Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.—Matthew
vi., 10.
In this passage we are instructed to pray
that the world may be governed, and
not abandoned to the miseries of unrestrained
sin; that God Himself would govern,
and not another; and that God would administer
the government of the world, in all
respects, according to His own pleasure. The
passage is a formal surrender to God of power
and dominion over the earth, as entire as His
dominion is in His heaven. The petition,
therefore, "Thy will be done," contains the
doctrine:
That it is greatly to be desired that God
should govern the world, and dispose of men,
in all respects, entirely according to His own
pleasure.
The truth of this doctrine is so manifest,
that it would seem to rank itself in the number
of self-evident propositions, incapable of
proof clearer than its own light, had not experience
taught that, of all truths, it is the
most universally and bitterly controverted.
Plain as it is, it has occasioned more argument
than any other doctrine, and, by argument
merely, has gained fewer proselytes;
for it is one of those controversies in which
the heart decides wholly, and argument,
strong or feeble, is alike ineffectual.
This consideration would present, on the
threshold, a hopeless impediment to further
progress, did we not know, also, that arguments
a thousand times repeated, and as often
resisted, may at length become mighty
through God, to the casting down of imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God. I shall,
therefore, suggest several considerations, to
confirm this most obvious truth, that it is desirable
that God should govern the world entirely
according to His own good pleasure.
1. It is desirable that God should govern
the world, and dispose of all events, according
to His pleasure, because He knows perfectly
in what manner it is best that the world
should be governed.
The best way of disposing of men and their
concerns is that which will effectually illustrate
the glory of God. The glory of God is His
benevolence, and His natural attributes for
the manifestation of it, and sun of the moral
universe, the light and life of His kingdom.
All the blessedness of the intelligent creation
arises, and ever will arise, from the manifestation
and apprehension of the glory of God.
It was to manifest this glory that the worlds
were created. It was that there might be
creatures to behold and enjoy God, that His
dominions were peopled with intelligent
beings. And it is that His holy subjects may
see and enjoy Him, that He upholds and governs
the universe. The entire importance of
our world, therefore, and of men and their
concerns, is relative, and is great or small only
as we are made to illustrate the glory of God.
How this important end shall be most effectually
accomplished none but Himself is able to
determine. He, only, knows how so to order
things as that the existence of every being,
and every event, shall answer the purpose of
its creation, and from the rolling of a world
to the fall of a sparrow shall conspire to increase
the exhibitions of the divine character,
and expand the joy of the holy universe.
An inferior intelligence at the helm of government
might conceive very desirable purposes
of benevolence, and still be at a loss as
to the means most fit and effectual to accomplish
them. But, with God, there is no such
deficiency. In Him, the knowledge which discovered
the end discovers also, with unerring
wisdom, the most appropriate means to bring
it to pass. He is wise in heart; He hath established
the world by His wisdom and
stretched out the heavens by His discretion.
And is He not wise enough to be intrusted
with the government of the world? Who,
then, shall be His counsellor? Who shall supply
the deficiencies of His skill? Oh, the presumption
of vain man! and, oh! the depths
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
2. It is desirable that God should govern
the world according to His own pleasure, because
He is entirely able to execute His purposes.
A wise politician perceives, often, both the
end and the means; and is still unable to
bring to pass his counsels, because the means,
though wise, are beyond his control. But God
is as able to execute as He is to plan. Having
chosen the end, and selected the means, his
counsels stand. He is the Lord God omnipotent.
The whole universe is a storehouse of
means; and when He speaks every intelligence
and every atom flies to execute His
pleasure. The omnipotence of God, in giving
efficacy to His government, inspires and perpetuates
the ecstasy of heaven. "And a voice
came out from the throne, saying, Praise our
God. And I heard as it were the voice of a
great multitude, and as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of many thunderings,
saying Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth." What will that man do in heaven,
who is afraid and reluctant to commit to God
the government of the earth? And what will
become of those who, unable to frustrate His
counsels, murmur and rebel against His providence?
3. It is desirable that God should govern
the world according to His pleasure, because
the pleasure of God is always good.
