Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

though I own thee as the Lord of my Land, and Goods, yet I do ⟨p. 773⟩not think my self accountable to thee for all my actions. This Sovereignty of God ought to be acknowledged in all the parts of it, in all the manifestations of it to the creature. We should bear a sense of this always upon our Spirits, and be often in the thoughts of it in our retirements. We should fancy that we saw God upon his Throne in his Royal Garb, and great attendants about him, and take a view of it, to imprint an awe upon our Spirits.

though I own thee as the Lord of my Land, and Goods, yet I do ⟨p. 773⟩not think my self accountable to thee for all my actions. This Soveraignty of God ought to be acknowledged in all the parts of it, in all the manifestations of it to the creature. We should bear a sense of this always upon our Spirits, and be often in the thoughts of it in our retirements. We should fancy that we saw God upon his Throne in his Royal Garb, and great attendants about him, and take a view of it, to imprint an awe upon our Spirits.

The meditation on this would,

1. Fix us on him as an object of trust. 'Tis upon his Sovereign Dominion as much as upon anything, that safe and secure confidence is built; for if he had any superior above him, to control him in his designs and promises, his veracity and power would be of little efficacy, to form our souls to a close adherency to him. It were not fit to make him the object of our trust, that can be gainsaid by a higher than himself, and had not a full Authority to answer our expectations; If we were possessed with this notion fully and believingly, that God were high above all, that his Kingdom rules over all, we should not catch at every broken reed, and stand gaping for comforts from a pebble stone. He that understands the Authority of a King, would not wave a reliance on his promise, to depend upon the breath of a changeling favourite. None but an ignorant man would change the security he may have upon the height of a Rock, to expect it from the dwarfishness of a Mole-hill. To put confidence in any inferior Lord, more than in the Prince, is a folly in civil converse, but a rebellion in Divine; God only being above all, can only rule all, can command things to help us, and check other things which we depend on, and make them fall short of our expectations. The due consideration of this Doctrine would make us pierce through second causes to the first, and look further than to the smaller sort of Sailors, that clime the ropes, and dress the Sails, to the Pilot that sits at the Helm, the Master, that by an indisputable Authority orders all their motions. We should not depend upon second causes for our support, but look beyond them to the Authority of the Deity, and the dominion he hath over all the works of his hands.