Part 25
[2,] The beauties of the world are transitory and perishing. The whole world is nothing eke but a fluid thing, the fashion of it is a pageantry
' passing away,' 1 Cor. vii. 81. Though the glories of it might be con ceived greater than they are, yet they are not consistent, but transient. There cannot be an entire enjoyment of them, because they grow up and expire every moment, and slip away between our fingers while we are using them. Have we not heard of God's dispersing the greatest empires like
* chaff before a whirlwind, or as smoke out of a chimney,' Hosea xiii. 3, which, though it appears as a compacted cloud, as if it would choke the sun, is quickly scattered into several parts of the air, and becomes invisible ? Nettles have often been heirs to stately palaces, as God threatens Israel, Hosea ix. 6, We cannot promise ourselves over night anything the next day. A kingdom with the glory of a throne may be cut off in a morning, Hosea x. 15. The new wine may be taken from the mouth when the vintage is ripe, the devouring locust may snatch away both the hopes of that and the harvest, Joel i. 15 ; they are therefore things which are not, and nothing cannot be a fit object for confidence or affection : Prov. xxiii. 5, ' Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not ? for riches certainly make themselves
wings.' They are not properly beings, because they are not stable, but flitting. They are not, because they may not be the next moment to us what they are this ; they are but cisterns, not springs ; and * broken cisterns,' not sound and stable ; no solidity in their substance, nor stability in their duration. What a foolish thing is it then to prefer a transient felicity, a mere nullity, before an eternal God 1 What a senseless thing would it be in a man to prefer the map of a kingdom, which the hand of a child can tear in pieces, before the kingdom shadowed by it ! How much more inexcusable is it to value things that are so far from being eternal, that they are not so much as dusky resemblances of an eternity ! Were the things of the world more glorious than they are, yet they are but as a
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OP GOD. 871
counterfeit sun in a cloud, which comes short of the true sun in the heavens both in glory and duration ; and to esteem them before God is inconceivably baser than if a man should value a parti-coloured bubble in the air before a durable rock of diamonds. The comforts of this world are as candles that will end in a snuff, whereas the felicity that flows from an eternal God is like the sun, that shines more and more to a perfect day.
[3.] They cannot therefore be fit for a soul which was made to have
an interest in God's eternity. The soul being of a perpetual nature, was made for the fruition of an eternal good ; without such a good, it can never be perfect. Perfection, that noble thing, riseth not from anything in this world, nor is it a title due to a soul while in this world. It is then they
are said to be 'made perfect,' when they arrive at that entire conjunction with the eternal God in another life, Heb. xii. 23. The soul cannot be ennobled by an acquaintance with these things, or established by a depend ence on them ; they cannot confer what a rational nature should desire, or supply it with what it wants.
The soul hath a resemblance to God in a post-eternity. Why should it be drawn aside by the blandishments of earthly things, to neglect its true establishment, and lacquey after the body, which is but a shadow of the soul, and was made to follow it and serve it ! But while it busieth itself altogether in the concerns of a perishing body, and seeks satisfaction in things that glide away, it becomes rather a body than soul, descends below its nature, reproacheth that God who hath imprinted upon it an image of his own eternity, and loseth the comfort of the everlastingness of its Creator. How shall the whole world, if our lives were as durable as that, be an happy eternity to us, who have souls that shall survive all the delights of it, which must fry in those flames that shall fire the whole frame of nature at the general conflagration of the world ? 2 Peter iii. 10.
[4.] Therefore let us provide for an happy interest in the eternity of God. Man is made for an eternal state. The soul hath such a perfection in its nature, that it is fit for eternity, and cannot display all its operations but in eternity ; to an eternity it must go, and live as long as God himself lives. Things of a short duration are not proportioned to a soul made for an eternal continuance ; to see that it be a comfortable eternity, is worth all our care. Man is a forecasting creature, considers not only the present, but the future too, in his provisions for his family ; and shall he disgrace his nature in casting off all consideration of a future eternity ? Get possession
therefore of the eternal God. A ' portion in this life' is the lot of those who shall be for ever miserable, Ps. xvii. 14 ; but God, an ' everlasting portion/ is the lot of them that are designed for happiness : ' God is my portion for ever,' Ps. Ixxiii. 26.
