Part 28
where to lay his head ; a sceptre 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 dunghill 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 rich, Prov. xxii. 2, not only of their persons, but of their conditions. The earth and the fulness thereof is his propriety, and he hath as much right as Joseph had, to bestow changes of raiment upon what Benjamins he please. There is 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 iv. 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
448 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
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 wool that
warms us : Hosea ii. 8, 9, 'I will take away,' not your corn and wine, but
' my corn, my wine, my wool.' 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 devolved the right of the Egyptia jewels to the Israelites, and bestowed upon the captives what before he ha
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 con dition, 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 needlework, are brought to make use of a cord ; as the vulgar translates rent, a rag, or list of cloth, Isa. iii. 24 ; and sackcloth for a stomacher, instead of silk. This is the sovereign act of God, as he is the Lord of the world : Ps. Ixxi. 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 ;
another.' He doth no wrong to any man : if he lets him languish out days in poverty and disgrace, if he gives or takes away, he meddles wit nothing but what is his own more than ours ; if he did dispense his benefit equally to all, men would soon think it their due. The inequality and
changes preserve the notion of God's sovereignty, and correct our natur1 unmindfulness of it ; if there were no changes, God would not be feared the King of all the earth, Ps. Iv. 19. To this might also be referred his inve ing 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 i. 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, can be referred to nothing else but his sovereign pleasure. Why should Christ come at the twilight and evening of the world, at the fulness, 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 grey hairs of the world, when so many persons in all nations had been hurried out of the world, with out any notice of such a redeemer, what was this but his sovereign will ?
Why the Gentiles should be left so long in the devil's chains, wallowing in the sink of their abominable superstitions, since God had declared his inten tion 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
s. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 449
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 deferred one age after the death of Christ for the sins of their preceding 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 fulness of the Gentiles be come in,' Rom. xi. 25. As he is the Lord of his own grace, so he is Lord of the time when to dispense it. Why did God create the world in six 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 rea son ? Why doth he not bring this or that man, whom he intends for ser vice, to a fitness in an instant, but by long tracts of study, and through 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 holi ness 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 xvii. 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. Ps. Ixxv. 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. ii. 21, i.e. the revolutions of govern ment, whereby times are altered.* How many empires that have spread their wings over a great part of the world, have had their carcases torn in pieces, and unheard of nations plucked off the wings of the Roman eagle, after it had preyed 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
* Mr Mede in one of hi a Letters. VOL. II. F f
450 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
land into his hands ; and what he thought was his right by conquest, was
God's donative to him. You may read the charter to Nebuchadnezzar, whom he terms his servant, Jer. xxvii. 6, ' And now I have given all those lands,' — the lands are mentioned, ver. 8, — ' 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. 1. 9, 10. And this for the mani
festation of his sovereign dominion, that he was the ' Lord, that made peace, and created evil,' Isa. xlv. 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. viii. The swift current of his victories, as swift as his motion, shewed 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 Per
sian, described under the figure of a ' ram 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, acknowledg ing 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 advantageoc an education under his father Solomon, the wisest prince of the world ?
' The cause was from the Lord,' 1 Kings xii. 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 wars, whereby flourishing kingdoms are overthrown, God hath the chief hand; in reference to which it is observed, that in the two prophets,
Isaiah and Jeremiah, God is called the ' Lord of hosts ' one hundred and thirty 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,' Judges vii. 18. The sword of a conqueror is the sword of the Lord, and receives its charge and commission from the great sovereign, Jer. xlvii. 6, 7. We are apt to confine our thought 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 separate causes together to serve his own purpose. The skill of one man may lay open the folly of a counsellor, 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 xii. 18, 'He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.' ' He looseth the bonds of kings,' L e. 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, con
firm it, ' He leads princes away spoiled, and overthrows the mighty.' God * Josephus.
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 451
lifts up some to a great height, and easts down others to a disgraceful rain. All those changes in the face of the world, the revolutions of empires, 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 petty dominions inthe 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 dwrante bene placito, and not quamdiu bene se gesserwt. Those princes that have been the glory of their country have swayed the sceptre but a short time, when the more wolfish ones have remained longer in com mission, 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 govern ment, 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, whether 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, causeth it to will what he wills, as to the outward act, and the out ward 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. ii. 3-6. 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 acts endeavoured 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 saviour of his nation. Thus he appointed Cyrus to be his ' shep herd/ and gave him a pastoral spirit for the reformation of the city and temple of Jerusalem, Isa. xliv. 28, and xlv. 5, tells them in the prophecy
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 rebuilt, the spirits of
the people were raised up, not by themselves, but by God: Ezra i. 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
452 CHAKNOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
their hands and promote the work, Hag. i. 14. The spirits of men, even in
those works which are naturally desirable to them, as the restoration 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 favour 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. ii. 4, ' So I prayed to the God of heaven.' The heathens had some glance of this ; it is an expression that Cicero hath somewhere, that the Roman commonwealth was rather governed 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.
