Chapter VIII
That the title of Lord, though it imports him that is God, and connotates with
it his being God; yet in this Corinthian text (and elsewhere), doth primarily note a relation to an office or a dignity put on him by the Father, as con
sidered to be God-man, and not simply his being second person, God with God only. The apostle s intent here is, to set him forth in the dependence that all things, <&c., have of him as such, and not upon him as second per son, simply considered. It is a title of office which he bears afore God, con
sidered as God-man. The fitness, fulness, and sufficiency of this person,
Christ, God-man, to discharge this office of one Lord. For what reasons
it was necessary that he should be God-man in one person, to qualify him
for the employment.
We do, or may know, that there is a twofold Lordship of the second per son : one natural, absolute, and underived, belonging to him, as he is con sidered singly, second person, God with God, and Lord with the Lord, to whom therefore all the royalties of the divine nature do equally and alike in common belong, even as to the Father and Holy Ghost ; which Lordship is in them all founded on this, which is common to all three persons, namely, that they had a joint concurrence in the making of all things, and also in governing of them. But then there is another lordship, that is, a derived, economical, dispensatory, which is set up by commission from God, for effecting all his works of wonder for him, and under him ; and
this is a lordship proper and peculiar unto Christ, considered as God-man, to whom as such the Father hath committed all judgment as the Son^of man : John v. 22, 27, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
* And hath given him authority to execute judg ment also, because he is the Son of man. And of this lordship it is that Peter speaks, Acts ii. 36, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ. So then, there is a made
lordship of his, who yet, by virtue thereof, makes all things. And this is the very same in other equivalent terms, that are elsewhere spoken of him by the other apostles ; as by Paul himself, Heb. i. 2, Whom he hath
appointed heir of all things. Heir there is equivalent to Lord in that Acts
ii. 36 ; and appointed there unto made in Peter s speech, Acts ii. 36 ; and of all things there, unto one Lord, of whom are all things, here in the text.
Hence therefore, his being Lord evidently imports an office or economy committed to him, and undertaken by him, even as his being Christ also
doth. And indeed, we find both those titles of Lord and Christ joined often
together, and attributed to him as being, in this respect, of like kind or con
stitution, that is, as being both made titles of office. And to this sense, as we meet them joined, Acts ii. 36, so also we find him to have been publicly proclaimed with and under these titles by the angels, as the militia sent from heaven at his birth, Luke ii. 11, to proclaim their own new Lord, as
well as of men : To you is born a saviour, which is Christ the Lord ; where they add a third, Saviour ; all which three titles are also here in the
text, Our Lord Jesus Christ ; all and each of these three do alike import matter of office given to him, and undertaken by him. And in respect to
this investment with an official lordship, it is, he is styled Lord in distinc
tion from God, elsewhere as well as here. In those words, Ps. ex. 1, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit, &c., though our translation took no notice of
CHAP. VIII.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 523
a distinction in the titles given setly to each ; yet in the original it is, Jehovah said, L adonai,* unto the Lord, that is, God the Father said to the Lord or Christ, as Christ himself interprets it, Mat. xxii. 42, 43. And
that his being Lord there importeth this his office of made lordship, and not that as second person, Peter evidently shews, in the place fore-cited, Acts ii., where he quotes these very words of the psalmist, ver. 34, to prove that God had made him Lord and Christ ; for that is his inference from David s words,
* The Lord said unto my Lord. And Christ himself, in Mat. xxii. 43, 44, 45, He saith unto them, How doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, &c. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ? In like manner, Dan. ix. 17, Hear, God (Jehovah), for the Lord s sake; where Christ, in distinction from God the Father, is called Adonai and Lord. Yea, and
this distinguishing title is made appropriate to him, the Lord, by the angels at his birth, who is Christ the Lord. And before his death, by the evan
* And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over
gelists, in their mention of him, Luke xii. 42,
his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season ? Chap, xxiv. 34,
* Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And John iv. 1, When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. And chap,
* Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks. By Mary Magdalene, John xx. 18, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. By the angels, Mat. xxviii. 6, He is not here : for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And in the Acts ordinarily. In the same sense is this my Corinthian text to be understood.
vi. 23,
2. This title of Lord, thus distinguished, doth fitly serve as an introduc
tory proof from parallel scriptures, that the Lordship of office is also in tended in this title in the text, and not as second person simply considered. For these reasons.
