to his pleasure? Why doth he call out David a Shepherd to sway the Jewish Scepter above the rest of the Brothers, that had a fairer appearance, and had been bred in arms, and enur'd to the Toyls and Watchings of a Camp? Why should Mary be the Mother of Christ, and not some other of the same Family of David of a more splendid birth, and a nobler education? Though some other reasons may be rendered, yet that which affords the greatest acquiescence, is the Sovereign will of God. Why did Christ choose out of the meanest of the people the Twelve Apostles, to be Heralds of his Grace in Judea and other parts of the World? And afterwards select Paul before Gamaliel his Instructor, and others of the Jews, as Learned as himself, and advance him to be the most eminent Apostle above the heads of those who had ministered to Christ in the days of his flesh? Why should he preserve Eleven of those he first called, to propagate and enlarge his Kingdom, and leave the other to the employment of shedding his Blood? Why in the times of our reformation he should choose a Luther out of a Monastery, and leave others in their superstitious nastiness, to perish in the Traditions of their Fathers? Why set up Calvin as a Bulwark of the Gospel, and let others as learned as himself, wallow in the sink of Popery? 'It is his pleasure, to do so. The Potter hath power to separate this part of the Clay to form a Vessel for a more public use, and another part of the Clay to form a Vessel for a more private one. God takes the meanest Clay to form the most excellent and honorable Vessels in his House. As he formed man, that was to govern the Creatures, of the same Clay and Earth, whereof the Beasts were formed, and not of that nobler Element of water, which gave birth to the Fish and Birds. So he forms some, that are to do him the greatest service, of the meanest materials, to manifest the absolute right of his Dominion.
7. His Sovereignty is manifest in the bestowing much Wealth and Honor upon some, and not vouchsafing it to the more industrious labors, and attempts of others. Some are abas'd and others are elevated, some are enriched, and others impoverisht, some scarce feel any Cross, and others scarce feel any comfort in their whole lives. Some sweat and toil, and what they labor for, runs out of their reach; others sit still, and what they wish for, falls into their lap. One of the same Clay hath a Diadem to beautify his head, and another wants a covering to protect him from the weather. One hath a stately Palace to lodge in, and another is scarce Master of a Cottage where to lay his head. A Scepter is put into one man's hand, and a spade into another's. A Rich Purple garnisheth one man's body, while another wraps himself in Dunghil rags. The Poverty of some and the Wealth of others is an effect of the divine Sovereignty, whence God is said, to be the Maker of the Poor as well as the Ri • Prov. 22.2. Not only of their persons but of their conditions. The Earth •• d the fullness thereof is his propriety, and he hath as much a right, as Jose • 〈◊〉 , to bestow changes of Rayment, upon what Benjamins he please. There 〈◊〉 an Election to a greater degree of worldly felicity, as there is an Election of some to a greater degree of supernatural Grace and Glory. As he makes it rain upon one City, and not upon another, Amos 4.7. So he causeth prosperity to distil upon the head of one, and not upon another, Crowning some with earthly blessings, while he crosseth others with continual afflictions: For he speaks of himself as a great proprietor, of the Corn that nourisheth us, and the Wine that cheers us, and the Wood that warms us, Hosea 2.8, 9. I will take away, not your Corn and Wine, but my Corn, my Wine, my Wooll. His right, to dispose of the Goods of every particular person, is unquestionable. He can take away from one, and pass over the propriety to another; thus he devolv'd the right of the Egyptian Jewels to the Israelites, and bestowed upon the Captives, what before he had vouchsafed to the oppressors. As every Sovereign state demands the Goods of their Subjects for the public advantage in a case of exigency, though none of that wealth was gained by any public Office, but by their private industry, and gained in a Country, not subject to the Dominion of those, that require a portion of them. By this right, he changes strangely the scene of the world, sometimes those that are high, are reduced to a mean and ignominious condition, those that are mean, are advanced to a state of Plenty and Glory. The Counter which in accounting signifies now but a penny, is presently raised up to signify a pound. The proud Ladies of Israel instead of a Girdle of curious needle-work, are brought to make use of a Cord; as the vulgar Translates Rent, a rag or list of Cloth. Isaiah 3.24. And Sack-cloth for a stomacher instead of Silk. This is the Sovereign act of God, as he is Lord of the world. Psal. 71.6, 7. Promotion comes neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is Judge, he pulls down one, and sets up another. He doth no wrong to any man, if he lets him languish out his days in poverty, and disgrace. If he gives, or takes away, he meddles with nothing, but what is his own more than ours. If he did dispense his benefits equally to all, men would soon think it their due. The inequality and changes preserve the notion of God's Sovereignty, and correct our natural unmindfulness of it; if there were no changes, God would not be feared as the King of all the Earth. Psal. 55.19. To this might also be referred his investing some Countries with greater Riches in their Bowels and on the surface. The disposing some in the fruitful and pleasant Regions of Canaan or Italy, while he settles others in the Icy and barren parts of the Northern Climates.