The angels who kept not their first estate,
and many wicked men, have great knowledge,
and skill, and power: and yet, on these accounts,
are only the more terrible; because
they employ these mighty faculties to do evil.
And the government of God, were He a being
of malevolence, armed as He is with skill and
power, would justly fill the universe with dismay.
But, as it is, brethren, "let not your
hearts be troubled." With God there is no
perversion of attributes. He is as good as He
is wise and powerful. God is love! Love is
that glory of God which He has undertaken to
express to His intelligent creation in His
works. The sole object of the government of
God, from beginning to end, is, to express His
benevolence. His eternal decrees, of which so
many are afraid, are nothing but the plan
which God has devised to express His benevolence,
and to make His kingdom as vast and
as blest as His own infinite goodness desires.
It was to show His glory—to express, in action,
His benevolence—that He created all the
worlds that roll, and rejoice, and speak His
name, through the regions of space. It is to
accomplish the same blest design, that He upholds,
and places under law, every intelligent
being, and directs every event, causing every
movement, in every world, to fall in, in its
appointed time and place, and to unite in
promoting the grand result—the glory of God,
and the highest good of His kingdom. And is
there a mortal, who, from this great system
of blest government, would wish this earth
to be an exception? What sort of beings must
those be who are afraid of a government administered
by infinite benevolence, to express,
so far as it can be expressed, the infinite
goodness of God? I repeat the question,—What
kind of characters must those be who
feel as if they had good reason to fear a government
the sole object of which is to express
the immeasurable goodness of God?
4. It is greatly to be desired that God
should govern the world according to His
pleasure, because it is His pleasure to rule as
a moral governor.
A moral government is a government exercised
over free agents, accountable beings; a
government of laws, administered by motives.
The importance of such a government below
is manifest from the consideration, that it
is in His moral government, chiefly, that the
glory of God is displayed.
The superintendence of an empty world, or
a world of mere animals, would not exhibit,
at all, the moral character of God. The glory
of God, shining in His law, could never be
made manifest, and the brighter glory of God,
as displayed in the gospel, must remain forever
hid; and all that happiness of which we
are capable, as moral beings, the joys of religion
below, and the boundless joys of heaven
above, would be extinguished, in a moment,
by the suspension of the divine moral government.
Will any pretend that the Almighty cannot
maintain a moral government on earth, if
He governs according to His own pleasure?
Can He wield the elements, and control, at His
pleasure, every work of His hands, but just
the mind of man? Is the most noble work
of God—that which is the most worthy of
attention, and in reference to which all beside
is upheld and governed—itself wholly
unmanageable? Has Omnipotence formed
minds, which, the moment they are made, escape
from His hands, and defy the control of
their Maker? Has the Almighty erected a
moral kingdom which He cannot govern without
destroying its moral nature? Can He only
watch, and mend, and rectify, the lawless
wanderings of mind? Has He filled the earth
with untamed and untamable spirits, whose
wickedness and rebellion He can merely mitigate,
but cannot control? Does He superintend
a world of madmen, full of darkness and
disorder, cheered and blest by no internal
pervading government of His own? Are we
bound to submit to all events, as parts of the
holy providence of God; and yet, is there
actually no hand of God controlling the movements
of the moral world? But if the Almighty
can, and if he does, govern the earth
as a part of His moral kingdom, is there any
method of government more safe and wise
than that which pleases God? Can there be
a better government? We may safely pray,
then, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven," without fearing at all the loss of
moral agency; for all the glory of God, in His
Law and Gospel, and all the eternal manifestations
of glory to principalities and powers
in heavenly places, depend wholly upon the
fact, that men, though living under the government
of God, and controlled according to
His pleasure, are still entirely free, and accountable
for all the deeds done in the body.
There could be no justice in punishment and
no condescension, no wisdom, no mercy, in
the glorious gospel, did not the government
of God, though administered according to His
pleasure, include and insure the accountable
agency of man.
