268 THE ABSOLUTE DOMINION with, so God giveth his benefits to us ; or, at the utmost, as you give clothes to your child, which are more yours still . than his, and you may take them away at your pleasure. I confess, when God hath told us that he will not take themaway, he is, as it were obliged, in fidelity, to continue them, but yet doth not, hereby, let go his propriety : and so Christ bids us call no man on earth fa- ther; that is, our absolute lord or ruler, because we have but one such master, who is in heaven; Matt. xxiii. 7-10. So that you see, by this, what propriety is left us,'and what right we have to ourselves and our possessions. Even such, as a steward in his master's goods, or a servant in his tools, or a child in his coat, which is a propriety, improper, subordinate, and secundum quid, and will secure us against the usurpation of another. One ser- vant may not take his fellow's instrument from him, nor one child his brother's coat from him, without the parent's or master's con- sent. They have them for their use, though not the full proprie- ty. It may be called a propriety, in respect to our fellow-ser- vant, though it be not properlyso as we stand in respect to God. We have right enough to confute the leveler, but not to exempt eitherus or ours from the claim and use of our absolute Lord. 4. What is it to glorify God in body and spirit ? I answer, in a word, it is when, upon true believing apprehensions of his right to us, and of our great obligations to him as our, Redeemer, we heartily and unfeignedly devote ourselves to him, and live as 'a people so devoted ; so bending thechief ofour care and studyhow to please him in exact obedience, that the glory of his mercy and holiness, andof his wise and righteous laws, may be seen in our conversations; and'that the holyconformity of our lives to these laws may show that there is like conformity in our minds, and that they are written. in dur hearts ; when the excellency of the Chris- tian religion is so apparent in the excellency of our lives, causing us to do that which no others can imitate, that the lustre of our good works may shine before men, and cause them to glorify our Father in heaven. To conclude: when we still respect God as our only absolute sovereign, and Christ as our Redeemer, and his Spirit as our sanctifier, and his law as our rule ; that the doing of his will, and the denying of our own, is the daily work of our lives, and the promoting ofhis blessed ends is our end; this is the glorifying of God, who bath redeemed us. 5. The last question is, Who they be that are and may be urg- ed to glorify God, on this ground, that he bath bought them? Doubtless only those whom he bath bought ; but who are those ? It discourageth the to tell you, because, among the godly, it is a controversy ; but if they will controvert points of such great mo- ment, they cannot disoblige or excuse us from preaching them.
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