Part 29
language all his posterity speaks, ' Let us break his bands, and cast away his cords from us,' Ps. ii. 3, was learned from Adam in that act of his. The next act we read of was that of Cain's murdering Abel, which was an invading God's right, in assuming an authority to dispose the life of his brother, a life which God had given him, and reserved the period of it in his own hands. And he persists in the same usurpation when God came to examine him, and ask him where his brother was. How scornful was his
answer : Gen. iv. 9, ' Am I my brother's keeper ?' As much as if he had said, What have you to do to examine me ? Or, What obligation is there
upon me to render an account of him ? Or, as one saith,* it is as much as if he had said, Go look [for] him yourself. The sovereignty of God did not remain undisturbed. As soon as ever it appeared in creation, the devils rebelled against it in heaven, and man would have banished it from the earth.
* Trap, in loc.
464 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CHI. 19.
(4.) The sovereignty of God hath not been less invaded by the usurpa tions of men. One single order of the Roman episcopacy hath endeavoured to usurp the prerogatives of God. The pope will prohibit what God hath allowed, — the marriage of priests, the receiving of the cup as well as of the bread in the sacrament, the eating of this or that sort of meat at special times, meats which God hath sanctified, and forbid them, too, upon pain of damnation. It is an invasion of God's right to forbid the use of what God hath granted, as though the earth, and the fulness thereof, were no longer
the Lord's, but the pope's ; much more to forbid what God hath commanded, as if Christ overreached his own authority when he enjoined all to drink of the sacramental wine, as well as eat of the sacramental bread. No lord but will think his right usurped by that steward who shall permit to others what his lord forbids, and forbid that which his master allows, and act the lord instead of the servant. Add to this the pardon of many sins, as if he had the sole key to the treasures of divine mercy, the disposing of crowns and dominions at his pleasure ; as if God had divested himself of the title of King of kings, and transferred it upon the see of Rome. The allowing public stews, dispensing with incestuous marriages, as if God had acted more the part of a tyrant than of a righteous sovereign in forbidding them ; depriving the Jews of the propriety in their estates upon their conversion to
Christianity, as if the pilfering men's goods were the way to teach them selfdenial, the first doctrine of Christian religion, and God shall have no honour from the Jew without a breach of his law by theft from the Christian ;
granting many years' indulgences upon slight performances, the repeating so many Are Marias and Paternosters in a day, canonising saints, claiming the keys of heaven, and disposing of the honours and glory of it ; and pro posing creatures as objects of religious worship, wherein he answers the character of the apostle : 2 Thes. ii. 4, ' Shewing himself that he is god," in challenging that power which is only the right of divine sovereignty ; exalting himself above God, in indulging those things which the law of God never allowed, but hath severely prohibited.
This controlling the sovereignty of God, not allowing him the rights of his crown, is the soul and spirit of many errors. Why are the decrees of election and preterition denied ? Because men will not acknowledge God the sovereign disposer of his creature. Why is effectual calling and efficacious grace denied ? Because they will not allow God the proprietor and distributor of his own goods. Why is the satisfaction of Christ denied ? Because they will not allow God a power to vindicate his own law in what way he pleaseth.
Most of the errors of men may be resolved into a denial of God's sovereignty. All have a tincture of the first evil sentiment of Adam.
The sovereignty of God is contemned in the practices of men. 1. As he is a lawgiver. (1.) When laws are made, and urged in any state, contrary to the law of God. It is part of God's sovereignty to be a lawgiver. Not to obey his law is a breach made upon his right of government ; but it is treason in any against the crown of God to mint laws with a stamp contrary to that of heaven, whereby they renounce their due subjection, and vie with God for
dominion ; snatch the supremacy from him, and account themselves more lords than the sovereign Monarch of the world. WTien men will not let God be the judge of good and evil, but put in their own vote, controlling his to establish their own, such are not content to be as gods subordinate to the
supreme God, to sit at his feet ; nor co-ordinate with him, to sit equal upon his throne ; but paramount to him, to overtop and shadow his crown, — a
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 465
boldness that leaves the serpent in the first temptation under the character of a more commendable modesty, who advised our first parents to attempt to be as gods, but not above him, and would enervate a law of God, but not enact a contrary one to be observed by them. Such was the usurpation of Nebuchadnezzar, to set up a golden image to be adored, Dan. iii., as if he had power to mint gods as well as to conquer men ; to set the stamp of a deity upon a piece of gold, as well as his own effigies upon his current coin. Much of the same nature was that of Darius by the motion of his flatterers, to prohibit any petition to be made to God for the space of thirty days, as though God was not to have a worship without a license from a doating piece of clay, Dan. vi. 7. So Henry the Third of France, by his
edict, silenced masters of families from praying with their households.* And it is a farther contempt of God's authority when good men are oppressed by the sole weight of power for not observing such laws, f as if they had a real sovereignty over the consciences of men more than God himself. When the apostles were commanded by an angel from God to preach in the temple the doctrine of Christ, Acts v. 19, 20, they were fetched from thence with a guard before the council, ver. 26. And what is the language
of those statesmen to them ? As absolute as God himself could speak to
any transgressors of his law : ver. 28, ' Did not we straitly command you that you should not teach in this name ?' It is sufficient that we gave you a command to be silent, and publish no more this doctrine of Jesus. It is not for you to examine our decrees, but rest in our order as loyal subjects, and comply with your rulers ; they might have added, though it be with the damnation of your souls. How would those overrule the apostles by no other reason but their absolute pleasure ? And though God had espoused their cause, by delivering them out of the prison wherein they had locked them the day before, yet not one of all this council had the wit or honesty to entitle it a fighting against God but Gamaliel, ver. 84. So foolishly fond are men to put themselves in the place of God, and usurp a jurisdic
tion over men's consciences, and to presume that laws made against the interest and command of God must be of more force than the laws of God's enacting.
