nature bespeaks a fitness for government, but doth not properly
convey a right of government. Excellency speaks aptitude, not title: a
subject may have more wisdom than the prince, and be fitter to hold the
reins of government, but he hath not a title to royalty. A man of large
capacity and strong virtue is fit to serve his country in parliament,
but the election of the people conveys a title to him. Yet a strain
of intellectual and moral abilities beyond others, is a foundation for
dominion. And it is commonly seen that such eminences in men, though
they do not invest them with a civil authority, or an authority of
jurisdiction, yet they create a veneration in the minds of men; their
virtue attracts reverence, and their advice is regarded as an oracle.
Old men by their age, when stored with more wisdom and knowledge by
reason of their long experience, acquire a kind of power over the
younger in their dictates and councils, so that they gain, by the
strength of that excellency, a real authority in the minds of those
men they converse with, and possess themselves of a deep respect for
them. God therefore being an incomprehensible ocean of all perfection,
and possessing infinitely all those virtues that may lay a claim
to dominion, hath the first foundation of it in his own nature. His
incomparable and unparalleled excellency, as well as the greatness of
his work, attracts the voluntary worship of him as a sovereign Lord
(Ps. lxxxvi. 8): “Among the gods, there is none like unto thee; neither
are there any works {b368} like unto thy work. All nations shall come
and worship before thee.” Though his benefits are great engagements to
our obedience and affection, yet his infinite majesty and perfection
requires the first place in our acknowledgements and adorations. Upon
this account God claims it (Isa. xlvi. 9): “I am God, and there is none
like me; I will do all my pleasure:” and the prophet Jeremiah upon the
same account acknowledgeth it (Jer. x. 6, 7): “Forasmuch as there is
none like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in
might: who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth
it appertain: forasmuch as there is none like unto thee.” And this is
a more noble title of dominion, it being an uncreated title, and more
eminent than that of creation or preservation. This is the natural
order God hath placed in his creatures, that the more excellent should
rule the inferior.[996] He committed not the government of lower
creatures to lions and tigers, that have a delight in blood, but no
knowledge of virtue; but to man, who had an eminence in his nature
above other creatures, and was formed with a perfect rectitude, and a
height of reason to guide the reins over them. In man, the soul being
of a more sublime nature, is set of right to rule over the body; the
mind, the most excellent faculty of the soul, to rule over the other
powers of it: and wisdom, the most excellent habit of the mind, to
guide and regulate that in its determinations; and when the body and
sensitive appetite control the soul and mind, it is an usurpation
against nature, not a rule according to nature. The excellency, thereof,
of the Divine nature is the natural foundation for his dominion.
He hath wisdom to know what is fit for him to do, and an immutable
righteousness whereby he cannot do any thing base and unworthy: he hath
a foreknowledge whereby he is able to order all things to answer his
own glorious designs and the end of his government, that nothing can
go awry, nothing put him to a stand, and constrain him to meditate
new counsels. So that if it could be supposed that the world had not
been created by him, that the parts of it had met together by chance,
and been compacted into such a body, none but God, the supreme and
most excellent Being in the world, could have merited, and deservedly
challenged the government of it; because nothing had an excellency of
nature to capacitate it for it, as he hath, or to enter into a contest
with him for a sufficiency to govern.[997]
2. It is founded in his act of creation. He is the sovereign Lord, as
he is the almighty Creator. The relation of an entire Creator induceth
the relation of an absolute Lord; he that gives being, motion, that is
the sole cause of the being of a thing, which was before nothing, that
hath nothing to concur with him, nothing to assist him, but by his
sole power commands it to stand up into being, is the unquestionable
Lord and proprietor of that thing that hath no dependence but upon
him; and by this act of creation, which extended to all things, he
became universal Sovereign over all things: and those that waive
the excellency of his nature as the foundation of his government,
easily acknowledge the sufficiency of it upon his actual creation. His
