sting in its tail, and this sting can never be plucked out. Shall I venture eternal wrath? Is sin committed so sweet, as lying in hell for ever is bitter? This would make us flee from sin, as seem as nothing in his eye. What is the glory of this world? How poor and contemptible, compared with an eternal weight of glory. -3. To conclude: The serious thoughts of an eternal state, Moses from the serpent.-2 The either of happiness or misery, serious thoughts of eternal happi- should have a powerful influence ness would very much take us off upon whatsoever we take in these worldly things; we should hand; every work we do, pronot esteem much of them. What motes either a blessed or cursed are these sublunary things to eternity; every good action sets eternity ? They are quickly us a step nearer to an eternity of gone; they salute us, and take happiness; every bad action sets their farewell. But I am to enter us a step nearer to an eternity of upon an everlasting estate;-I misery. O what influence would hope to live with him who is the thoughts of eternity have eternal, what is the world to upon our religious duties! It me? They who stand upon the would make us do them with all top of the Alps, the great cities our might: a duty well performof Campania seem small things ed lifts a Christian higher toin their eyes; so he who hath his wards heaven, and sets a Christhoughts fixed on his eternal tian a step nearer to a blessed state after this life, all these things eternity. GOD'S UNCHANGEABLENESS. THE next attribute is God's did king Nebuchadnezzar. The unchangeableness: Mal. iii. 6., "I am Jehovah, I change not." 1. God is unchangeable in his nature. 2. In his decree. crown hath many successors.-2. Kingdoms have their eclipses and convulsions: What is become of the glory of Athens? The pomp of Troy? Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit! Kingdoms, though they have a head of gold, yet feet of clay.-3. The heavens 1. No eclipse of his brightness: change, Ps. cii. 26., "As a veshis essence shines with a fixed ture shalt thou change them, and lustre, James i. 27., "With they shall be changed." The whom is no variableness, neither matter of the elements, as it is shadow of turning;" Ps. cii. 27., more pure, so more firm and "Thou art the same." All cre- solid; the heavens are the most ated things are full of vicissi- ancient records, where God hath tudes: 1. Princes and emperors written his glory with a sunbeam, are subject to mutation. Sesos- yet these shall change; though I tris, an Egyptian prince, having do not think they shall be desubdued divers kings in war, stroyed as to their substance, yet made them draw like horses in they shall be changed as to their his chariot, as if he intended to qualities; they shall melt with turn them to eat grass, as God fervent heat, 2 Pet. iii. 12., and I. Unchangeable in his nature: 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No period put to his being. so be more refined and purified. Ans. If indeed the divine naThus the heavens shall be chang- ture had been converted into the ed, but not he who dwells in human, or the human into the heaven. "With him there is no divine,-here had been a change, variableness, nor shadow of but not so. The human nature turning."-4. The best saints was distinct from the divine, have their eclipses and changes. therefore there was no change. Look upon a Christian in his As suppose a cloud over the sun, spiritual estate, and he is full of this makes no change in the body variation. Though the seed of of the sun; so, though the divine grace doth not die, yet the beauty nature be covered with the huand activity of it doth often wi- man, this makes no change in the ther. A Christian hath his an- divine nature. guish fits in religion; sometimes II. There is no period put to his faith is at an high tide, some- his being: 1 Tim. vi. 16., "Who times low ebb; sometimes his only hath immortality." The love flames, and at another time Godhead cannot die: 1. An inlike fire in the embers, and he finite essence cannot be changed hath lost his first love. How into finite; but God is infinite. strong was David's grace at one 2. He is eternal, ergo he is not time, 2 Sam. xxii. 3., "The God mortal; to be eternal, and morof my rock, in him will I trust!" tal, is a contradiction. And at another time, " I shall Use 1st. See here the excellency one day perish by the hand of of the divine nature in its immuSaul." What Christian can say tability: this is the glory of the he doth not find a change in his Godhead. Mutableness denotes graces; that the bow of his faith weakness; it is not so in God, he doth never unbend, the strings is "the same yesterday, and toof his viol do never slacken? Sure we shall never meet with such Christians till we meet with them in heaven! But God is without any shadow of turning. 