Time is short, 1 Cor. vii. 29. The whole time for which God designed this building of the world is of a little compass ; it is a stage erected for rational creatures to act their parts upon for a few thousand years, the greatest part of which time is run out, and then shall time like a rivulet fall into the sea of eternity, from whence it sprung. As time is but a slip of eternity, so it will end in eternity. Our advantages consist in the pre sent instant; what is past never promised a return, and cannot be fetched back by all our vows; what is future we cannot promise ourselves to enjoy, we may be snatched away before it comes. Every minute that passeth speaks the fewer remaining till the time of death ; and as we are every hour further from our beginning, we are nearer our end. The child born this
day grows up, to grow nothing at last. In all ages ' there is but a step between us and death,' as David said of himself, 1 Sam. xx. 3. The little
372 OHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XC. 2.
time that remains for the devil till the day of judgment, envenoms his
wrath; he rageth, because 'his time is short,' Kev. xii. 12. The little time that remains between this moment and our death, should quicken our diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable eternity of God.
[5.] Often meditate on the eternity of God. The holiness, power, and eternity of God are the fundamental articles of all religion, upon which the whole body of it leans : his holiness for conformity to him, his power and eternity for the support of faith and hope. The strong and incessant cries
of the four beasts, representing that Christian church, are ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,' Rev. iv. 8. Though his power is intimated, yet the chiefest are his holiness, three
times expressed ; and his eternity, which is repeated, ver. 9, ' who lives for ever and ever.' This ought to be the constant practice in the church of the Gentiles, which this book chiefly respects. The meditation of his convert
ing grace manifested to Paul ravished the apostle's heart, but not without the triumphant consideration of his immortality and eternity, which are the prin
cipal parts of the doxology : 1 Tim. i. 15-17, 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.' It could be no great transport to the spirit to consider him glorious, with out considering him immortal; the unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time presents the soul with matter of the greatest complacency. The happiness of our souls depends upon his other attributes, but the per petuity of it upon his eternity. Is it a comfort to view his immense wisdom, his overflowing goodness, his tender mercy, his unerring truth ? What comfort were there in any of those, if it were a wisdom that could be baffled, a goodness that could be damped, a mercy that can expire, and a truth that can perish with the subject of it ! Without eternity, what were all his other perfections but as glorious yet withering flowers, a great but a
decaying beauty ! By a frequent meditation of God's eternity, we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the world's triflingness. How nothing should ourselves, how nothing would all other things appear in our eyes ! how coldly should we desire them ! how feebly should we place any trust in them ! Should we not think ourselves worthy of contempt to doat upon a perishing glory, to expect support from an arm of flesh, when there is an eternal beauty to ravish us, an eternal arm to protect us ? Asaph,
when he considered God a ' portion for ever,' thought nothing of the glories of the earth, or the beauties of the created heavens worth his appetite or complacency, but God, Ps. Ixxiii. 25, 26. Besides, an elevating frame of
heart at the consideration of God's eternity, would batter down the strong holds and engines of any temptation. A slight temptation will not know where to find and catch hold of a soul high and hid in a meditation of it ; and if he doth, there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to resist
and conquer it. What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts of God's eternity stifle ! When this work busieth a soul, it is too great to suffer it to descend, to listen to a sleeveless errand from hell or the world. The wanton allurements of the flesh will be put off with indignation. The prof fers of the world will be ridiculous when they are cast into the balance with the eternity of God, which sticking in our thoughts, we shall not be so easy
a prey for the fowler's gin. Let us therefore often meditate upon this, but not in a bare speculation, without engaging our affections, and making every notion of the divine eternity end in a suitable impression upon our hearts. This would be much like the disciples gazing upon the heavens at the ascension of their Master, while they forgat the practice of his orders, Acts i. 11. We may else find
PS. XC. 2.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 873
something of the nature of God, and lose ourselves, not only in eternity, but to eternity.
