be served before all that are younger than himself; our best obedience
is due to him as a God of unconfined excellency; everything that is
excellent deserves a veneration suitable to its excellency. As God
is infinite, he hath right to a boundless service; as he is {a309}
eternal, he hath right to a perpetual service: as service is a debt
of justice upon the account of the excellency of his nature, so a
perpetual service is as much a debt of justice upon the account of
his eternity. If God be infinite and eternal, he merits an honor and
comportment from his creatures, suited to the unlimited perfection
of his nature, and the duration of his being. How worthy is the
Psalmist’s resolution! “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have any being” (Ps. civ. 33).
It is the use he makes of the endless duration of the glory of God;
and will extend to all other service as well as praise. To serve other
things, or to serve ourselves, is too vast a service upon that which
is nothing. In devoting ourselves to God, we serve him that is, that
was, so as that he never began; is to come, so as that he never shall
end; by whom all things are what they are; who hath both eternal
knowledge to remember our service, and eternal goodness to reward it.
{a310} DISCOURSE VI.
ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
PSALM cii. 26, 27.――They shall perish, but thou shalt endure:
yea, all of them shall wax old as 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 contains a complaint of a people pressed with a great
calamity; some think of the Jewish church in Babylon; others think the
Psalmist doth here personate mankind lying under a state of corruption,
because he wishes for the coming of the Messiah, to accomplish that
redemption promised by God, and needed by them. Indeed the title
of the Psalm is “A prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed,
and pours out his complaint before the Lord;” whether afflicted with
the sense of corruption, or with the sense of oppression. And the
redemption by the Messiah, which the ancient church looked upon as
the fountain of their deliverance from a sinful or a servile bondage,
is in this psalm spoken of. A set time appointed for the discovery
of his mercy to Sion (ver. 13); an appearance in glory to build up
Sion (ver. 16); the loosing of the prisoner by redemption, and them
that are appointed to death (ver. 20); the calling of the Gentiles
(ver. 22); and the latter part of the psalm, wherein are the verses
I have read, are applied to Christ (Heb. i.) Whatsoever the design
of the psalm might be, many things are intermingled that concern the
kingdom of the Messiah, and redemption by Christ.
Some make three parts of the psalm. 1. A petition plainly delivered
(ver. 1, 2): “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee,”
&c. 2. The petition strongly and argumentatively enforced and pleaded
(ver. 3), from the misery of the petitioner in himself, and his
reproach from his enemies. 3. An acting of faith in the expectation of
an answer in the general redemption promised (ver. 12, 13): “But thou,
O Lord, shalt endure forever; thou shalt arise and have mercy upon
Sion; the heathen shall fear thy name.” The first part is the petition
pleaded; the second part is the petition answered, in an assurance
that there should in time be a full deliverance.[580] The design
of the penman is to confirm the church in the truth of the divine
promises; that though the foundations of the world should be ripped
up, and the heavens clatter together, and the whole fabric of them
be unpinned and fall to pieces, the firmest parts of it dissolved;
yet the church should continue {a311} in its stability, because it
stands not upon the changeableness of creatures, but is built upon
the immutable rock of the truth of God, which is as little subject
to change, as his essence.
_They shall perish, thou shalt change them._ As he had before ascribed
to God the “foundation of heaven and earth” (ver. 25), so he ascribes
to God here the destruction of them. Both the beginning and end of the
world are here ascertained. There is nothing, indeed, from the present
appearance of things, that can demonstrate the cessation of the world.
The heaven and earth stand firm; the motions of the heavenly bodies
are the same, their beauty is not decayed; individuals corrupt, but
the species and kinds remain. The successions of the year observe
their due order; but the sin of man renders the change of the present
appearance of the world necessary to accomplish the design of God for
the glory of his elect. The heavens do not naturally perish, as some
fancied an old age of the world, wherein it must necessarily decay as
the bodies of animals do; or that the parts of the heavens are broken
off by their rubbing one against another in their motion, and falling
to the earth, are the seeds of those things that grow among us.[581]
_The earth and heavens._ He names here the most stable parts of
the world, and the most beautiful parts of the creation; those that
are freest from corruptibility and change, to illustrate thereby
the immutability of God; that though the heavens and earth have a
prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the world, and the
creatures that reside below, the heavens remain the same as they
were created, and the centre of the earth retains its fixedness, and
are as beautiful and fresh in their age as they were in their youth
many years ago, notwithstanding the change of the elements, fire
and water being often turned into air, so that there may remain but
little of that air which was first created by reason of the continual
transmutation; yet this firmness of the earth and heavens is not to
be regarded in comparison of the unmovableness and fixedness of the
being of God; as their beauty comes short of the glory of his being,
so doth their firmness come short of his stability. Some, by heavens
and earth, understand the creatures which reside in the earth, and
those which are in the air, which is called heaven often in Scripture;
but the ruin and fall of these being seen every day, had been no fit
illustration of the unchangeableness of God.
