Part 26
might he not have divested Adam presently of those rational perfections where- • with he had endowed him ; and might he not have metamorphosed him into i some beast, and elevated some beast into a rational nature ? Why might i 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 revoked 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.
* Sueton. de Tiberio, cap. xxvii.
416 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
[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 redemp tion 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 honour, 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 Ihem, 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 for ever. 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 pleases with him, without rendering any other reason than, It is my own? May not God do much more ? Doth not his dominion over the works 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 theme God himself discourseth upon in those stately
chapters, Job xxxviii., xxxix., &c., not mentioning a word of Job's sin, but only vindicating the rights of his own authority. Nor doth Job in his reply, chap. xl. 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 iv. 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 honour'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. iv. 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
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 417
: work, as the potter's power is over his own clay, Jer. xviii. 6, Rom. ix. 21. . May not the potter after his labour, either set his vessel up to adorn his
house, or knock it in pieces, and fling it upon the dunghill, separate it to
i 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 I 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 I tractable, but only moulded the substance of it into such a shape ? The I vessel that is framed, and the potter that frames it, differ only in life ; the I body of the potter, whereby he executes his authority, is of no better a mould j than the clay, the matter of his vessel ; shall he have no absolute 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 itself that it was
once part of the body of a man, and as good as the potter himself, whereas i 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 Scrip-
; ture sometimes lays affliction upon the score of God's dominion, without i any respect to the sin of the afflicted person. James v. 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 BO 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 ix. 3, ' Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents,' which speaks in itself 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 be sent without any particular respect to that desert, merely for
the manifestation of God's glory, since the creature was made for God him
self, and his honour, 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 with out 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 sub jects 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. i. 9, much less for a righteous God. God is his own law, bis 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. iv. 32, ' He
rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will ; ' and Bom. ix. 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, BO all is wrought by him according to the inward motive in his own will, which was the manifestation of his own honour. The greatest motives
* Lessius, de Perfect. Divin. p. 66, 67: VOL. II. D d
418 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
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 uncontrollableness. None can implead him, and cause him to render a reason of hia actions. He is the sovereign king : ' Who may sayunto him, What dost thou ? ' Eccles. viii. 4. It is an absurd thing for any to dispute with God. Rom. ix. 20, ' Who art thou, 0 man, that repliest against God ? ' Thou, a man, a piece of dust, to argue with God incomprehensibly above thy reason, about the reason of his works ! ' Let the potsherds strive with the pot sherds of the earth, but not with him that fashioned them,' Isa. xlv. 9. In all the desolations he works, he asserts his supremacy to silence men.
Ps. xlvi. 10, ' Be still, and know that I am God.' Beware of any quarrelling motions in your minds; it is 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 pro ceedings. 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 govern ments 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, 6 iiir&v, ' light to shine out of darkness,' 2 Cor. iv. 6. There is no distance of time between his word, ' Let there be light, and there was light,' Gen. i. 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 ?' Isa. xliii. 13. 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 xxxviii. 33, 35.
3. Yet this dominion, though it be absolute, is not tyrannical ; but it is 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, jus tice, 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 pawned 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 with out 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 inno cent 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
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 419
regard of God's sovereignty that he should love it ; bat in regard of his i 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 wonld be inconsistent with those other properties
i which render him perfectly adorable to the creature. As no intelligent creai ture, neither angel nor man, can be framed without a law in his nature, so we I cannot imagine God without a law in his own nature, unless we would fancy
i him a rude, tyrannical, foolish being, that hath nothing of holiness, goodjness, righteousness, wisdom. If he made the heavens in wisdom, Ps.