2. And hence the second part of the exhortation is to something which concerns us with a respect to God.
(1.) If God be eternal, how worthy is he of our choicest affections, and strongest desires of communion with him ! Is not everything to be valued according to the greatness of its being ? How then should we love him,
who is not only lovely in his nature,' but eternally lovely, having from ever lasting all those perfections centred in himself, which appear in time* ! If everything be lovely, by how much the more it partakes of the nature of God, who is the chief good, how much more infinitely lovely is God, who is superior to all other goods, and eternally so ! Not a God of a few minutes, months, years, or millions of years ; not of the dregs of time or the top of time, but of eternity ; above time, unconceivably immense beyond time. The loving him infinitely, perpetually, is an act of homage due to him for his eternal excellency. We may give him the one, since our souls are im mortal, though we cannot the other, because they are finite. Since he encloseth in himself all the excellencies of heaven and earth for ever, he should have an affection, not only of time in this world, but of eternity in the future ; and if we did not owe him a love for what we are by him, we owe him a love for what he is in himself; and more for what he is, than for what he is to us. He is more worthy of our affections because he is the eternal God, than because he is our Creator ; because he is more excellent in his nature than in his transient actions. The beams of his goodness to us, are to direct our thoughts and affections to him ; but his own eternal excellency ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him. And truly, since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving ; and we do but a just right to our love, to pitch it upon that which can always possess us and be possessed by us, upon an object that cannot deceive our affection, and put it out of countenance by a dissolution.
And if our happiness consists in being like to God, we should imitate him in loving him as he loves himself, and as long as he loves himself. God cannot do more to himself than love himself ; he can make no addition to his essence, nor diminution from it. What should we do less to an eternal being, than to bestow affections upon him, like his own to himself, since we can find nothing so durable as himself, for which we should love it !
(2.) He only is worthy of our best service. The ' Ancient of days' is to be served before all that are younger than himself; our best obedience is due to him as a God of unconfined excellency. Every thing that is excellent deserves a veneration suitable to its excellency. As God is infinite, he hath right to a boundless service ; as he is 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 honour and comportment from his creatures suited to the unlimited perfection of his
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 to waste 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.
A DISCOURSE UPON THE IMMUTABILITY
OF GOD.
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. — Ps. CII. 26, 27.
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 tg build up Sion, ver. 16 ; the loosening 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, 0 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, 0 Lord, shalt endure for ever ; 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.* * Pareus.
PS. CII. 26, 27. J THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 875
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 con tinue in its stability, because it stands not upon the changeableness of crea tures, 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 up among us.*
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 con tinual transmutation ; yet this firmness of the earth and heavens is not to be regarded in comparison of the unmoveablenes 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 Scrip ture ; 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 incor ruptible nature ; they shall perish if thou speakest the word ; thou canst with as much ease destroy them as thou canst create them. But the psalmist speaks not of their possibility, but the certainty of their perishing.
2. They sJiall 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 the time of the day, ceaseth.t To perish doth not signify always a falling into nothing, an annihilation, by
* Plin. Hist. lib. 2, cap. 3. t Coccei. in loc.
376 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. CII. 26, 27.
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 good ness 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 alle viating 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 ; — Septuagint, sX/gg/g, ' Thou shalt fold them up.' The heavens are compared to a curtain, Ps. civ. 2, and shall in due time be folded up as cloths and curtains are. As a garment encompasseth the whole body, so do the heavens encircle the earth.* 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 hea vens 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 altera
tion of qualities, as a garment, not to be used in the same fashion as before.
"We may observe, 1. 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 Peter 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, 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
* Estius in Heb. i.