_They, shall perish, they shall be changed._ 1. They _may_ perish,
say some; they have it not from themselves that they do not perish,
but from thee, who didst endue them with an incorruptible nature; they
shall perish if thou speakest the word; thou canst with as much ease
destroy them, as thou didst create them. But the Psalmist speaks not
of their possibility, but the certainty of their perishing. 2. They
_shall_ perish in their qualities and motion, not in their substance,
say others. They shall cease from that motion which is designed
properly for the generation and corruption of things in the earth;
but in regard of their substance and beauty they shall remain. As when
the strings or wheels of a clock or watch are taken off, the material
parts remain, though the motion of it, and the use for discovering
{a312} the time of the day, ceaseth.[582] To perish, doth not signify
alway a falling into nothing, an annihilation, by which both the
matter and the form are destroyed, but a ceasing of the present
appearance of them; a ceasing to be what they now are; as a man is
said to perish when he dies, whereas the better part of man doth not
cease to be. The figure of the body moulders away, and the matter of
it returns to dust; but the soul being immortal ceaseth not to act,
when the body, by reason of the absence of the soul, is incapable
of acting. So the heavens shall perish; the appearance they now have
shall vanish, and a more glorious and incorruptible frame be erected
by the power and goodness of God. The dissolution of heaven and earth
is meant by the word _perish_; the raising a new frame is signified
by the word _changed_: as if the Spirit of God would prevent any wrong
meaning of the word _perish_, by alleviating the sense of that, by
another which signifies only a mutation and change; as when we change
a habit and garment, we quit the old to receive the new.
_As a garment, as a vesture._ Thou shalt change them, ἑλίξεις,[583]
thou shalt fold them up. The heavens are compared to a curtain (Ps.
civ. 2), and shall in due time be folded up as clothes and curtains
are. As a garment encompasseth the whole body, so do the heavens
encircle the earth.[584] Some say, as a garment is folded up to be
laid aside, that when there is need it may be taken again for use;
so shalt thou fold up the heavens like a garment, that when they are
repaired, thou mayest again stretch them out about the earth; thou
shalt fold them up, so that what did appear shall not now appear.
It may be illustrated by the metaphor of a scroll or book, which
the Spirit of God useth (Isa. xxxiv. 4; Rev. vi. 14): “The heavens
departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.” When a book is
rolled up or shut, nothing can be read in it till it be opened again;
so the face of the heavens, wherein the stars are as letters declaring
the glory of God, shall be shut or rolled together, so that nothing
shall appear, till by its renovation it be opened again: as a garment
it shall be changed, not to be used in the same fashion, and for the
same use again. It seems, indeed, to be for the worse; an old garment
is not changed but into rags, to be put to other uses, and afterwards
thrown upon the dunghill; but similitudes are not to be pressed
too far; and this will not agree with the new heavens and new
earth, physically so, as well as metaphorically so. It is not likely
the heavens will be put to a worse use than God designed them for
in creation; however, a change as a garment, speaks not a total
corruption, but an alteration of qualities; as a garment not to
be used in the same fashion as before. We may observe, that it is
probable the world shall not be annihilated, but refined. It shall
lose its present form and fashion; but not its foundation: indeed, as
God raised it from nothing, so he can reduce it into nothing; yet it
doth not appear that God will annihilate it, and utterly destroy both
the matter and form of it; part shall be consumed, and part purified
(2 Pet. iii. 12, 13): “The heavens shall be on fire and dissolved;
nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and
a new earth.” They shall be melted down as gold by the artificer, to
be refined from its dross, {a313} and wrought into a more beautiful
fashion, that they may serve the design of God for those that shall
reside therein; a new world wherein righteousness shall dwell: the
apostle opposing it thereby to the old world wherein wickedness did
reside. The heavens are to be purged, as the vessels that held the
sin‑offering were to be purified by the fire of the sanctuary. God,
indeed, will take down this scaffold, which he hath built to publish
his glory. As every individual hath a certain term of its duration, so
an end is appointed for the universal nature of heaven and earth (Isa.
li. 6): “The heavens shall vanish like smoke” which disappears. As
smoke is resolved and attenuated into air, not annihilated, so shall
the world assume a new face, and have a greater clearness and splendor;
as the bodies of men, dissolved into dust, shall have more glorious
qualities at their resurrection; as a vessel of gold is melted down
to remove the batterings in it, and receive a more comely form by the
skill of the workman.
1. The world was not destroyed by the deluge: it was rather washed by
water, than consumed; so it shall be rather refined by the last fire,
than lie under an irrecoverable ruin.