(2.) The sovereignty of God is contemned in making additions to the laws of God. The authority of a sovereign lawgiver is invaded and vilified when an inferior presumes to make orders equivalent to his edicts. It is a prtemunire against heaven to set up an authority distinct from that of God,
or to enjoin anything as necessary in matter of worship for which a divine commission cannot be shewn. God was always so tender of this part of his prerogative, that he would not have anything wrought in the tabernacle, not a vessel, not an instrument, but what himself had prescribed : Exod. xxv. 9,
'According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it ; ' which is strictly urged again, ver. 40, 'Look that thou make them after their pattern;' look to it, beware of doing anything of thine own head, and justling with my authority. It was so afterwards in the matter of the temple which succeeded the tabernacle ; God gave the model of it to David, and
' made him understand in writing by his hand upon him, even all the works of this pattern,' 1 Chron. xxviii. 19. Neither the royal authority in Moses, who was ' king in Jeshurun,' nor in David, who was ' a man after God's own heart,' and called to the crown by a special and extraordinary providence, nor Aaron, and the high priests his successors, invested in the sacerdotal office, had any authority from God to do anything in the framing the taber-
* Trap, in loc. t Faucheur, vol. ii. p. 663, 664. VOL. II. G g
466 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
nacle or temple of their own heads. God barred them from anything of that nature, by giving them an exact pattern, so dear to him was always this flower of his crown. And afterwards, the power of appointing officers and ordinances in the church was delegated to Christ, and was among the rest
of those royalties given to him, which he fully completed ' for the edifying of the body,' Eph. iv. 11, 12. And he hath the elogy by the Spirit of God, to be ' faithful, as Moses was, in all his house, to him that appointed him,' Heb. iii. 2. Faithfulness in a trust implies a punctual observing directions. God was still so tender of this, that even Christ, the Son, should no more do anything in this concern, without appointment and pattern, than Moses a servant, ver. 5, 6. It seems to be a vote of nature to refer the original of the modes of all worship to God ; and therefore, in all those varieties of ceremonies among the heathens, there were scarce any but were imagined by them to be the dictates and orders of some of their pretended deities,
and not the resolves of mere human authority. What intrusion upon God's
right hath the papacy made, in regard of officers, cardinals, patriarchs, &c., not known in any divine order ; in regard of ceremonies in worship, pressed as necessary to obtain the favour of God, holy water, crucifixes, altars, images, cringings, reviving many of the Jewish and pagan ceremonies, and adopting them into the family of Christian ordinances, as if God had been too absolute and arbitrary in repealing the one, and dashing in pieces the other ! When God had by his sovereign order framed a religion for the heart, men are ready to usurp an authority to frame one for the sense, to dress the ordinances of God in new and gaudy habits, to take the eye by a vain pomp, thus affecting a divine royalty, and acting a silly childishness;
and after this, to impose the observation of those upon the consciences of men is a bold ascent into the throne of God. To impose laws upon the conscience, which Christ hath not imposed, hath deservedly been thought the very spirit of antichrist; it may be called also the spirit of anti-God.
God hath reserved to himself the sole sovereignty over the conscience, and never indulged men any part of it ; he hath not given man a power over
his own conscience, much less one man a power over another's conscience. Men have a power over outward things, to do this or that where it is deter mined by the law of God, but not the least authority to control any dictate or determination of conscience. The sole empire of that is appropriate to God, as one of the great marks of his royalty. What an usurpation is it of
God's right to make conscience a slave to man, which God hath solely, as the Father of spirits, subjected to himself! an usurpation which, though the apostles, those extraordinary officers, might better have claimed, yet they utterly disowned any imperious dominion over the faith of others, 2 Cor. i. 24. Though in this they do not seem to climb up above God, yet they set themselves in the throne of God, envy him an absolute mon archy, would be sharers with him in his legislative power, and grasp one end of his sceptre in their own hands. They do not pretend to take the crown from God's head, but discover a bold ambition to shuffle their hairy scalps under it, and wear part of it upon their own, that they may rule with him, not under him, and would be joint lords of his manor with him, who
hath by the apostle forbidden any to be ' lords of his heritage,' 1 Peter v. 3. And therefore they cannot assume such an authority to themselves till they can shew where God hath resigned this part of his authority to them. If
their exposition of that place, Mat. xvi. 18, ' Upon this rock I will build my
church,' be granted to be true, and that the person and successors of Peter are meant by that rock, it could be no apology for their usurpations ; it is not Peter and his successors shall build, but ' I will build ; ' others are
Ps. CIII. 19. J GOD'S DOMINION. 467
instruments in building, but they are to observe the directions of the grand Architect.
(3.) The sovereignty of God is contemned when men prefer obedience to
men's laws before obedience to God. As God hath an undoubted right, as the lawgiver and ruler of the world, to enact laws, without consulting the pleasure of men, or requiring their consent to the verifying and establishing his edicts, so are men obliged by their allegiance, as subjects, to observe the laws of their Creator, without consulting whether they be agreeable to the laws of his revolted creatures. To consult with flesh and blood whether we should obey, is to authorise flesh and blood above the purest and most sove reign Spirit. When men will obey their superiors, without taking in the
condition the apostle prescribes to servants, Col. iii. 82, ' In singleness of heart, fearing God,' and postpone the fear of God to the fear of man, it is to render God of less power with them than the drop of a bucket or dust of : the balance. When we, out of fear of punishment, will observe the laws of
> men against the laws of God, it is like the Egyptians, to worship a raveni ous crocodile instead of a deity ; when we submit to human laws, and j stagger at divine, it is to set man upon the throne of God, and God at the ! footstool of man ; to set man above, and God beneath ; to make him the
tail, and not the head, as God speaks in another case of Israel, Deut. xxviii. 13. When we pay an outward observation to divine laws because : they are backed by the laws of man, and human authority is the motive of
; our observance, we subject God's sovereignty to man's authority ; what he > hath from us is more owing to the pleasure of men than any value we have i for the empire of God. When men shall commit murders, and imbrue their
''•• hands in blood by the order of a grandee ; when the worst sins shall be committed by the order of papal dispensations ; when the use of his creai tares, which God hath granted and sanctified, shall be abstained from for so
many clays in the week, and so many weeks in the year, because of a Roman ; edict, the authority of man is acknowledged not only equal, but superior to i that of God. The dominion of dust and clay is preferred before the un- ; doubted right of the Sovereign of the world. The commands of God are
made less than human, and the orders of men more authoritative than
i divine, and a grand rebel usurpation of God's right is countenanced. When men are more devout in observance of uncertain traditions, or mere human i inventions, than at the hearing of the unquestionable oracles of God ; when
; men shall squeeze their countenances into a more serious figure, and de-
1 mean themselves in a more religious posture, at the appearance of some ! mock ceremony clothed in a Jewish or pagan garb, which hath unhappily
i made a rent in the coat of Christ, and pay a more exact reverence to that
which hath no divine, but only a human, stamp upon it, than to the clear and plain word of God, which is perhaps neglected with sleepy nods, or, which ' is worse, entertained with profane scoffs : this is to prefer the authority of
man employed in trifles before the authority of the wise Lawgiver of the
i world. Besides, the ridiculousness of it is as great as to adore a glow-worm I and laugh at the sun ; or for a courtier to be more exact in his cringes and
starched postures before a puppet than before his sovereign prince. In all ; this we make not the will and authority of God our rule, but the will of
man ; disclaim our dependence on God, to hang upon the uncertain breath of a creature ; in all this God is made less than man, and man more than God. God is deposed, and man enthroned ; God made a slave, and man
' a sovereign above him. To this we may refer the solemn addresses of some
for the maintenance of the protestant religion according to law, the law of man, not so much minding the law of God ; resolving to make the law, the
468 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CIII. 19.
