TO THE

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

WILLIAM

DUKE OF BEDFORD.

May it please your Grace,

In this season of grief that overspreads three kingdoms, I thought it not unbecoming me, to add one voice to the consort of mourners.

The universal goodness of the Queen's life, is attended with a sorrow of equal compass at her death. If we consider the causes of it, our sins, the just incentives of God's high displeasure, and the chain of fearful consequences that may ensue; what heart is such a frozen fountain as not to dissolve, and mix flowing tears with the current that will be permanent in times to come.

I have presumed to inscribe your Most Honourable Name in the following Sermon, knowing that notwithstanding the meanness of the composure, the subject of it will be very pleasing to your grace, as being the expression

of homage to the memory of the incomparable Princess, our Sovereign by a double title, by her resplendent virtues, and by her crown. I am

My Lord,

Your Grace's

very Humble

and Obedient Servant,

WILLIAM BATES.

A

SERMON, &c.

PSALM CII. 26, 27.

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

THIS Psalm was according to the judgment of the best interpreters composed during the captivity in Babylon: and in the former verses the prophet reflects sadly upon the church's afflicted state, and his own misery and mortality: verses 14, 23, 24. he extends his view to the ruinous prospect of the fabric of heaven and earth: they shall decay, and be destroyed, either in their substance, or qualities and use: perish by consuming, or be changed by a purifying fire. From this consideration he turns his thoughts to the immutable constancy and eternity of God, "but thou art the same;" thy compassionate favour and power never decline;" and thy years shall have no end." Upon this ground he raises his hope, that God will revive and restore his church; "the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."

The proposition that I shall discourse of is this,

That the unchangeable everlasting perfections of God are the sure foundation of the church's hope in its desolate state.

In the managing of it, I shall, First, consider the unchangeable perfections of God. Secondly, How they are the foundation of the church's hope.

I. In discoursing of the first head I shall premise, that the most sublime spirits in heaven cannot fully discover and comprehend the intimate and unsearchable perfections of God. "He dwells in that light which is inaccessible," the astonishing glory of his essence. How little then of his nature is known here? In the present state of union with the flesh, we cannot contemplate things purely spiritual without some material resemblances. Human knowledge and language begin by the senses, and in the assent of the mind to the supreme region, we are constrained to make use of the most refined sensible representations of divine things, as rising steps, lest our thoughts, by their own weight, fall into gross matter.

The Holy Spirit in great condescension reveals God to us, in expressions suitable to our capacity and conception; but the understanding must be attentive to correct the imagination, that we may not offend his majesty, and lessen his glory. In the text, the eternity of God is set forth, "his years shall have no end:" and he is styled, "the ancient of days:" which signify the unequal spaces of transient time, and are proper only to created things that have a successive duration, and are metaphorically attributed to God. Eternity that is proper to God, is a duration permanent, indivisible, and wholly present in itself. All the numbers of motion and measures of time are comprehended and lost in the vastness of eternity, as a few drops of rain that fall into the immense ocean. It is said of God, "he is, and was, and is to come." Rev. 1. 4. There is no past or future in God, but with respect to his works. Our Saviour declares, "I am the first, and the last;" wherein he attributes to himself a perfection truly and manifestly divine.

The absolute immutability of the divine nature is by a comparison declared in scripture: God is styled, "The Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of change." Isa. 44. 6. The great luminary of heaven has various aspects, and appearances in its rising and meridian, and setting; is