8. His Sovereignty is manifest in the times and seasons of dispensing his Goods. He is Lord of the times when, as well as of the Goods which he doth dispose of to any person; these the Father hath put in his own power. Acts. 1.7. As it was his Sovereign pleasure, to restore the Kingdom to Israel, so he would pitch upon the time, when to do it, and would not have his right invaded, so much as by a question out of curiosity. This disposing of opportunities, in many things come be referred to nothing else but his Sovereign pleasure. Why should Christ come at the twilight and evening of the World, at the fullness, and not at the beginning of time? Why he should be from the infancy of the world, so long wrapped up in a promise, and not appear in the flesh till the last times and gray hairs of the world, when so many persons in all Nations had been hurried out of the world without any notice of such a Redeemer? What was this but his Sovereign will? Why the Gentiles should be left so long in the Devils chains, wallowing in the sink of their abominable superstitions, since God had declared his intention by the Prophets, to call multitudes of them, and reject the Jews? Why he should defer it so long, can be referred to nothing but the same cause? What is the reason the veil continues so long upon the heart of the Jews, that is promised, one time or other, to be taken off? Why doth God delay the accomplishment of those glorious predictions of the happiness and interest of that people, is it because of the sin of their Ancestors, a reason that cannot bear much weight. If we cast it upon that account, their conversion can never be expected, can never be effected; if for the sins of their Ancestors, is it not also for their own sins? Do their sins grow less in number, or less venomous, or provoking in quality by this delay? Is not their Blasphemy of Christ as malicious, their hatred of him as strong, and rooted, as ever? Do they not as much approve of the bloody act of their Ancestors, since so many ages are past, as their Ancestors did applaud it at the time of the Execution? Have they not the same disposition and will, discovered sufficiently by the scorn of Christ, and of those that profess his Name, to act the same thing over again, were Christ now in the same state in the world, and they invested with the same power of Government? If their Conversion were defer'd one age after the death of Christ for the sins of their pr • ceding Ancestors, is it to be expected now, since the present generation of the Jews in all Countries have the sins of those remote, the succeeding, and their more immediate Ancestors lying upon them. This therefore cannot be the reason, but as it was the Sovereign pleasure of God to foretell his intention, to overcome the stoutness of their hearts, so it is his Sovereign pleasure, that it shall not be performed, till the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Rom. 11.25. As he is Lord of his own Grace, so he is Lord of the Time, when to dispense it. Why did God create the world in 6 days, which he could have erected, and beautified in a moment? Because it was his pleasure so to do. Why did he frame the World, when he did, and not many ages before? Because he is Master of his own work. Why did he not resolve to bring Israel to the fruition of Canaan till after four hundred years? Why did he draw out their deliverance to so long time after he began to attempt it? Why such a multitude of Plagues upon Pharaoh to work it, when he could have cut short the work by one mortal blow upon the Tyrant and his accomplices? It was his Sovereign pleasure to act so, though not without other reasons intelligible enough by looking into the story. Why doth he not bring man to a perfection of stature in a moment after his Birth, but let him continue in a tedious infancy in a semblance to beasts for want of an exercise of reason? Why doth he not bring this or that man, whom he intends for service to a fitness in an instant but by long tracts of Study, and through many Meanders and Labyrinths? Why doth he transplant a hopeful person in his youth to the pleasures of another World, and let another of an eminent Holiness, continue in the misery of this, and wade through many Floods of Afflictions? What can we chiefly refer all these things to, but his Sovereign pleasure. The times are determined by God. Acts 17.26.
3. The Dominion of God is manifested as a Governor, as well as a Law-giver and Proprietor.
1. In disposing of States and Kingdoms. Psa;l. 75.7. God is Judge, he pulls down one, and sets up another; Judge is to be taken not in the same sense, that we commonly use the word for a judicial Minister in a way of trial, but for a Governor; as you know the extraordinary Governors raised up among the Jews, were called Judges, whence one entire Book in the Old Testament is so denominated, the Book of Judges. God hath a Prerogative, to change times and seasons. Dan. 2.21. i. e. The Revolutions of Government, whereby times are altered. How many Empires that have spread their wings over a great part of the world, have had their Carkasses torn in pieces; and unheard off Nations plucked of the wings of the Roman Eagle, after it had prey'd upon many Nations of the World? And the Macedonian Empire was as the dew, that is dried up a short time after it falls. He erected the Chaldean Monarchy, used Nebuchadnezzar to overthrow and punish the ungrateful Jews; and by a Sovereign act gave a great parcel of Land into his hands; and what he thought was his right by conquest, was God's donative to him. You may read the Chart • r to Nebuchadnezzar, whom he terms his Servant. Jer. 27.6. And now I have given all those Lands, the Lands are mentioned, verse 3. Into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant. Which Decree he pronounceth after his asserting his right of Sovereignty over the whole Earth. ver. 5. After that, he puts a period to the Chaldean Empire, and by the same Sovereign Authority decrees Babylon to be a spoil to the Nations of the North Country, and delivers her up as a spoil to the Persian. Jer. 50.9, 10. And this for the manifestation of his Sovereign Dominion, that he was the Lord, that made peace, and created evil. Isaiah 45.6, 7. God afterwards overthrows that by the Grecian Alexander, prophesied of under the figure of a Goat, with one horn between his Eyes. Dan. 8. The swift current of his Victories, as swift as his motion showed it to be from an extraordinary hand of Heaven, and not either from the policy or strength of the Macedonian. His strength in the Prophet is described to be less, being but one horn running against the Persian described under the figure of a Ramm with two horns . And himself acknowledged a Divine motion exciting him to that great attempt, when he saw Joddus the High Priest, coming out in his Priestly Robes, to meet him at his approach to Jerusalem; whom he was about to Worship, acknowledging that the Vision, which put him upon the Persian War, appeared to him in such a garb. What was the reason Israel was rent from Judah, and both split into two distinct Kingdoms? Because Rehoboam would not hearken to sober and sound Counsels, but follow the advice of upstarts. What was the reason he did not hearken to sound advice, since he had so advantageous an Education under his Father Solomon the wisest Prince of the World? The Cause was from the Lord. 1 Kings 12.15. That he might perform, what he had before spoke. In this he acted according to his Royal Word, but in the first resolve he acted as a Sovereign Lord that had the disposal of all Nations in the world. And though Ahab had a numerous posterity, Seventy Sons to inherit the Throne after him, yet God by his Sovereign Authority gives them up into the hands of Jehu, who strips them of their lives and hopes together; not a man of them succeeded in the Throne, but the Crown is transferred to Jehu by God's disposal.
