How much does this fovereignty appear in the manner in which life is terminated! "One dieth "in his full ftrength, being wholly at eafe and

quiet: His breafts are full of milk, and his "bones are moistened with marrow and another dieth in the bitternefs of his foul, and never "eateth with pleafure ."

17. We cannot confider the afflictions of the people of God, without admiring his fovereignty. This character appears written on his conduct, whether we compare the fituation of one Christian with that of another, or the fufferings of the righteous in general with thofe of the wicked. Do we compare the fituation of one of the children of God with that of another; we perceive great reafon humbly to adore his fovereignty. One has a great fhare of profperity. He enjoys the blefling of health. His family increafes. He is favoured, not with abundance only, but with affluence. His "barns are filled with plenty, and his preffes burft with new wine." Another long outlives the rest of his family, only to languifh under difeafe, and to ftruggle with the most abject poverty. He is fingled out as an example of what almighty power can accomplish, in fupporting under the fevereft preffure of affliction. At his expence, the Supreme Difpofer teaches other Chriftians, what he has a right to do with them, if he pleases.

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If we compare the fituation of the wicked with that of the righteous, we must often observe, that the former enjoy a far greater fhare of profperity

Q4

than

h Job xxj. 23.-25,

than the latter. It is impoffible, at any rate, to judge of a man's ftate for eternity from his external circumstances. For "the righteous, and the "wife, and their works, are in the hand of God: "no man knoweth love or hatred, by all that is "before them. All things come alike to all, there "is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, "to the good, and to the clean, and to the un"clean k." While this ordination is an argument for a future state of retribution, it at the fame time bears a striking impress of divine fovereignty.

18. If we attend to the difpenfations of his providence with refpect to the kingdoms of this world, we perceive the fame character, only on a larger fcale. Nations are difpofed of in the fame manner as individuals. God raifes up a nation from fmall beginnings, gives it power and extent of dominion, brings it to the zenith of its glory, and at length hurls it into destruction. His fovereign pleasure is that awful die by which the fate of empires is determined. It is he who "speaks "concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, "to build and to plant it." To him it equally belongs to "speak concerning a nation, and con

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cerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to deftroy it." What the heathen fabled concerning their Neptune, is true of our God. He "fitteth upon the flood," whether natural or political. "The LORD fitteth King for "ever." Indeed, we may ftill perceive the operation of second causes, in one shape or another. Wisdom and valour are means of aggrandizement.

Luxury,

k Ecclef. ix. I, 2.

1 Jer xviii. 7. 9.

Luxury, pride, and the counfels of folly, confpire to accomplish the fall of a nation. But thefe secondary causes are pre-ordained, managed, and overruled by God, for the fulfilment of his own purposes. So ftrongly was Babylon fortified, that it does not appear that Cyrus could have taken it in the ordinary way of attack. But the watchmen neglected to shut the gates on that night in which Belshazzar made his feaft; when, as would feem, diffipation had diffused its influence over the whole city. This fecondary cause, however, the negligence of the watchmen, was immediately under the direction of God. For, feveral hundred years before, he had faid; "The gates fhall "not be shut m." Nebuchadnezzar was one of those arrogant worms who vie with God for the honour of fovereignty.-He flattered himself, in confequence of his extenfive conquefts, that it was his prerogative to difpofe of kingdoms, and of nations. But God, to teach this haughty monarch that the work was wholly his own, levels him with the brute creation; and as he declares the awful event before it takes place, he at the fame time informs Nebuchadnezzar, that it was the defign of this judgment, that he might "know that "the Moft High ruleth in the kingdom of mea, "and giveth it to whomfoever he will."

19. As fovereignty is the attribute of our Lord Jefus Chrift, he displays it in the management of his fpiritual kingdom. He felected three difciples from the rest to be witneffes of his glorious transfiguration. The fame difciples alfo had the dif

tinguishing

m Ifa. xlv. I.

n Dan. iv, 30.3.2

o Mat. xvii. I.

He

tinguishing honour of witneffing his great humiliation P. The reft had no right to fay to him, Wherefore is this diftinction? They could not accufe him of partiality. For he may dispense his favours to whomfoever he will. He wrought miracles, as the fruit of his fovereign pleasure. When the leper came to him, faying, "Lord, if "thou wilt, thou canft make me clean;" he acknowledged the juftnefs of the afcription, and in confirmation of it accomplished his cure. replied, "I will; be thou clean ." Now, as all the miracles which Chrift wrought on the bodies of men, are figns of the miracles of grace which he works on their fouls; the analogy is loft, if he is not equally fovereign in the latter. Is the removal of the bodily leprofy a fymbol of the cure of the more fatal leprofy of fin? And can the latter be the fruit of the finner's will, while the former depends on the will of God?

Christ fovereignly difpenfes gifts to his Church, whether ordinary or extraordinary. "He gave

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fome, apoftles; and fome, prophets; and some, "evangelifts; and fome, paftors and teachers "." A paftor had no right to complain that he was not an evangelift; nor an evangelift, that he was not endowed with the gifts of a prophet; nor a prophet, that he had not an apoftolic miffion. For faith the apoftle; "Unto every one of us is given

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grace, according to the measure of the gift of "Chrift; that is, juft as he is pleafed to give. Elsewhere,

p Mat. xxvi. 36, 37.

q Chap. viii. 2, 3.

r Eph. iv. 11.

s Ver. 7.

Elsewhere, this is attributed to the fovereign difpenfation of the Spirit of Christ. "To one is gi"ven by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to ano"ther the word of knowledge by the fame Spi"rit; to another the working of miracles; to "another prophecy; to another difcerning of fpirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to "another the interpretation of tongues. But all "these worketh that one and the self-fame Spi

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rit, dividing to every man feverally as he will. "-Now hath God fet the members, every one "of them in the body, as it pleased him.-And "God hath fet fome in the Church, firft apoftles, "fecondarily prophets," &c.

The Head of the Church difplays the fame fovereignty in regard to that measure of fuccefs which he gives his fervants in his work. It has been often feen, that the most able and laborious have had reafon to complain that they "have la"boured in vain ;" while thofe, who have not equalled them in either of thefe refpects, have been far more fuccefsful. A fchifmatical fpirit early discovered itself in the Church. One preferred Paul to Apollos; another, Apollos to Paul; and a third, Cephas to both. Their pretence for fuch a preference, was the benefit they had received by the miniftry of one or other of thefe. But the apostle shows the folly of fuch conduct, from a confideration of the fovereignty of God, as the only reafon of the fuccefs of his fervants. "Who “is Paul, and who is Apollos, but minifters by

"whom

t1 Cor. xii. 8.-11. 18. 29.