: cxxxvi. 5, he made them by some rule, not by a mere will, but a rule within
i himself, not without. A wise work is never the result of an absolute unj guided 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 i 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 the 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 : Bom.
xi. 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 imperil, 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 other wise 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 inquiry; as at the first casting our eyes upon the sea, we behold its motion, colour, and something of its vastness, but we cannot presently fathom the depth of it, and under stand 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 wis dom beyond .the reach of his subjects ; it is not for a finite nature to under stand 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 counsellor. Yet those actions that savour 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 jus tice, 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 ? Bom. xi. 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
420 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
himself and his own glory, the manifestation of the perfection of his nature ? What perfection could have been discovered in so quick an anni hilation, but that of his power in creating, and of his sovereignty in snatch ing 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 honour 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 sceptres not beautiful till dyed in blood, nor the throne secure till established upon slain carcases. But 'justice and judg ment are the foundation of the throne ' of God, Ps. Ixix. 14, alluding per haps to the supporters of arms and thrones, which among princes are figures of lions, emblems of courage, as Solomon had, 1 Kings x. 19. Bi God makes not so much might as right the support of his. He sits on
' throne of holiness,' Ps. xlvii. 8, as he reigns over the heathens, referring 1 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, Bom. xi. 33. ' In all his ways he is righteous,' Ps. cxlv. 17 ; in ways of terror, as well as those of sweetness, in those works wherein lit 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 any thing but what is corformable 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. xviii. 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. Thte heathen poets represented their chief god, Jupiter, with Themis, or Bight, sitting by him upon his throne in all his orders. God cannot by his absolute sovereignty command some things, be cause 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 crea ture. 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
! Ps. CIIL 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 421
! his proceedings to the judgment of his depraved creatures, and the inward
dictates of their own consciences. Isa. v. 8, ' And now, 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vine
yard.' 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, Isa. xxxiii. 22. It had been repugnant to the nature of a rational creature to be ruled other wise ; 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 savours 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 right eousness 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,f like Clearchas, the tyrant of Heraclia, who bore the figure of a thunderbolt instead of a sceptre, 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. iv. 16 ; a throne encircled with a rainbow ; Rev. iv. 23, 'in sight like to an emerald ' — an emblem of the covenant, that hath the pleasant ness of a green colour, 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, ex acts 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 any thing repugnant to the honour, dignity, and principles of such a nature ; not any thing 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 ren ders his laws as sweet as honey or the honeycomb 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 per mit 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 it self, to rid him of a greater misery. None but a savage nature, a disposition to be abhorred, 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 de
served it, as it is to deny himself, and act any thing foolishly, and unbe-
* Qu. ' cannot'? — ED. f Causin. Poly. Histor. lib. iv. cap. xiii.
422 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
seeming 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 xxxvi. 5, 7-10. And if he ' bind them in fetters,' it is to ' shew 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 Fabricius, You may as soon remove the sun from its course as Fabricius from his honesty, may be [said] 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. i. 17, ro5 & fiaffiXzTTuv ai'Muv. And the same word is translated, Heb. i. 2, ' By whom also he made the worlds,' the same word is rendered worlds, Heb. xi. 8, ' 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 what soever 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 dominion. The Pyrenean moun tains 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 neighbour 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. xxxii. 1, 2. When he met the angels of
God, he calls them ' the hosts of God,' and the evangelist long after calls them so : Luke ii. 13, •* A multitude of the heavenly host praising God ;' and all this host he commands : Isa. xlv. 12, ' My hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.' He employs them in his ser vice, 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 : Ps. cxlvii.