Seeing, therefore, that all the glory of God,
which He ever proposes to manifest to the
intelligent creation, is to be made known by
the Church, and is to shine in the face of Jesus
Christ, and is to depend upon the perfect consistency
of the moral government of God with
human freedom, we have boundless assurance
that, among His absolute, immutable, eternal
purposes, one, and a leading one, is, so to govern
the world according to His counsels, that,
if men sin, there shall be complete desert of
punishment, and boundless mercy in their
redemption.
5. It is greatly to be desired that God
should rule in the earth according to His
pleasure, because it is His pleasure to govern
the world in mercy, by Jesus Christ.
The government is in the hand of a Mediator,
by whom God is reconciling the world to
Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them
that believe. Mercy is the bestowment of pardon
upon the sinful and undeserving. Now,
mankind are so eminently sinful, that no government
but one administered in infinite
mercy, could afford the least consolation.
Had any being but the God of mercy sat upon
the throne, or any will but His will prevailed,
there would have been no plan of redemption,
and no purposes of election, to perplex and
alarm the wicked. There would have been but
one decree, and that would have been, destruction
to the whole race of man. Are any reluctant
to be entirely in the hands of God? Are
they afraid to trust Him to dispose of soul and
body, for time and eternity? Let them surrender
their mercies, then, and go out naked
from that government which feeds, protects
and comforts them. Let them give up their
Bibles, and relinquish the means of grace, and
the hopes of glory, and descend and make
their bed in hell, where they have long since
deserved to be, and where they long since
would have been, if God had not governed
the world according to His own good pleasure.
If they would escape the evils which they fear
from the hand of God, let them abandon the
blessings they receive from it, and they will
soon discover whether the absolute dominion
of God, and their dependence upon Him, be,
in reality, a ground of murmuring and alarm.
Our only hope of heaven arises from being
entirely in the hands of God. Our destruction
could not be made more certain than it
would be were we to be given up to our own
disposal, or to the disposal of any being but
God. Would sinful mortals change their own
hearts? Could the combined universe, without
God, change the depraved affections of
men? Surely, then, we have cause for unceasing
joy, that we are in the hands of God;
seeing He is a God of mercy, and has decreed
to rule in mercy, and actually is administering
the government of the world in mercy, by
Jesus Christ.
We have nothing to fear, from the entire
dominion of God, which we should not have
cause equally to fear, as outcasts from the
divine government; but we have everything
to hope, while He rules the earth according to
His most merciful pleasure. The Lord reigneth;
let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of
the isles be glad. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because His compassions
fail not.
6. It is greatly to be desired that God
should dispose of mankind according to His
pleasure, because, if He does so, it is certain
that there will be no injustice done to anyone.
He will do no injustice to His holy kingdom
by any whom He saves. He will bring none
to heaven who are not holy, and prepared for
heaven. He will bring none there in any way
not consistent with His perfections, and the
best good of His kingdom; none in any way
but that prescribed in the gospel, the way of
faith in Jesus Christ, of repentance for sin,
and of good works as the constituted fruit and
evidence of faith.
Earthly monarchs have their favorites,
whom, if guilty of a violation of the laws, they
will often interpose to save, although the welfare
of the kingdom requires their punishment.
But God has no such favorites—He is
no respecter of persons: He spared not the
angels: and upon the earth distinctions of
intellect, or wealth, or honor, will have no
effect; he only that believeth shall be saved.
The great and the learned shall not be obtruded
upon heaven without holiness because
they are great or learned; and the humble and
contrite shall not be excluded because they are
poor, or ignorant, or obscure. God has provided
a way for all men to return to Him. He
has opened the door of their prison, and set
open before them a door of admission into the
kingdom of His dear Son; and commanded
and entreated them to abandon their dreary
abode, and come into the glorious liberty of the
sons of God. But all, with one consent, refuse
to comply. Each prefers his own loathsome
dwelling to the building of God, and chooses,
stedfastly, the darkness of his own dungeon,
to the light of God's kingdom. But, as God
has determined that the redemption of His
Son shall not be unavailing through human
obstinacy, so He hath chosen, in Christ, multitudes
which no man can number, that they
should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. And in bringing these sons and
daughters to glory, through sanctification of
the Spirit, and belief of the truth, He will introduce
not one whom all the inhabitants of
heaven will not hail joyfully, as the companion
of their glory. And if God does in
the earth just as He pleases, He will make
willing, and obedient, and bring to heaven,
just those persons who it was most desirable
should come. And He will bring just as many
obstinate rebels to abandon their prison, and
enter cheerfully His kingdom, as infinite wisdom,
goodness, and mercy, see fit and desire.