Reason 1. Christ is thereby here distinguished from God ; not only as he
is the Father, but as he is one God. Now, if Christ were styled the Lord
only as second person, then he is not so to be distinguished from the
Father, as the Father is one God ; but as such he is included therein with the Father, for he is one God with him, and not to be excluded from that
title. God forbid ! But it is evident that this title, one Lord, is to shew a
distinction from the one God ; and therefore it must import, as something more in his person, so his office of lordship ; by which, as in relation to
the dependence of all things upon him, he is termed Lord. And otherwise,
if his meaning were to express that he is God, as he is second person,
singly considered, he should say but one and the same thing by two several
words, viz., that God the Father is God, and that Christ the second person is one God also, whilst he thus saith of him that he is the one Lord. And indeed then there were no difference at all ; for God the Father is one
Lord, in that sense of being Lord. And it is common to the persons, and
so it belongs to the Father as well as to the Son ; and the Son is one God
as well as the Father. Neither could the Sociriian objection be answered, unless we interpret this one Lord to be spoken of Christ respectu officii, in
respect of his office, and not of what he is as second person simply. For
there is no distinctior between one God and one Lord, if his being God
524 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHEK, [BOOK III.
were simply meant in both ; but there is a manifest distinction between God the Father and Christ, in these two titles intended to them.
Reason 2. He is here set out such an one Lord, though holding an oppo sition unto, yet withal as beareth some semblance, in an opposite way, with what the heathens did conceive of their lords many in their subserviency unto their many gods ; and we must suppose some analogy or semblance here to hold. Only they affirmed that there were many gods, and that
* but to us there is but one God and one Lord. And yet the parallel between both thus far holds, that as these heathens
there were many lords ;
supposed that these lords they fancied were such as were appointed by their gods to govern the world under their supposed deities, so we must think of Christ, this one Lord, as under the great God, in an instrumen
tality and subserviency unto this one God. And as a midst betwixt God and us, and in a perfect opposition to their many false gods and lords, he makes this the glory of the Christian religion, that they held but one great and sovereign true God, high above all gods, as the psalmist often expresses
it, whereas they made many, falsely so called. And that that Jesus Christ whom we worship is but one Lord, in defiance of their many lords, whom
they fancied to be mediators and agents between God and them, and as
placed in the middle betwixt God and men ; that was their religion. And
the apostle outvies them. We profess such an one Lord, who is an
universal Lord over all, and a mediator betwixt men and God also. And for the verifying of this notion, as thus stated, I refer the reader unto what a more learned hand hath writ, alleging this very scripture to the same purpose I now do, for the confirmation of my assertion.
This distinction (says he) also, of sovereign gods and demons, I suppose our apostle alludes to in 1 Cor. viii. 5, where he saith, Though there be many that be called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be $so)
<7To\\oi, gods many ; that is, dii ccelestes, sovereign deities, KOLI ycvgioi croXXo/, lords many, that is, dai(j,ovzg s<7rt%66vioi, demons, presidents of earthly things ;
yet to us Christians, there is but one sovereign God, the Father, of whom
are all things, and we to him ; that is, to whom, as supreme, we direct all our services ; and but tig, xvgiog, one Lord^Jesus Christ, instead of their many mediators and demons, $/ ov ra <7rdvra, xai ^/xe/g 5/ aurou, by whom
are all things which come from the Father to us, and through whom alone we find access to him. The allusion, methinks, is passing elegant, and such as I think cannot be well understood, without this distinction of
superior and inferior deities in the theology of the Gentiles, they having a
plurality in both sorts, and we Christians but one in each, as our apostle affirmeth. There wants but only the name of demons, instead of which the apostle puts lords, and that for the honour of Christ, of whom he was
to infer, fig xvgiog, the name of Christ not to be polluted with the appella tion of an idol ; for his apodosis must have been otherwise sig ddi/jLuv. Or
maybe, he alludes unto the Hebrew name Baalim, which signifies lords. And those lords, I told you, were nothing else but demons : for thus would Paul speak in the Hebrew tongue ; There are DOT Dv^ and DQT OTPN, many gods and many lords. (Mr Medes Apostasy of the Latter
Times, p. 13, and part of 14.)