In Warrs, whereby flourishing Kingdoms are overthrown, God hath the chief hand; in reference to which it is observed, that in the two Prophets, Isaiah and Jeremy, God is called the Lord of Hosts 130 times. 'It is not the Sword of the Captain, but the Sword of the Lord, bears the first rank; The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Judge. 7.18. The Sword of a Conqueror is the Sword of the Lord, and receives its Charge and Commission from the great Sovereign. Jerem. 47.6, 7. We are apt, to confine our thoughts to second Causes, lay the fault upon the miscarriages of persons, the Ambition of the one, and the Covetousness of another, and regard them not as the effects of God's sovereign Authority, linking second Causes together, to serve his own purpose. The skill of one man may lay open the folly of a Counselor, an earthly force may break in pieces the power of a mighty Prince. But Job in his consideration of those things, refers the matter higher. Job 12.18. He looseth the bond of Kings, and girdeth their Loins with a girdle. He looseth the Bonds of Kings, i. • , takes off the yokes, they lay upon their Subjects; and girds their Loins with a girdle; A Cord as the Vulgar; he lays upon them those fetters they framed for others, such a girdle or band as is the mark of Captivity, as the words ver. 19. confirm it. He leads Princes away spoiled, and overthrows the mighty. God lifts up some to a great height, and casts down others to a disgraceful ruin. All those changes in the face of the World, the revolutions of Em • ires▪ the desolating and ravaging wars which are often immediately the birth of the Vice, Ambition, and fury of Princes, are the Royal Acts of God as Governor of the World. All Government belongs to him, he is the Fountain of all the Great and the Petty Dominions in the World: And therefore may place in them what substitutes and Vicegerents he pleaseth; As a Prince may remove his Officers at pleasure, and take their Commissions from them. The highest are settled by God, durante been placito, and not quamdiu been se g • ss • rint. Those Princes that have been the Glory of their Country, have swayed the Scepter but a short time, when the more Wolvish ones have remained long • r in Commission, as God hath seen fit for the ends of his own Sovereign Government. Now by the revolutions in the World and Changes in Governors and Government, God keeps up the acknowledgment of his Sovereignty, when he doth arrest grand and public offenders, that wear a Crown by his Providence, and employ it by their pride against him, that placed it there. When he arraigns such by a signal hand from Heaven, he makes them the public examples of the rights of his Sovereignty, declaring thereby, that the Cedars of Lebanon are as much at his foot, as the Shrubs of the Valley; that he hath as Sovereign an Authority over the Throne in the Palace, as over the Stool in the Cottage.
2. The Dominion of God is manifested in raising up and ordering the Spirits of men according to his pleasure. He doth, as the Father of Spirits, communicate an influence to the Spirits of men as well as an existence; he puts what inclinations he pleaseth into the will, stores it with what habits he please, whither natural or supernatural, whereby it may be rendered more ready to act according to the divine purpose. The will of man is a finite principle, and therefore subject to him who hath an infinite Sovereignty over all things; and God having a Sovereignty over the will in the manner of its acting, as causeth it to will, what he wills, as to the outward act, and the outward manner of performing it. There are many examples of this part of his Sovereignty. God by his Sovereign conduct, ordered Moses a Protectoress as soon as his Parents had formed an Ark of Bulrushes, wherein to set him floating on the River. Exod. 2.3, 4.5.6. They expose him to the waves, and the waves expose him to the view of Pharaoh's Daughter, whom God by his secret ordering her motion, had posted in that place; and though she was the Daughter of a Prince, that inveterately hated the whole Nation, and had by various Arts endeavor'd to extirpate them; yet God inspires the Royal Lady with sentiments of compassion to the forlorn Infant, though she knew him to be one of the Hebrews Children, ver. 6. i. e. one of that race, whom her Father had devoted to the hands of an Executioner, yet God that doth by his Sovereignty rule over the Spirits of all men, moves her to take that Infant into her protection, and nourish him at her own charge, give him a liberal Education, Adopt him her Son, who in time was to be the ruin of her race, and the Savior of his Nation. Thus he appointed Cyrus to be his Shepherd, and gave him a Pastoral Spirit for the Restauration of the City, and Temple of Jerusalem. Isaiah 44.28. And Isaiah 45.5. Tells them in the Prophesy, that he had girded him, though Cyrus had not known him, i. e. God had given him a military Spirit and strength for so great an attempt, though he did not know, that he was acted by God for those divine purposes. And when the time came, for the House of the Lord to be re-built, the Spirits of the people were raised up not by themselves, but by God. Ezra 1.5. Whose Spirit God had raised to go up. And not only the Spirit of Zerubbabel the Magistrate, and of Joshua the Priest, but the Spirit of all the people, from the highest to the meanest that attended him, were acted by God▪ to strengthen their hands, and promote the work. Hag. 1.14. The Spirits of men, even in those works which are naturally desirable to them, as the Restauration of the City, and rebuilding of the Temple was to those Jews, are acted by God, as the sovereign over them, much more when the wheels of men's spirits are lifted up above their ordinary temper and motion. It was this Empire of God, good Nehemiah regarded, as that whence he was to hope for success; he did not assure himself so much of it, from the favor he had with the King, nor the reasonableness of his intended Petition, but the absolute power God had over the heart of that great Monarch: And therefore he supplicates the heavenly, before he petitioned the earthly Throne. Nehem. 2.4. So I prayed to the God of Heaven. The Heathens had some glance of this; 'tis an expression that Cicero hath some where, That the Roman Commonwealth was rather Govern'd by the Assistance of the supreme Divinity over the Hearts of Men, than by their own Counsels and Management. How often hath the feeble courage of men been heightened to such a pitch, as to stare death in the face, which before were damped with the least thought or glance of it? This is a fruit of God's sovereign Dominion.
