n arising from them is eternal too. The bond of creation, the
bond of redemption, and the bond of sanctification, these are
distinguished according to the persons of the Trinity, who appear most
eminently in them.

We owe our being to the father, in whom "we live and move and have our
being, for he made us, and not we ourselves, and we are all the works of
his hands." Now, the debt accruing from this is infinite. If men conceive
themselves so much obliged to others for a petty courtesy as to be their
servants,--if they owe more to their parents, the instruments of their
bringing forth into the world, O how infinitely more owe we to God, of
whom we are, and have all! Doth the clay owe so much to the potter, who
doth not make it, but fashion it only? And what owe we to him that made us
of nothing, and fashioned us while we were yet without form! Truly, all
relations, all obligations evanish when this cometh forth, because all
that a man hath is less than himself, than his immortal spirit, and that
he oweth alone to God. And besides, whatsoever debt there is to other
fellow creatures in any thing, God is the principal creditor in that bond.
All the creatures are but the servants of this King, which at his sole
appointment bring along his gifts unto us, and, therefore, we owe no more
to them than to the hands of the messenger that is sent. Now, by this
account nothing is our own, not ourselves, not our members, not our goods,
but all are his, and to be used and bestowed, not at the will and
arbitriment of creatures, but to be absolutely and solely at his disposal
who hath the sole sovereign right to them and, therefore, you may take up
the heinousness of sin, how monstrous and misshapen a thing it is, that
breaks this inviolable law of creation, and withdraws the creature from
subjection to him, in whom alone it can subsist. O how disordered are the
courses and lives of men! Men living to themselves, their own lusts, after
their own will, as if they had made themselves. Men using their members as
weapons of unrighteousness against God, as if their tongues, and hands,
and feet were their own, or the devils, and not God's. Call to mind this
obligation, "remember thy Creator." That memento would be a strong
engagement to another course than most take. How absurd would you think it
to please yourselves in displeasing him, if you but minded the bond of
creation! But when there are other two superadded, what we owe to the Son
for