They had heard of one God, of whom are all things, from the wisest of
their own philosophers, but never of one mediator between that God and them : they had stumbled at this in the Christian religion, that they wor
shipped a man Jesus raised from the dead, as Acts xvii. 18, 81, when yet themselves held that the souls of men dead (though not risen) were medi-
CHAP. VIII.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 525
ators for them to their gods, and thus imprecated them to interpose for them. The apostle therefore, most wisely and aptly, and most elegantly, sets both these religions together in a parallel comparison, and yet in oppo sition of the one to the other ; and so maketh the false notion of their lords
thus far serviceable as to let in to these heathens minds, by a similitudinary
glimpse, that whereby these heathens, at least confusedly, might understand and apprehend (if they would but reflect) what manner a Lord or Christ it was we Christians believed and adored, and for what use or end. Then-
fancies indeed ran upon many lords, and mediators many, and those dead men s souls : but the apostle presents them, instead of theirs, with one great mediator, according to the Christian profession ; and him, though a man
raised from the dead, yet such a Lord as, being more than a man, was not
a mediator only betwixt that one God and them, and we by him but was a Lord over, yea, a founder of all things else, together with God, one
Lord, by whom are all things. And thus he outshoots them infinitely in
the mainest principles of their religion they doated on, and accounted their
glory and highest wisdom.
In the next place, I come to manifest the fitness, fulness, and sufficiency of this person, Christ, God-man, or of the Son of God united into one per son with a man, to bear and sustain this office of one Lord, both in relation unto all things to be by him, "and especially to us the elect.
Let it be remembered that this discourse of Christ s fitness in this place
is wholly confined unto that notion in general of his lordship, as in the
universal extent thereof over all things ; but what is proper to set forth his
fitness to be the head of angels, and more particularly as an head and redeemer for men, the discovery of that fitness is to succeed in its proper
place,* when redemption comes to be handled, as that fitness of his person
is suited to that work of redemption.
If we, the chosen of God, and all things, were able to speak, as they are
brought in speaking at last, Rev. v. 11, and were permitted to give their
fcto design forth and choose one (and but one person, as the text
voices
speaks) to be the universal Lord, they nor we could desire no other, none
but this person of God-man, thus constituted and made up as he is, and is now to be set forth.
The allsufficiency that is in this person for this office, the narrative
thereof proceeds on thus.
1. Though in respect of the office itself, he that is to have it, is said to be made, that is, appointed, as coming under God s will appointing ;
yet in his person, as the foundation of it, it was absolutely necessary he be one that is not made, that is, not a mere creature. One that had been
but a mere subject of God s, according to that tenure of the law of creation
only, had not had an intrinsecal worth and dignity in his person to fill up and carry forth this his office of lordship with port and comely honour
enough, nor suitably to that place. For he must be so over the creature, as that himself might challenge worship and honour from ths creature as
their Lord, as truly and justly as God the Father, in that he was to be one whom all things should depend upon, as well as upon the Father ; in whose
person also a demonstration might be given, how great a God God the Father was in his distance from the creature, in that he that was his
appointed Lord should yet naturally hold so great a sovereignty over all
his creatures. Whoever had been but a made person, and a made lord
* See tlie Sermons on T
^ph. i. 10, and Christ s fitness for the Work of Kedemp-
tion, on Heb. ii.
