likewise;" take hold of God's sovereignty as your own, engaged by a covenant of grace, and so to be exerted for your good. Faith gives a propriety in any attribute it looks upon, and draws out the virtues thereof for itself. And therefore, whatever difficulties are in your way, be not disheartened at them; but call in this sovereign power, by faith, to your help. Remember the ready subjection which all creatures do pay to his word; by which alone (without creatures' service) he can level the mountains, and make crooked things straight; restrain, alter, invert, and turn upside down the very course of nature; so that which is death in itself, shall be life to you. New cords and withes, when touched by his word, are as flax and tow when touched by the fire; iron shall be as straw, and brass as rotten wood, Judges 16: 7. Job 41:27. Therefore lengthen the cords, and strengthen the stakes of your faith; you cannot believe greater things, or better than God can do for you. Even sin itself, which is the great (and really the only) evil; it is his enemy as much as yours: and you may be sure he would not have suffered its being in the world if he had not a power to correct and curb it, yea, and to destroy it too, at his pleasure: take hold of his sovereign strength, and your work is done.

But here also a caution or two may seasonably be added, for such reasons as are mixed with them.

1. If death in the pot hath once been healed, and your borrowed axe-head (sunk once, past hopes of recovery) brought again to your hand, 2 Kings 6: 6. see that remissness grow not upon it, lest at another turn the handle drop after the head. Gather not wild gourds a second time, 2 Kings 4: 39, &c. lest your prophet be absent, or meal denied you. Presume not to dally with temptations (as Samson did,) and then think to go out and shake yourself, as at other times, Judges 16: 20. The divine power is too great a thing to be trifled with, or made to serve with the follies of men.

2. Never look on this great attribute of sovereignty without your mediator. As without him, it cannot but be matter of terror and amazement to sinners; it is he only can render it propitious to you. As nothing is pleasing to God but in and through Christ, so nothing in God is comfortable to men, or for their eternal good, but as it comes

to them through him: as waters out of the sea immediately are not potable, unless they be first decocted by the sun, or pass through some vein of earth, to make them congruous to our nature.

I shall here mention two particulars of nearest concernment to us, wherein we are in a special manner to have respect unto the sovereignty of God.

1. As touching your own condition, (your everlasting condition,) submit to mercy, to sovereign mercy; that is, yield yourself to God without capitulating, or making terms with him. Those Syrians well understood the meaning of this; they put ropes on their heads, and themselves in the conqueror's hands, upon an uncertain conjecture, [" peradventure they will save us alive,"] 1 Kings 20: 31. So do ye, although ye have but a [may be] 66 we shall be hid,” Zeph. 2: 3. mind your duty, and leave the issue to God; believe above hope, and against hope: follow God in the dark, as your father Abraham did, not knowing whither he would lead him: thus to do, is to give glory to God. Therefore," fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his servant;" even then, "when ye are in darkness, and have no light," Isa. 50: 10. (namely, of his special favor and love to you in particular.) And though never so great discou ragements are before you, from the guilt of sins committed, the power of in-dwelling corruptions, and your present averseness to believing; and here withal, that faith is the great commandment; let your heart answer, Is it my duty [my duty] to believe? Nay, then I must. Remember his greatness, his absolute dominion; the uncontrolableness of his matters; that "he hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all," Rom. 11: 32. (that is, that the salvation of those who shall be saved might appear to be of mercy, and to be so acknowledged:) to him therefore commit your cause, and commit it to him as your sovereign lord, and so leave it with him; and see that you take it not out of his hand again, by your doubting the issue of it: and know, that then is your soul nearest to peace and set"Be in subtlement, when brought to this submission.

jection unto the father of spirits, and live," Heb. 12: 9.

But let not the word be misconstrued. I do not mean, by submission, that you should be satisfied under a denial of mercy, on the account of God's absolute dominion: I cannot

