of consolation. Subjects wish a good prince to live forever, as being
loth to change him, but care not how soon they are rid of an oppressor.
This unchangeableness of God’s will shows him as ready to accept any
that come to him as ever he was; so that we may with confidence make
our address to him, since he cannot change his affections to goodness.
The fear of change in a friend hinders a full reliance upon him; an
assurance of stability encourages hope and confidence. This attribute
is the strongest prop for faith in all our addresses; it is not a
single perfection, but the glory of all those that belong to his
nature; for he is unchangeable in his love (Jer. xxxi. 3), in his
truth (Ps. cxvii. 2). The more solemn revelation of himself in this
name, Jehovah, which signifies chiefly his eternity and immutability,
was to support the Israelites’ faith in expectation of a deliverance
from Egypt, that he had not retracted his purpose, and his promise
made to Abraham for giving Canaan to his posterity (Exod. iii. 14‒17).
Herein is the basis and strength of all his promises; therefore,
saith the Psalmist, “Those that know thy name, will put their trust
in thee” (Ps. ix. 10): those that are spiritually acquainted with
thy name, Jehovah, and have a true sense of it upon their hearts,
will put their trust in thee. His goodness could not be distrusted,
if his unchangeableness were well apprehended and considered. All
distrust would fly before it, as darkness before the sun; it only
gets advantage of us when we are not well grounded in his name; and
if ever we trusted God, we have the same reason to trust him forever:
(Isa. xxvi. 4) “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength;” or, as it is in the Hebrew, “a Rock of
Ages,” that is, perpetually unchangeable. We find the traces of God’s
immutability in the creatures. He has, by his peremptory decree, set
bounds to the sea: “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed” (Job xxxviii. 11). Do we fear the sea
overflowing us in this island? No, because of his fixed decree. And
is not his promise in his Word as unchangeable as his word concerning
inanimate things, as good a ground to rest upon?
1. The covenant stands unchangeable. Mutable creatures break their
leagues and covenants, and snap them asunder like Samson’s cords, when
they are not accommodated to their interests. But an unchangeable God
keeps his: “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but
my kindness shall not depart from thee, nor shall the covenant of my
peace be removed” (Isa. liv. 10). The heaven and earth shall sooner
fall asunder, and the strongest and firmest parts of the creation
crumble to dust, sooner than one iota of my covenant shall fail. It
depends upon the unchangeableness of his will and the unchangeableness
of his word, and, therefore, is called “the immutability of his
counsel” (Heb. vi. 17). It is the {a355} fruit of the everlasting
purpose of God; whence the apostle links purpose and grace together
(2 Tim. i. 9). A covenant with a nation may be changeable, because
it may not be built upon the eternal purpose of God, “to put his fear
in the heart;” but with respect to the creature’s obedience. Thus
God chose Jerusalem as the place wherein he would “dwell forever”
(Ps. cxxxii. 14), yet he threatens to depart from them when they had
broken covenant with him; “and the glory of the Lord went up from the
midst of the city to the mountain on the east side” (Ezek. xi. 33).
The covenant of grace doth not run, “I will be your God if you
will be my people;” but “I will be their God, and they shall be my
people” (Hos. ii. 19, &c.) “I will betroth thee to me forever; I will
say, Thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God.” His
everlasting purpose is, to write his laws in the hearts of the elect.
He puts a condition to his covenant of grace, the condition of faith,
and he resolves to work that condition in the hearts of the elect;
and, therefore, believers have two immutable pillars for their support,
stronger than those erected by Solomon at the porch of the temple
(1 Kings vii. 21), called Jakin and Boaz, to note the firmness of
that building dedicated to God; these are election, or the standing,
counsel of God, and the covenant of grace. He will not revoke the
covenant, and blot the names of his elect out of the book of life.