526 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
too, and wholly both, he were too mean stuff to make God s Lord of, that
* one Lord as this text sets out, and which became God to set
is, such a
up. His person must be able to bear and to fill up his Lordship and
* many lords the former verse speaks of ; yea, if you would suppose one so subli mated as to be the spirit of the whole creation, and in whom the several
dominion, for else he would but fall into the same rank with those
species of the whole were, by way of eminency, contained and comprehended, and out of whom, as an elixir, they all might be extracted (asjsome philosophise concerning our Christ), yet still, in that he were but only made, his distance from mere nothing were but the very same that his inferior fellow-creatures
have, he could never have been a midst between God and them, because
in his person he held not a proportionable distance between God and them, and thereby he had been as subject, by his original make and constitution, to the same mutability and weakness that any other of the creatures were, and so would have proved but a mere quick-sand to the upholding* and
bearing up the weight of all things that were to be founded on him, and
depend upon him. Look, then, as in the case of man s redemption, like as men that had infirmity, were laid aside for the office of the eternal priest hood ; and God sought outgone that was perfect for evermore ; so, of all mere creatures, it must be said, as to this his office of Lordship, they all had infirmity.
If it be said yet, if God would, could he not have made one great enough for this ? The answer is, even for this very reason, that still all would have been but merely a made greatness ; even therefore, suppose what you can or will, it proves too little, and falls short. For, alas ! it were all but
wholly borrowed ; yea, and of which greatness these very stones were as
immediately capable without him, by God s sole raising them to such an
estate, as himself once was thereof. God could have made as good such
Christs, and Lords of them, as the Baptist says, Mat. iii. 9, sons of Abra ham out of stones. He that is capable of so high an office, must be one
that is God, which we have even now proved.
This for the first, that this one Lord, here in the text, is and must be God.
And yet again, 2dly, if he be to be made a Lord, and Christ (as the
Scripture speaks also of him), he must, together herewith, be something
tliat is made, as well as God, who cannot be made. He is to be (in respect of this office) under God, lower than God, between God and all things made by God ; otherwise, this great end, which was to greaten God as God, by shewing visibly and demonstratively that infinite distance between God and all his creatures, had not been attained. For such a person as was God only, as well as himself, had been equal unto him. But God, to shew
his greatness, designed such a one as should be also under him, and yet God ; and withal, a sovereign Lord of all his creatures. And we find
* my Father is greater than I. So,
Christ accordingly speaks of himself,
then, some one of the creatures must be taken in, to make up this Lord, to be made one person with him that is God, and so this Lord will take his
place in the midst, between God and all things.
For, 3dly, this creature (whomever this honour is to fall upon), in God s
eternal purposes (for we are still in the same sphere of mere possibility), must be made into one person with a person that is God ; for else, still he
is not one Lord. God, you see, would have but one Lord, as God himself
is but one. The text speaks it both negatively, not many lords ; and * The phrase, Heb. i. 2.
CHAP. VIII.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 527
t also affirmatively, one Lord. Two complete persons of them can never make one, and these two must be made one person. A king and queen, though one in marriage (the nearest conjunction), never did, nor never can, make one king, or one prince (as Philip and Mary with us did not). And,
again, if we would suppose that many creatures, and not one only, had been
taken up into union with some person that was God, yet still there would have been lords many. But God will have such a Lord as is perfectly
one, who therein shall be the perfect image of his sovereignty and monarchy over all things, and therefore will have but one, to whom all things else, without exception, are to be subject.
4thly, Which of the three persons in the Godhead, and what sort of the
creatures, was fittest to make up, in a way of personal union, this one Lord?