3. The Dominion of God is manifest in restraining the furious passions of men, and putting a block in their way. Sometimes God doth it by a remarkable hand, as the Babel builders were diverted from their proud design by a sudden confusion of their Language, and rendering it unintelligible to one another; sometimes by ordinary, though unexpected, means; as when Saul like a Hawk was ready to prey upon David, whom he had hunted as a Patridge upon the Mountains, he had another object presented for his arms and fury by the Philistines sudden invasion of a part of his Territory, 1 Sam. 23.26, 27, 28. But it is chiefly seen by an inward curbing mutinous affections, when there is no visible Cause. What reason but this can be rendered, why the Nations bordering on Canaan, who bore no good will to the Jews, but rather wished the whole race of them rooted out from the face of the Earth, should not invade their Country, pillage their Houses, and plunder their Cattle, while they were left naked of any human defense, the Males being annually employed at one time at Jerusalem in Worship; what reason can be rendered, but an invisible curb God put into their Spirits? What was the reason not a man of all the Buyers and Sellers in the Temple should rise against our Savior, when with a high hand he began to whip them out; but a Divine bridle upon them? though it appears by the questioning his Authority, that there were Jews enough to have chas'd out him, and his Company. John 2 15.18. What was the reason that at the publishing the Gospel by the Apostles at the first descent of the spirit, those that had used the Master so barbarously a few days before, were not all in a foam against the Servants, that by preaching that Doctrine upbraided them with the late Murder? Had they better sentiments of the Lord, whom they had put to death? Were their natures grown tamer, and their malignity expel'd? No, but that sovereign who had loos'd the Reins of their malicious corruption, to execute the Master for the purchase of Redemption, curbed it from breaking out against the servants, to further the propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption. He that restrains the roaring Lyon of Hell, restrains also his Whelps on Earth; he, and they must have a Commission, before they can put forth a finger, to hurt, how malicious soever their nature and Will be. His Empire reaches over the Malignity of Devils, as well as the nature of Beasts. The Lions out of the Den, as well as those in the Den, are bridled by him in favor of his Daniel's. His Dominion is above that of Principalities and Powers, their Decrees are at his Mercy, whither they shall stand or fall; he hath a vote above their stiffest resolves. His single word I will, or I forbid outweighs the most resolute purposes of all the Mighty Nimrods of the Earth in their rendezvouses, and Cabals, in their Associations and Counsels. Isaiah 8.9, 10. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces, take Counsel together, and it shall come to naught. When the Enemy shall come in like a flood, with a violent and irresistable force, intending nothing but ravage and desolation, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against them, Isaiah 59.19. shall give a sudden check and damp their Spirits, and put them to a stand. When Laban furiously pursued Jacob with an intent to do him an ill turn, God gave him a Command to do otherwise, Gen. 31.24. Would Laban have respected that command anymore, than he did the light of Nature, when he Worshipped Idols, had not God exercised his Authority, in inclining his will to observe it, or laying restraints upon his natural inclinations, or denying his concourse to the acting those ill intentions, he had entertained? The stilling the principles of commotion in men, and the noise of the Sea, are arguments of the Divine Dominion, neither the one, nor the other, is in the power of the most sovereign Prince without Divine assistance. As no Prince can command a calm to a raging Sea, so no Prince can order stillness to a tumultuous people; they are both put together as equally parts of the Divine prerogative, Psal. 65.7. Which stills the noise of the Sea, and tumult of the People. And David owns God's sovereignty more than his own, in subduing the people under him, Psal. 18.47. In this his Empire is illustrious, Psal. 29.10. The Lord sitteth upon the floods, yea, the Lord sitteth King forever; a King impossible to be deposed; not only on the natural floods of the Sea, that would naturally overflow the World; but the metaphorical floods or tumults of the people, the Sea in every wicked man's Heart, more apt to rage morally, than the Sea to foam naturally; if you will take the interpretation of an Angel, Waters and Flouds in the Prophetick style signify the inconstant and mutable people. Revel. 17.1.5. The Waters where the whore sits, are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. So the Angel expounds to John the Vision, which he saw ver. 1. The Heathens acknowledged this part of God's sovereignty in the inward restraints of Men. Those Apparitions of the God's, and Goddesses in Homer to several of the great men, when they were in a Fury, were nothing else in the Judgment of the wisest Philosophers, than an exercise of God's sovereignty in quelling their passions, checking their uncomely intentions, and controlling them in that which their rage prompted them to. And indeed did not God set bounds to the storms in men's hearts, we should soon see the Funeral not only of Religion, but Civility; the one would be blown out, and the other torn up by the Roots.
4. The Dominion of God is manifest in defeating the purposes and devices of men. God often makes a mock of human projects, and doth as well accomplish that which they never dreamt of, as disappoint that which they confidently designed. He is present at all Cabals, laughs at men's formal and studied Counsels, bears a hand over every Egg they hatch, thwarts their best compacted designs, supplants their contrivances, breaks the Engines they have been many years rearing, diverts the intentions of men, as a mighty Wind blows an arrow from the mark, which the Archer intended. Job 5.12. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprize. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the Council of the froward is carried headlong. Enemies often draw an exact scheme of their intended proceedings, Marshal their Companies, appoint their Rendezvous, think to make but one morsel of those they hate; God by his sovereign Dominion turns the scale, changeth the gloominess of the oppressed into a Sun-shine, and the Enemies Sun-shine into darkness. When the Nations were gathered together against Zion, and said, Let her be defiled, and let our Eye look upon Zion. Micah 4.11. What doth God do in this case? Ver. 12. He shall gather them. i. e. Those conspiring Nations, as sheaves into the floor; then he sounds a Trumpet to Zion, Arise and thresh O Daughter of Zion, for I will make thy Horn Iron, and thy Hoofs Brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole Earth. I will make them, and their Councils, them, and their strength, the monuments and signal marks of my Empire over the whole Earth.
