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righteousness, and therefore he cannot but approve the upright and condemn the wicked. Though God, as the supreme Sovereign, has a right to act without giving any account of his matters, it does not therefore follow that no account can be given, or that any thing is done without the most profound wisdom. It is after the Apostle had been discoursing concerning the procedure of God in rejecting the Jews and in gathering in the Gentiles, in choosing one, and in leaving another, that he exclaims, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways. past finding out?" In referring those dispensations of God, which are inscrutable to us, to the divine sovereignty, we thus acknowledge, not that there is anything arbitrary in these dispensations, but that God has an unquestionable right to conduct his government, without communicating the counsels by which its procedure is directed to us. But without any such communication, we know that justice and judgment are the supporters of his throne;—that he cannot, in virtue of the supreme excellency and perfection of his nature, but do what is right, and hate what is wicked and unjust;—that however hidden and deep his wisdom may be from the surface of those mighty works which at once strike the mind with the idea of omnipotence, it is, notwithstanding, the unerring rule according to which those works have been framed ;and that though his ways be dark and mysterious in regard to us, they are all founded on mercy as well as on truth and righteousness. His power, indeed, is absolute; for none can resist his will, or deliver out

of his hands; but his goodness is equal to his power, and furnishes a pledge to the universe that he, in the exercise of his sovereignty, will never inflict on his creatures any thing unjust, or ask from them any thing incompatible with their real honour and happiness.

How vast, then, and boundless is the dominion of God! "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." All the inhabitants of heaven are the ministers of his will. All the celestial worlds move by his word: "he telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries." His dominion is felt, as a God of power and of justice by the rebels who inhabit the place of his wrath: as they cannot flee from his presence, neither can they cease to be subject to his control; nor to be the unwilling instruments of advancing his glory. Mankind have revolted from his authority, and have alienated from him their hearts, but they cannot withdraw from his dominion: not only does their obligations to love and to serve God remain unalterable, but in their state of deepest revolt and criminality God alone is their Lord and sovereign, and displays the exercise of this high sovereignty over them, in shewing his wrath, and in making his power known, though he endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and makes known the riches of his glory

The Manner in which the Sovereignty of God, &c. 289

on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory. In this world of rebels, into which suffering and misery have been so widely introduced, the thoughts of every heart, the movements of every individual, the counsels that are formed, the powers that are exerted, the objects that are pursued, are altogether under the control, and ultimate direction of God. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of 'the mighty. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IS SHEWN IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.

THE ways in which God shews his sovereignty in conducting the affairs of the world are so numerous, and so clearly seen in the history of every individual, that we must confine our attention to a few of the more obvious and striking. Does not the character of God as our king and lawgiver, exhibit his right to command, and his dominion over us? Is not he the supreme Sovereign, "by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice," and by whose sentence the eternal

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happiness or misery of every intelligent creature must be fixed? Does not he declare the extent of his dominion and sovereignty by fixing his law in the conscience, and conferring on every man the capacity of distinguishing between good and evil, and of feeling the obligation of rendering obedience unto God? And the more fully to illustrate his sovereignty, how often has he given laws to his creatures, which are binding upon them, not as unalterable principles of moral obligation, but solely in virtue of the will and the authority of Him by whom they are enacted. Of this description was the commandment which allowed our first parents freely to eat of all the trees in Paradise, excepting the tree of knowledge, of good and evil: a commandment for which no reason is assigned but the pleasure of the only Creator and Legislator, and which seems, therefore, designed to try man's obedience to the absolute sovereignty of his Maker and Lord. This commandment, unlike the precepts of the moral law, which obviously approve themselves as holy, and just, and good, to the understanding of man, was, in so far as we can see, neither good nor evil in itself, but received its authority solely from the will of God. He who illustrated his do minion and sovereignty by issuing such enactments, as well as by the splendour and majesty with which he promulgated the moral law from Sinai, has shewn the same high prerogatives of his nature and government, by arresting, and altering, and repealing, his own institutions. He cannot, indeed, command any creature, formed in his own image, to cease from loving and serving him; because this were to change

from being what he necessarily is, the God of infinite and immutable holiness and righteousness; neither can he reverse any of his own ordinances and laws, from any alteration in his counsels, or from any attempt to improve his original plans; but he effects changes in his procedure, in the exercise and for the manifestation of his sovereignty, and in mercy to the varying circumstances and wants of his creatures.

Thus, has God shewn his dominion over the constitution of the natural world by arresting its laws. In obedience to his command the sun stood still, or moved backward; the clouds retained their vapours, the earth refused its produce, the sea divided itself into an heap, and all the miracles of mercy and of power recorded in the Scriptures were performed. The whole ritual law given to the Jews, and binding on them in virtue of the will of their sovereign, was repealed by the same authority which enforced it, when its chief design in prefiguring the character and work of the Messiah was fulfilled. In the exercise of his high sovereignty he has made material alterations on the procedure of his government in regard to man after the fall, mercifully adapting it to the circumstances of apostate and guilty creatures, by revoking the law as a covenant of works, by transferring the penalty from the sinner to the chosen and appointed surety, and by proclaiming a new way of acceptance through a mediator. But for the indisputable right of God freely and independently to exercise his sovereignty, man would have remained for ever under the denunciations of the first covenant, unredeemed from the guilt, and unrenewed from the corruption of sin, and in a state of everlasting exclu

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