2. Perseverance is ascertained. It consists not with the majesty of
God to call a person effectually to himself to‑day, to make him fit
for his eternal love, to give him faith, and take away that faith
to‑morrow. His effectual call is the fruit of his eternal election,
and that counsel hath no other foundation but his constant and
unchangeable will; a foundation that stands sure, and, therefore,
called the foundation of God, and not of the creature; “the foundation
of God stands sure, the Lord knows who are his” (2 Tim. ii. 19). It
is not founded upon our own natural strength; it may be then subject
to change, as all the products of nature are. The fallen angels had
created grace in their innocency, but lost it by their fall. Were this
the foundation of the creature, it might soon be shaken; since man,
after his revolt, can ascribe nothing constant to himself, but his own
inconstancy. But the foundation is not in the infirmity of nature, but
the strength of grace, and of the grace of God, who is immutable, who
wants not virtue to be able, nor kindness to be willing, to preserve
his own foundation.[631] To what purpose doth our Saviour tell his
disciples their names “were written in heaven” (Luke x. 20), but to
mark the infallible certainty of their salvation by an opposition to
those things which perish, and have their “names written in the earth”
(Jer. xvii. 23); or upon the sand, where they may be defaced? And why
should Christ order his disciples to rejoice that their names were
written in heaven, if God were changeable to blot them out again? or
why should the apostle assure us, that though God had rejected the
greatest part of the Jews, he had not, therefore, rejected his people
elected according to his purpose and immutable counsel; because there
are none of the elect of God but will come to salvation? For, saith
he, the “election hath obtained it” (Rom. xi. 7); that is, {a356}
all those that are of the election have obtained it, and the others
are hardened. Where the seal of sanctification is stamped, it is a
testimony of God’s election, and that foundation shall stand sure:
“The foundation of the Lord stands sure, having this seal, the Lord
knows who are his;” that is the foundation, the “naming the name of
Christ,” or believing in Christ, and “departing from iniquity,” is the
seal.[632] As it is impossible when God calls those things that are
not, but that they should spring up into being and appear before him;
so it is impossible but that the seed of God, by his eternal purpose,
should be brought to a spiritual life, and that calling cannot be
retracted; for that “gift and calling is without repentance” (Rom.
xi. 29). And when repentance is removed from God in regard of some
works, the immutability of those works is declared; and the reason of
that immutability is their pure dependence on the eternal favor and
unchangeable grace of God “purposed in himself” (Eph. i. 9, 11), and
not upon the mutability of the creature. Hence their happiness is not
as patents among men, _quam diu bene se gesserint_, so long as they
behave themselves well; but they have a promise that they shall behave
themselves so as never wholly to depart from God (Jer. xxxii. 40): “I
will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away
from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts,
that they shall not depart from me.” God will not turn from them, to
do them good, and promiseth that they shall not turn from him forever,
or forsake him. And the bottom of it is the everlasting covenant,
and, therefore, believing and sealing for security are linked together
(Eph. i. 13). And when God doth inwardly teach us his law, he puts
in a will not to depart from it: (Ps. cxix. 102) “I have not departed
from thy judgments;” what is the reason? “For thou hast taught me.”
3. By this eternal happiness is insured. This is the inference made
from the eternity and unchangeableness of God in the verse following
the text (ver. 28): “The children of thy servants shall continue,
and their seed shall be established before thee.” This is the sole
conclusion drawn from those perfections of God solemnly asserted
before. The children which the prophets and apostles have begotten
to thee, shall be totally delivered from the relics of their apostasy,
and the punishment due to them, and rendered partakers of immortality
with thee, as sons to dwell in their Father’s house forever. The
Spirit begins a spiritual life here, to fit for an immutable life in
glory hereafter, where believers shall be placed upon a throne that
cannot be shaken, and possess a crown that shall not be taken off
their heads forever.
_Use 3._ Of exhortation. 1. Let a sense of the changeableness and
uncertainty of all other things beside God, be upon us. There are as
many changes as there are figures in the world. The whole fashion of
the world is a transient thing; every man may say as Job, “Changes and
war are against me” (Job x. 17). Lot chose the plain of Sodom, because
it was the richer soil. He was but a little time there before he was
taken prisoner, and his substance made the spoil of his enemies. That
is again restored; but a while after, fire from {a357} heaven devours
his wealth, though his person was secured from the judgment by a
special Providence. We burn with a desire to settle ourselves, but
mistake the way, and build castles in the air, which vanish like
bubbles of soap in water. And, therefore,
(1.) Let not our thoughts dwell much upon them. Do but consider those
souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable God, that behold
his never‑fading glory! Would it not be a kind of hell to them to have
their thoughts starting out to these things, or find any desire in
themselves to the changeable trifles of the earth? Nay, have we not
reason to think that they cover their faces with shame, that ever
they should have such a weakness of spirit when they were here below,
as to spend more thoughts upon them than were necessary for this
present life; much more that they should at any time value and court
them above an unchangeable good? Do they not disdain themselves that
they should ever debase the immutable perfections of God, as to have
neglecting thoughts of him at any time, for the entertainment of such
a mean and inconstant rival?