church, the state, the rule of their religion, and change that if the laws be
changed, steering their opinions by the compass of the magistrate's judgment and interest.
2. The dominion of God as a proprietor is practically contemned ; — (1.) By envy. When we are not as flush and gay, as well-spread and sparkling as others, this passion gnaws our souls ; and we become the exe cutioners to rack ourselves, because God is the executor of his own pleasure. The foundation of this passion is a quarrel with God ; to envy others the enjoyment of their propriety is to envy God his right of disposal, and con sequently the propriety of his own goods. It is a mental theft committed against God, we rob him of his right in our will and wish ; it is a robbery to make ourselves equal with God when it is not our due, which is implied,
Phil. ii. 6, when Christ is said to ' think it no robbery to be equal with God.' We would wrest the sceptre out of his hand, wish he were not the conductor of the world, and that he would resign his sovereignty, and the right of the distribution of his own goods, to the capricios of our humour, and
ask our leave to what subjects he should dispense his favours. All envy is either a tacit accusation of God as an usurper, and assuming a right to dispose of that which doth not belong to him, and so it is a denial of his propriety ; or else charges him with a blind or unjust distribution, and it is a bespattering his wisdom and righteousness. When God dotl punish envy, he vindicates his own sovereignty, as though this passion chief endeavoured to blast this perfection : Ezek. xxv. 11, 12, 'As I live, saith the Lord, I will do according to thy anger, and according to thy envy ; and
thou shalt know that I am the Lord.' The sin of envy in the devils was immediately against the crown of God ; and so was the sin of envy in the first man, envying God the sole prerogative in knowledge above himseL
This base humour in Cain, at the preference of Abel's sacrifice before his was the cause that he deprived him of his life ; denying God first his rigl
of choice, and what he should accept, and then invading God's right propriety, in usurping a power over the life and being of his brother, whic solely belonged to God.
(2.) The dominion of God as a proprietor is practically contemned by violent or surreptitious taking away from any what God hath given him tt possession of. Since God is the Lord of all, and may give the possessic
and dominion of things to whom he pleaseth, all theft and purloining, all cheating and cozening another of his right, is not only a crime against the true possessor, depriving him of what he is entrusted with, but against God as the absolute and universal proprietor, having a right thereby to confer his own goods upon whom he pleaseth, as well as against God as a lawgiver for
bidding such a violence. The snatching away what is another's denies man the right of possession, and God the right of donation. The Israelites
taking the Egyptians' jewels had been theft, had it not been by a divine license and order ; but cannot be slandered with such a term, after the pro prietor of the whole world had altered the title, and alienated them by his positive grant from the Egyptians, to confer them upon the Israelites.
(3.) The dominion of God as a proprietor is practically contemned, by not using what God hath given us for those ends for which he gave them to us. God passeth things over to us with a condition, to use that for his glory which he hath bestowed upon us by his bounty. He is Lord of the
end for which he gives, as well as Lord of what he gives ; the donor's right of propriety is infringed, when the lands and legacies he leaves to a peculiar use are not employed to those ends to which he bequeathed them. The
right of the lord of a manor is violated when the copyhold is not used accord-
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 469
ing to the condition of the conveyance ; so it is an invasion of God's sove reignty not to use the creatures for those ends for which we are entrusted with them ; when we deny ourselves a due and lawful support from them, hence covetousness is an invasion of his right ; or when we necessarily waste them, hence prodigality disowns his propriety ; or when we bestow not anything upon the relief of others, hence uncharitableness comes under the same title, appropriating that to ourselves, as if we were the lords, when we are but the usufructuaries for ourselves, and stewards for others ; this is
to be ' rich to ourselves, not to God,' Luke xii. 24 ; for so are they who employ not their wealth for the service, and according to the intent of the donor. Thus the Israelites did not own God the true proprietor of their corn, wine, and oil, which God had given them for his worship, when they prepared offerings for Baal out of his stock : Hosea ii. 8, ' For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her gold and
silver, which they prepared for Baal,' as if they had been sole proprietors, and not factors, by commission, to improve the goods for the true owner.
It is the same invasion of God's right, to use the parts and gifts that God hath given us, either as fuel for our pride, or advancing self, or a witty scoff
ing at God and religion, when we use not religion for the honour of our sovereign, but a stool to rise by, and observe his precepts outwardly, not out of regard to his authority, but as a stale to our interest, and furnishing self with a little concern and trifle. When men will wrest his word for the favour of their lusts, which God intended for the checking of them, and make interpretations of it according to their humours, and not according to his
will discovered in the Scripture, this is to pervert the use of the best goods and depositum he hath put into our hands, even divine revelations. Thus hypocrisy makes the sovereignty of God a nullity.