think that a necessary term or qualification in your treating with God for salvation: for, 1. I do not find that God requires such a submission, as the condition of obtaining mercy; nor that he hath made any promise to give such a submission, in order to that end; nor any instance in scripture of the saints having or endeavoring such a frame of spirit in that business; nor yet that men are any where taxed for not attaining to if. They are blamed, indeed, and that worthily, for not submitting to the righteousness of God; (that is, for not renouncing their own, and flying to that of Christ;) and this blame-worthiness you cannot escape, if finding yourself lost and undone, you will not presently run to Christ, without first finding in yourself something that may seem to commend you to him. 2. Such a submission seems repugnant to God's revealed will. For, if this be the "will of God, even our sanctification," that we should believe on his Son, and love him with our whole heart, then it cannot be his will that we should be willing to remain in an unsanctified state, in unbelief and enmity against him; which are the inseparable conjuncts of willingness to be separated from God. 3. Because the promise of ease and rest is made to the weary and heavy laden, coming to Christ; not to a contentedness to be di vided from him: and the promise of satisfaction is to your hungering and thirsting after righteousness; not to the ces sation of your desire, without the thing which only can sa tisfy. 4. Because, to be satisfied without obtaining mercy, is to be satisfied with an utter incapacity to glorify the grace of God, and to enjoy communion with him, which are the principal end and duty of men. 5. It is cross to the ge nius and concreated principle of the reasonable creature, which is, to seek its own happiness: in any thing short of which it ought not to acquiesce. 6. Such a submission cannot be requisite in preparatory work; because that would suppose the highest pitch of grace attained (if it yet be a grace, and attainable,) before you believe; and conse quently, that it is not a grace out of Christ's fulness; for ye are supposed to have it before ye go to him. And there. fore, when I say, ye must submit, without capitulating of making terms, my meaning is, ye are not to treat upon terms of your own making, nor propound any thing to God, but what sovereign mercy propounds to you, as the

way and means of obtaining your great end: and great reason ye have for this submission; for herein lies your interest; those being, in truth, the only terms by which a lost and sinful creature can be rendered salvable, or capable of being saved; as will further appear in the sequel of this discourse.

I think, with humble submission, that if any point of time may be supposed before the decree, it was then that absolute dominion bore sway; but ever since election came in, it is grace that reigns: not that sovereignty is ceased, but transferred: before it was in power, but now in grace; in grace, as touching the elect, and in justice, respecting the rest. Grace is the attribute God delights to honor, and all the other are, if I may so speak, as subjects of this: even Christ himself was made a servant, to perform the pleasure of his grace: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles," Isa. 42: 1. So then, that you are to submit unto, is the good pleasure of God's will, as held forth in the covenant of grace, undertaking for, and perfectly able to save you; and as having his sovereign power engaged to make it good. Which seems the scope of that passage in Moses' prayer for the people, when they had highly provoked God: "Let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken," &c. Numb. 14: 17, 18, 19. It was to pardon, and still to own them for his people. And to this agree all those scriptures which hold forth the power of God as the ground of faith; as that by which he is able to pardon sin, to subdue iniquity, and to hold your souls in life. You are therefore directed, if you will have peace with God," to take hold of his strength," Isa. 27: 5. which cannot be meant of a contentedness in having that strength put forth to destroy, but as being perfectly able and engaged by his covenant to save you. As to the time when the Lord will manifest his love to you; as also the manner and measure of his dispensing it; the good pleasure of his will is expressly, and with all quietness of spirit, to be submitted unto: but as to the thing itself, you ought not to be said nay; but do as he did, who had power with God, and prevailed. "He wept, and made supplication," Hos

12: 4. but still resolved, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," Gen. 32: 26.

2. As for the other nearest concernment, touching your children, deal in like manner for them, by submitting them to the same mercy. It is true, that next to your own personal salvation, there cannot be a greater evidence of God's love to you, than to choose your children after you, nor any thing more desirable to you: therefore, "command them, and instruct them to keep the way of the Lord," Gen. 18: 19. that he may bring on them the blessing you most desire for them: but be not over solicitous, and cast down, because you see not yet the marks of election upon them. The Lord doth not indeed bind himself to take all a believer's children, nor doth he limit himself from taking any others. There is nothing declared touching his purpose to take all the one, lest they should thence take occasion to be remiss in their duty (which, till conversion, is very natural to us:) nor doth he exclude the children of others: for that might discourage, and weaken their hands to that which is good. In this various dispensing of his everlasting love, he is pleased so to reserve his liberty and sovereign prerogative, that he greatly manifests his love to believers, in so frequent choosing of their seed; and the freeness of his grace, in not rejecting wholly the seed of

others.

Infer. 3. How happy and sovereignly blessed are those who have an interest in this great and sovereign Lord! Be the earth ever so unquiet, and the tumult of it ever so boisterous and unruly, the Lord is above them. He sits on the waters, as a prince in his chariot, guiding all as he will; he is that great dictator, whose word is the law indeed: if he but say, Come, Go, Do this, there needs no more. Who would not be the subject of such a prince? and much more his favorite? and yet, this high privilege every soul is blessed with, that has in truth taken hold of his cove. nant: for that takes in all between the two eternities, and eternity itself withal; and the spirit or strength of the whole lies in those few (but very compendious) words, "I will your God." When the Lord would comfort his people to purpose, and put on their eagles' wings, what a glorious narrative doth he make of his power and sovereign great.

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