When you see the cunningest designs baffled by some small thing intervening, when you see men of profound Wisdom infatuated, mistake their way, and grope in the noon day as in the night. Job 5.14. bewildered in a plain way. When you see the hopes of mighty attempters dashed into despair, their triumphs turned into funerals, and their joyful expectations into sorrowful disappointments; when you see the weak devoted to destruction, victorious, and the most presumptuous defeated in their purposes, then read the divine Dominion in the desolation of such devices. How often doth God take away the Heart and Spirit of grand designs, and burst a mighty wheel, by snatching but one man out of the World? How often doth he cut off the spirits of Princes, Psal. 76.12. either from the World by death, or from the execution of their projects by some unforeseen interruption, or from favoring those contrivances, which before they cherished, by a change of their minds? How often hath confidence in God, and religious Prayer, edge'd the weakest and smallest number of weapons, to make a carnage of the carnally confident? How often hath presumption been disappointed, and the contemned Enemy rejoiced in the spoils of the proud expectant of victory. Phydias made the Image of Nemesis or revenge at Marathon, of that Marble, which the haughty Persians despising the weakness of the Athenian forces, brought with them, to erect a Trophy for an expected, but an ungain'd victory. Haman's neck by a sudden turn was in the Halter, when the Jews necks were designed to the block. Julian designed the overthrow of all the Christians, just before his breast was pierced by an unexpected Arrow. The Powder-Traitors were all ready to give fire to the Mine, when the Sovereign hand of Heaven snatched away the match. Thus the great Lord of the World cuts off men on the pinnacle of their designs, when they seem to threaten Heaven and Earth. Puts out the Candle of the wicked, which they thought to use to light them to the execution of their purposes; turns their own Counsels into a curse to themselves, and a blessing to their Adversaries, and makes his greatest Enemies contribute to the effecting his purposes. How may we take notice of God's absolute disposal of things in private affairs, when we see one man with a small measure of Prudence, and little Industry have great success, and others with a greater measure of Wisdom, and greater toil and labor, find their enterprises melt between their fingers? It was Solomon's observation, That the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill. Eccles. 9.11.
Many things might interpose to stop the swift in his race, and damp the courage of the most valiant. Things do not happen according to men's ability, but according to the over-ruling Authority of God. God never yet granted man the dominion of his own way, no more than to be Lord of his own time; the way of man is not in himself, it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps. Jerem. 10.23. He hath given man a power of acting, but not the sovereignty to command success. He makes even those things, which men intended for their security, to turn to their ruin. Pilate delivered up Christ, to be accounted a friend to Caesar, and Caesar soon after proves an Enemy to him, removes him from his Government, and sends him into banishment. The Jews imagined by the crucifying Christ to keep the Roman Ensigns at a distance from them, and this hasted their march by God's sovereign disposal, which ended in a total desolation. He makes the Judges fools. Job 12.17. by taking away his light from their understanding, and suffering them to go on in the vanity of their own Spirits; that his sovereignty in the management of things may be more apparent: For then he is known to be Lord, when he snares the wicked in the work of his own hands. Psal. 9.16. You have seen much of this doctrine in your experience; and if my judgment fail me not, you will yet see much more.
5. The Dominion of God is manifest in sending his Judgments upon whom he please. He kills, and makes alive, he wounds, and heals whom he pleaseth. His thunders are his own, and he may cast them upon what subjects he thinks good. He hath a right in a way of Justice to punish all men, he hath his choice in a way of Sovereignty, to pick out whom he please, to make the examples of it. Might not some Nations be as wicked as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet have not been scorched with the like dreadful flames? Zoar was untouched, while the other Cities her Neighbors were burnt to ashes. Were there never any places and persons successors in Sodom's guilt? Yet those only by his Sovereign Authority are separated by him, to be the examples of his Eternal vengeance. Jude 7. Why are not sinners as Sodom, like as those ancient ones, scalded to death by the like fiery drops: 'tis because it is his pleasure; and the same reason is to be rendered, why he would in a way of Justice cut off the Jews for their sins, and leave the Gentiles untouched in the midst of their Idolatries. When the Church was consumed because of her iniquities, they acknowledged God's Sovereignty in this. Isaiah 64.7, 8. We are the Clay, and thou art our Potter, and we all the work of thy hands; thou hast a liberty either to break, or preserve us. Judgments move according to God's order. When the Sword hath a charge against Askelon and the Sea shore, thither it must march, and touch not any other place or person, as it goes, though there may be demerit enough for it to punish. Jer. 47.6, 7. When the Prophet had spake to the Sword, Oh thou Sword of the Lord, how long will it be, • re thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still. The Prophet answers for the Sword, how can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon, there hath he appointed it? If he hath appointed a judgment against London, or Westminster, or any other place, there it shall drop, there it shall pierce, and in no other place without a like charge. God as a Sovereign, gives instructions to every Judgment, when, and against whom it shall march, and what Cities, what Persons, it shall arrest; and he is punctually obeyed by them as a Sovereign Lord. All Creatures stand ready for his call, and are prepared to be Executioners of his vengeance, when he speaks the word; they are his Hosts by Creation, and in array for his service; at the sound of his Trumpet, or beat of his Drum, they troop together with their Arms in their hands, to put his Orders exactly in execution.
6. The Dominion of God is manifest, in appointing to every man his calling and station in the World. If the hairs of every man's head fall under his Sovereign care, the Calling of every man, wherein he is to glorify God, and serve his Generation, which is of a greater concern than the hairs of the head, falls under his Dominion. He is the Master of the great Family; and divides to everyone his work as he pleaseth. The whole work of the Messiah, the time of every action, as well as the hour of his Passion was ordered, and appointed by God. The separation of Paul to the Preaching of the Gospel, was by the Sovereign disposal of God, Rom. 1.1. By the same exercise of his Authority, that he sets every man the bounds of his habitation, Acts 17.26. he prescribes also to him the nature of his work. He that ordered Adam, the Father of mankind his work, and the place of it, the dressing the Garden. Gen. 2.15. doth not let any of his posterity be their own choosers, without an influence of his Sovereign direction on them. Though our Callings are our work, yet they are by God's order, wherein we are to be faithful to our great Master and Ruler.
7. The Dominion of God is manifest in the means and occasions of men's Conversion. Sometimes one occasion, sometimes another, one word lets a man go, another arrests him, and brings him before God, and his own Conscience; 'tis as God gives out the order. He lets Paul be a Prisoner at Jerusalem, that his cause should not be determined there, moves him to appeal to Caesar, not only to make him a Prisoner but a Preacher in Caesar's Court, and render his chains an occasion to bring in a Harvest of Converts in Nero's Palace. 1 Phil. 12.13. His bonds in or for Christ are manifest in all the Palace, not the bare knowledge of his bonds, but the sovereign design of God in those Bonds, and the success of them; the bare knowledge of them would not make others more confident for the Gospel, as it follows v. 14. without a providential design of them. Onesimus running from his Master, is guided by God's sovereign order into Paul's Company, and thereby into Christ's arms, and he who came a fugitive, returns a Christian. Phil. 10.15. Some by a strong affliction, have had by the Divine sovereignty their understandings awakened to consider, and their wills spirited to conversion. Monica being called Meribibula or toss-pot, was brought to consider her way, and reform her Life. A word hath done that at one time, which hath often before fallen without any fruit. Many have come to suck in the Eloquence of the Minister, and have found in the Honey for their Ears a sting for their Consciences. Austin had no other intent in going to hear Ambrose, but to have a taste of his famous Oratory; but while Ambrose spake a Language to his Ear, God spake a heavenly Dialect to his heart. No reason can be rendered of the order and timing, and influence of those things, but the sovereign pleasure of God, who will attend one occasion and season with his blessing and not another.