3. The dominion of God as a governor, is practically contemned ; —
(1.) In idolatry. Since worship is an acknowledgment of God's sove reignty, to adore any creature instead of God, or to pay to anything that homage of trust and confidence which is due to God, though it be the highest creature in heaven or earth, is to acknowledge that sovereignty to pertain to a creature, which is challenged by God ; as to set up the greatest lord in a kingdom in the government, instead of the lawful prince, is rebellion and usurpation ; and that woman incurs the crime of adultery who commits it with a person of great port and honour, as well as with one of a mean condi tion. While men create anything a god, they own themselves supreme above the true God, yea, and above that which they account a god ; for by the right of creation they have a superiority, as it is a deity blown up by the breath of their own imagination. The authority of God is, in this sin, acknowledged to belong to an idol; it is called loathing of God as a husband, Ezek. xvi. 45 ; all the authority of God as a husband and lord over them : so when we make anything, or any person in the world, the chief object and prop of our trust and confidence, we act the same part. Trust in an idol is
the formal part of idolatry : Ps. cxv. 8, ' So is every one that trusts in them,' i. e. in idols. Whatsoever thing we make the object of our trust, we rear as an idol ; it is not unlawful to have the image of a creature, but to bestow divine adoration upon it ; it was not unlawful for the Egyptians to possess and use oxen, but to dub them gods to be adored, it was. It is not unlaw ful to have wealth and honour, not to have gifts and parts ; they are the presents of God ; but to love them above God, to fix our reliances upon
them more than upon God, is to rob God of his due, who, being our Creator, ought to be our confidence. What we want we are to desire of him, and expect from him. When we confide in anything else, we deny God the
470 CHAKNOCK'S WOKKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
glory of his creation, we disown him to be Lord of the world, imply that our welfare is in the hands of, and depends upon, that thing wherein we confide ; it is not only to equal it to God in sovereign power, which is his own phrase, Isa. xl. 25, but to prefer it before him in a reproach of him. When the hosts of heaven shall be served, instead of the Lord of those hosts, when we shall lacquey after the stars, depend barely upon their influences, without looking up to the great director of the sun, it is to pay an adoration unto a captain in a regiment, which is due to the general. When we shall ' make gold our hope, and say to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence,' it is to deny the supremacy of that ' God that is above,' as well as if we ' kiss our hands ' in a way of adoration ' to the sun in its splendour, or the moon walking in its brightness,' for Job couples them together, chap. xxxi. 25-28. It is to prefer the authority of earth before that of heaven, and honour clay above the sovereign of the world ; as if a soldier should confide more in the rag of an ensign, or the fragment of a drum, for his safety, than in the orders and conduct of his general. It were as much as is in his power
to nncommission him, and snatch from him his commander's staff. Whe we advance the creature in our love above God, and the altar of our soul smokes with more thoughts and affections to a petty interest than to God, we lift up that which was given us as a servant in the place of the sovereign, and bestow that throne upon it which is to be kept undefiled for the rightful Lord, and subject the interest of God to the demands of the creature ; so much respect is due to God, that none should be placed in the throne of our affections equal with him, much less anything to perk above him.
(2.) Impatience is a contempt of God as a governor. When we meet with rubs in the way of any design, when our expectations are crossed, we will break through all obstacles to accomplish our projects, whether God will or no. When we are too much dejected at some unexpected providence, and murmur at the instruments of it, as if God divested himself of his pre rogative of conducting human affairs ; when a little cross blows us into a mutiny, and swells us into a sauciness to implead God, or make us fret against him (as the expression is, Isa. viii. 21), wishing him out of his throne : no sin is so devilish as this, there is not any strikes more at all the attributes of God than this, against his goodness, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, and doth as little spare his sovereignty as any of the rest. What can it be else but an impious invasion of his dominion, to quarrel with him for what he doth, and to say, What reason hast thou to deal thus with me ? This language is in the nature of all impatience, whereby we question his sovereignty, and parallel our dominion with his. When men have not that confluence of wealth or honour they greedily desired, they bark at God, and revile his government ; they are angry God doth not more respectfully ob serve them, as though he had nothing to do in their matters, and were want ing in that becoming reverence which they think him bound to pay to such great ones as they are. They would have God obedient to their minds, and act nothing but what he receives a commission for from their wills. When we murmur, it is as if we would command his will and wear his crown, a wresting the sceptre out of his hands to sway it ourselves, we deny him the right of government, disown his power over us, and would be our own sove reigns ; you may find the character of it in the language of Jehoram (as many understand it), 2 Kings vi. 83, ' Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer ?' This an evil of such a nature, that it could come from none but the hand of God ; why should I attend upon him as my sovereign, that delights to do me so much mischief, that throws curses upon me when I expected blessings ? I will no more observe his
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 471
directions, bat follow my own sentiments, and regard not his authority in the lips of his doating prophet. The same you find in the Jews, when they
•were under God's lash : Jer. xviii. 12, ' And they said, There is no hope : but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the^imagina-
tion of his evil heart ;' we can expect no good from him, and therefore we will be our own sovereigns, and prefer the authority of our own imaginations before that of his precepts. Men would be their own carvers, and not suffer God to use his right ; as if a stone should order the mason in what manner to hew it, and in what part of the building to place it. We are not ordinarily concerned so much at the calamities of our neighbours, but swell against heaven at a light drop upon ourselves. We are content God should be the sovereign of others, so that he will be a servant to us ; let him deal as he will himself with others, so he will treat us, and what relates to us, as we will ourselves. We would have God resign his authority to our humours, and our humours should be in the place of a god to him, to direct him what was fit to do in our own cause. When things go not according to our vote, our impatience is a wish that God were deposed from his throne, that he would surrender his seat to some that would deal more favourably, and be more punctual observers of our directions. Let us look to ourselves in regard of this sin, which is too common, and the root of much mischief. This seems
to be the first bubbling of Adam's will; he was not content with the condition wherein God had placed him, but affected another, which ended in the ruin of himself and of mankind.
(3.) Limiting God in his way of working to our methods, is another part of the contempt of his dominion. When we will prescribe him methods of acting, that he should deliver us in this or that way, we would not suffer him to be the Lord of his own favours, and have the privilege to be his own director. When we will limit him to such a time wherein to work our de
liverance, we would rob him of the power of times and seasons, which are solely in his hand. We would regulate his conduct according to our imagina tions, and assume a power to give laws to our sovereign. Thus the Israelites
•limited the Holy One of Israel,' Ps. Ixxviii. 41. They would control his absolute dominion, and of a sovereign make him their slave. Man that is
God's vassal would set bounds to his Lord, and cease to be a servant and commence master, when he would give, not take, directions 'from him. When God had given them manna, and their fancies were weary of that delicious food, they would prescribe heaven to rain down some other sort of food for them. When they wanted no sufficient provision in the wilderness, they quarrelled with God for bringing them out of Egypt, and not presently giving them a place of seed, of figs, vines, and pomegranates, Num. xx. 5, which is
called a ' striving with the Lord,' ver. 13, a contending with him for his Lordship. When we tempt God, and require a sign of him as a mark of his favour, we circumscribe his dominion ; when we will not use the means he hath appointed, but father our laziness upon a trust in his providence, as if we expected he should work a miracle for our relief; when we censure him for what he hath done in the course of his providence ; when we capitulate with him, and promise such a service, if he will do us such a good turn according to our platform, we would bring down his sovereign pleasure to our will, we invade his throne, and expect a submissive obedience from him. Man, that hath not wit enough to govern himself, would be governing God, and
lose that cannot be their own sovereigns affect a sovereignty over heaven.
