.... As the ascription of veracity to God arises out of what we observe in ourselves, it bears the impress of anthropomorphism, and has no claim to scientific recognition." ^ He further objects to the ascription of truth to God, in the ordinary sense of that term, because God works uniformly according to law, and therefore, " properly speaking, there can be no such thing as promises or threatenings with Him." ^ The idea is, that as God has established certain physical laws, and if men comply with them they are well, if they violate them, they suffer for it ; so there are laws which determine the well-being of rational creatures : if we observe those laws, we are happy ; if we disregard them, we are miserable. God has nothing to do with it, except as He established those laws and carries them out. The philosophical idea, therefore, of the truth of God, is the immutability of law, physical and moral. This view is still more definitely presented by Schweizer.^ God from the beginning to the end of the world is one and the same causality ; this, in reference to the moral world, is his truth, veracitas, fidel- itas, in so far as the later revelations, or manifestations of this cau- sality, correspond to what the earlier manifestations would lead us to expect. God, according to this view, is not so much a person, as a name for the moral order of the universe. There is, of course, some truth in this mode of representation. The laws of God, by which He governs his creatures, rational and irrational, are uni- form. It is true that a man reaps what he sows ; that he receives here and hereafter the natural consequences of his conduct. If he sows to the flesh, he reaps corruption ; if he sows to the spirit, he reaps life everlasting. But these laws are administered by a personal God, who, as He controls physical laws so as to produce plenty or famine, health or pestilence, as to Him seems fit, so also He controls all the laws which determine the well-being of the souls of men, so as to accomplish his designs and to secure the fulfilment of his promises and threatenings. The laws of a well- ordered human government are uniform and impartial, but that is not inconsistent with their human administration.
It is a great mercy that, at least in some cases, those whose philosophy forbids their believing in the personality of God, believe in the personality of Christ, whom they regard as a man invested with all the attributes of the Godhead, and whom they love and worship accordingly.
1 FAgenschaften, p. 250. a iWrf. p. 2!>2.
8 Glaubtnslehre, vol. i. p. 443.
440 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. V. — Divine Atteibuteb.
§ 15. Sovereignty.
Sovereignty is not a property of tlie divine nature, but a prerog- ative arising out of the perfections of the Supreme Being. If God be a Spirit, and therefore a person, infinite, eternal, and immuta- ble in his being and perfections, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, He is of right its absolute sovereign. Infinite wisdom-, goodness, and power, with the right of possession, which belongs to God in all his creatures, are the immutable foundation of his do- minion. " Our God is in the heavens ; He hath done whatsoever He pleased." (Ps. cxv. 3.) " All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing : and He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth : and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? " (Dan. iv. 35.) " All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine." (1 Chron. xxix. 11.) " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Ps. xxiv. 1.) " Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all." (1 Chi-on. xxix. 11.) " Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." (Ez. xviii. 4.) "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou ? or thy work. He hath no hands ? " (Is. xlv. 9.) " Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? " (Matt. xx. 15.) He " worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." (Eph. i. 11.) " Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things : to whom be glory forever. Amen." (Rom. xi. 36.)
From these* and similar passages of Scriptures it is plain, (1.) That the sovereignty of God is universal. It extends over all his creatures from the highest to the lowest. (2.) That it is absolute. There is no limit to be placed to his authority. He doeth his pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. (3.) It is immutable. It can neither be ignored nor rejected. It binds all creatures, as inexorably as physical laws bind the material universe.
This sovereignty is exercised, (1.) In establishing the laws, physical and moral, by which all creatures are to be governed. (2.) In determining the nature and powers of the different orders of created beings, and in assigning each its appropriate sphere. (3.) In appointing to each individual his position and lot. It is the Lord who fixes the bounds of our habitation. Our times are