Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

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. Zach. 10.1. Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; When the seasons of the year conspire for the producing such an effect, when the usual time of rain is wheeled about in the year, stop not your thoughts at the point of the Heavens, whence you expect it, but pierce the Heavens, and solicit God, who must give order for it, before it comes. The due meditation of all things depending on the Divine Dominion, would strike off our hands from all other holds, so that no creature would engross the dependence and trust which is due to the first cause;

1. Fix us on him as an object of trust. 'Tis upon his Soveraign Dominion as much as upon anything, that safe and secure confidence is built; for if he had any superior above him, to controul 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 relyance on his promise, to depend upon the breath of a changeling favorite. 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 inferiour 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 Sailers, 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.