Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. He is to be praised for his royalty. Psal. 145.1. I will extol thee my God, Oh King. The Psalmist calls upon men five times, to sing praise to him as the King of all the Earth. Psal. 47.6, 7. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises: For God is the King of all the Earth, sing ye praises with understanding. All Creatures even the inanimate ones are called upon to praise him, because of the excellency of his Name and the supremacy of his Glory in the 148. ⟨p. 777⟩Psal. throughout and ver. 13. That sovereign power that gave us hearts and tongues, deserves to have them employed in his praises especially since he hath by the same hand, given us so great matter for it. As he is a sovereign we owe him thankfulness, he doth not deal with us in a way of absolute Dominion, he might then have annihilated us: Since he hath as full a Dominion to reduce us to nothing, as to bring us out of nothing. Consider the absoluteness of his sovereignty in it self, and you must needs acknowledge, that he might have multiplied precepts, enjoined us the observance of more than he hath done, he might have made our tether much shorter, he might exact obedience, and promise no reward for it; he might dash us against the walls, as a Potter doth his Vessel, and no man have any just reason to say, what dost thou? Or why dost thou use me so? A greater right is in him to use us in such a manner, as we do sensible, as well as insensible things. And if you consider his dominion, as it is capable to be exercised in a way of unquestionable Justice, and submitted to the reason and judgments of Creatures, he might have dealt with us in a smarter way, than he hath hitherto done; instead of one affliction we might have had a thousand. He might have shut his own hands from pouring out any good upon us, and ordered innumerable scourges to be prepared for us; but he deals not with us according to the rights of his Dominion. He doth not oppress us by the greatness of his Majesty; he enters into Covenant with us, and allures us by the Cords of a man, and shows himself as much a merciful as an absolute sovereign.

1. He is to be praised for his royalty. Psal. 145.1