4, ' He calls the stars by name,' they render a due obedience to him, as ser vants 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
IPs. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 428
general of an army appoints the station of every regiment in a battalion ; or
i ' 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
i Adam's derivative dominion over them. These are under the sovereignty ; of God. The stars by their influences fight against Sisera, Judges v. 20 ; i and the sun holds in its reins, and stands stone still to light Joshua to a ! complete victory, Josh. x. 12. They are all marshalled in their ranks to
receive his word of command, and fight in close order, as being desirous to i have a. share in the ruin of the enemies of their sovereign ; and those crea- ! tures which mount up from the earth, and take their place in the lower i heavens, vapours, whereof hail and snow are formed, are part of the army, i and do not only receive but fulfil his word of command, Ps. cxlviii. 8. ; These are his stores and magazines of judgment against a time of trouble,
and ' a day of battle and war,' Job xxxviii. 22, 23. The sovereignty of God ; is visible in all their motions, in going and returning. If he says, Go, they
i 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 them selves 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 sceptre of his dominion. When they would not own him as a Lord Father, they are under him as 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 loyalest 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 ; to wards the godly, as in the case of Job, as an instrument of kindness for the manifestation of his sincerity against the intentions of that malicious execu tioner. Though the devils are the executioners of his justice, it is 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, it is an act of his sovereignty, for the manifestation of the order of his justice ; and as most nations use the vilest persons in offices for execution, so doth God those vile spirits. He doth not ordinarily use the good angels in those offices of ven geance, but in the preservation of his people. When he would solely punish, he employs evil angels, Ps. Ixxviii. 49, a troop of devils. His sovereignty is extended over the ' deceiver and the deceived,' Job xii. 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, belong to his authority, Ps.
xlvii. 7. God is King ' of all the earth,' and rules to the ends of it, Ps. lix. 13. Ancient atheists confined God's dominion to the heavenly orbs, and bounded it within the circuit of the celestial sphere : Job xxii. 14, ' He walks in the circuit of heaven,' i. e. he exerciseth his dominion only there.
* Suarez. vol. ii. lib. viii. cap. xx. p. 736.
424 CHAKNOCK'S WOKKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
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,
[l.J 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 a host on earth as well as in heaven : Gen. ii. 1, ' The heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them ;' and they are ' all his servants,' Ps. cxix. 91, and move at his pleasure. And he vouchsafes the title of his army to the locust, caterpillar, and palmer-worm, Joel ii. 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 children, and let it loose to consume their adversaries ; and if he speak the word, the stormy waves are hush, as if they had no principle of rage within them, Ps. Ixxxix. 9. Since the meanest creature attains its 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 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 poten tate 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 xxxiv. 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 every thing, in his settlement, in his calling, in the ordering his very habitation : Acts xvii. 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 gods, Ps.
Ixxxii. 6 ; but the highest prince is but a prince ' according to the flesh,' as the apostle calls masters in relation to their servants, Col. iii. 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 sur face, 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 gods as well as creatures. It is impossible a crea-
* Boldu. in loc.
3. CIII. 19.J GOD'S DOMINION. 425
re, either in whole or in part, can be exempted from it, since he is the shioner of hearts as well as of bodies. He is the Father of spirits, and
erefore hath the right of a paternal dominion over them. When he estabshed man lord of the other creatures, he did not strip himself of the proriety ; and when he made man a free agent, and lord of the acts of his will,
i did not divest himself of the sovereignty.
His sovereignty is seen, (1.) In gifting of the spirits of men. Earthly magistrates have hands too ort, to .inspire the hearts of their subjects with worthy sentiments. When jiey confer an employment, they are not able to convey an ability with it it for the station. They may as soon frame a statue of liquid water, and
ild or paint it over with the costliest colours, as impart to any a state head pr a state ministry. But when God chooseth a Saul from so mean an emjloyment as seeking of asses, he can treasure up in him a spirit fit for governjient ; and fire David, in age a stripling, and by education a shepherd, with purage to encounter and skill to defeat a massy Goliah ; and when he designs j person for glory to stand before his throne, he can put a new and a royal
pirit into him, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. God only can infuse habits into the soul, o capacitate it to act nobly and generously.