(8.) 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 partridge 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. xxiii. 26-28. But it is chiefly seen by an inward curbing mutinoc affections, when there is no visible cause. What reason but this can rendered, why the nations bordering on Canaan, who bore no good will the Jews, but rather wished the whole race of them rooted out from the fa of the earth, should not invade their country, pillage their houses, anc
plunder their cattle, while they*were left naked of any human defence, 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 Saviour, when with a high hand he began to whip them out, but a divine bridle upon them ; though it appears by the question ing his authority, that there were Jews enough to have chased out him, and his company ? John ii. 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 expelled ? No ; but that sovereign who loosed the reins of their malicious corruption, to execute the master for the purchase of redemption, curbed it from break ing out against the servants, to further the propagation of the doctrine of redemption. He that restrains the roaring lion 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 favour of his Daniels. His dominion is above that of principali ties and powers, their decrees are at his mercy, whether they shall stand or fall ; he hath a vote above their stifiest resolves. His single word, I will,
Ps. GUI. 19. J GOD'S DOMINION. 453
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. Isa. viii. 9, 10, ' Associate yourselves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought.'
' When the enemy shall come in like a flood,' with a violent and irresistible force, intending nothing but ravage and desolation, ' the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against them,' Isa. lix. 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. xxxi. 24. Would Laban have respected that command any more 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 prin ciples of commotion in men, and the noise of the se&, 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, Ps.
Ixv. 7, which ' stills the noise of the sea, and tumults of the people.' And David owns God's sovereignty more than his own, in ' subduing the
people under him,' Ps. xviii. 47. In this his empire is illustrious : Ps. xxix. 10, ' The Lord sitteth upon the floods, yea, the Lord sitteth king for ever ; 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 interpre tation of an angel, waters and floods, in the prophetic syle, signify the incon stant and mutable people: Rev. xvii. 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, verse 1. The heathens acknow
ledged this part of God's sovereignty in the inward restraints of men. Those apparitions of the gods 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 de vices 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. v. 12, ' He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands caunot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own crafti
ness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.' Enemies often
draw an exact scheme of their intended proceedings, marshal their com panies, appoint their rendezvous, think to make but one morsel of those they hate ; God by his sovereign dominion turns the scale, changeth the
454 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
gloominess of the oppressed into a sunshine, and the enemies' sunshine into darkness. When the nations were gathered together against Zion, and said,
' Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion,' Micah iv. 11, what doth God do in this case ? Ver. 12, ' He shall gather them,' i. e. those conspir ing nations, ' as sheaves into the floor.' Then he sounds a trumpet to Zion :
' Arise and thresh, 0 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 counsels, 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 inter vening, when you see men of profound wisdom infatuated, mistake their
way, and ' grope in the noonday as in the night,' Job. v. 14, bewildered in a plain way ; when yo*li see the hopes of mighty attempters dashed into despair, their triumphs into funerals, and their joyful expectations into sor rowful 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 1 How often doth he ' cut off the spirits of princes,' Ps. Ixxvi. 12, either from the world by death, or from the execution of their projects by some unforeseen interruption, or from favouring those contrivances, which before they cherished, by a change of their minds! How often hath confidence in God, and religious prayer, edged 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
ungained 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 of 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 labour, 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 favour to men of skill,' Eccles. ix. 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 overruling 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
* Causin, Symb. lib. ii. cap. Ixv.
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 455
to direct his steps,' Jer. x. 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 Cfesar 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 xii. 17, by taking away his light from their under standing, 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,' Ps. ix. 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 pleases. 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 neighbours were burned 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 ? It is because it is his pleasure ; and the same reason is to be rendered why he would in the 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 : Isa. Ixiv. 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 Ashkelon 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. xlvii. 6, 7, when the prophet had spake to the sword, ' 0 thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere 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
iven it a charge against Ashkelon ? there hath he appointed it.' If he
ath appointed a judgment against London or Westminster, or any other place, there it shall drop, there it shall pierce, and in no other place with out 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
actly in execution.
(6.) The dominion of God is manifest in appointing to every man his
lling and station in the world. If the hairs of every man's head fall nder his sovereign care, the calling of every man, wherein he is to glorify God, and serve his generation, which is of greater concern than the hairs of
456 r CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
the head, falls under his dominion. He is the master of the great family,
and divides to every one 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. i. 1. By the same exercise of his authority, that he ' sets every man the bounds of his habitation,' Acts xvii. 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. ii. 15, doth not let any of his posterity be their own choosers, without an influence of his sovereign direction on them.
