Attributes of God - Charnock - XLIX - 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 '3. The dominion of God is manifested as a governor, as well as a lawgiver and proprietor.'

My summary
Today we continue Charnock's teaching on the dominion of God by beginning his fourth main point, the manifestation of God's dominion.

Firstly we learn that God's dominion is manifested in his making laws, particularly in their:
(i) supremacy;
(ii) extent;
(iii) reason;
(iv) publication;
(v) obligation.

Secondly we see that God's dominion is manifested by God as proprietor and lord of his creatures and his own goods.  This is evident in:
(i) the choice of some persons from eternity;
(ii) bestowing grace where he pleases;
(iii) disposing the means of grace to some and not to all;
(iv) the various influences of the means of grace;
(v) giving a greater measure of knowledge to some than to others;
(vi) the calling some to a more special service in their generation;
(vii) the bestowing much wealth and honour upon some, and not vouchsafing it to the more industrious labours and attempts of others;
(viii) the times and seasons of dispensing his goods.

What grabbed me
The second point today was most humbling.

Particularly statements like this one: 'Why, in the times of our reformation, he should choose a Luther out of a monastery, and leave others in their superstitious nastiness, to perish in the traditions of their fathers? Why set up Calvin, as a bulwark of the gospel, and let others as learned as himself wallow in the sink of popery? It is his pleasure to do so. The potter hath power to separate this part of the clay to form a vessel for a more public use, and another part of the clay to form a vessel for a more private one. God takes the meanest clay to form the most excellent and honourable vessels in his house. As he formed man, that was to govern the creatures of the same clay and earth whereof the beasts were formed, and not of that nobler element of water, which gave birth to the fish and birds: so he forms some, that are to do him the greatest service, of the meanest materials, to manifest the absolute right of his dominion.'

We are completely dependent upon God's sovereignty in every aspect of our lives.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 13 (A discourse upon God's dominion) by reading up to the paragraph commencing 'V. The use. 1. For instruction.'

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