(1.) As to the person of the Trinity, it must not be the Father ; it was Ho way proper for him, that was the fountain of the persons, and of the whole creation, to undertake any office whatever, and so not to become this
Lord, which is an office under God, as the text expressly affirmeth. Who
then ? God the Son is next, who in that he is the Son, is, by a proper natural right, Lord of all things, for he is the heir unto this his Father, in
that he is the Son ; and it is the common law, even from God to creatures
downwards, that the heir is lord of all, Gal. iv. 1. It is fittest then that
he, the Son, should have this office and title of Lord transferred on him, and none so fit to be the appointed heir of all things, Heb. i. 2, who, in his
person, is naturally next God the Father, the begotten heir of all things. who is not made, but begotten, and the only begotten, namely, of this one God the Father. John i. 3, 14, 18, compared, All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; and we beheld his glory, tho
< No man hath seen God at any time ; the "only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And so truly, a person to whom of special right this honour, as conferred, doth belong. This title of Lord was not to be severed from the natural heir : not so, as that one per son should be the natural Lord by inheritance, and another made Lord and
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Christ by decree and appointment, upon this account also, that still there must be but one Lord. And, therefore, he who had a natural right to be
Lord, as heir of all things, and he who was made so by decree and appoint ment, must meet in one and the same person.
And as for the pretension of the third person, the Holy Ghost ; so it was
in God s design, that he that was to be this Lord, was to have such a multi
tude of elect to be united to him, as he must be a person who was able to
give and send the Spirit himself to make that union, and to effect all for
him, and complete all from him; John xvi. 15, All things the Father hath are mine ; therefore I said, that he (the Spirit) shall take of mine, and shew it to you.
And again, the intendment of erecting this office of lordship being, that God might have an outward representative of himself, or a visible adminis
tration of all things, and to whom the whole creation should owe their sub
sistence and their all ; and accordingly he was to be owned and honoured
by them, and at the same rate that God is ; hence therefore, for this
honour, God comelily singled forth and constituted this Son to be that
person that was next himself, as fathers *se to do their sons. God the Father so loveth the Son, that he sheweth and revealeth all of himself to
* and hath committed all judgment to him, visibly to be
him, John v. 20,
528 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK
* that
administered by him ; and that with this professed purpose and intent,
all men (yea, and angels, and the whole creation) might honour the Son, as they honour the Father, John v. 20, 23. So then, the Son is he that
is made this Lord, under our one God the Father.
We have seen which of the three persons was fitted for this Lordship. Now,
(2.) As to what sort of the creatures (we are still, as was prefaced, in the
supposition of all things as yet to be decreed, and so considered by God in the foresight of his simple intelligence) should be meetest to be taken Up in
this high privilege of one Lordship.
It so pleased our great and wise God as to single forth the nature of man ; not in order only to the work of redemption of us men (that is but one branch of this work and office), but in order to his being Lord of all
things, he took that nature of man to choose. Yea, it is said, that so it became him (namely, God), for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things, so to do ; in Heb. ii. 10, 14-18 verses, For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffer
ings, Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels ; but he took on him the
seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. And although God did thus design and determine
in a more eminent respect to man s salvation (which was the occasion of what he there speaks of this, that he took on him, not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham) ; yet it is withal said, that that great God, of whom, and for whom are all things (which is the preface to that more eminent part for which Christ was ordained, namely, man s redemption), had together in his eye at once all things, and all ends and designs of his
whatever, as that phrase, for whom are all things, imports ; whiles he
speaks of his ordaining him to be a redeemer for man ; and accordingly it became him to extend to, or rather grasp in, a respect unto all things in his
great design ; which this my text, collated and brought unto that, confirms and discovers in saying,
< one God, of whom are all things ; and one Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. And over and above, that ire (those elected and redeemed men) should be by him also.