He will not mar His glory, or the happiness
of His kingdom, by bringing in too many, nor
by omitting to bring in enough. His redeemed
kingdom, as to the number and the
persons who compose it, and the happiness
included in it, will be such as shall be wholly
satisfactory to God, and to every subject of
His kingdom.
And if God governs according to His pleasure,
He will do no injustice to His impenitent
enemies. He will send to misery no harmless
animals without souls—no mere machines—none
who have done, or even attempted to do,
as well as they could. He will leave to walk
in their own way none who do not deserve
to be left; and punish none for walking in it
who did not walk therein knowingly, deliberately
and with wilful obstinacy. He will give
up to death none who did not choose death,
and choose it with as entire freedom as Himself
chooses holiness; and who did not deserve
eternal punishment as truly as Himself deserves
eternal praise. He will send to hell
none who are not opposed to Him, and to
holiness, and to heaven; none who are not,
by voluntary sin and rebellion, unfitted for
heaven, and fitted for destruction, as eminently
as saints are prepared for glory. He
will consign to perdition no poor, feeble, inoffensive
beings, sacrificing one innocent
creature to increase the happiness of another.
He will cause the punishment of the wicked
to illustrate His glory, and thus indirectly to
promote the happiness of heaven. But God
will not illumine heaven with His glory, and
fill it with praise, by sacrificing helpless, unoffending
creatures to eternal torment; nor
will He doom to hell one whom He will not
convince also, that he deserves to go thither.
The justice of God, in the condemnation of
the impenitent, will be as unquestionable, as
His infinite mercy will be in the salvation of
the redeemed.
If the will of God is done on earth, among
men, there will be no more injustice done to
the inhabitants of the earth than there is done
to the blessed in heaven. Was it ever known—did
any ever complain—was it ever conceived—that
God was a tyrant, in heaven?
Why, then, should we question the justice of
His government on earth? Is He not the same
God below as above? Are not all His attributes
equally employed? Does He not govern
for the same end, and will not His government
below conspire to promote the same joyful end
as His government above?
7. It is greatly to be desired that God
should govern the world according to His
pleasure, because His own infinite blessedness,
as well as the happiness of His kingdom, depends
upon His working all things according
to the counsel of His own will.
Could the Almighty be prevented from expressing
the benevolence of His nature, according
to His purposes, His present boundless
blessedness would become the pain of ungratified
desire. God is love, and His happiness
consists in the exercise and expression of it,
according to His own eternal purpose, which
He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world
began. It is therefore declared, "The Lord
hath made all things for himself;" that is,
to express and gratify His infinite benevolence.
The moral excellence of God does not
consist in quiescent love, but in love active,
bursting forth, and abounding. Nor does the
divine happiness arise from the contemplation
of idle perfections, but from perfections
which comprehend boundless capacity, and
activity in doing good.
From what has been said, we may be led to
contemplate with satisfaction the infinite
blessedness of God.
God is love! This is a disposition which,
beyond all others, is happy in its own nature.
He is perfect in love; there is, therefore, in
His happiness no alloy. His love is infinite;
and, of course, His blessedness is unbounded.
If the little holiness existing in good men,
though balanced by remaining sin, occasions,
at times, unutterable joy, how blessed must
God be, who is perfectly and infinitely holy!
It is to be remembered, also, that the benevolence
of God is at all times perfectly gratified.
The universe which God has created and
upholds, including what He has done, and what
He will yet do, will be brought into a condition
which will satisfy His infinite benevolence.
The great plan of government which God has
chosen, and which His power and wisdom will
execute, will embrace as much good as in the
nature of things is possible. He is not, like
erring man, straitened and perplexed, through
lack of knowledge or power. There is in His
plan no defect, and in His execution no failure.
