Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

IV. USE. If God hath an extensive Dominion over the whole World, this ought to be often meditated on, and acknowledged by us. This is the universal duty of mankind; if he be the sovereign of all, we should frequently think of our great Prince, and acknowledge our selves his Subjects, and him our Lord. God will be acknowledged the Lord of the whole Earth, the neglect of this is the cause of the Judgments which are sent upon the World. All the Prodigies were to this end, that they might know, or acknowledge that God was the Lord. Exod. 10.2. As God was proprietor, he demanded the first-born of every Jew, and the first-born of every Beast, the one was to be Redeemed, and the other Sacrificed; this was the Quit-Rent they were to pay to him for their fruitful Land. The first Fruits of the Earth were ordered to be paid to him, as a homage due to the Landlord, and an acknowledgement they held all in chief of him. The practice of offering first-fruits for an acknowledgement of Gods sovereignty was among many of the Heathens, and very ancient; hence they dedicated some of the chief of their spoils, owning thereby the Dominion and Goodness of God, whereby they had gained the Victory. Cain owned this in offering the Fruits of the Earth, and it was his sin, he owned no more, viz. His being a sinner, and meriting the Justice of God, as his Brother Abel did in his bloody Sacrifice. God was a sovereign Proprietor and Governor, while man was in a state of innocence, but when man proved a Rebel, the sovereignty of God bore another relation towards him, that of a Judge, added to the other. The First-fruits might have been offered to God in a state of innocence, as a homage to him as Lord of the Manor of the World; the design of them was to own Gods propriety in all things, and mens dependence on him for the influences of heaven in producing the fruits of the Earth, which he had ordered for their use. The design of Sacrifices, and placing beasts instead of the criminal, was to acknowledge their own guilt, and God as a sovereign Judge; Cain owned the first, but not the second, he acknowledged his dependence on God as a proprietor, but not his obnoxiousness to God as a Judg, which may be probably gathered from his own speech, when God came to examine him, and ask him for his Brother. Gen. 4.9. Am I my Brothers keeper? Why do you ask me;

IV. USE. If God hath an extensive Dominion over the whole World, this ought to be often meditated on, and acknowledged by us. This is the universal duty of mankind; if he be the soveraign of all, we should frequently think of our great Prince, and acknowledge our selves his Subjects, and him our Lord. God will be acknowledg'd the Lord of the whole Earth, the neglect of this is the cause of the Judgments which are sent upon the World. All the Prodigies were to this end, that they might know, or acknowledge that God was the Lord.