Though cur 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 con science ; it is 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 Csesar's court, and render his chains an occasion to bring in a harvest of converts in
Nero's palace: Philip, i. 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, ver. 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, Philem. 10, 15. Some by a strong affliction have had, by the divine sovereignty, their understandings awakened to consider, and their wills spirited to con version. Monica being called Meribibula or toss-pot, was brought to con sider 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 the 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 honourable ? One silently drops away in the multitude, while another is made a sacrifice for the honour of God, or the safety of his country. This
is a mark of honour he gives to one and not to another : Philip, i. 29, ' To you it is given.' The manner of Peter's death was appointed, John xxi. 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 mastered 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
Ps. CIII. 19. j GOD'S DOMINION. 457
did it, the same means would alway work the same effect, and sooner master
a dwarfish than a giant-like distemper. ' Our times are only in God's hands,' Ps. xxxi. 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 lawgiver, 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 lawgiver to men and angels, and prescribed them rules according to the counsel of his own will. These were his crea tures, 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 did consist. The whole gospel is nothing else but a declaration of his sovereign pleasure concerning Christ, and concerning us in him ; it is
therefore called ' the mystery of his will,' Eph. i. 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. xi. 8. 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 domi nion 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 understanding, 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 : Ps, xvi. 2, ' 0 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, Zechariah, and Malachi, more in reference to this affair of redemp tion, 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 offence with out 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
CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
flower of his crown ; satisfaction must have been required, some time 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 offence 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. i. 4, ' Who gave himself for our sins, according to the will of
God ' ; to which may refer that expression, Prov. viii. 22, of his being ' pos sessed 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 expres sion 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 prophecy : Ps. xl. 7, ' Lo, I come : ' ver. 8, ' I delight to do thy will,' which are put together, Heb. x. 7, ' Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God.' The designing Christ to do 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 counsellor or persuader to that mercy he shewed : Rom. xi. 34,
' Who hath been his counsellor ? ' For it refers to that mercy, in ' sending the deliverer out of Zion,' ver. 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 whether 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, Mai. iii. 1 ; an apostle, Heb. iii. 1, declaring thereby that God hath as much authority over him as over the angels, sent upon his messages ; or [he] 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 transfer the penalty due to the
crime of one upon another, and substitute a sufferer, with the sufferer's 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
Ps. GUI. 19.J GOD'S DOMINION. 459
< inflicted on him a punishment for them. He summed up the debts of man, i charged them upon the score of Christ, imputing to him the guilt, and in
flicting upon him the penalty : Isa. liii. 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. v. 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 credi
tor. A creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretyship, but it is at his liberty whether he will or no ; and when he doth accept of him, he may challenge the debt of him, as if he were the 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 for ever 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 borne 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 dropped 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 im putation or by inherency, and actual commission of a crime in his own per son. 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 ex pose 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. viii. 32, in every part of that condition wherein he was and suf
fered, and to that end, that ' we might become the righteousness of God in
him,' 2 Cor. v. 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 lawgiver, hav ing the supreme legislative and preceptive authority ; in which respect the whole work of Christ is said to be an answer to a law, not one given to him, but put into his heart, as the law of nature was in the heart of man at first :
Ps. xl. 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
460 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
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, Philip, ii. 8. This was the special command received from God, that he should die, John x. 18. It is not so clearly manifested when this command was given, whether 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,' Titus i. 2. Might not the precepts be given before the world began, to Christ, as considered in the quality of mediator and redeemer ? Precepts and pro mises 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 cap able 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 sove reignty 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 sove reign 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 espoused and mar ried to a prince, hath by virtue of that a natural right to some kind of juris
diction over the whole kingdom, because she is one with the king.* But to waive 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 : Mat. xxviii. 28, ' All power is given me ;' and he ' gave him to be head over all things to the church ;' Eph. i. 22, ' God gave him a name above every name,'
Philip, ii. 9 ; and therefore his throne he sits upon is called ' the throne of
his Father,' Rev. iii. 31 ; and he ' committed all judgments to the Son,' L e. all government and dominion, an empire in heaven and earth, John v. 22, and
that ' because he is the Son of man,' ver. 27, which may be understood, that the Father hath given him authority to exercise that judgment and govern ment 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 Philip, ii. 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. xxxvii. 24, 25, ' David my servant shall be king over them : and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.' He shall be a prince over them, but my servant in that principality, in the exercise and
* Lessius, de perfect, divin. lib. x. p. 66.