8. The Dominion of God is manifest in disposing of the Lives of men. He keeps the key of Death, as well as that of the Womb in his own hand; he hath given man a Life, but not power to dispose of it, or lay it down at his pleasure: And therefore he hath ordered man not to murder, not another, not himself, man must expect his call and grant, to dispose of the Life of his Body. Why doth he cut the thread of this man's Life, and spin another's out to a longer term? Why doth one die an inglorious death, and another more honorable? One silently drops away in the multitude, while another is made a Sacrifice for the Honor of God, or the safety of his Country. This is a mark of Honor he gives to one and not to another. Phil. 1.29. To you it is given. The manner of Peters death was appointed. John 21.19. Why doth a small and slight Disease against the Rules of Physic, and the Judgment of the best Practitioners, dislodge one man's Soul out of his Body, while a greater Disease is master'd in another, and discharges the Patient, to enjoy himself a longer time in the Land of the Living? Is it the effect of means so much, as of the sovereign disposer of all things? If means only did it, the same means would always work the same effect, and sooner master a dwarfish than a Giant-like Distemper. Our times are only in God's hands, Psal. 31.15. Either to cut short, or continue long. As his sovereignty made the first Marriage knot, so he reserves the sole Authority to himself to make the Divorce.
4. The Dominion of God is manifest in his being a Redeemer, as well as Law-giver, Proprietor and Governor. His Sovereignty was manifest in the Creation in bestowing upon this or that part of matter a form more excellent than upon another. He was a Law-giver to Men and Angels, and prescribed them rules according to the Council of his own Will. These were his Creatures and perfectly at his disposal; but in Redemption a sovereignty is exercised over the Son, the second Person in the Trinity, one equal with the Father in essence and works, by whom the worlds were created, and by whom they do consist. The whole Gospel is nothing else but a declaration of his sovereign pleasure concerning Christ and concerning us in him; 'tis therefore called the Mystery of his Will, Eph. 1.9. The Will of God as distinct from the Will of Christ, a purpose in himself, not moved thereunto by any; the whole design was framed in the Deity, and as much the purpose of his sovereign Will, as the contrivance of his immense Wisdom. He decreed in his own pleasure, to have the second person assume our Nature for to deliver mankind from that misery, whereinto it was fallen: The whole of the Gospel and the Privileges of it are in that chapter resolved into the will and pleasure of God.
God is therefore called the head of Christ, 1 Cor. 11.3. As Christ is superior to all men, and the man superior to the woman, so is God superior to Christ, and of a more eminent dignity; in regard of the constituting him mediator, Christ is Subject to God, as the Body to the Head. Head is a Title of Government and Sovereignty, and Magistrates were called the heads of the People. As Christ is the head of Man, so is God the head of Christ, and as man is subject to Christ, so is Christ subject to God; not in regard of the Divine Nature, wherein there is an equality, and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction; nor only in his human nature, but in the Economy of a Redeemer, considered as one designed, and consenting to be incarnate, and take our flesh, so that after this agreement, God had a sovereign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to. In regard of his undertaking, and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth, he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord, in that prophetic Psalm of him. Psal. 16.2. Oh my Soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my Goodness extends not unto thee, but unto the Saints that are in the Earth. It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven, mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him. I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty, but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth; and it may be observed, that God is called the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah, Haggai, Zacharias, and Malachi, more in reference to this affair of Redemption, and the deliverance of the Church, than for any other works of his Providence in the World.
1. This Sovereignty of God appears, in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man. Had he indulged man after his fall, and remitted his offense without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion, his Authority had been vilified, man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction, there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on man's part, and if a continual succession of indulgences on God's part, he had quite disowned his Authority over man, and stripped himself of the flower of his Crown; satisfaction must have been required sometime or other, from the person thus rebelling, or some other in his stead; and to require it after the first act of sin, was more preservative to the right of the Divine sovereignty, than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts. God must have laid aside his Authority, if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offense of man.
2. This Sovereignty of God appears, in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption. His sovereignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation, there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it, but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature; the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels, that had, as well as all other things, received their being and beauty from him, and to be reckoned in his death among the dust and refuse of the World: He by whom God created all things, not only became a man, but a crucified man by the Will of his Father. Gal. 1.4. Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God; to which may refer that expression. Prov. 8.22. of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way. Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor; he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation. He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution; to this the expression, seems to refer, if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoicing in the habitable part of his Earth, the Earth of the great God, who had designed him to this special work of Redemption. He was a Son by Nature, but a Mediator by Divine Will; in regard of which Christ is often called God's servant, which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things, the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him, and in this regard, the whole of what Christ was to do, and did actually do, was acted by him as the Will of God, and is expressed so by himself in the Prophesy, Psal. 40.7. Lo I come, verse 8. I delight to do thy will, which are put together, Heb. 10.7. Lo I come to do thy Will O God. The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy, but founded on his sovereignty. His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being sovereign, but without it could not have relieved us. It was the Counsel of his own will, as well as of his Bowels. None was his Counselor, or persuader to that mercy he showed, Rom. 11.34. Who hath been his Counselor, for it refers to that Mercy, in sending the deliverer out of Zion, verse 26. as well as to other things, the Apostle had been discoursing of. As God was at liberty to create, or not to create, so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem, and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work, or not to call him out to it. In giving this order to his Son, his sovereignty was exercised in a higher manner, than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels, and all the employments he ever sent them upon. Christ hath names which signify an Authority over him. He is called an Angel, and a Messenger, Mal. 3.1. An Apostle. Heb. 3.1. Declaring thereby, that God hath as much Authority over him, as over the Angels, sent upon his Messages, or over the Apostles commissioned by His Authority, as he was considered in the quality of Mediator.
