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Sovereignty signifies, in general, supremacy, the possession of supreme power, a right to govern without the control of another; or, as in our text, a power to act as one pleases.

1. This right is here ascribed to God, and can belong to no other in the same sense or degree. He made all things; He supports all things; and is it not fit that He should govern all things? For His pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11); may He, then, not do with them as He pleases? especially when we consider —

(1) He is infinitely wise. He perfectly knows all His creatures, all their actions, and all their tendencies.

(2) He is infinitely good.

2. Observe His sovereignty in —

(1) The creation of the world.

(2) The awful event of man's apostasy.

(3) The method He has been pleased to appoint for the recovery of fallen man.

(4) The application of this great salvation.

(5) His disposal of the temporal affairs of men, whether as individuals or as. nations. As individuals. — Our parentage, the circumstances of our birth, the place, the time, are all arranged by the great Ruler. That sovereign hand is, perhaps, more visible in the affairs of nations; they rise and fall, flourish and decay, and the connection between natural causes and effects may sometimes be plainly discerned; yet that the Ruler of the world directs and controls them is sufficiently evident, for in His hand are both the causes and the effects.

(G. Burder.)

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KJV: But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

WEB: But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.