dominion of jurisdiction results from creation. {b369} When God himself
makes an oration in defence of his sovereignty (Job xxxviii.), his
chief arguments are drawn from creation; and (Ps. xcv. 3, 5), “The Lord
is a great King above all gods; the sea is his, and he made it:” and
so the apostle, in his sermon to the Athenians. As he “made the world,
and all things therein,” he is styled, “Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts
xvii. 24). His dominion, also, of property stands upon this basis:
“The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world, and
the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them” (Ps. lxxxix. 11). Upon
this title of forming Israel as a creature, or rather as a church, he
demands their service to him as their Sovereign: “O Jacob and Israel,
thou art my servant, I have formed thee: thou art my servant, O Israel”
(Isa. xliv. 21). The sovereignty of God naturally ariseth from the
relation of all things to himself as their entire Creator, and their
natural and inseparable dependence upon him in regard of their being
and well‑being. It depends not upon the election of men; God hath a
natural dominion over us as creatures, before he hath a dominion by
consent over us as converts: as soon as ever anything began to be a
creature, it was a vassal to God, as a Lord. Every man is acknowledged
to have a right of possessing what he hath made, and a power of
dominion over what he hath framed: he may either cherish his own work,
or dash it in pieces; he may either add a greater comeliness to it, or
deface what he hath already imparted. He hath a right of property in
it: no other man can, without injury, pilfer his own work from him. The
work hath no propriety in itself; the right must lie in the immediate
framer, or in the person that employed him. The first cause of
everything hath an unquestionable dominion of propriety in it upon the
score of justice. By the law of nations, the first finder of a country
is esteemed the rightful possessor and lord of that country, and the
first inventor of an art hath a right of exercising it. If a man hath
a just claim of dominion over that thing whose materials were not of
his framing, but from only the addition of a new figure from his skill;
as a limner over his picture, the cloth whereof he never made, nor
the colors wherewith he draws it were never endued by him with their
distinct qualities, but only he applies them by his art, to compose
such a figure; much more hath God a rightful claim of dominion over
his creatures, whose entire being, both in matter and form, and every
particle of their excellency, was breathed out by the word of his mouth.
He did not only give the matter a form, but bestowed upon the matter
itself a being; it was formed by none to his hand, as the matter is on
which an artist works. He had the being of all things in his own power,
and it was at his choice whether he would impart it or no; there can
be no juster and stronger ground of a claim than this. A man hath a
right to a piece of brass or gold by his purchase, but when by his
engraving he hath formed it into an excellent statue, there results an
increase of his right upon the account of his artifice. God’s creation
of the matter of man gave him a right over man; but his creation of
him in so eminent an excellency, with reason to guide him, a clear
eye of understanding to discern light from darkness, and truth from
falsehood, a freedom of will to act accordingly, and {b370} an original
righteousness as the varnish and beauty of all; here is the strongest
foundation for a claim of authority over man, and the strongest
obligation on man for subjection to God. If all those things had been
past over to God by another hand, he could not be the supreme Lord, nor
could have an absolute right to dispose of them at his pleasure: that
would have been the invasion of another’s right. Besides, creation is
the only first discovery of his dominion. Before the world was framed
there was nothing but God himself, and, properly, nothing is said to
have dominion over itself; this is a relative attribute, reflecting on
the works of God.[998] He had a right of dominion in his nature from
eternity, but before creation he was actually Lord only of a nullity;
where there is nothing it can have no relation; nothing is not the
subject of possession nor of dominion. There could be no exercise of
this dominion without creation: what exercise can a sovereign have
without subjects? Sovereignty speaks a relation to subjects, and none
is properly a sovereign without subjects. To conclude: from hence doth
result God’s universal dominion; for being Maker of all, he is the
ruler of all, and his perpetual dominion; for as long as God continues
in the relation of Creator, the right of his sovereignty as Creator
cannot be abolished.