(4.) Pride and presumption is another invasion of his dominion. When len will resolve to go to-morrow to such a city, to such a fair and market, to traffic and get gain, without thinking of the necessity of a divine license,
472 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
as if ourselves were the lords of our time, and of our lives, and God were to
lacquey after us, — James iv. 13, 15, ' Ye that say, To-day we ;will go into such a city, and buy and sell, whereas ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we
shall live,' — as if they had a freehold, and were not tenants at will to the lord of the manor ; when we presume upon our own strength or wit to get the better of our adversaries, as the Germans (as Tacitus relates) assured them selves by the numerousness of their army of a victory against the Romans, and prepared chains to fetter the captives before the conquest, which were found in their camp after their defeat ; when we are peremptory in expecta
tions of success according to our will, as Pharaoh, Exod. xv. 9, ' I will pur sue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon
them ; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them,' — he speaks more like a God than a man, as if he were the sovereign power, and God only his vicar and lieutenant ; how he struts, without thinking of a superior power to curb him ; when men ascribe to themselves what is the sole fruit
of God's sovereign pleasure, as the king of Assyria speaks a language fit only to be spoken by God, — Isa. x. 13, 14, &c., ' I have removed the bounds of the people ; my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people ; I
have gathered all the earth,' — which God declares to be a wrong to his sove reignty, by the title wherewith he prefaceth his threatening against him,
ver. 16, ' Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness,' &c. : it is indeed a rifling, if not of his crown, yet of the most glittering jewel of it, his glory. ' He that mocks the poor reproacheth his maker,' Prov. xvii. 5. He never thinks that God made them poor, and himself rich ; he owns not his riches to be dropped upon him by the divine
hand. Self is the great invader of God's sovereignty, doth not only spurn at it, but usurp it, and assume divine honours, payable only to the universal sovereign. The Assyrian was not so modest as the Chaldean, who would impute his power and victories to his idol, Hab. i. 11, whom he thought to be God, though yet robbing the true God of his authority ; and so much was signified by their names, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach, Belshazzar, Nebo, Merodach, Bel, being the Chaldean idols, and the names signifying lord of wealth, giver of riches, and the like. When we behave ourselv.es proudly towards others, and imagine ourselves greater than our Maker ever meant us ; when we would give laws to others, and expect the most submissive
observances from them, as if God had resigned his authority to us, and made us in his stead the rightful monarchs of the world ; to disdain that any
creature should be above us, is to disdain God's sovereign disposition of men, and consequently his own superiority over us. A proud man would govern all, and would not have God his sovereign, but his subject ; to over value ourselves is to under-value God.
(5.) Slight and careless worship of God, is another contempt of his sove reignty. A prince is contemned, not only by a neglect of those reverential postures which are due to him, but in a reproachful and scornful way of pay ing them. To behave ourselves uncomely or immodestly before a prince, is
a disesteem of majesty. Sovereignty requires awe in every address ; where
this is wanting, there is a disrespect of authority. We contemn God's dominion when we give him the service of the lip, the hand, the knee, and deny him that of the heart, as they in Ezekiel, chap, xxxiii. 31, as though he were the sovereign only of the body, and not of the soul. To have de vout figures of the face and uncomely postures of the soul, is to exclude his dominion from our spirits, while we own it only over our outward man ; we render him an insignificant Lord, not worthy of any higher adorations from us than a senseless statue ; we demean not ourselves according to his majestical
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 473
authority over us, when we present him not with the cream and quintessence of our souls. The greatness of God required a great house and a costly palace : 1 Chron. xxix. 11, 16, David speaks it in order to the building God a house and temple ; God being a great king, expects a male, the best of our flock, Mai. i. 14, a masculine and vigorous service. When we present him with a sleepy, sickly, rheumatic service, we betray our conceptions of him to be as mean as if he were some petty lord, whose dominion were of no larger extent than a mole-hill, or some inconsiderable village.
(6.) Omission of the service he hath appointed, is another contempt of his sovereignty. This is a contempt of his dominion, whereby he hath a right to appoint what means and conditions he pleaseth, for the enjoyment of his proffered and promised benefits. It is an enmity to his sceptre not to accept of his terms after a long series of precepts and invitations, made for the restoring us to that happiness we had lost, and providing all means necessary thereunto, nothing being wanting but our own concurrence with it and acceptance of it, by rendering that easy homage he requires. By with holding from him the service he enjoins, we deny that we hold anything of him, as he that pays not the quit-rent, though it be never so small, disowns the sovereignty of the lord of the manor. It implies that he is a miserable poor lord, having no right, or destitute of any power to dispose of anything
in the world to our advantage : Job xxii. 17, ' They say unto God, Depart from us, what can the Almighty do for them ?' They will have no com merce with him in a way of duty, because they imagine him to have no sovereign power to do anything for them in way of benefit, as if his do minion were an empty title, ( and as much destitute of any authority to com mand a favour for them as any idol. They think themselves to have as ab solute a disposal of things as God himself. What can he do for us ? What can he confer upon us, that we cannot invest ourselves in, as though they
were sovereigns in an equality with God. Thus men live ' without God in the world,' Eph. ii. 12, as if there were no supreme being to pay a respect to, or none fit to receive any homage at their hands, withholding from God the right of his time and the right of his service, which is the just claim of his sovereignty.
(7.) Censuring others is a contempt of his sovereignty. When we cen
sure men's persons or actions by a rash judgment, when we will be judges of the good and evil of men's actions, where the law of God is utterly silent, we usurp God's place and invade his right, we claim a superiority over the law, and judge God defective as the rector of the world, in his prescriptions of good and evil : James iv. 11, 12, ' He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks eviJ of the law, and judgeth the law ; there is one
lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest an
other ?' Do you know what you do in judging another ? You take upon you the garb of a sovereign, as if he were more your servant than God's, and more under your authority than the authority of God ; it is a setting
thyself in God's tribunal, and assuming his rightful power of judging. Thy brother is not to be governed by thy fancy, but by God's law and his own science.