(2.) Much less should we trust in them, or rejoice in them. The best
things are mutable, and things of such a nature are not fit objects
of confidence. Trust not in riches, they have their wanes as well as
increases; they rise sometimes like a torrent, and flow in upon men,
but resemble also a torrent in as sudden a fall and departure, and
leave nothing but slime behind them. Trust not in honor; all the honor
and applause in the world is no better than an inheritance of wind,
which the pilot is not sure of, but shifts from one corner to another,
and stands not perpetually in the same point of the heavens. How, in
a few ages did the house of David, a great monarch, and a man after
God’s own heart, descend to a mean condition, and all the glory of
that house shut up in the stock of a carpenter? David’s sheep‑hook
was turned into a sceptre, and the sceptre by the same hand of
Providence turned into a hatchet in Joseph his descendant. Rejoice not
immoderately in wisdom; that, and learning languish with age. A wound
in the head may impair that which is the glory of man. If an organ
be out of frame, folly may succeed, and all a man’s prudence be wound
up in an irrecoverable dotage. Nebuchadnezzar was no fool, yet, by a
sudden hand of God, he became not only a fool or a madman, but a kind
of brute. Rejoice not in strength; that decays, and a mighty man may
live to see his strong arm withered, and a grasshopper to become a
burthen (Eccles. xii. 5): “The strong men shall bow themselves, and
the grinders shall cease because they are few” (ver. 3): nor rejoice
in children; they are like birds upon a tree, that make a little
chirping music, and presently fall into the fowler’s net. Little
did Job expect such sad news as the loss of all his progeny at a
blow, when the messenger knocked at his gate; and such changes happen
oftentimes when our expectations of comfort, and a contentment in them,
are at the highest. How often doth a string crack when the musician
hath wound it up to a just height for a tune, and all his pains and
delight marred in a moment! Nay, all these things change while we
are using them, like ice that melts between our fingers, {a358}
and flowers that wither while we are smelling to them. The apostle
gave them a good title when he called them “uncertain riches,” and
thought it a strong argument to dissuade them from trusting in them
(1 Tim. vi. 17). The wealth of the merchant depends upon the winds
and waves, and the revenue of the husbandman upon the clouds; and
since they depend upon those things which are used to express the
most changeableness, they can be no fit object for trust. Besides,
God sometimes kindles a fire under all a man’s glory, which doth
insensibly consume it (Isa. x. 16); and while we have them, the fear
of losing them renders us not very happy in the fruition of them;
we can scarce tell whether they are contentments or no, because
sorrow follows them so close at the heels. It is not an unnecessary
exhortation for good men; the best men have been apt to place too
much trust in them. David thought himself immutable in his prosperity,
and such thoughts could not be without some immoderate outlets of
the heart to them, and confidences in them; and Job promised himself
to die in his nest, and “multiply his days as the sand,” without
any interruption (Job xxix. 18, 19, &c.); but he was mistaken and
disappointed. Let me add this: trust not in men, who are as inconstant
as anything else, and often change their most ardent affections into
implacable hatred; and though their affections may not be changed, the
power to help you may. Haman’s friends, that depended on him one day,
were crest‑fallen the next, when their patron was to exchange his
chariot of state for an ignominious gallows.
(3.) Prefer an immutable God before mutable creatures. Is it not
a horrible thing to see what we are, and what we possess, daily
crumbling to dust, and in a continual flux from us, and not seek
out something that is permanent, and always abide the same, for our
portion? In God, or Wisdom, which is Christ, there is substance (Prov.
viii. 21), in which respect he is opposed to all the things in the
world, that are but shadows, that are shorter or longer, according
to the motion of the sun; mutable also, by every little body that
intervenes. God is subject to no decay within, to no force without;
nothing in his own nature can change him from what he is, and there
is no power above can hinder him from being what he will to the soul.
