II. What are the grounds of this submission ? For patience is wise and considerate, and proceeds upon solid reasons, as impatience is rash and unreasonable.
1. They see God in his providence: Ps. xxxix. 9, ' I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.' That is the first ])rincif)le of submission; surely God hath a hand in it: Isa. xxxviii. I.';, ' What shall I say ? he hath spoken to mo, himself hath done it.' That ])assage, though it be in a song of thanksgiving, doth not relate to the deliverance, but the afiiiction, the disease and sentence of death which he had received. Theie is atheism and anti-providence in our nuuniurings. If we did see God at the end of causes, we could no UKjre nuninur against his providence than we can against his creation. You would laugh at that man that should murnmr and complain because God made him a man and not an angel. It is as ridiculous to oppose yourselves against the will of God in other dispensations ; and the more immediately the affliction comes from God, the greater
Acts XXL 14.] the fifteenth sermon. 337
our submission should be ; as, in sickness, and death of friends and relations, ' It is the Lord.' But if subordinate instruments be used in bringing on the affliction, every wheel works according to the motion of the first mover ; all the links are fastened to God's hands ; therefore if we look no higher than the creature, we murmur, and break our teeth in biting at the next link. David was so far from opposing God that he bears the contumely of the instrument: 2 Sam. xvi. 11, ' Let him alone, for the Lord hath bid him curse.' That was a time of humiliation, not revenge. If God will admonish us of our duty by the injuries of men, and cure our impostume with the razor of their sharp tongue, we must be content. To resist lower officers of the state is to contemn the authority with which they are armed. They could not wag their tongues without God.
2. That God hath an absolute sovereignty to do what he will : Rom. ix. 20, 21, ' Sliall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast -thou made me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay ? We are in his hands, as the clay in the hand of the potter.' His supreme right and dominion over the creatures, to dispose of them according to his pleasure, should be often thought of by us : Job ix. 12. ' Behold he taketh away, who can hinder ? who shall say unto him, What doest thou ? ' He hath an absolute dominion, and is not account- able to any. A man may do with his own as he pleaseth. Why should we not allow him the common privilege of all proprietors ? A man may cut out his own cloth as he pleases. If God deprive us of any enjoyment, there is no resisting him by force, seeing God is omnipotent ; nor ought there to be any question to be made of the justice of the fact, seeing he hath absolute dominion, and is not accountable to any. All creatures are in his hand to dispose of them as he pleaseth ; and sometimes he sees fit to take them away in a violent manner, so as may most affect the parties interested, and show us his sovereignty. He will do it in his own way, by arming the thoughts and humours of our own bodies against us. Here our subjection to God must begin, till he be pleased to give some farther account of his dealing with us : Job xxxiii. 13, ' Why dost thou strive against him ? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.' Before what tri- bunal.will you call the Lord ? Where will you cite him to answer for the Avrong done to you ? This sovereignty of God doth exceed- ingly calm the heart ; God hath right alone to govern the world. He did govern it before we were born, and will do it when we are gone. He deposeth kings and disposeth kingdoms and all affairs as he will. Men must not prescribe rules to God, nor limit his uncontrollable authority. Our work is not to dispute and quarrel, but to obey and submit in all things.
3. This sovereignty of God is modified and mitigated in the dis- pensation of it with several attributes. As —
[1.] With infinite justice : Deut. xxvii. 26 ; when every cin'.se was pronounced they were to say Amen, let it come to pass, for it is just. All that we suffer is deserved, nay, ' less than our iniquities deserve,' Ezra ix. 13. As the restored Israelites acknowledge, when they were in Babylon, they might have been in hell. Job xxxiv. 10, ' Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, or the Almighty that he
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338 THE FIFTEENTH SERMON. [ACTS XXL 14.
should commit iniquity.' All such thoughts are to be rejected with abhorrence and indignation. We have strange conceptions and thoughts of God when under a temptation ; ver. 23, ' He will not lay upon" man more than right,' that he should enter into judgment with God. No; he goeth on just and sure grounds, though we do not always discern them.