3. This Sovereignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ. The Supreme Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment; 'It is a part of Sovereignty, to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon another, and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent, in the place of a criminal, whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserved punishment. God transferred the sins of men upon Christ, and inflicted on him a punishment for them. He sum'd up the debts of man, charged them upon the score of Christ, imputing to him the guilt, and inflicting upon him the penalty. Isa. 53.6. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all; He made them all to meet upon his back. He hath made him to be sin for us. 2 Cor. 5.21. He was made so by the Sovereign pleasure of God. A punishment for sin, as most understand it, which could not be Righteously inflicted, had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ, and the order of the Judge of the World. This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God, because he was the sole Creditor. A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretyship, but it is at his liberty whither he will or no; and when he doth accept of him, he may challenge the Debt of him, as if he were the Principal Debtor himself. Christ made himself sin for us, by a voluntary submission, and God made him sin for us, by a full imputation, and treated him penally, as he would have done those sinners in whose stead he suffered. Without this Act of Sovereignty in God, we had forever perished: For if we could suppose Christ laying down his life for us without the pleasure and order of God, he could not have been said to have born our punishment; What could he have undergone in his Humanity, but a temporal death, but more than this was due to us, even the wrath of God, which far exceeds the calamity of a mere bodily death? The Soul being principal in the crime, was to be principal in the punishment. The wrath of God could not have dropt upon his Soul, and rendered it so full of Agonies, without the hand of God. A creature is not capable to reach the Soul, neither as to comfort nor terror; and the Justice of God could not have made him a sufferer, if it had not first considered him a sinner by imputation, or by inhaerency and actual commission of a crime in his own person. The latter was far from Christ, who was holy, harmless and undefiled. He must be considered then in the other state of imputation, which could not be without a Sovereign appointment, or at least concession of God: For without it, he could have had no more Authority to lay down his life for us, than Abraham could have had to have sacrificed his son, or any man to expose himself to death without a call; Nor could any Plea have been entered in the Court of Heaven, either by Christ for us, or by us for ourselves. And though the death of so great a person had been meritorious in itself, it had not been meritorious for us, or accepted for us; Christ is delivered up by him, Rom. 8.32. in every part of that condition wherein he was, and suffered, and to that end, that we might become the Righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor. 5.21. That we might have the Righteousness of him that was God, imputed to us, or that we might have a Righteousness as great, and proportioned to the Righteousness of God, as God required. It was an act of Divine Sovereignty, to account him, that was Righteous, a sinner in our stead, and to account us, who were sinners, Righteous upon the merit of his death.
4. This was done by the command of God, by God as a Law-giver, having the supreme Legislative and Praeceptive Authority; In which respect, the whole work of Christ is said to be an answer to a Law, not one given him, but put into his heart, as the Law of nature was in the heart of man at first. Psal. 40.7, 8. Thy Law is within my heart. This Law was not the Law of Nature, or Moral Law, though that was also in the heart of Christ, but the command of doing those things which were necessary for our Salvation, and not a command so much of doing, as of dying. The Moral Law in the heart of Christ would have done us no good without the Mediatory Law; We had been where we were by the sole observance of the Precepts of the Moral Law, without his suffering the penalty of it. The Law in the heart of Christ was the Law of suffering, or dying, the doing that for us by his death, which the blood of Sacrifices was unable to effect. Legal Sacrifices thou wouldest not, thy Law is within my heart. i. e. thy Law ordered me to be a Sacrifice; It was that Law, his obedience to which was principally accepted and esteemed, and that was principally his passive, his obedience to death. Phil. 2.8. This was the special command received from God, that he should die. John 10.18. 'It is not so clearly manifested, when this command was given, whither after the incarnation of Christ, or at the point of his constitution as Mediator, upon the transaction between the father and the son concerning the affair of Redemption. The promise was given before the World began. Tit. 1.2. Might not the Precept be given, before the World began, to Christ, as considered in the quality of Mediator and Redeemer? Precepts and Promises usually attend one another; Every Covenant is made up of both. Christ considered here as the Son of God in the Divine Nature, was not capable of a command or promise, but considered in the relation of Mediator between God and Man, he was capable of both; Promises of Assistance were made before his actual incarnation, of which the Prophets are full: why not Precepts for his obedience, since long before his incarnation this was his speech in the Prophet, thy Law is within my heart? However, a command, a law it was, which is a fruit of the Divine Sovereignty: That as the Sovereignty of God was impeached, and violated by the disobedience of Adam, it might be owned and vindicated by the obedience of Christ; That as we fell by disloyalty to it, we might rise by the highest submission to it in another head, infinitely superior in his person to Adam, by whom we fell.
5. This Sovereignty of God appears, in exalting Christ to such a Sovereign dignity as our Redeemer. Some indeed say, that this Sovereignty of Christ's Human Nature was natural, and the right of it resulted from its Union with the Divine, as a Lady of mean condition, when Espous'd and Marryed to a Prince, hath by virtue of that a natural right to some kind of jurisdiction over the whole Kingdom: because she is one with the King. But to wave this, the Scripture placeth wholly the conferring such an Authority upon the pleasure and will of God. As Christ was a gift of God's Sovereign will to us, so this was a gift of God's Sovereign will to Christ. Matt. 28.28. All power is given me. And he gave him to be head over all things to the Church. Eph. 1.22. God gave him a name above every name. Phil. 2.9. And therefore his Throne he sits upon, is called the Throne of his Father. Rev. 3.21. And he committed all Judgment to the Son; i. e. All Government and Dominion; An Empire in Heaven and Earth: Joh. 5.22. and that because he is the son of Man. v. 27. which may be understood, that the Father hath given him Authority to exercise that Judgment and Government, as the son of man, which he Originally had as the son of God; or rather because he became a servant, and humbled himself to death, he gives him this Authority as the reward of his Obedience and Humility, conformable to Phil. 2.9. This is an act of the high Sovereignty of God, to obscure his own Authority in a sense, and take into association with him, or vicarious subordination to him, the Human Nature of Christ as united to the Divine; Not only lifting it above the heads of all the Angels, but giving that person in our nature an Empire over them, whose nature was more excellent than ours. Yea the Sovereignty of God appears in the whole management of this Kingly Office of Christ: for it is managed in every part of it, according to God's order. Ezek. 37.24, 25. David my servant shall be King over them, and my servant David shall be their Prince forever. He shall be a Prince over them, but my servant in that principality, in the exercise and duration of it. The Sovereignty of God is paramount, in all that Christ hath done as a Priest, or shall do as a King.