j (2.) His sovereignty is seen in regard of the inclinations of men's wills, lio creature can immediately work upon the will, to guide it to what point ie pleaseth, though mediately it may, by proposing reasons which may paster the understanding, and thereby determine the will ; but God bows lie hearts of men by the efficacy of his dominion to what centre he pleaseth. jVhen the more over-weening sort of men, that thought their own heads as
it for a crown as Saul's, scornfully despised him, yet God touched the hearts |f a band of men, to follow and adhere to him, 1 Sam. x. 26, 27. When
'be antichristian whore shall be ripe for destruction, God shall ' put it into jhe heart ' of the ten horns or kings ' to hate the whore, burn her with fire, ind fulfil his will,' Rev. xvii. 16, 17. He ' fashions the hearts alike,' and
unes one string to answer another, and both to answer his own design, Ps. jxxiii. 15. And while men seem to gratify their own ambition and malice, ihey execute the will of God by his secret touch upon their spirits, guiding
heir inclinations to serve the glorious manifestation of his truth. While he Jews would, in a reproachful disgrace to Christ, crucify two thieves with lim, to render him more uncapable to have any followers, they accomplished
•i prophecy, and brought to light a mark of the Messiah, whereby he had >een charactered in one of their prophets, Isa. liii. 12, that he should be
numbered among transgressors.' He can make a man of not willing wil ing ; the wills of all men are in his hand, i. e. under the power of his sceptre, o retain or let go upon this or that errand, to bend this or that way, as rater is carried by pipes to what house or place the owner of it is pleased to
>rder : Prov. xxi. 1, ' The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord ; as the
ivers of waters, he turns it whithersoever he will,' without any limitation, le speaks of the heart of princes, because, in regard of their height, they
eem to be more absolute and impetuous, as waters ; yet God holds them in
is hand, under his dominion, turns them to acts of clemency or severity like
aters, either to overflow and damage, or to refresh and fructify. He can
>nvey a spirit to them, or cut it off from them, Ps. Ixxvi. 12. It is with
"erence to his efficacious power, in graciously turning the heart of Paul, .hat the apostle breaks off his discourse of the story of his conversion, and
ireaks out into a magnifying and glorifying of God's dominion : 1 Tim. i. 17,
Now unto the King eternal, &c., be honour and glory for ever and ever.' Our icarts arejnore subject to the divine sovereignty than our members in their
426 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
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 execu tions 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 stand ing still, which he can effect by a word. The work depends upon the work man, 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 him
self, 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 handwriting, 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, it is 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 mouldered 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 for ever,' Ps. xxix. 10 ; his session signifies the establishment, and for ever the duration, and he sits now; his sovereignty is as absolute, as powerful as ever. How many lords and princes hath this or that kingdom had ? in how many families hath the sceptre lodged ? whenas 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 to-day may be stripped of it to-morrow. 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, v. 19 ; it cannot be
shaken. His sceptre, like Aaron's rod, is always green ; it cannot be wrested out of his hands ; none raised him to it, none therefore can depose him from it ; it bears the same splendour in all human affairs ; he is an eternal, an immortal King, 1 Tim. i. 17. As he is eternally mighty, so he is eternally sovereign ; and being an eternal king, he is a king that gives not a
)s. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 427
jnomentary and perishing, but a durable and everlasting, life to them that
)bey him ; a durable and eternal punishment to them that resist him.
' IV. Wherein this dominion and sovereignty consists, and how it is Manifested.
' 1 . The first act of sovereignty is the making laws. This is essential to pod ; no creature's will can be the first rule to the creature, but only the will of God. He can only prescribe man his duty, and establish the rule of
It; hence the law is called, 'the royal law,' James ii. 8, it being the first and clearest manifestation of sovereignty, as the power of legislation is pf the authority of a prince. Both are joined together in Isa. xxxiii. 22,
H The Lord is our lawgiver, 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 janother is not discovered by promising, for a promise doth not suppose the Ipromiser 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. iNo man forceth another to the acceptance of his promise, but only proposeth land 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 jhis 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 I 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 law giver, 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 origi nally reside in him : James iv. 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 govern ment of the world. The power that the potentates of the world have to make laws, is but derivative from God. If their dominion be from him, as
it is, for ' by him kings reign,' Prov. viii. 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. xiii. 5. Conscience, in its operations, solely respects God ; and therefore, when it is exercised as the principle of obedience to the laws of men, it is not with a respect to them singly considered, but as the majesty of God appears in their station and in their decrees. The power of giving laws was acknow ledged by the heathen to be solely in God by way of original ; and therefore
* Suarez. de Legib. p. 23.