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 461
duration of it. The sovereignty of God is paramount in all that Christ hath done as a priest, or shall do as a king.
V. 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 lawgiver is most abhorred by man, Lev. xxvi. 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 nature, but one according to their corrupt model. This is the great quarrel between God and man, whether 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. i. 21, ' Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof.' Septuagint, ' 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 con sciences of men : Ps. lix. 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 ; whether in their natural motions or pre ternatural irruptions, they punctually enact 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 : Hosea vi. 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 sceptre 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 xiv. 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 subscrip tion to the authority of the lawgiver, Deut. xxvii. 26, so every breach of it is a conspiracy against the sovereignty of the lawgiver ; setting up our will * Minister.
462 CHABNOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
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 sceptre out of God's hand. The authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity which it directs its
edge against ; it is called therefore a ' transgression of his law,' 1 John iii. 4. And therefore a slight or neglect of the majesty of God, and the not
keeping his commands, is called a ' forgetting God,' Deut. viii. 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 ' dishonouring God,' Eom. ii. 23, a snatching off his crown ; to obey our own wills before the will of God, is to prefer our selves 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, * land of rebels;' Jer. 1. 21, 'Go up against the land of Merathaim,'
' 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. viii. 7, in that expression, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God,' L 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 despoiling 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. iii. 6, ' Lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil ;' lest he fall into the same sin for which the devil was condemned. But in what particular thing this pride waa manifest is not so easily discernible. The ancients generally conceived it
to be an affecting the throne of God, grounding it on Isaiah xiv. 12, ' How
art thou fallen, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! for thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God.' It is certain the prophet speaks there of the king of Babylon, and taxeth him for his pride, and gives to him the title of Lucifer, perhaps liken ing him in his pride to the devil ; and then it notes plainly the particular sin
of the devil, attempting a share in the sovereignty of God. And some strengthen their conjecture from the name of the archangel who contended against Satan, Jude 9, which is Michael; which signifies, Who as God? or Who like God ? the name of the angel giving the superiority to God, inti mating the contrary disposition in the devil, against whom he contended. It is likely his sin was an affecting an equality with God in empire, or a freedom from the sovereign authority of God, because he imprinted such a
kind of persuasion on man at his first temptation, ' Ye shall be as gods,'
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 463
Gen. iii. 5 ; and though it be restrained to the matter of knowledge, yet that being a fitness for government, it may be extended to that also. But it is plainly a persuading them, that they might be in some sort equal with God, and independent on him as their superior. What he had found so fatal to himself, he imagined would have the same success in the ruin of man. And since the devil hath in all ages of the world usurped a worship to himself, which is only due to God, and would be served by man, as if he were the god of the world ; since all his endeavour was to be worshipped as the supreme god on earth, it is not unreasonable to think that he invaded the supremacy of God in heaven, and endeavoured to be like the Most High before his banishment, as he hath attempted to be like the Most High since. And since the devil and antichrist are reputed by John in the Revelation to be so near of kin, and so like in disposition, why might not that which is
the sin of antichrist, the image of him, be also the sin of Satan, ' to exalt himself above all that is called God,' 2 Thes. ii. 4, and ' sit as God in his temple,' affecting a partnership in his throne and worship ? Whether it was this, or attempting an unaccountable dominion over created things, or be cause he was the prime angel, and the most illustrious of that magnificent corporation, he might think himself fit to reign with God over all things else. Or if his sin were envy, as some think, at the felicity of man in
paradise, it was still a quarrelling with God's dominion, and right of dispos ing his own goods and favours ; he is therefore called Belial: 2 Cor. vi. 14,' 15, ' What concord hath Christ with Belial?' i.e. with the devil, one without yoke, as the word Belial signifies.
(3.) It is more plain that this was the sin of Adam. The first act of Adam was to exercise a lordship over the lower creatures, in giving names to them, a token of dominion, Gen. ii. 19. The next was to affect a lord ship over God, in rebelling against him. After he had writ the first mark of bis own delegated dominion in the names he gave the creatures, and owned their dependence on him as their governor, he would not acknow ledge his own dependence on God. As soon as the Lord of the world had put him into possession of the power he had allotted him, he attempted to strip his Lord of that which he had reserved to himself. He was not con tent to lay a yoke upon the other creatures, but desirous to shake off the divine yoke from himself, and be subject to none but his own will. Hence
Adam's sin is more particularly called ' disobedience,' Rom. v. 19. For in the eating the apple there was no moral evil in itself, but a contradiction to
the positive command and order of God, whereby he did disown God's right of commanding him, or reserving anything from him to his own use. The