Attributes of God - Charnock - L - 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 'V. The use. 1. For instruction.'

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

Last week we saw Charnock's first two subpoints about the manifestations of God's dominion as lawgiver and proprietor.  This week we read points three and four.

The third point is that the dominion of God is manifested as a governor.  God governs:
(i) states and kingdoms;
(ii) the spirits of men;
(iii) the furious passions of men;
(iv) the purposes and device of men;
(v) the judgements of men;
(vi) the calling and stations of men;
(vii) the conversions of men;
(viii) the disposing of the lives of men.

Then, fourthly, the dominion of God is manifest in his being a redeemer.  Particularly in:
(i) requiring satisfaction for the sin of man;
(ii) appointing Christ to this work of redemption;
(iii) transferring our sins upon Christ;
(iv) commanding the things necessary for our salvation;
(v) exalting Christ to such a sovereign dignity as our redeemer.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed the comments about God's dominion in the disposing of men's lives: 'The dominion of God is manifest in disposing of the lives of men. He keeps the key of death, as well as that of the womb, in his own hand; he hath given man a life, but not power to dispose of it, or lay it down at his pleasure: and therefore he hath ordered man not to murder, not another, not himself; man must expect his call and grant, to dispose of the life of his body. Why doth he cut the thread of this man's life, and spin another's out to a longer term? Why doth one die an inglorious death, and another more honourable? One silently drops away in the multitude, while another is made a sacrifice for the honour of God, or the safety of his country. This is a mark of honour he gives to one and not to another. 'To you it is given' (Phil. i. 29). The manner of Peter's death was appointed (John xxi. 19). Why doth a small and slight disease against the rules of physic, and the judgment of the best practitioners, dislodge one man's soul out of his body, while a greater disease is mastered in another, and discharges the patient, to enjoy himself a longer time in the land of the living? Is it the effect of means so much as of the Sovereign Disposer of all things? If means only did it, the same means would away work the same effect, and sooner master a dwarfish than a giant-like distemper. 'Our times are only in God's hands' (Ps. xxxi. 15); either to cut short or continue long. As his sovereignty made the first marriage knot, so he reserves the sole authority to himself to make the divorce.'

So comforting to know that my life is in God's hands.  Not in mine or anyone else's.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 13 (A discourse upon God's dominion) by reading up to the paragraph commencing 'Use 2. How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels against God.'

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