2. It is not likely God would liken the everlastingness of his
covenant, and the perpetuity of his spiritual Israel, to the duration
of the ordinances of the heavens (as he doth in Jer. xxxi. 35, 36), if
they were wholly to depart from before him. Though that place may only
tend to an assurance of a church in the world, while the world endures;
yet it would be but small comfort, if the happiness of believers
should endure no longer than the heavens and earth, if they were to
have a total period.
3. Besides, the bodies of the saints must have place for their support
to move in, and glorious objects suited to those glorious senses which
shall be restored to them; not in any carnal way, which our Saviour
rejects, when he saith, There is no eating, or drinking, or marrying,
&c. in the other world; but whereby they may glorify God; though how
or in what manner their senses shall be used, would be rashness to
determine; only something is necessary for the corporeal state of
men, that there may be an employment for their senses as well as their
souls.
4. Again, How could the creature, the world, or any part of it, be
said to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God, if the whole frame of heaven and earth
were to be annihilated (Rom. viii. 21)? The apostle saith also, that
the creature waits with an “earnest expectation for this manifestation
of the sons of God” (ver. 19); which would have no foundation if the
whole frame should be reduced to nothing. What joyful expectation can
there be in any of a total ruin? How should the creature be capable
of partaking in this glorious liberty of the sons of God?[585] As the
world for the sin of man lost its first dignity, and was cursed after
the fall, and the beauty bestowed upon it by creation defaced; so
it shall recover that ancient glory, when he shall be fully restored
by the resurrection to that dignity he lost by his first sin. As man
shall be freed from his corruptibility to receive {a314} that glory
which is prepared for him, so shall the creatures be freed from that
imperfection or corruptibility, those stains and spots upon the face
of them, to receive a new glory suited to their nature, and answerable
to the design of God, when the glorious liberty of the saints shall
be accomplished.[586] As when a prince’s nuptials are solemnized, the
whole country echoes with joy; so the inanimate creatures, when the
time of the marriage of the Lamb is come, shall have a delight and
pleasure from that renovation. The apostle sets forth the whole world
as a person groaning; and the Scripture is frequent in such metaphors;
as when the creatures are said to wait upon God, and to be troubled,
the hills are said to leap and the mountains to rejoice (Ps. civ.
27‒29); the creature is said to groan, as the heavens are said to
declare the glory of God, passively, naturally, not rationally. It is
not likely angels are here meant, though they cannot but desire it;
since they are affected with the dishonor and reproach God hath in the
world, they cannot but long for the restoration of his honor in the
restoration of the creature to its true end: and, indeed, the angels
are employed to serve man in this sinful state, and cannot but in
holiness wish the creature freed from his corruption. Nor is it meant
of the new creatures, which have the first fruits of the Spirit;
those he brings in afterwards, groaning and waiting for the adoption
(ver. 23); where he distinguisheth the rational creature from the
creature he had spoken of before. If he had meant the believing
creature by that creature that desired the liberty of the sons of
God, what need had there been of that additional distinction, and
not only they, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
groan within ourselves? Whereby it seems he means some creatures below
rational creatures, since neither angels nor blessed souls can be said
to travail in pain, with that distress as a woman in travail hath, as
the word signifies, who perform the work joyfully which God sets them
upon.[587] If the creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man,
they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man. The
earth hath borne thorns and thistles, and venomous beasts; the air
hath had its tempests and infectious qualities; the water hath caused
its floods and deluges. The creature hath been abused to luxury and
intemperance; and been tyrannized over by man, contrary to the end of
its creation. It is convenient that some time should be allotted for
the creature’s attaining its true end, and that it may partake of the
peace of man, as it hath done of the fruits of his sin; otherwise it
would seem, that sin had prevailed more than grace, and would have
had more power to deface, than grace to restore things into their due
order.
5. Again, Upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the heavens to
rejoice, and the earth to be glad, when God “comes to judge the world
with righteousness” (Ps. xcvi. 11‒13), if they should be annihilated
and sunk forever into nothing? “It would seem,” saith Daille, “to be
an impertinent figure, if the Judge of the world brought to them a
total destruction; an entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to
creatures, who naturally have that instinct or {a315} inclination
put into them by their Creator, to preserve themselves, and to effect
their own preservation.”