He is an ocean of all perfection: he wants nothing without himself to
render him blessed, which may allure him to a change. His creatures
can want nothing out of him to make them happy, whereby they may be
enticed to prefer anything before him. If we enjoy other things, it is
by God’s donation, who can as well withdraw them as bestow them; and
it is but a reasonable, as well as a necessary thing, to endeavor the
enjoyment of the immutable Benefactor, rather than his revocable gifts.
If the creatures had a sufficient virtue in themselves to ravish
our thoughts and engross our souls; yet when we take a prospect of a
fixed and unchangeable Being, what beauty, what strength have any of
those things to vie with him? How can they bear up and maintain their
interest against a lively thought and sense of God? All the glory of
them would fly before him like that of the stars before the sun. They
were once nothing, they may be nothing again; as their own nature
brought {a359} them not out of nothing, so their nature secures them
not from being reduced to nothing. What an unhappiness is it to have
our affections set upon that which retains something of its _non esse_
with its _esse_, its not being with its being; that lives indeed, but
in a continual flux, and may lose that pleasurableness to‑morrow which
charms us to‑day?
2. This doctrine will teach us patience under such providences as
declare his unchangeable will. The rectitude of our wills consists in
conformity to the Divine, as discovered in his words, and manifested
in his providence, which are the effluxes of his immutable will. The
time of trial is appointed by his immutable will (Dan. xi. 35); it
is not in the power of the sufferer’s will to shorten it, nor in the
power of the enemies’ will to lengthen it. Whatsoever doth happen hath
been decreed by God (Eccles. vi. 10), “That which hath been is named
already;” therefore to murmur or be discontented is to contend with
God, who is mightier than we, to maintain his own purposes. God doth
act all things conveniently for that immutable end intended by himself,
and according to the reason of his own will, in the true point of time
most proper for it and for us, not too soon or too slow, because he is
unchangeable in knowledge and wisdom. God doth not act anything barely
by an immutable will, but by an immutable wisdom, and an unchangeable
rule of goodness; and, therefore, we should not only acquiesce in what
he works, but have a complacency in it; and by having our wills thus
knitting themselves with the immutable will of God, we attain some
degree of likeness to him in his own unchangeableness. When, therefore,
God hath manifested his will in opening his decree to the world by his
work of providence, we must cease all disputes against it, and, with
Aaron hold our peace, though the affliction be very smart (Rev. x. 3).
“All flesh must be silent before God” (Zech. ii. 13); for whatsoever
is his counsel shall stand, and cannot be recalled. All struggling
against it is like a brittle glass contending with a rock; for “if
he cut off and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?”
(Job xi. 10.) Nothing can help us, if he hath determined to afflict
us, as nothing can hurt us, if he hath determined to secure us. The
more clearly God hath evidenced this or that to be his will, the more
sinful is our struggling against it. Pharaoh’s sin was the greater
in keeping Israel, by how much the more God’s miracles had been
demonstrations of his settled will to deliver them. Let nothing snatch
our hearts to a contradiction to him, but let us fear and give glory
to him, when the hour of judgment which he hath appointed is come (Rev.
xiv. 7); that is, comply with the unchangeable will of his precept,
the more he declares the immutable will of his providence. We must not
think God must disgrace his nature and change his proceedings for us;
better the creature should suffer, than God be impaired in any of his
perfections. If God changed his purpose he would change his nature.
Patience is the way to perform the immutable will of God, and a means
to attain a gracious immutability for ourselves by receiving the
promise (Heb. x. 36), “Ye have need of patience, that after ye have
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”
{a360} 3. This doctrine will teach us to imitate God in this
perfection, by striving to be immovable in goodness. God never goes
back from himself; he finds nothing better than himself for which he
should change; and can we find anything better than God, to allure
our hearts to a change from him? The sun never declines from the
ecliptic line, nor should we from the paths of holiness. A steadfast
obedience is encouraged by an unchangeable God to reward it (1 Cor.
xv. 58): “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, knowing that your labor shall not be in vain in the
Lord.” Unsteadfastness is the note of a hypocrite (Ps. lxxviii. 37):
steadfastness in that which is good is the mark of a saint; it is the
character of a righteous person to “keep the truth” (Isa. xxvi. 2).
