414 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XCVI.
onl}' the heavens and the earth, but all thuigs which are contained therein, from the angel to the worm, they all serve God; they attend upon him as their supreme Lord and master every moment.
Doct. That it is a great help to faith to consider Grod as the omni- potent creator, preserver, and absolute governor of the world, disposing of all things as he pleaseth.
This is the meditation which the Psalmist produceth and exposeth to our view in this verse.
His creation is implied in that, ilihie ordinances ; when God first settled the course of nature by a wise and powerful decree.
His preservation, in those words, they continue this day. The course of nature is so settled that it doth not fail to go on according to God's decree ; everything standeth or falleth according to God's command, and the order first settled by God still obtaineth ; his decree is not yet out of date.
His being the absolute governor of the world, in these words, /or all are thy servants, which implieth his sovereign dominion and empire over all the creatures as his servants, who are at the beck of his will. To evidence this to you more fully, consider there are in God two things — power and authority, might and right.
First, B)^ power we mean a liberty and sufficiency in God to do whatever he will : ' With God all things are possible,' Mat. xix. 26. Or take the negative, which bindeth it the stronger : Luke i. 37, ' AYitli God nothing shall be impossible.'
Secondly, Authority or dominion, or a right over all things to dis- ])ose of them at his own pleasure. In this right there are three branches : —
1. A right of making or framing anytliing as he willeth, in any manner as it pleaseth him, as the potter hath power over his own clay to form what vessel he pleaseth of it. This right God exercised in his creation : Kev. iv. 1], ' Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' This was his absolute freedom and sovereignty, to create all things according to his own pleasure.
2. A right of having or possessing all things so made and framed by him, for God is owner and possessor of whatever he made, since he made it out of nothing. Heaven is his, earth is his ; so angels, man, beasts, gold, silver ; all things he challengeth as his right : Ps. cxv. 16, ' The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's.' It is the Lord's to dispo.'^e of, not only the lower, but the highest heavens, Avhich he hath ])rovided for his own palace and court of residence. So ' the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness therefore,' Ps. xxiv. 1. This whole lower world is his by right of creation and providential preservation, and so are all the sorts of creatures with which he hath replenished it : it was by him produced at first, and every moment continued and preserved. And so the angels are his ; they are called his ministers or servants : Ps. civ. 4, ' He maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flarae of fire.' Though he is able to do all things by himself, ar administer the whole world as he at first created by a word, by saying, and it was done ; yet he pleaseth to make use of the ministry of angels, who some of them in subtle bodies of air, others of fire, come down to execute his com- mands upon earth. Men are his creatures and his possession ; we are
VeR. 91.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 415
not lorJs of anything we have, neither life, nor limh, nor anything ; onr bodie'S and our souls are his, 1 Cor. vi. 20. Christ had power to lay down his life and take it up again, but no mere man hath ; he is accountable to a higher Lord, who hath an absolute, uncontrollable right to dispose of us according to his own pleasure : ' He kiileth and maketli alive, bringeth low and lifteth up ; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,' 1 Sam. ii. 6-8 ; meaning that God is the Lord of the dwellers upon earth, from the one pole to the other : Dan. iv. 3.5, ' None can stay his hand, and say unto him, What doest thou ?' None can call him to an account, for his will is absolute. !So for the beasts : Ps. 1. 10, ' Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.' He hath a plenary dominion over all the cattle on earth, wild and tame, and the fowls of the air, and ?„ certain knowledge where every one of them resideth, that he can readily command any or all of them whensoever he pleaseth ; all is the Lord's by primitive right. So for gold and silver, and those precious things which are most valued by men : Hag. ii. 8, ' The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.' The absolute dominion of the riches or the splen- dour of the world belongeth to the Lord of hosts, to dispose of them as he pleaseth ; and therefore is to be owned, acknowledged, and sub- mitted unto by every man in his lot and portion. All that we want he hath at his command, and would not withhold it, if it were not for our o-ood.