2. Information. Hence it follows that God doth actually govern the
dd. He hath not only a right to rule, but ' he rules over all,' so saith the text. He is ' King of kings, and Lord of lords.' What, to let them do what they please, and all that their lust prompts them to ? Hath God an absolute dominion ? Is it good, and is it wise ? Is it, then, a useless prerogative of the divine nature ? Shall so excellent a power lie idle, as if God were a lifeless image ? Shall we fancy God like some lazy monarch,
474 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
that solaceth himself in the gardens of his palace, or steeps himself in some charming pleasures, and leaves his lieutenants to govern the several pro vinces, which are all members of his empire, according to their own humour? Not to exercise this dominion, is all one as not to have it ; to what purpose
is he invested with this sovereignty, if he were careless of what were done in the world, and regarded not the oppressions of men ? God keeps no useless excellency by him ; he actually reigns over the heathen, Ps. xlvii. 8, and those as bad or worse, than heathens. It had been a vanity in David to
call upon ' the heavens to be glad, and the earth to rejoice,' under the rule of a sleepy deity, 1 Chron. xvi. 81. No ; his sceptre is full of eyes, as it was painted by the Egyptians ; he is always waking, and always, more than Ahasuerus, reading over the records of human actions. Not to exercise his authority, is all one as not to regard whether he keep the crown upon his head, or continueth the sceptre in his hand. If this sovereignty were
exempt from care, it would be destitute of justice ; God is more righteous* than to resign the ensigns of his authority to blind and oppressive man. To think that God hath a power, and doth not use it for just and righteous ends, is to imagine him an unrighteous as well as a careless sovereign.
Such a thing in a man renders him a base man, and a worse governor ; it is a vice that disturbs the world, and overthrows the ends of authority, as to have a power and use it well, is the greatest virtue of an earthly sovereign. What an unworthy conception is it of God, to acknowledge him to be possessed of a greater authority than the greatest monarch, and yet to think that he useth it less than a petty lord, that his crown is of no more value with him than a feather ! This represents God impotent, that he cannot, or unrighteous and base, that he will not, administer the authority he hath for the noblest and justest end. But can we say that he neglects the government of the world ? How come things, then, to remain in their due
order ? How comes the law of nature yet to be preserved in every man's soul ? How comes conscience to check, and cite, and judge ? If God did not exercise his authority, what authority could conscience have to dis
turb man in unlawful practices, and to make his sports and sweetness so unpleasant and sour to him ? Hath he not given frequent notices and memorials that he holds a curb over corrupt inclinations, puts rubs in the way of malicious attempters, and often oversets the disturbers of the peace of the world ?
8. Information. God can do no wrong, since he is absolute sovereign. Man may do wrong, princes may oppress and rifle, but it is a crime in them so to do, because their power is a power of government, and not of propriety in the goods or lives of their subjects ; but God cannot do any wrong, what soever the clamours of creatures are, because he can do nothing but what he hath a sovereign right to do. If he takes away [yjour goods, he takes not away anything that is yours more than his own, since, though he entrusted you with them, he divested not himself of the propriety. When he takes
away our lives, he takes what he gave us by a temporary donation, to be surrendered at his call. We can claim no right in anything, but by his will. He is no debtor to us, and since he owes us nothing, he can wrong us in nothing that he takes away. His own sovereignty excuseth him in all those acts which are most distasteful to the creature. If we crop a medi cinal plant for our use, or a flower for our pleasure, or kill a lamb for our food, we do neither of them any wrong, because the original of them was for
our use, and they had their life and nourishment, and pleasing qualities for our delight and support ; and are not we much more made for the pleasure and use of God, than any of those can be for us ? 'Of him, and to him are
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 475
all things,' Rom. xi. 36. Hath not God as much right over any one of us, as over the meanest worm ? Though there be a vast difference in nature between the angels in heaven and the worms on earth, yet they are all one in regard of subjection to God ; he is as much the Lord of the one as the other, as much the proprietor of the one as the other, as much the governor of the one as the other. Not a cranny in the world is exempt from his jurisdiction, not a mite or grain of a creature exempt from his propriety.
He is not our Lord by election. He was a Lord before we were in being ; he had no terms put upon him. Who capitulated with him, and set him in his throne by covenant ? What oath did he take to any subject at his first investiture in his authority ? His right is as natural, as eternal, as himself; as natural as his existence, and as necessary as his deity. Hath he any law but his own will ? What wrong can he do that breaks no law, that ful fils his law in everything he doth by fulfilling his own will, which, as it is absolutely sovereign, so it is infinitely righteous ? In whatsoever he takes from us, then, he cannot injure us; it is no crime in any man to seize upon his own goods, to vindicate his own honour ; and shall it be thought a wrong in God to do such things ? besides the occasion he hath from every man, and that every day provoking him to do it. He seems rather to wrong him self by forbearing such a seizure, than wrong us by executing it.
4. If God have a sovereignty over the whole world, then merit is totally excluded. His right is so absolute over all creatures, that he neither is nor can be a debtor to any; not to the undefiled holiness of the blessed angels, much less to poor earthly worms. Those blessed spirits enjoy their glory
by the title of his sovereign pleasure, not by virtue of any obligation devolv ing from them upon God. Are not the faculties whereby they and we per form any act of obedience his grant to us ? Is not the strength whereby they and we are enabled to do anything pleasing to him, a gift from him ? Can a vassal merit of his lord, or a slave of his master, by using his tools, and employing his strength in his service, though it was a strength he had naturally, not by donation from the man in whose service it is employed ? God is Lord of all, all is due to him ; how can we oblige him by giving him what is his own, more his to whom it is presented than ours by whom it is offered ? He becomes not a debtor by receiving anything from us, but by promising something to us.*
5. If God hath a sovereign dominion over the whole world, then hence it follows, that all magistrates are but sovereigns under God. He is King of kings and Lord of lords ; all the potentates in the world are no other than his lieutenants, moveable at his pleasure, and more at his disposal than their subjects are at theirs. Though they are dignified with the title of fjods, yet still they are at an infinite distance from the supreme Lord. Gods under God, not to be above him, not to be against him. The want of the due sense of their subordination to God, hath made many in the world act as sovereigns above him, more than sovereigns under him. Had they all bore a deep conviction of this upon their spirits, such audacions language had never dropped from the mouth of Pharaoh, ' Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ?' Exod. v. 2, presuming that there was no superior to control him, nor any in heaven able to be a match for him. Daiins had never published such a doating edict as to prohibit any petition to God. Nero had never fired Rome, and sung at the sight of the devouring
flames ; nor ever had he ripped up his mother's belly, to see the womb where
he first lodged and received a life so hateful to his country; nor would Abner -> Austin.