God, therefore, is infinitely happy in His
holiness, and in the expression of it which it
pleases Him to make.
The revolt of angels, the fall of man, and
the miseries of sin, do not, for a moment, interrupt
the blessedness of God. They were
not, to Him, unexpected events, starting up
suddenly while the watchman of Israel slumbered.
They were foreseen by God as clearly
as any other events of His government, and
have occasioned neither perplexity nor dismay.
With infinite complacency He beholds
still His unshaken counsels, and with almighty
hand rolls on His undisturbed decrees. Surrounded
by unnumbered millions, created by
His hand, and upheld by His power, He shines
forth, God over all, blest for ever. What an
object of joyful contemplation, then, is the
blessedness of God! It is infinite; His boundless
capacity is full. It is eternal; He is God
blest forever. The happiness of the created
universe is but a drop—a drop to the mighty
ocean of divine enjoyment. How delightful
the thought, that in God there is such an immensity
of joy, beyond the reach of vicissitude!
When we look around below, a melancholy
sensation pervades the mind. What
miserable creatures! What a wretched
world! But when, from this scene of darkness
and misery, we look up to the throne of God,
and behold Him, high above the darkness and
miseries of sin, dwelling in light inaccessible
and full of glory, the prospect brightens. If
a few rebels, who refuse to love and participate
in His munificence, are groping in darkness
on His footstool, God is light, and in Him
there is no darkness at all.
Those who are opposed to the decrees of
God, and to His sovereignty, as displayed
in the salvation of sinners, are enemies of
God.
They are unwilling that His will should be
done in earth as it is in heaven; for the decrees
of God are nothing but His choice as to
the manner in which He will govern His own
kingdom. He did not enter upon His government
to learn wisdom by experience. Before
they were yet formed, His vast dominion lay
open to His view; and before He took the reins
of created empire, He saw in what manner it
became Him to govern. His ways are everlasting.
Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. To be opposed to the
decrees of God, therefore, is to be unwilling
that God should have any choice concerning
the government of the world. And can those
be willing that God should govern the world
entirely according to His pleasure who object
to His having any pleasure upon the subject?
To object to the choice of God, with respect
to the management of the world, because it is
eternal, is to object to the existence of God.
A God of eternal knowledge, without an eternal
will or choice, would be a God without
moral character.
To suppose that God did not know what
events would exist in His kingdom, is to divest
Him of omniscience. To suppose that He did
know, and did not care,—had no choice, no
purpose,—is to blot out His benevolence, to
nullify His wisdom and convert His power
into infinite indolence. To suppose that He did
know, and choose, and decree, and that events
do not accord with His purposes, is to suppose
that God has made a world which He can not
govern; has undertaken a work too vast; has
begun to build, but is not able to finish. But
to suppose that God did, from the beginning,
behold all things open and naked before Him,
and that He did choose, with unerring wisdom
and infinite goodness, how to govern His empire,—and
yet at the same time, to employ
heart, and head, and tongue, in continual
opposition to this great and blessed truth,—is,
most clearly, to cherish enmity to God and
His government.
To object to the choice of God because it is
immutable, is to cavil against that which constitutes
its consummating excellence. Caprice
is a most alarming feature in a bad government;
but in a government absolutely perfect,
none, surely, can object to its immutability,
but those, who, if able, would alter it for the
worse.
To say that, if God always knew how to govern
so as to display His glory, and bless His
kingdom, and always chooses thus to govern,
there can be, therefore, no accountable agency
in the conduct of His creatures, is to deny the
possibility of a moral government, to contradict
the express testimony of God; and this,
too, at the expense of common sense, and the
actual experience of every subject of His
moral government on earth.
From the character of God, and the nature
of His government, as explained in this discourse,
may be inferred, the nature and necessity
of unconditional submission to God.
Unconditional submission is an entire surrender
of the soul to God, to be disposed of
according to His pleasure,—occasioned by
confidence in His character as God.