3. As God is the final cause, or end of all, he is Lord of all. The
end hath a greater sovereignty in actions than the actor itself: the
actor hath a sovereignty over others in action, but the end for which
any one works hath a sovereignty over the agent himself: a limner hath
a sovereignty over the picture he is framing, or hath framed, but the
end for which he framed it, either his profit he designed from it, or
the honor and credit of skill he aimed at in it, hath a dominion over
the limner himself: the end moves and excites the artist to work; it
spirits him in it, conducts him in his whole business, possesses his
mind, and sits triumphant in him in all the progress of his work; it
is the first cause for which the whole work is wrought.[999] Now God,
in his actual creation of all, is the sovereign end of all; “for thy
pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. iv. 11); “The Lord hath made
all things for himself” (Prov. xvi. 4). Man, indeed, is the subordinate
and immediate end of the lower creation, and therefore had the dominion
over other creatures granted to him: but God being the ultimate and
principal end, hath the sovereign and principal dominion; all things as
much refer to him, as the last end, as they flow from him as the first
cause. So that, as I said before, if the world had been compacted
together by a jumbling chance, without a wise hand, as some have
foolishly imagined, none could have been an antagonist with God for the
government of the world; but God, in regard of the excellency of his
nature, would have been the Rector of it, unless those atoms that had
composed the world had had an ability to govern it. Since there could
be no universal end of all things but God, God only can claim an entire
right to the government of it; for though man be the end of the lower
creation, yet man is not the end of himself and his own being; he is
not the end of the creation of the supreme {b371} heavens; he is not
able to govern them; they are out of his ken, and out of his reach.
None fit in regard of the excellency of nature, to be the chief end
of the whole world but God; and therefore none can have a right to the
dominion of it but God: in this regard God’s dominion differs from the
dominion of all earthly potentates. All the subjects in creation were
made for God as their end, so are not people for rulers, but rulers
made for people for their protection, and the preservation of order
in societies.
4. The dominion of God is founded upon his preservation of things. (Ps.
xcv. 3, 4); “The Lord is a great King above all gods:” why? “In his
hand are all the deep places of the earth.” While his hand holds things,
his hand hath a dominion over them. He that holds a stone in the air,
exerciseth a dominion over its natural inclination in hindering it from
falling. The creature depends wholly upon God in its preservation; as
soon as that Divine hand which sustains everything were withdrawn, a
languishment and swooning would be the next turn in the creature. He is
called Lord, _Adonai_, in regard of his sustentation of all things by
his continual influx; the word coming of אדן, which signifies a basis
or pillar, that supports a building. God is the Lord of all, as he is
the sustainer of all by his power, as well as the Creator of all by
his word. The sun hath a sovereign dominion over its own beams, which
depend upon it, so that if he withdraws himself, they all attend him,
and the world is left in darkness. God maintains the vigor of all
things, conducts them in their operations; so that nothing that they
are, nothing that they have, but is owing to his preserving power.
The Master of this great family may as well be called the Lord of it,
since every member of it depends upon him for the support of that being
he first gave them, and holds of his empire. As the right to govern
resulted from creation, so it is perpetuated by the preservation of
things.
5. The dominion of God is strengthened by the innumerable benefits
he bestows upon his creatures: the benefits he confers upon us after
creation, are not the original ground of his dominion. A man hath not
authority over his servant from the kindness he shows to him, but his
authority commenceth before any act of kindness, and is founded upon a
right of purchase, conquest, or compact. Dominion doth not depend upon
mere benefits; then inferiors might have dominions over superiors. A
peasant may save the life of a prince to whom he was not subject; he
hath not therefore a right to step up into his throne and give laws to
him: and children that maintain their parents in their poverty, might
then acquire an authority over them which they can never climb to;
because the benefits they confer cannot parallel the benefits they have
received from the authors of their lives. The bounties of God to us add
nothing to the intrinsic right of his natural dominion; they being the
effects of that sovereignty, as he is a rewarder and governor; as the
benefits a prince bestows upon his favorite increases not that right of
authority which is inherent in the crown, but strengthens that dominion
as it stands in relation to the receiver, by increasing the obligation
of the favorite to an observance of him, not only as {b372} his natural
prince, but his gracious benefactor. The beneficence of God adds,
though not an original right of power, yet a foundation of a stronger
upbraiding the creature, if he walks in a violation and forgetfulness
of those benefits, and pull in pieces the links of that ingenuous duty
they call for; and an occasion of exercising of justice in punishing
the delinquent, which is a part of his empire (Isa. i. 2): “Hear, O
heavens, and give ear, O earth, the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished
children, and they have rebelled against me.” Thus the fundamental
right as Creator is made more indisputable by his relation as a
benefactor, and more as being so after a forfeiture of what was enjoyed
by creation. The benefits of God are innumerable, and so magnificent
that they cannot meet with any compensation from the creature; and,
therefore, do necessarily require a submission from the creature, and
an acknowledgment of Divine authority. But that benefit of redemption
doth add a stronger right of dominion to God; since he hath not only as
a Creator given them being and life as his creatures, but paid a price,
the price of his Son’s blood, for their rescue from captivity; so that
he hath a sovereignty of grace as well as nature, and the ransomed
ones belong to him as Redeemer as well as Creator (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20):
“Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price;” therefore your
body and your spirit are God’s. By this he acquired a right of another
kind, and bought us from that uncontrollable lordship we affected over
ourselves by the sin of Adam, that he might use us as his own peculiar
for his own glory and service. By this redemption there results to God
a right over our bodies, over our spirits, over our services, as well
as by creation; and to show the strength of this right, the apostle
repeats it, “you are bought;” a purchase cannot be without a price
paid; but he adds price also, “bought with a price.” To strengthen the
title, purchase gave him a new right, and the greatness of the price
established that right. The more a man pays for a thing, the more
usually we say, he deserves to have it, he hath paid enough for it; it
was, indeed, price enough, and too much for such vile creatures as we
are.