476 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
and Joab, the two generals, have accounted the death of men but a sport and
interlude: 2 Sain. ii. 14, 'Let the young men arise and play before us ;' what play it was the next verse acquaints you with, thrusting their swords
into one another's sides. They were no more troubled at the death of thousands, than a man is to kill a fly or a flea. Had a sense of this but hovered over their souls, people in many countries had not been made their footballs, and used worse than their dogs ; nor had the lives of millions, worth more than a world, been exposed to fire and sword, to support some sordid lust, or breach of faith upon an idle quarrel, and for the depreda
tion of their neighbours' estates ; the flames of cities had not been so bright, nor the streams of blood so deep, nor the cries of innocents so loud.
In particular,
(1.) If God be sovereign, all under-sovereigns are not to rule against him, but to be obedient to his orders. If they rule by his authority, Prov. viii.
15, they are not to rule against his interest, they are not to imagine them selves as absolute as God, and that their laws must be of as sovereign authority against his honour as the divine are for it. If they are his lieu tenants on earth, they ought to act according to his orders. No man but will account a governor of a province a rebel, if he disobeys the orders sent him by the sovereign prince that commissioned him. Rebellion against God is a crime of princes, as well as rebellion against princes a crime of subjects. Saul is charged with it by Samuel in a high manner for an act of simple disobedience, though intended for the service of God, and the enrich
ing his country with the spoils of the Amalekites : 1 Sam. xv. 23, ' Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft;' like witchcraft or covenanting with the devil, acting as if he had received his commission, not from God, but from Satan. Magistrates, as commissioned by God, ought to act for him. Doth human authority ever give a commission to any to rebel against itself? Did God ever depute any earthly sovereignty against his glory, and give them leave to outlaw his laws, to introduce their own ? No ; when he gave the vicarious dominion to Christ, he calls upon the kings of the earth to be instructed, and be wise, and kiss the Son, Ps. ii. 10, 12; i.e. to observe his orders, and pay him homage as their governor. What a silly, doltish thing is it to. resist that supreme authority to which the archangels submit themselves, and regulate their employments punctually by their instructions ! Those excellent crea
tures exactly obey him in all the acts of their subordinate government in the world, those in whose hand the greatest monarch is no more than a silly fly between the fingers of a giant. A contradiction to the interest of God hath been fatal to kings. The four monarchies have had their wings clipped, and most of them have been buried in their own ashes ; they have all, like the
imitators of Lucifer's pride, fallen from the heaven of their glory to the depth of their shame and misery. All governors are bound to be as much obedient to God as their subjects are bound to be submissive to them. Their autho
rity over men is limited, God's authority over them is absolute and un bounded. Though ' every soul ' ought to be ' subject to the higher powers,' yet there is a higher power of all, to which those higher powers are to sub ject themselves. They are to be keepers of both the tables of the law of
God ; and are then most sovereigns when they set in their own practice an example of obedience to God for their subjects to write after.
(2.) They ought to imitate God in the exercise of their sovereignty in ways of justice and righteousness. Though God be an absolute sovereign, yet his government is not tyrannical, but managed according to the rules of right eousness, wisdom, and goodness. If God, that created them as well as their subjects, doth so exercise his government, it is a duty incumbent upon them
Ps. CIII. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 477
to do the same, since they are not the creators of their people, but the con
ductors. As God's government tends to the good of the world, so ought theirs to the good of their countries. God committed not the government of the world to the Mediator in an unlimited way, but for the good of the church, in order to the eternal salvation of his people : Eph. i. 12, ' He
gave him to be head over all things to the church.' He had power over the devils, to restrain them in their temptation and malice; power over the angels, to order their ministry for the heirs of salvation. So power is given to magistrates for the civil preservation of the world and of human society ; they ought therefore to consider for what ends they are placed over the rest of manldnd, and not exercise their authority in a licentious way, but con formable to that justice and righteousness wherein God doth administer his government, and for the preservation of those that are committed to them.
(3.) Magistrates must then be obeyed when they act according to God's order, and within the bounds of the divine commission. They are no friends to the sovereignty of God that are enemies to magistracy, his ordinance.
Saul was a good governor, though none of the best men, and the despisers
of his government after God's choice were the sons of Belial, 1 Sam. x. 27. Christ was no enemy to Caesar. To pull down a faithful magistrate, such an one as Zerubbabel, is to pluck a signet from the hand of God ; for in that
capacity he accounts him, Haggai ii. 23. God's servants stand or fall to their own Master. How doth he check Aaron and Miriam for speaking
against Moses his servant ! Num. xii. 8, ' Were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? ' against Moses, as related to you in the capacity of a governor; against Moses, as related to me in the capacity of my ser
vant ? To speak anything against them, as they act by God's order, is an invasion of God's sovereign right, who gave them their commission. To act against just power, or the justice of an earthly power, is to act against God's ordinance, who ordained them in the world, but not any abuse or ill use of their power.
Use 2. How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels
inst God. Can any man that hath brains in his head imagine it an inconerable thing to despise the Sovereign of the world ? It was the sole crime disobedience to that positive law, whereby God would have a visible memo-
of his sovereignty preserved in the eye of man, that showered down that eluge of misery under which the world groans to this day. God had given Adam a soul, whereby he might live as a rational creature ; and then gives him a law whereby he might live as a dutiful subject ; for God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, declared his own supremacy over Adam, and his propriety in the pleasant world he had given him by his bounty ; he let him know hereby that man was not his own lord, nor was to live after his own sentiments, but the directions of a superior. As when a great lord builds a magnificent palace, and brings in another to inhabit it, he reserves a small duty to himself, not of an equal value with the house, but for an acknowledgment of his own right, that the tenant may know he is not the lord of it, but hath his grant by the liberality
of another.* God hereby gave Adam matter for a pure obedience, that had no foundation in his own nature by any implanted law ; he was only in it to respect the will of his sovereign, and to understand that he was to live under the power of a higher than himself. There was no more moral evil in the eating of this fruit, as considered distinct from the command, than in eating of any other fruit in the garden. Had there been no prohibition, he might with as much safety have fed upon it as on any other. No law of
* Chrysost. in Gen. Horn. xvi.
