Influences of the life of grace

1.¹ To know what Sovereignty is. 1. Let us see what it is not. 1. Omnipotency and Sovereignty thus differ; Omnipotency looks simply to effects physically, what the Lord can do: he can of stones make sons to Abraham; he can create millions of Worlds; his Sovereignty is not only his holy Nature what he can do and so supposeth his Omnipotency, but also what he doth freely, or doth not freely, and doth by no natural necessity, and so it includes his holy supreme Liberty, and also what the Lord may do, as it were Jure he may do all things, and (as Elihu saith) gives not an account of his matters to any, Job 33. 13. by his holy sovereign Will as above all Laws that bind the rational Creatures, he does as he pleaseth, and what he pleaseth: and none can say What dost thou? Hence 1. Its graciousness ⟨p. 34⟩of holy Sovereignty, that because he is Sovereign, he does not crush us; the flesh speaks that in Job 10. 3. to the Lord; Is it good to thee that thou shouldest oppress? and because he is sovereign upon the account of his sovereignty, he crusheth not under his feet all the prisoners of the earth: to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, Lam. 3. 33, 34. whereas, to sinful sovereigns, power is a Law many take by violence, fields and houses, because its in the power of their hands to do it, Micah 2. the Law of the Lion and the great Fish, to devour the Lamb and swallow the lesser Fish, is only power and strength. Satan and his never stays in this side of their power, but doth all the evil they can; Jerem. 3. 5. Behold, thou hast spoken, and done evil as thou could; the sovereignty of God saith he may withdraw influences of grace from Angels and Men as pleaseth him best; he may let this Ground wither and dry up as a Rock, and make the other Plot of Ground near by, like a fruitful Paradise; and why may not Sovereignty dispose of hearts to harden them? but his outgoings of sovereignty are not always to destroy.