428 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
the greatest lawgivers among the heathen pretended their laws to be received from some deity, or supernatural power, by special revelation. Now, whether 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. viii. 15, ' By me princes decree justice,' by the secret conduct of divine wisdom), or whether 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 abso
lutely gained upon them by such a pretence. There was always a revelation of a law from the mouth of God in every age. The exhortation of Eliphaz to Job, chap. xxii. 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 xxxviii. 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. ii. 14, every son of Adam, at hia 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. None are without a
legal indictment, and a legal executioner within them. God or none was the author of this as a sovereign Lord, in establishing a law in 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 trans gression.' 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, honour, 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. ii. 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 a way 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
?s. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 429
flepend on him who was his Lord, and not on his own will. There was no oaore 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 Shew 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. iThus God shewed 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 disjpose 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 posIterity, it was a more tolerable exercise of his dominion to reserve this one
itree"as a mark of his sovereignty, when he had left all others to the use of jAdam. 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
ito enforce it besides God's will, viz., the excellency of his nature, and the (greatness and multitudes of his benefits ; to love our neighbour hafh enforcling 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 reai son can be assigned of this positive command about the tree of knowledge
i 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 I 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, i 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. ii. 3. Such were the ceremonial commands of
sacrifices and washings under the law, and the commands of sacraments tinder 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
430 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19
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. xxxi. 18, which is very emphatically expressed to be a mark of God's dominion. Chap, xxxii. 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, chap, xxxiv. 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 published by God in state, with a numerous attendance of his hea venly militia, Deut. xxxii. 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 out ward 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 origin ; but reserved the authority over the better and more heavenly half to himself. The do minion 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 coincident 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 whether we embrace this law in our heart and consciences, or only in appearance. He only can judge it, Luke xii. 3, 4, and therefore he only can impose laws upon it ; it is 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 con science, 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; it is a flower in the crown of divine sovereignty only.
[1.] 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 honour God ; this would be to dispense with his
b. CIII. 19.J GOD'S DOMINION. 431
(vvn holiness and the righteousness of his nature, to sully the purity of his iwn dominion ; it would write folly upon the first creation of man after the tnage of God, by writing mutability upon himself, in framing himself after be corrupted image of man. It would null and frustrate the excellency of he creature, wherein the image of God mostly shines ; nay, it would be to
ispense with a creature's being a creator,* and make him independent upon
sovereign of the world in moral obedience. [2.] But God hath a right to dispense with the ordinary laws of nature to. the inferior creatures ; he hath a power to alter their course by an arrest
ff miracles, and make them come short, or go beyond his ordinances estab lished for them. He hath a right to make the sun stand still or move backk ard, to bind up the womb of the earth and bar the influence of the clouds, bridle in the rage of the fire and the fury of lions, make the liquid waters
j;tand like a wall, or pull up the dam which he hath set to the sea, and comjuand it to overflow the neighbouring countries. He can dispense with the :iatural laws of the whole creation, and strain every string beyond its ordi nary pitch. I Positive laws he hath reversed, as the ceremonial law given to the Jews. |rhe very nature indeed of that law required a repeal, and fell of course ; Lvhen that which was intended by it was come, it was of no longer signifiliancy ; as before it was a useful shadow, it would afterwards have been an bmpty one. Had not God took away this, Christianity had not in all likeli
hood been propagated among the Gentiles. This was the ' partition wall' between Jews and Gentiles, Eph. ii. 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 bad the authority of enacting, he resolved, for the asserting his dominion, to ibury them in the ruins of the temple and city, and make them for ever iuncapable of practising the main and essential parts of them ; for the temple jbeing the legal pillar of the service, by demolishing that God hath taken 'away the right of sacrificing, it being peculiarly annexed to that place ; they
have no altar dignified 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 revoked 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 in the first covenant.