The USE.
1. For Instruction.
1. How great is the contempt of this sovereignty of God? Man naturally would be free from God's Empire, to be a slave under the Dominion of his own lust. The sovereignty of God as a Law-giver is most abhor'd by man. Levite. 26.43. The Israelites, the best people in the World, were apt by nature, not only to despise, but abhor his Statutes. There is not a Law of God but the corrupt heart of man hath an abhorrency of. How often do men wish, that God had not enacted this or that Law that goes against the grain, and in wishing so▪ wish that he were no sovereign, or not such a sovereign as he is in his own •• ture, but one according to their corrupt model. This is the great quarrel between God and Man, whither he or they shall be the sovereign Ruler. He should not by the Will of Man rule in any one Village in the World; God's vote should not be predominant in any one thing. There is not a Law of his, but is exposed to contempt by the perverseness of Man. Prov. 1.21. Ye have set at naught all my Counsel, and would have none of my reproof. Septuag. Ye have made all my Counsels without Authority. The nature of man cannot endure one precept of God, nor one rebuke from him: And for this cause God is at the expense of Judgments in the World, to assert his own Empire to the Teeth and Consciences of men. Psal. 59.13. Lord consume them in wrath, and let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the Earth. The Dominion of God is not slighted by any Creature of this World but Man; all others observe it, by observing his Order, whither in their natural motions or preternaral irruptions; they punctually act according to their Commission. Man only speaks a Dialect against the strain of the whole Creation, and hath none to imitate him among all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth, but only among those in Hell. Man is more impatient of the yoke of God, than of the yoke of Man. There are not so many rebellions committed by inferiors against their superiors and fellow Creatures, as are committed against God. A willing and easy sinning is an equalling the Authority of God to that of Man. Hos. 6.7. They like men have transgressed my Covenant. They have made no more account of breaking my Covenant, than if they had broken some league or compact made with a mere man, so slightly do they esteem the Authority of God. Such a disesteem of the divine Authority is a virtual undeifying of him. To slight his sovereignty is to stab his Deity: Since the one cannot be preserved without the support of the other, his life would expire with his Authority. How base and brutish is it for vile dust and mouldering clay, to lift up itself against the Majesty of God whose Throne is in the Heavens, who sways his Scepter over all parts of the World? A Majesty before whom the Devils shake, and the highest Cherubims tremble. 'It is as if the Thistle that can presently be trod down by the foot of a wild Beast, should think itself a match for the Cedar of Lebanon, as the phrase is, 2 Kings 14.9.
Let us consider this in general, and also in the ordinary practice of men.
First, In General.
1. All sin in its nature is a contempt of the Divine Dominion. As every act of Obedience is a confirmation of the Law, and consequently a subscription to the Authority of the Lawgiver, Deut, 27.26. so every breach to it is a conspiracy against the sovereignty of the Law-giver; setting up our Will against the Will of God is an Articling against his Authority, as setting up our reason against the methods of God, is an Articling against his Wisdom; the intendment of every act of sin, is to wrest the Scepter out of God's hand. The Authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity, which it directs its edge against; 'tis called therefore a transgression of his Law. 1 John 3.4. And therefore a slight or neglect of the Majesty of God; and the not keeping his Commands, is called a forgetting God. Deut. 8.11. i. e. a forgetting him to be our absolute Lord. As the first notion we have of God as a Creator, is that of his Sovereignty, so the first perfection that sin struck at in the violation of the Law, was his sovereignty as a Lawgiver. Breaking the Law is a dishonoring God, Rom. 2.23. a Snatching off his Crown; to obey our own Wills before the Will of God, is to prefer ourselves as our own Sovereigns before him. Sin is a wrong and injury to God, not in his Essence, that is above the reach of a Creature, nor in anything profitable to him, or pertaining to his own intrinsic advantage; not an injury to God in himself but in his Authority, in those things which pertain to his Glory, a disowning his due right, and not using his goods according to his will. Thus the whole world may be called, as God calls Chaldea, a Land of Rebels. Jer. 50.21. Go up against the Land of Merathaim, or Rebels: Rebels, not against the Jews, but against God. The mighty opposition in the heart of man to the Supremacy of God is discovered Emphatically by the Apostle. Rom. 8.7. in that expression, The carnal mind is enmity against God, i. e. against the Authority of God: because it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. It refuseth not subjection to this or that part, but to the whole; to every mark of Divine Authority in it, it will not lay down its arms against it, nay it cannot but stand upon its terms against it; the Law can no more be fulfilled by a carnal mind, than it can be disowned by a sovereign God. God is so Holy, that he cannot alter a Righteous Law, and man is so averse, that he cares not for, nay cannot fulfil one Tittle; so much doth the Nature of man swell against the Majesty of God. Now an enmity to the Law which is in every sin, implies a perversity against the Authority of God that enacted it.
2. All sin in its nature is the despoyling God of his sole sovereignty, which was probably the first thing the Devil aimed at. That pride was the sin of the Devil, the Scripture gives us some account of, when the Apostle adviseth not a novice, or one that hath but lately embraced the Faith, to be chosen a Bishop. 1 Tim.