5. The angels were subject to 1. They are changeable in their change; they were created holy, principles,--sometimes protestant, but mutable, Jude 6., "The an- sometimes papist; if their faces gels which kept not their first altered as fast as their opinions, estate." These morning-stars of we should not know them. heaven were falling stars. But 2. Changeable in their resoluGod's glory shines with a fixed tions; as the wind that blows in brightness. In God there is no- the east, presently turns about to thing looks like a change, no the west. They resolve to be better or worse; no better in virtuous, but quickly repent of him, because then he were not their resolutions; their minds are perfect; no worse in him, for like a sick man's pulse, alter then he should cease to be perfect. every half-hour; these the apostle He is immutably holy, immutably compares to 'waves of the sea, good, there is no shadow of change and wandering stars,' Jude 13.; in him. they are not pillars in God's temple, but reeds. day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. Men are fickle and mutable, like Reuben, "unstable as water,' Gen. Ixix. 4. They go in changeable colours. OBJ.-Christ, who is God, assumed the human nature, here was a change. 3. Others are changeable in their friendship,-quickly love, and quickly hate; sometimes will put you in their bosom, then excommunicate you out of their favour; thus they change as the cameleon into several colours. But God is immutable. The flowers in the garden die, but a man's portion remains; so outward things die and change, but, Ps. lxxiii. 26., "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."-2. In case of sadness of spirit, when God seems to cast off the soul in desertion, Cant. v. 6., "My Beloved had withdrawn himself;" yet God is Jer. xxxi. 3., " I have loved thee with an everlasting love," in Hebrew, gnolam, a love of eternity.' If once God's electing love riseth upon the soul, it never sets: Use 2d. See the vanity of the creature; there are changes in every thing but in God; Ps. lxii. 9., "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are unchangeable. He is immutable a lie." We look for more from in his love; he may change his the creature than God hath put countenance, but not his heart, into it. The world brings changes; the creature hath two evils in it, -it promiseth more than we find, and it fails us when we most need it; there is a failure in omni. A man desires to have his corn Isa, liv. 10., "The mountains grinded, the water fails, and then shall be removed, but my lovinghis mill cannot go; the mariner kindness shall not depart from is for a voyage, the wind either doth not blow, or it is contrary, and he cannot sail; one depends upon another for the payment of a promise, and he fails, and is like a foot out of joint. Who would look for a fixed stability in the vain creature! As if one should build houses on the sand, where the sea comes in and overflows. The creature is true to nothing but deceit, and is constant only in its disappointments. It is no more wonder to see changes fall out here below, than to see the moon dressing itself in a new shape and figure; look to meet with changes in every thing but God. thee, neither the covenant of my peace be removed." God's love stands faster than the mountains: God's love to Christ is unchangeable, and he will no more cease loving believers, than he will cease loving Christ. Get Use 4th. Of exhortation. an interest in this unchangeable God, then thou art as a rock in the sea, immoveable in the midst of all changes. QUEST. How shall I get a part in this unchangeable God ? Ans. By having a change wrought in thee: 1 Cor. vi. 11., "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified." Whence we are changed, a tenebris ad lucem, so Use 3d. Comfort to the godly: changed, as if another soul did 1. In case of losses; if an estate live in the same body; by this be almost boiled away to nothing, change we are interested in the -if you lose dear friends by unchangeable God. -Trust to this death,-here is a double eclipse; God only, who is unchangeable. but this is the comfort, God is Isa. ii. 22., "Cease ye from men;" unchangeable; I may lose these leave trusting to the reed, but things, but I cannot lose my God, trust to the Rock of ages.' He he never dies. When the fig-tree, that is by faith engarrisoned in and olive-tree failed, yet God did God, is safe in all changes; he is not fail, Hab. iii. 18., "I will like a boat that is tied to an imjoy in the God of my salvation." moveable rock. He that trusts in to be a repent? There seems God, trusts in that which cannot fail him; he is unchangeable, Heb. xiii. 5., " "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Health he said he would do unto them." may leave us,-riches, friends Ans. Repentance is attributed may leave us, but, saith God, to God figuratively and impro'I'll not leave thee; my power perly: Num. xxiii. 