There are many who would trust the Almighty
to regulate the rolling of worlds, and
to rule in the armies of heaven, just as He
pleases; and devils they would consign to His
disposal, without the least hesitation; and
their own nation, if they were sure that God
would dispose of it according to their pleasure;
even their own temporal concerns they
would risk in the hands of God, could they
know that all things would work together for
their good; their souls, also, they would cheerfully
trust to His disposal, for the world to
come, if God would stipulate, at all events, to
make them happy.
And to what does all this amount? Truly,
that they care much about their own happiness,
and their own will, but nothing at all
about the will of God, and the welfare of His
kingdom. He may decree, and execute His
decrees, in heaven, and may turn its inhabitants
into machines, or uphold their freedom,
as He pleases; and apostate spirits are relinquished
to their doom, whether just or unjust.
It is only when the government of God descends
to particulars, and draws near and enters
their own selfish enclosures, and claims a
right to dispose of them, and extends its influence
to the unseen world, that selfishness
and fear take the alarm. Has God determined
how to dispose of my soul? Ah! that alters
the case. If He can, consistently with freedom,
govern angels, and devils, and nations,
how can He govern individuals? How can He
dispose of me according to His eternal purpose
and I be free? Here reason, all-penetrating,
and all-comprehensive, becomes weak; the
clouds begin to collect, and the understanding,
veiled by the darkness of the heart, can "find
no end, in wandering mazes lost."
But if God has purposes of mercy in reserve
for the sinner, he is convinced, at length, of
his sin, and finds himself in an evil case. He
reforms, prays, weeps, resolves, and re-resolves,
regardless of the righteousness of
Christ, and intent only to establish a righteousness
of his own. But, through all his
windings, sin cleaves to him, and the law, with
its fearful curse, pursues him. Whither shall
he flee? What shall he do? A rebel heart,
that will not bow, fills him with despair. An
angry God, who will not clear the guilty, fills
him with terror. His strength is gone, his
resources fail, his mouth is stopped. With
restless anxiety, or wild amazement, he surveys
the gloomy prospect. At length, amidst
the wanderings of despair, the character of
God meets his eye. It is new, it is amiable,
and full of glory. Forgetful of danger, he
turns aside to behold this great sight; and
while he gazes, new affections awake in his
soul, inspiring new confidence in God, and in
His holy government. Now God appears
qualified to govern, and now he is willing that
He should govern, and willing himself to be in
the hands of God, to be disposed of according
to His pleasure. What is the occasion of this
change? Has the divine character changed?
There is no variableness with God. Did he,
then, misapprehend the divine character?
Was all this glory visible before? Or has a
revelation of new truth been granted? There
has been no new revelation. The character
now admitted is the same which just before
appeared so gloomy and terrible. What, then,
has produced this alteration? Has a vision of
angels appeared, to announce that God is reconciled?
Has some sudden light burst upon
him, in token of forgiveness? Has Christ
been seen upon the cross, beckoning the sinner
to come to Him? Has heaven been thrown
open to his admiring eyes? Have enrapturing
sounds of music stolen upon the ear, to entrance
the soul? Has some text of Scripture
been sent to whisper that his sins are forgiven,
tho no repentance, nor faith, nor love, has
dawned in his soul? And does he now submit,
because God has given him assurance of
personal safety? None of these. Considerations
of personal safety are, at the time, out
of the question. It is the uncreated, essential
excellence of God, shining in upon the heart,
which claims the attention, fixes the adoring
eye, and fills the soul with love, and peace,
and joy; and the act of submission is past,
before the subject begins to reflect upon his
altered views, with dawning hope of personal
redemption.
The change produced, then, is the effect of
benevolence, raising the affections of the soul
from the world, and resting them upon God.
Holiness is now most ardently loved. This is
seen to dwell in God and His kingdom, and to
be upheld and perfected by His moral government.
It is the treasure of the soul, and all
the attributes of God stand pledged to protect
it. The solicitude, therefore, is not
merely, What will become of me? but, What,
O Lord, will become of Thy glory, and the
glory of Thy kingdom? And in the character
of God, these inquiries are satisfactorily answered.
If God be glorified, and His kingdom
upheld and made happy, the soul is satisfied.
There is nothing else to be anxious about;
for individual happiness is included in the
general good, as the drop is included in the
ocean.