And it is as positively said that “he that abides not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God” (2 John, 9); but he that doth, “hath both
the Father and the Son.” So much of uncertainty, so much of nature,
so much of firmness in duty, so much of grace. We can never honor
God unless we finish his work; as Christ did not glorify God but in
finishing the work God gave him to do (John xvii. 4). The nearer the
world comes to an end, the more is God’s immutability seen in his
promises and predictions, and the more must our unchangeableness
be seen in our obedience (Heb. x. 23, 25): “Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, and so much the more as
you see the day approaching.” The christian Jews were to be the more
tenacious of their faith, the nearer they saw the day approaching, the
day of Jerusalem’s destruction prophesied of by Daniel (Dan. ix. 26),
which accomplishment must be a great argument to establish the
christian Jews in the profession of Christ to be the Messiah, because
the destruction of the city was not to be before the cutting off the
Messiah. Let us be, therefore, constant in our profession and service
of God, and not suffer ourselves to be driven from him by the ill
usage, or flattered from him by the caresses of the world.
(1.) It is reasonable. If God be unchangeable in doing us good, it is
reason we should be unchangeable in doing him service. If he assure
us that he is our God, our “I Am,” he would also that we should be his
people; his we are. If he declare himself constant in his promises,
he expects we should be so in our obedience. As a spouse, we should
be unchangeably faithful to him as a Husband; as subjects, have an
unchangeable allegiance to him as our Prince. He would not have us
faithful to him for an hour or a day, but “to the death” (Rev. ii. 10);
and it is reason we should be his, and if we be his children, imitate
him in his constancy of his holy purposes.
(2.) It is our glory and interest. To be a reed shaken with every wind
is no commendation among men, and it is less a ground of praise with
God. It was Job’s glory that he held fast his integrity (Job i. 22):
“In all this Job sinned not;” in all this,――which whole cities and
kingdoms would have thought ground enough of high exclamations against
God, and also against the temptation of his wife,――he retained his
integrity (Job ii. 9): “Dost thou still retain thy integrity?” The
devil, who by God’s permission stripped him {a361} of his goods and
health, yet could not strip him of his grace. As a traveller, when the
wind and snow beats in his face, wraps his cloak more closely about
him to preserve that and himself. Better we had never made profession,
than afterwards to abandon it; such a withering profession serves
for no other use than to aggravate the crime, if any of us fly like a
coward, or revolt like a traitor; what profit will it be to a soldier,
if he hath withstood many assaults, and turn his back at last? If we
would have God crown us with an immutable glory, we must crown our
beginnings with a happy perseverance (Rev. ii. 10): “Be faithful to
the death, and I will give thee a crown of life;” not as though this
were the cause to merit it, but a necessary condition to possess it:
constancy in good is accompanied with an immutability of glory.
(3.) By an unchangeable disposition to good, we should begin the
happiness of heaven upon earth. This is the perfection of blessed
spirits, those that are nearest to God as angels and glorified souls,
they are immutable; not, indeed, by nature, but by grace; yet not only
by a necessity of grace, but a liberty of will: grace will not let
them change; and that grace doth animate their wills that they would
not change; an immutable God fills their understandings and affections,
and gives satisfaction to their desires. The saints when they were
below, tried other things, and found them deficient; but now they
are so fully satisfied with the beatific vision, that if Satan should
have an entrance among the angels and sons of God, it is not likely
he should have any influence upon them; he could not present to their
understandings anything that could either at the first glance, or upon
a deliberate view, be preferable to what they enjoy and are fixed in.
Well, then, let us be immovable in the knowledge and love of God. It
is the delight of God to see his creatures resemble him in what they
are able. Let not our affections to him be as Jonah’s gourd, growing
up in one night and withering the next. Let us not only fight a good
fight, but do so till we have finished our course, and imitate God
in an unchangeableness of holy purposes; and to that purpose, examine
ourselves daily what fixedness we have arrived unto; and to prevent
any temptation to a revolt, let us often possess our minds with
thoughts of the immutability of God’s nature and will, which, like
fire under water, will keep a good matter boiling up in us, and make
it both retain and increase its heat.