SERMON X.

ACTS xvi. 30, 31.

What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

"I BELIEVE in God the Father" having been considered, we now pass on to the next word in this first article of our Creed, Almighty.

The almightiness of God has reference to his authority and dominion over all things, and also to his all-sufficiency and might to do whatever he pleases. In the latter sense it is to be more distinctly spoken to in the sixth article, where the same word returns, "he sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty." Here it is to be understood in the former sense, as expressive of God's absolute dominion and authority over all things; to which he has an unquestionable right as being Maker of all things, and for which he is fully qualified, as being endued with a most upright will to order his subjects aright, and with power, knowledge, and the inspection of his own eye to uphold, restrain, and correct them.

I mean not to take up your time in proving what no one, who believes there is a God, denies. The very devils know and believe God to be the Governor of the world. When we say,

"I believe in God the Father Almighty," we own the same truth also, but we own it aright, in a spirit different from them, in a sincere disposition of heart to be subject to his government. This is what makes the article Christian, and gives it a place in our Creed. We own the Father to be Almighty in a cheerful confession of his rightful dominion over us, and in a willing determination that he shall rule over us. We speak it as they who are returned from their rebellion, into which all are fallen by the sin of Adam, and as brought back unto the Father through the

mediation and by the grace of Jesus Christ his only Son our Saviour.

The dominion over all things is here ascribed unto the Father, while in other Scriptures you will find it referred unto the Son. The reason of which is, that although lordship over all things be in the Son by constitution, and as receiving it from the Father for the special work of mediation, yet the right rests in the Father, who made all things for himself. And therefore that dominion, which as to the execution of the Father's will is actually and fully in the Son, is nevertheless ultimately in the Father, and therefore here ascribed to him.

The dominion of the Father is an absolute sovereignty over all creatures, with whom he does therefore according to his own. pleasure, and, without giving account of any of his matters, command, forbid, and dispose of them in all cases. And therefore his dominion implies,

First. His absolute and everlasting empire, whereby he is King of kings and Lord of lords, sitteth over all from the beginning, and remaineth a King for ever.

Secondly. And in consequence of this absolute empire, a right of giving laws to his subjects as he pleases, which are to be regarded as the sole rule of their conduct. So what we call virtue and vice, good and evil, do not at all consist in acting up to the supposed obligation arising from the fitness or unfitness of things, according to our estimation of them, but in obedience or disobedience to the supreme will of God. To obey God is virtue, and to disobey him is vice. To do or forbear, therefore, because the thing to be done seems fit, or because that which is to be forborne seems otherwise, exclusively of a due regard had to God's authority, however right it may be in itself thus to do or forbear, is no act of religion. There is no doubt that all God's commands are in themselves most right and fit, being constituted upon an infinitely wise plan devised by God himself; but then to do them solely because they are so, not because he commands them, is plainly to lay aside his authority. Yet upon that God insists. He will be obeyed absolutely. He does not subject his laws to our examination in such manner, that we shall only do them, because we see them right. He expects to be obeyed because he is God and King. Laying

aside this measure of obedience we subject ourselves to endless dispute and uncertainty; and, in fact, cast away that which can alone influence the conscience. God's will is the law of his subjects; while they have regard to that as the ground of their obligation to do and forbear, they obey; when they depart from it, setting up another measure, and searching into the reasonableness of the command to found their obligation thereupon, they assuredly fall into sin. See all this in an instance or two. God said to Adam, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Here was a plain command of God, resting simply upon his authority, without the least intimation of a reason why the fruit of this tree was forbidden to be eat. It was the test of Adam's obedience to God's supreme will. Now what step does Satan take to effect his purpose? He artfully draws away the woman's attention from the obligation arising out of God's authority, by leading her into an inquiry after the design and fitness of the prohibition. The ground of obedience being thus forgotten, he easily reasons her into a persuasion, that it would be far better for her to eat than forbear. Just so you may find it to have been with yourself. While, with never so good a design, you have been reasoning about the excellency of any of God's laws, in order to stir yourself up to conformity therewith, and have not laid as your foundation the command and authority of God, which alone has power to bind and influence the conscience, you have found that there was neither weight nor power from all your discoveries to constrain your mind, and, however you might judge such a conduct fit, you had no ability to practise it. It is the sense of God's sovereign authority which in fact influences to all duties. In the sight of this we can fear because we have done what was forbidden, or take confidence in God through Jesus Christ because we are doing what is commanded. But should you, without respect to God's authority, set yourself, from the unreasonableness of sin, or the reasonableness of believing, to the practice of godly fear, and exercising faith, you would certainly find yourself both unhumbled and unbelieving; which I doubt not is a comTake another instance. God bids Abraham sacrifice Isaac. Had the father of the faithful gone to any other fitness