478 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GUI. 19.
nature was transgressed in the act of eating of it, but the sovereignty of God over him was denied by him ; and for this, the death threatened was inflicted on him and his posterity ; for though divines take notice of other sins in the fall of Adam, yet God in his trial chargeth him with none but this, and doth put upon his question an emphasis of his own authority : Gen. iii. 11,
' Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst
not eat ?' This I am displeased with, that thou shouldst disown my domi nion over thyself and this garden. This was the inlet to all other sina ;
as the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty is the first step to the practice of all the duties of a creature, so the disowning his sovereignty is the first spring of all the extravagancies of a creature. Every sin against the sovereign lawgiver is worthy of death. The transgression of this positive command deserved death, and procured it to spread Itself over the face of
the world. God's dominion cannot be despised without meriting the greatest punishment.
1. Punishment necessarily follows upon the doctrine of sovereignty. It is a faint and feeble sovereignty that cannot preserve itself, and vindicate its
own wrongs against rebellious subjects. The height of God's dominion infers a vengeance on the contemners of it. If God be an eternal King, he is an eternal Judge. Since sin unlinks the dependence between God the sove-? reign, and man the subject, if God did not vindicate the rights of his
sovereignty, and the authority of his law, he would seem to despise his own dominion, be weary of it, and not act the part of a good governor ; but God is tender of his prerogative, and doth most bestir himself when men exalt them
selves proudly against him : Exod. xviii. 11, ' In the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he will be above them.' When Pharaoh thought himself a mate for God, and proudly rejected his commands, as if they had been the messages of some petty Arabian lord, God rights his own authority upon the life of his enemy by the ministry of the Red Sea. He turned a great king
into a beast, to make him know, ' that the Most High ruled in the king doms of men :' Dan. iv. 16, 17, ' The demand is by the word of the holy ones : to the intent that the living may know, that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdoms of men ;' and that by the petitions of the angels, who cannot endure that the empire of God should be obscured and diminished by the pride of man. Besides the tender respect he hath to his own glory, he is constantly presented with the solicitations of the angels to punish the proud ones of the earth, that darken the glory of his majesty. It is necessary for the rescue of his honour, and necessary for the satisfaction of his illustrious attendants, who would think it a shame to them to serve a Lord that were always unconcerned in the rebellions of his creatures, and tamely suffer their spurns at his throne ; and therefore there is a day wherein the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, the cedars of Lebanon overthrown, and high
mountains levelled, that ' God may be exalted in that day,' Isa. ii. 11, 12, &c. Pride is a sin that immediately swells against God's authority; this shall be brought down that God may be exalted ; not that he should have a real exaltation, as if he were actually deposed from his government, but that he shall be manifested to be the sovereign of the whole world. It is neces
sary there should be a day to chase away those clouds that are upon his throne, that the lustre of his majesty may break forth, to the confusion of all the children of pride that vaunt against him. God hath a dominion over us as a lawgiver, as we are his creatures, and a dominion over us in a way of justice, as we are his criminals.
2. This punishment is unavoidable. (1.) None can escape him. He hath the sole authority over hell and
Ps. GUI. 19.] GOD'S DOMINION. 479
death ; th'e keys of both are in his hand. The greatest Caesar can no more escape him than the meanest peasant : ' Who art thou, 0 great mountain, before Zerubbabel ? ' Zech. iv. 7. The height of angels is no match for him, much less that of the mortal grandees of the world ; the)' can no more resist him than the meanest person ; but are rather as the highest steeples, the fittest marks for his crushing thunder. If he speaks the word, the principalities of men come down, and the crown of their glory, Jer. xiii. 18. He can ' take the mighty away in a moment,' and that ' without hands,' i. e. without instruments, Job xxxiv. 20. The strongest are like the feet of
Nebuchadnezzar's image, iron and clay, iron to man, but clay to God, to be crumbled to nothing.
(2.) What comfort can be reaped from a creature, when the Sovereign of the world arms himself with terrors, and begins his visitation ? Isa. x. 8,
' What will you do in the day of visitation ; to whom will you fly for help,
and where will you leave your glory ?' The torments from a subject may be relieved by the prince, but where can there be an appeal from the Sovereign of the world ? Where is there any above him to control him, if he will overthrow us ? who is there to call him to account, and say to him, What dost thou ? He works by an uncontrollable authority, he needs not ask
leave of any : Isa. xliii. 13, ' He works, and none can let it.' As when he will relieve, none can afflict ; so when he will wound, none can relieve. If a king appoint the punishment of a rebel, the greatest favourite in the court cannot speak a comfortable word to him. The most beloved angel in heaven cannot sweeten and ease the spirit of a man, that the sovereign power is set against to make the butt of his wrath. The devils lie under his sentence, and wear their chains as marks of their condemnation, without hope of ever having them filed off, since they are laid upon them by the authority of an unaccountable* Sovereign.
(8.) By his sovereign authority, God can make any creature the instru ment of his vengeance. He hath all the creatures at his beck, and can commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge. ' Strong winds and tem pests fulfil his word, Ps. cxlviii. 8. The lightnings answer him at his call,
and cry aloud, ' Here are we,' Job xxxviii. 35. By his sovereign authority he can render locusts as mischievous as lions, forge the meanest creatures into swords and arrows, and commission the most despicable to be his exe cutioners ; he can cut off joy from our spirits, and make our own hearts be our tormentors, our most confident friends our persecutors, our nearest rela tions to be his avengers. They are more his, who is their Sovereign, than ours, who place a vain confidence in them. Rather than Abraham shall want children, he can raise up stones, and adopt them into his family ; and rather than not execute his vengeance, he can array the stones in the streets, and make them his armed subjects against us. If he speak the word, a hair shall drop from our heads to choke us, or a vapour, congealed into rheum in our heads, shall drop down and putrefy our vitals. He can never want weapons, who is sovereign over the thunders of heaven, and stones of the earth, over every creature, and can by a sovereign word turn our greatest comforts into curses.