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On God's providential Government with regard to his reasonable Creatures, moral Agents.

DISCOURSE V.

PSALM ciii. 19.

The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens; and his Kingdom ruleth over

all.

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HE Dominion and Government of Divine Providence hath been confidered as extending to the inanimate Creation, or the material World, and also as extending to the sensitive Part of the Creation, or the Brute Animals: Let us now take a View of it as exercised towards reafonable Beings, moral Agents, which are undoubtedly the noblest and most excelVOL. I. G

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lent of God's Creatures. The material System, whatever Order or Beauty may be found in it, is not itself confcious of that Beauty and Order; nor are mere senfitive Beings capable of making proper Reflections upon it, or of admiring, obeying, adoring the great Parent and Lord of the Univerfe. This is the fole Privilege of rational, intelligent Beings. If therefore the Providence of God extendeth to any Creatures at all, we may be fure that he exercifeth a special Care over his reasonable Creatures; and, fince he hath given them fuch noble Faculties and Powers, will govern them in a Way fuitable to thofe Faculties and Powers. And this certainly is the most admirable Part of the divine Adminiftrations. For to govern numberless Millions of active intelligent Beings, fo unconceivably various in their Thoughts, Inclinations, and Counsels, and who have each of them a Will of their own, and a Power of determining their own Actions; to exercise a conftant Superintendency over them, and direct and order the Events relating to them, and to dispense to them proper Retributions, not only according to their outward Conduct, but the inward Thoughts and Difpofitions of their Hearts; I fay, thus to govern them without infringing the Liberty which belongeth to them as

moral

moral Agents, must needs argue a Wisdom as well as Power, that exceedeth our Comprehenfion, and which can only be found in the infinite Mind.

It is God's Government of reasonable Creatures, which the Pfalmift appears to have principally in View, when he faith that the Lord hath prepared, or, as it might be rendered, hath established his Throne in the Heavens; and his Kingdom ruleth over all. Heaven is the most magnificent Part of his Dominion; there he exhibiteth the brightest Displays of his Majesty and Glory; and therefore it is represented in Scripture under the glorious Epithet of the Throne of God, and his Dwelling-place. There he reigneth over all the Hosts of Angels in their feveral bright Orders and Degrees. And accordingly the Pfalmift, in the Words immediately following, calleth upon the Angels to blefs and adore the great univerfal Sovereign: Bless the Lord, ye his Angels, that excel in Strength, that do his Commandments, hearkening to the Voice of his Word. But though God reigneth most illustriously in Heaven, yet his Prefence and Dominion is not confined there, His Kingdom ruleth over all. This vaft Univerfe is his Empire, the Extent of which transcendeth all human Imagination. How many different Orders of reasonable Beings

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Beings there may be, which inhabit the feveral Parts of this ftupendous Frame, we cannot tell; but whatever they be, they are all under the Government of God, from the highest of them to the meaneft. But especially he ruleth over all Mankind, of whatsoever Tribe or Tongue, or Family or Nation: They are all equally the Subjects of his Kingdom.

Before I enter into a diftinct Confideration of the Kingdom or Government of God, with regard to the rational moral Part of the Creation, it may be proper to premise some general Obfervations concerning it.

Firft, God hath an indifputable Right to the Dominion or Government over all reasonable Beings throughout the Universe, in as much as they are all his Creatures, who to him owe their Existence, and by him are continually upheld in Life. He made them what they are, and hath affigned them the Rank they hold in the Creation. He gave them their admirable Faculties and Powers, and maintaineth them in the Ufe of thofe Faculties and Powers; and therefore he is by neceffary Right their abfolute Proprietor and fovereign Lord, who hath the most just Claim to their highest Love, Reverence, Subjection, and Obedience. His Dominion over

them,

them, and Right to rule and govern them, is not derived merely from any Compact or Covenant with them, nor doth it depend upon their own Confent, but is founded in the Nature of Things, and can never be alienated. As they are all the Creatures of his Power, fo they are all the Subjects of his Government, whether they will or no: And in this respect, his Dominion is of a peculiar and unequalled Kind, the like of which cannot poffibly be found in any created Beings with regard to one another.

Secondly, It strengtheneth this farther, when we confider how well qualified he is for the Government of the rational moral World, by the infinite Perfection of his Nature. As his Creation and Prefervation of all Things giveth him an undoubted Right to rule them, fo his infinite Excellency rendereth it fit and reasonable that he should rule. Yea, it may be said to give him an additional Right to it, fince it is, in the Nature of Things, fit that the most perfect and excellent of Beings should prefide over Beings that are infinitely inferior. So that if we fhould, by an impoffible Suppofition, put the Cafe, that this World, and the Things of it, had come into Being by Chance, yet when once they did exift, the abfolutely perfect Being

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would

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