mon case.

than the fitness of an immediate, absolute, unquestioning obedience to the command of God, he had certainly been overset, and come short of that conduct which was so eminently pleasing to him. But one and another may be ready to say, What can we think of such a command? Could it be right or fit for a father to sacrifice his son ? Is it not contrary to all the notions we have of duty? If the obligations of duty be the fitness of things, according to our judgment of them it is. But if these obligations arise from the mere authority of God, it is just the contrary, and Abraham would certainly have sinned had he withholden his only son from God. And therefore this instance, with some others in Scripture, stands eminently forth in proof that it is the authority and command of God which is our only rule of judging anything to be good or evil, and which alone begets obligation of duty. If therefore you shall at any time hear cavils raised against this case of Abraham or others, be upon your guard, and be sensible that they who dispute in this manner are acting over again the conduct of Satan when he tempted Eve, by endeavouring to take you off from the obligations of duty as simply arising from the will and command of God, and to bring you to such subtle inquiries into the fitness and unfitness of God's commands as tend to cast his sovereign authority out of your mind, to make you lose all sense of his dominion, to leave you in all uncertainty and doubt, effectually to weaken all the bands of conscience, and set you at liberty to do as you list, as your corrupted inclinations dispose you.

Thirdly. It belongs to God's sovereignty to restrain from disobedience by punishment, and to encourage unto submission by promises. The former of these was expressed and the latter implied in the covenant made with Adam, when God said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." To ascertain the measure of these is the prerogative of God, who unquestionably has a right to encourage obedience by rewards infinitely surpassing any excellence there is therein, and who cannot be suspected of punishing sin beyond its desert. You must take heed respecting the one and the other to have your eye on the sovereignty of God, both that you may not question the title he has given you to glory because of the vast disproportion there is between it and your worthless services, if you

are in a state of obedience; and also may not dispute the equitableness of his declared punishments against you, if you are disobedient, and so, screening yourself under the vain hope that he will not punish you at all, remain a rebel. There is, indeed, no proportion between the service we pay God and the reward prepared for us: but there is doubtless an exact proportion between sin and the punishment threatened against it. If you cannot deny that the great Sovereign of the universe may dispense the reward because it is great, so do not set about to persuade yourself he will not inflict the punishment because it is terrible. Beware again here also of making your judgment of what is fit and right the measure of God's sanctions, lest, as in the former case, you would be reasoned out of all religion, so in this latter you should reason yourself into hell. God knows better than you what sin deserves. Debate not against his determinations. As the august Governor of the world, he hath decreed that the wicked shall go away into hell, and all the people that forget God. And can you stop his hand? Will you say to him, What dost thou ? When you are perished for ever, will you be able to contend, thou art unrighteous in this which thou hast brought upon me? Let God have his place, and know you yours, which is to obey; but if you will not, to suffer that punishment which he, as your rightful and almighty Sovereign, hath decreed against you. Strange that any should contend against the truth of an eternity of torment, when fallen angels are reserved to it; not annihilated (which is the sinner's greatest hope hereafter), but reserved unto the judgment of the great day, to be cast into that fire of divine everlasting wrath which is prepared for them. And if eternal torments are certain, can they be unjust? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Yes, my brethren, the Lord will be God, he will govern the world, let the sinners of hell or earth contend as they please; he will make the one and the other know that he judgeth righteously. Lay it to heart, you unwise. You are subject to God's dominion, you know you are. are rebelling against him; you dare not say the contrary. And will he yield up his government? Shall not he punish? "Behold, he cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." O how will you be able to abide the

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