19., He is not shall support thee; my Spirit a man that he should repent." shall sanctify thee; my mercy There may be a change in God's shall save thee: I will never leave work, but not in his will; God thee. O trust in this unchange- may will a change, but not change able God! God is jealous of two his will; "God may change his things, of our love, and of our sentence, but not his decree." trust: He is jealous of our love, As suppose a king should cause a lest we love the creature more sentence to be passed upon a mathan him, therefore he makes it lefactor whom he intends to save : prove bitter; and of our trust, notwithstanding this sentence, the lest we should place more confidence in it than in him, therefore he makes it prove unfaithful. Outward comforts are given us as baits by the way to refresh us, but not as crutches to lean on; if we make the creature an idol, what we make our trust God makes our shame. O trust in the immortal God! We, like Noah's dove, have no footing for our souls, till we get into the ark of God's unchangeableness, Ps. cxxv. 1., "They that trust in the Lord, shall be as mount Sion, which cannot be removed." king doth not alter his decree, so God threatened destruction to Nineveh, Jonah iii. 4., but the people of Nineveh repenting, God spared them. Here God changed his sentence, but not his decree; it was what had lain in the womb of his purpose from eternity. OBJ. But if God's decree be unchangeable, and cannot be reversed, then to what purpose should we use the means? Our endeavours towards salvation cannot alter his decree. Ans. This decree of God doth not take off my endeavour; for II. God is unchangeable in he that hath decreed my salvahis decree; what he hath decreed tion, hath decreed it in the use of from eternity is unalterable, Isa. means: and if I neglect the means, xlvi. 10., My counsel shall I go about to reprobate myself. stand." Argument, that God's No man argues thus: "God hath eternal counsel or decree is im- decreed how long I shall live, mutable: if God changed his de- therefore I will not use means to cree, it must be from some de- preserve my life, not eat and fect of wisdom or foresight in drink." God hath decreed the God, for that is the reason why time of my life in the use of men do change their purposes; means; so God hath decreed my through a want of foresight, they salvation in the use of word, see something after, which they prayer, sacraments; and as a man did not see before; but this can- that refuseth his food murders not be the cause why God should himself, so he that refuseth to alter his decree, because his knowledge is perfect, he sees all things in one entire prospect before him. OBJ. But is not God said to work out his salvation doth destroy himself. The vessels of mercy are said to be prepared unto glory,' Rom. ix. 23. How are they prepared but by being church: "whose fire is in Sion, sanctified? And that cannot be and his furnace in Jerusalem," but in the use of means; there- Isa. xxxi. 9. The wheels in a fore let not God's decree take thee watch move cross one to another, off from holy endeavours. A good saying of Dr. Preston, "Hast thou an heart to pray to God? it is a sign no decree of wrath hath passed against thee." but they all carry on the motion of the watch: so the wheels of providence often move cross to our desires, but still they carry on God's unchangeable decree, Dan. xii. 10., "Many shall be made white." God lets the waters of affliction be poured on his people, he doth but lay them a whitening. Therefore murmur not at God's dealings; his work goes on, nothing falls out but what he hath wisely decreed from eternity; every thing shall promote God's design, and fulfil his decree.-2. Comfort to the godly in regard of their salvation, 2 Tim. ii. 19., "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." God's counsel of election is unchangeable: once elected, and for ever elected, Rev. iii. 5., "I will not Use 1st. If God's decree be eternal and unchangeable, then God doth not elect our faith foreseen, as the Arminians, Rom. ix. 11-13., "The children being not yet born, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." We are not elected for holiness, but to holiness, Eph. i. 4. If we are not justified for our faith, much less elected for our faith; but we are not justified for it; we are said to be justified through faith as an instrument, Eph. ii. 8., but not for faith as a cause; and, if not justified for faith, then much less elected. God's decree of blot his name out of the book of election is eternal and unchangeable, therefore depends not upon faith foreseen, Acts xiii. 48., "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." They were not elected because they believed, but they believed because they were elected. life." The book of God's decree hath no errata in it, no blottings out, -once justified never unjustified, Hos. xiii. 14., "Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." God never repents of his electing love, John xiii. 1., "He loved them to the end." Therefore, if thou art a believer, comfort thyself with this, the immutability of God's decree. Use 2d. If God's decree be unchangeable, it is comfort in two cases: 1. Concerning God's providence towards his church. We Use 3d. To conclude: a word are ready to quarrel with provi- to the wicked, who march fudence if every thing doth not riously against God and his people jump with our desire: remember -Let them know, God's decree God's work goes on, and nothing is unchangeable; God will not falls out but what he hath decreed alter it, nor can they break it; from eternity,-2. God hath de- and while they resist God's will, creed troubles for the church's thev fulfil it. There is a two-fold good; the troubling of God's will of God, voluntas præcepti et church is like the angel's troub-decreti, -the will of God's preling the water, John v. 4., which cept, and of his decree. While made way for healing his people. the wicked resist the will of God's He hath decreed troubles in the precept, they fulfil the will of his they |