6. Again, the Lord is to rejoice in his works (Ps. civ. 31): “The
glory of the Lord shall endure forever; the Lord shall rejoice in
his works;” not hath, but shall rejoice in his works: in the works of
creation, which the Psalmist had enumerated, and which is the whole
scope of the Psalm: and he intimates that it is part of the glory of
the Lord which endures forever; that is, his manifestative glory, to
rejoice in his works: the glory of the Lord must be understood with
reference to the creation he had spoken of before. How short was that
joy God had in his works after he had sent them beautified out of his
hand! How soon did he repent, not only that he had made man, but was
grieved at the heart also, that he made the other creatures which
man’s sin had disordered! (Gen. vi. 7.) What joy can God have in them,
since the curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon
them? If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his
holiness, what time will God have to rejoice in the other works of
creation? It is the joy of God to see all his works in due order;
every one pointing to their true end; marching together in their
excellency, according to his first intendment in their creation. Did
God create the world to perform its end only for one day; scarce so
much, if Adam fell the very first day of his creation? What would have
been their end, if Adam had been confirmed in a state of happiness as
the angels were? ’tis likely will be answered and performed upon the
complete restoration of man to that happy state from whence he fell.
What artificer compiles a work by his skill, but to rejoice in it? And
shall God have no joy from the works of his hands? Since God can only
rejoice in goodness, the creatures must have that goodness restored
to them which God pronounced them to have at the first creation, and
which he ordained them for, before he can again rejoice in his works.
The goodness of the creatures is the glory and joy of God.
_Inference 1._ We may infer from hence, what a base and vile thing sin
is, which lays the foundation of the world’s change. Sin brings it to
a decrepit age; sin overturned the whole work of God (Gen. iii. 17);
so that to render it useful to its proper end, there is a necessity of
a kind of a new creating it. This causes God to fire the earth for a
purification of it from that infection and contagion brought upon it
by the apostasy and corruption of man. It hath served sinful man, and
therefore must undergo a purging flame, to be fit to serve the holy
and righteous Creator. As sin is so riveted in the body of man, that
there is need of a change by death to raze it out; so hath the curse
for sin got so deep into the bowels of the world, that there is need
of a change by fire to refine it for its master’s use. Let us look
upon sin with no other notion than as the object of God’s hatred, the
cause of his grief in the creatures, and the spring of the pain and
ruin of the world.
2. How foolish a thing is it to set our hearts upon that which shall
perish, and be no more what it is now! The heavens and the earth,
the solidest and firmest parts of the creation, shall not continue in
the posture they are; they must perish and undergo a refining {a316}
change. How feeble and weak are the other parts of the creation, the
little creatures walking upon and fluttering about the world, that
are perishing and dying every day; and we scarce see them clothed with
life and beauty this day, but they wither and are despoiled of all
the next; and are such frail things fit objects for our everlasting
spirits and affections? Though the daily employment of the heavens is
the declaration of the glory of God (Ps. xix. 1), yet neither this,
nor their harmony, order, beauty, amazing greatness and glory of them,
shall preserve them from a dissolution and melting at the presence
of the Lord. Though they have remained in the same posture from the
creation till this day, and are of so great antiquity, yet they must
bow down to a change before the will and word of their Creator; and
shall we rest upon that which shall vanish like smoke? Shall we take
any creature for our support like ice, that will crack under our
feet, and must, by the order of their Lord Creator, deceive our hopes?
Perishing things can be no support to the soul; if we would have rest,
we must run to God and rest in God. How contemptible should that be to
us, whose fashion shall pass away, which shall not endure long in its
present form and appearance; contemptible as a rest, not contemptible
as the work of God; contemptible as an end, not contemptible as a
means to attain our end! If these must be changed, how unworthy are
other things to be the centre of our souls, that change in our very
using of them, and slide away in our very enjoyment of them!
_Thou art the same._ The essence of God, with all the perfections
of his nature, are pronounced the same, without any variation from
eternity to eternity; so that the text doth not only assert the
eternal duration of God, but his immutability in that duration.
His eternity is signified in that expression, “Thou shalt endure;”
his immutability in this, “Thou art the same.” To endure, argues
indeed his immutability as well as eternity; for what endures, is not
changed, and what is changed, doth not endure;[588] but “Thou art the
same”[589] doth more fully signify it. He could not be the same if he
could be changed into any other thing than what he is; the Psalmist
therefore puts not thou hast been, or shalt be, but thou art the same,
without any alteration. “Thou art the same;” that is, the same God;
the same in essence and nature; the same in will and purpose. Thou
dost change all other things as thou pleasest, but thou art immutable
in every respect, and receivest no shadow of change, though never
so light and small. The Psalmist here alludes to the name Jehovah,
I Am;[590] and doth not only ascribe immutability to God, but exclude
everything else from partaking in that perfection. All things else
are tottering; God sees all other things in continual motion under
his feet, like water passing away and no more seen; while he remains
fixed and immovable; his wisdom and power, his knowledge and will,
are always the same. His essence can receive no alteration, neither
by itself, nor by any external cause; whereas other things either
naturally decline to destruction, pass from one term to another, till
they come to their period; or shall at the last {a317} day be wrapped
up, after God hath completed his will in them and by them, as a man
doth a garment he intends to repair and transform to another use. So
that in the text, God, as immutable, is opposed to all creatures as
perishing and changeable.