And how fit it was. that the person of the Kedeemer of us men should
himself be man ; this you all acknowledge. But I further add, if a lord be
to set up over all things, that is, the whole creation, what sort or species amongst the whole creation so fit as the nature of man ? True indeed,
that nature, for its rank, is a little lower than the angels ; but that mattered
not in this business. For this dignity of Lordship depended not on the
dignity of the creature that was to be assumed. But the dignity or the
substantial worthiness and grandeur of the person was to arise from the
dignity of the Son of God who should assume it. The nature assumed
contributed nothing of worth, but had that wholly communicated to it ;
only it brought a fitness and a meetness with it into this union, for this
office, above all other natures whatsoever. And that was it which God had
CHAP. VIII.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 529
a regard unto herein (besides his good pleasure) to choose that nature above
all other, as is plain by that in Heb. ii. And certainly this comely capacity doth every way fall fuller upon the nature of man than upon any other ; for who of creatures so fit to be made Lord of all things, by that God for whom are all things, but he that is the sum and contract of all sorts of
creatures that ever God should make. Yea, and perhaps of all sorts of
creatures possibly to be made, even from the angelical nature upwards, than which (they being merely spirits) nothing could be higher of kind up wards, between God and them ; and then downwards to the meanest atom, or dust of the earth ; or if you will, to the chaos, out of which all was made, you cannot thrust in a new species or kind between any two of the whole order and descent of them. No new middle link between any two links of that chain of creatures from top to bottom ; and what we see are made, man is the abstract and epitome, and contains all in him. If therefore we could suppose that all the creatures had had a tongue, and so a voice in the election of their one Lord, they certainly would have pitched upon that nature to be their Lord, in which they all had such an interest, and have
cast it, that all things epitomized should be this constituted Lord. And God, who is wise in working and excellent in counsel, considered this, and
fitted them all with such a Lord as themselves, if to choose, would, for this
respect, have chosen.
This was so happy a match, and so well thought of, as being that which
perfectly suited this general administration, as it was no sooner thought of, but instantly it was concluded and agreed on by the three in heaven, and
particularly consented to by the Son himself ; who, as Peter s phrase is, was pre-ordained before the foundation of the world was laid ; all things else depending on this, God s first resolve about him. No sooner was it
agreed, but instantly God the Father, and the Godhead in the other two, embraced and possessed him (as the expression is, Prov. viii. 22, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old ), possessed him as a rich and complete treasury and magazine of all his counsels laid up with him ; and also a most able minister and agent for the execution of all his works. Christ, who is both the wisdom of God, and the power of God, executively ; his universal instrument, by whom, a
* in whom to manifest all his glory ; and ver. 30 of the same chapter, I was as one brought up with him, as it is translated; it
complete subject,
is a word so full of significances to our purpose as nothing could be more
comprehensive. The word |JQN in the Hebrew signifies,* any one that was nulritius, the nurse or nourisher ; as unto whom God had committed
all his works, as men do their children unto a nurse, to cherish, bring up, and govern to all his ends he had designed them for ; yea, as the word
also signifies, to be his artist, architect, or master builder of them in their
first creation ; who took the fabric of the whole universe upon him, to con
trive and frame the rearing of it with the most exquisite skill, to the most
beautiful fashion that might be. For these things and many more doth
that word signify. So as God presently said with himself, I have found a servant that shall perform all my pleasure, a chosen shaft, a meetful uni
versal engine, adequate to all my purposes and thoughts, a sufficient ground work and foundation for any manifestation of himself he should desire to make ; so as I need not to
, go out of him or leave him out in anything I have a mind to do. And all this over and above, or besides, his being my * See A Lapide on the word, which also Mercer doth acknowledge and enlarge upon, in Prov. viii. SO. Ho;c omnia potest vox Hebreea significare. VOL. IV. L 1
530 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III
delight in his person unto myself, whom alone and simply I delighted in
for himself alone, which there follows, I was his delight, &c. Thus was he appointed Lord of all, as fitted and suited, both to God and his whole
creation, and the designs thereof, which to bS meant of him as God-man, I have (I hope) elsewhere made evident.
And this is no other than that which I afore observed to be generally the sense of the Jewish Cabalists, who speak on this wise of the Messiah, that he is a treasure in which God or Jehovah hath hid all the riches he means
to communicate unto us. And further, to be the great steward and gover nor under God Jehovah, nourishing, cherishing, and dispensing all. With which this scripture in the Proverbs agreeth.