III. The third thing is, The nature of this dominion.
1. This dominion is independent. His throne is in the heavens; the
heavens depend not upon the earth, nor God upon his creatures. Since
he is independent in regard of his essence, he is so in his dominion,
which flows from the excellency and fulness of his essence; as he
receives his essence from none, so he derives his dominion from none;
all other dominion except paternal authority is rooted originally in
the wills of men. The first title was the consent of the people, or the
conquest of others by the help of those people that first consented;
and in the exercise of it, earthly dominion depends upon assistance
of the subjects, and the members being joined with the head carry on
the work of government, and prevent civil dissensions; in the support
of it, it depends upon the subjects’ contributions and taxes; the
subjects in their strength are the arms, and in their purses the sinews
of government; but God depends upon none in the foundation of his
government; he is not a Lord by the votes {b373} of his vassals.[1000]
Nor is it successively handed to him by any predecessor, nor
constituted by the power of a superior; nor forced he his way by war
and conquest, nor precariously attained it by suit or flattery, or
bribing promises. He holds not the right of his empire from any other;
he hath no superior to hand him to his throne, and settle him by
commission; he is therefore called “King of kings, and Lord of lords,”
having none above him; “A great King above all gods” (Ps. xcv. 3):
needing no license from any when to act, nor direction how to act,
or assistance in his action; he owes not any of those to any person;
he was not ordered by any other to create, and therefore received not
orders from any other to rule over what he hath created. He received
not his power and wisdom from another, and therefore is not subject
to any for the rule of his government. He only made his own subjects,
and from himself hath the sole authority; his own will was the cause
of their beings, and his own will is the director of their actions.
He is not determined by his creatures in any of his motions, but
determines the creatures in all; his actions are not regulated by any
law without him, but by a law within him, the law of his own nature.
It is impossible he can have any rule without himself, because there
is nothing superior to himself, nor doth he depend upon any in the
exercise of his government; he needs no servants in it, when he
uses creatures: it is not out of want of their help, but for the
manifestation of his wisdom and power. What he doth by his subjects, he
can do by himself: “The government is upon his shoulder” (Isa. ix. 6),
to show that he needs not any supporters. All other governments flow
from him, all other authorities depend upon him; _Dei Gratiâ_, or _Dei
Providentiâ_, is in the style of princes. As their being is derived
from his power, so their authority is but a branch of his dominion.
They are governors by Divine providence; God is governor by his sole
nature. All motions depend upon the first heaven, which moves all; but
that depends upon nothing. The government of Christ depends upon God’s
uncreated dominion, and is by commission from him; Christ assumed not
this honor to himself, “But he that said unto him, Thou art my Son,”
bestowed it upon him. “He put all things under his feet,” but not
himself (1 Cor. xv. 27). “When he saith, All things are put under him,
he is excepted, which did put all things under him.” He sits still as
an independent governor upon his throne.
2. This dominion is absolute. If his throne be in the heavens,
there is nothing to control him. If he be independent, he must needs
be absolute; since he hath no cause in conjunction with him as Creator,
that can share with him in his right, or restrain him in the disposal
of his creature. His authority is unlimited; in this regard the title
of “Lord” becomes not any but God properly. Tiberius, though none of
the best, though one of the subtilest princes, accounted the title of
“Lord” a reproach to him: since he was not absolute.[1001]