Attributes of God - Charnock - XLVIII - Chapter 13 (God's dominion) continued

Required reading
Attributes of God by Charnock (Available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Continue Chapter 13 (A discourse upon God's dominion) by reading up to the paragraph commencing 'IV. Wherein this dominion and sovereignty consists, and how it is manifested.'

My summary
Today we continue Charnock's teaching on the dominion of God by reading his third main point, the nature of God's dominion.

Charnock tells us that God's dominion is:
(i) independent;
(ii) absolute;
(iii) not tyrannical, but it is managed by the rules of wisdom, righteousness and goodness;
(iv) extensive over all creatures;
(v) eternal.

What grabbed me
I found helpful the point about how God's goodness is governed by his other attributes: 'Yet this dominion, though it be absolute, is not tyrannical, but it is managed by the rules of wisdom, righteousness, and goodness. If his throne be in the heavens, it is pure and good: because the heavens are the purest parts of the creation, and influence by their goodness the lower earth. Since he is his own rule, and his nature is infinitely wise, holy, and righteous, he cannot do a thing but what is unquestionably agreeable with wisdom, justice, and purity. In all the exercises of his sovereign right, he is never unattended with those perfections of his nature. Might not God, by his absolute power, have pardoned men's guilt, and thrown the invading sin out of his creatures? but in regard of his truth pawned in his threatening, and in regard of his justice, which demanded satisfaction, he would not . Might not God, by his absolute sovereignty, admit a man into his friendship, without giving him any grace? but in regard of the incongruity of such an act to his wisdom and holiness, he will not . May he not, by his absolute power, refuse to accept a man that desires to please him, and reject a purely innocent creature? but in regard of his goodness and righteousness, he will not . Though innocence be amiable in its own nature, yet it is not necessary in regard of God's sovereignty, that he should love it; but in regard of his goodness it is necessary, and he will never do otherwise. As God never acts to the utmost of his power, so he never exerts the utmost of his sovereignty: because it would be inconsistent with those other properties which render him perfectly adorable to the creature. As no intelligent creature, neither angel nor man, can be framed without a law in his nature, so we cannot imagine God without a law in his own nature, unless we would fancy him a rude, tyrannical, foolish being, that hath nothing of holiness, goodness, righteousness, wisdom. If he ' made the heavens in wisdom' (Ps. cxxxvi. 5), he made them by some rule, not by a mere will, but a rule within himself, not without. A wise work is never the result of an absolute unguided will.'

Charnock has a real gift in showing how God's attributes relate to one another, and this is yet another sign of that gift.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 13 (A discourse upon God's dominion) by reading up to the paragraph commencing '3. The dominion of God is manifested as a governor, as well as a lawgiver and proprietor.'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.