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3. He hath a right of using and disposing, and governing all things thus in his possession, according to his own pleasure. Certainly the use and benefit and utility of anything belongeth to him whose it is. Now God, who is the disposer of all things, made them for himself ; he governeth them ultimately and terminatively for himself, imme- diately for man : Prov. xvi. 4, ' God hath made all things for himself.' But he considereth man's good subordinately in all sublunary things ; for ' the earth he hath given to the children of men,' Ps. cxv. 16, chiefly to his people, Eom. viii. 28. But this government of God is twofold — either natural or moral.
[1.] I begin with the last. His moral government is by laws ; so he governeth angels and men, who are rational and free agents, but in the relation of subjects to God, and therefore are under his command ; which if they decline, they are rebels, yet cease not to be under God, as the devils and wicked men, who have distm'bed the order of the creation, and withdrawn themselves from God's government, yet they cease not to be under his power. Of the devils, we read they sinned, 2 Peter ii. 4, and therefore ' were thrown down into chains of darkness ; ' meaning thereby, their unappeasable horrors, and the ' restraints of God's invisible providence'. Of men, that they withdrew their allegiance, and would not be subject to his laws : Ps. xii. 4, * Our tongues are our own : who is lord over us ?' Piom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God.' But yet they are under the restraints of his pro- vidence, and he governeth all their actions to his glory: Ps. Ixxvi. 10, ' Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee ;' and serveth himself and the desiixns of his providence of their sins.
[2.] His natural government is that order into which by his positive decree God hath necessitated and disposed all creatures for the benefit
416 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX, [SeR. XCVI.
of the world. Rational creatures he ruleth by moral means, as sub- jects, requiring duty from them, under the sanction of penalties and rewards, where the law is the rule of our duty, the sanction of his pro- cess ; but other creatures he ruleth by natural motions and inclinations or tendency, according to the decree and order which he hath settled in their creation. Surely such a kind of empire he hath over all his creatures, for if he had made creatures which he cannot rule, he could not carry on his providence, for there would be something beneath him which might resist his will, and that will not suit with the perfection of God. Now this natural government is twofold — ordinary or extra- ordinary.
(1.) Ordinary is that which is according to the course of second causes, or that order of nature which God hath established in the world, which is nothing else but his preserving the creatures, and Avork- ing by them according to their natural motions. So it is said in the text, ' They continue this day according to thine ordinance ;' and is confirmed by the apostle, Heb. i. 3, ' He upholdeth all things by the word of his power ;' that is, in that course wherein he hath set them. The being and motion of every creature is ordered by the will of God ; they move as he hath set them, and can move no further nor longer than he supplieth them with power.
(2.) Extraordinary is when God doth things above or beside nature ; as when he made the sun stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley Ajalon, Josh. x. 12, 13 ; or made the sun to go back ten degrees in Aliaz's dial, Isa. xxxviii. 8 ; his interdicting the Red Sea that it should not flow, Exod. xiv. 22 ; causing iron, which is a heavy body, that it should swim upon the top of the water at the prayer of EUsha, 2 Kings vi. 5 ; the fiery furnace not to burn, Dan. iii. 22 ; shutting the mouths of hungry lions, Dan. vi. 22 ; making ravens, which are by nature birds of prey, to be caterers for Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 6 ; the cleaving of the earth and swallowing up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Num. xvi. 32, 33. Often in the New Testament we find the creatures acting contrary to their common nature, as the star that directed the wise men to Christ, Mat. ii. 2 ; the opening of the heavens at Christ's l)aptism. Mat. iii. 16 ; the eclipse of the sun at his death. Mat. xxvii. 4.5 ; the fishes that came to net, Luke v. 5 ; and furnishing money, Mat. xvii. 26 ; the sea to be as firm ground to Peter, Mat. xiv. 24- 29 ; Christ stilling the tempest of a sudden, Mat. viii. 26 ; the earth- quake at Christ's death, Mat. xxvii. 51 ; the tree suddenly withered, Mat. xxi. 14. When the will of God is so that the creatures shall depart from their own private nature for a common good, we see how readily they obey him.