Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

6. It must be indisputable Obedience. All Authority requires readiness in the Subject; the Centurion had it from his Soldiers, they went when he ordered them, and came when he beckoned to them. Matt. 8.9. 'Tis more fit God should have the same promptness from his Subjects. We are to obey his Orders, though our purblind understanding may not apprehend the reason of every one of them. 'Tis without dispute that he is Sovereign, and therefore 'tis without dispute, that we are bound to obey him, without controlling his conduct. A Master will not bear it from his slave, why should God from his creature? Though God admits his creatures sometimes to treat with him about the equality of his Justice, and also about the reason of some commands, yet sometimes he gives no other reason, but his own Sovereignty, Thus saith the Lord, to correct the malapertness of men, and exact from them an entire obedience to his unlimited and absolute Authority. When Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac, God acquaints him not with the reason of his demand till after, Gen. 22.2, 12. nor did Abraham enter any demur to the order, or expostulate with God, either from his own natural affection to Isaac, the hardness of the command, it being as it were a ripping up his own Bowels, nor the quickness of it after he had been a child of the promise, and a divine donation above the course of nature. Nor did Paul confer with flesh and blood, and study arguments from nature and interest, to oppose the divine command, when he was sent upon his Apostolical employment. Galatians 1.16. The more indisputable his right is to command, the stronger is our Obligation to obey, without questioning the reason of his Orders.

6. It must be indisputable Obedience. All Authority requires readiness in the Subject; the Centurion had it from his Souldiers, they went when he order'd them, and came when he beckned to them. Matt. 8.9. 'Tis more fit God should have the same promptness from his Subjects. We are to obey his Orders, though our purblind understanding may not apprehend the reason of every one of them. 'Tis without dispute that he is Soveraign, and therefore 'tis without dispute, that we are bound to obey him, without controuling his conduct. A Master will not bear it from his slave, why should God from his creature? Though God admits his creatures sometimes to treat with him about the equality of his Justice, and also about the reason of some commands, yet sometimes he gives no other reason, but his own Soveraignty, Thus saith the Lord, to correct the malapertness of men, and exact from them an intire obedience to his unlimited and absolute Authority. When Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac, God acquaints him not with the reason of his demand till after,