PS. Oil. 2(3, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 377
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 splendour. As the bodies of men dissolved into dust shall have more glorious qualities at their resurrec tion ; 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. 85, 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 com fort 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 fitted 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 employ ment 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 annihi
lated? Rom. viii. 21. The apostle also saith 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 ? * 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 de faced, 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 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.! As, when a prince's nuptials are solem nised, 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, Ps. civ. 27, 29 ; the hills are said to leap, and the mountains to rejoice. 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 dishonour and reproach God hath in the world, they cannot but long for the restoration of his honour, in the restoration of the creature to its true end. And indeed
* Hyper, in Heb. i. f Mestrsezat sur Heb. i.
378 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. OIL 26, 27.
the angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state, and cannot hut 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, ver. 23, ' groaning,' and ' waiting for the adoption,' 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 crea tures 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.* If the creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man, they shall also par take of a happiness by the restoration of man. The earth hath both thorns and thistles and venomous beasts, the air hath had its tempests and infec tious qualities, the water hath caused its floods and deluges. The creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance, and been tyrannised 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 ; other wise 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 for ever into nothing ? It would seem, saith Daille, to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought them to a total destruction. An entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to creatures, who naturally have that instinct or 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 for ever ; 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 for ever ; 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 their due order, every one pointing to their true end, marching together in their excellency, accord ing 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, it is 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 ?
* Mestraezat sur. Heb. i.
PS. GIL 26, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 379
Since God can only rejoice in goodness, the creatures must have that good ness restored to them which God pronounced them to have at the first crea tion, 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.
Inf. 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 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 bo 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 rase 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.
Inf. 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 earth, the solidest and firmest parts of the creation, shall not continue in the posture they are, they must perish and undergo a refining change. How feeble and weak are the other parts of the creation, the little creatures walking upon and flutter ing 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 de spoiled 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 har mony, 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 Crea
tor 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 con temptible 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 con temptible 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 ex
pression ' thou shalt endure ;' his immutability in this, ' thou art the same.'* To endure, argues indeed this immutability as well as eternity ; for what endures is not changed, and what is changed doth not endure. But thou art the same ; NVF nDK, 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 shall be, but thou art the same, without any alteration; thou art the same, that is, the same God, the same
* Estius in Heb. i.
380 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. Gil. 26, 27.
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, 1 am* and doth not only ascribe im mutability to God, but exclude everything else from partaking in that per fection. 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 immoveable. 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 de cline to destruction, pass from one term to another till they come to their period ; or shall at the last 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.
Doct. God is unchangeable in his essence, nature, and perfections. Im mutability and eternity are linked together ; and indeed true eternity is true immutability, whence eternity is defined the possession of an immutable life. Yet immutability differs from eternity in our conception. Immutability re spects the essence or existence of a thing, eternity respects the duration of a being in that state ; or rather, immutability is the state itself, f eternity is the measure of that state. A thing is said to be changed, when it is other wise now in regard of nature, state, will, or any quality than it was before ; when either something is added to it or taken from it ; when it either loses or acquires. But now it is the essential property of God, not to have any accession to, or diminution of, his essence or attributes, but to remain entirely the same. He wants nothing, he loses nothing, but doth uniformly exist by himself, without any new nature, new thought, new will, new pur pose, or new place.
This unchangeableness of God was anciently represented by the figure of a cube,]; a piece of metal or wood framed four square ; when every side is exactly of the same equality, cast it which way you will, it will always be in the same posture, because it is equal to itself in all its dimensions. He was therefore said to be the centre of all things, and other things the circumfe
rence ; the centre is never moved while the circumference is ; it remains immoveable in the midst of the circle. * There is no variableness nor shadow
of turning with him,' James i. 17. The moon hath her spots, so hath the sun ; there is a mixture of light and darkness ; it hath its changes ; some times it is in the increase, sometimes in the wane ; it is always either gain ing or losing, and by the turnings and motions, either of the heavenly bodies
or of the earth, it is in its eclipse, by the interposition of the earth between that and the sun. The sun also hath its diurnal and annual motion ; it riseth and sets, and puts on a different face. It doth notalway shine with a noonday light ; it is sometimes vailed with clouds and vapours ; it is always going from one tropic to another, whereby it makes various shadows on the earth, and produceth the various seasons of the year ; it is not always in our hemisphere, nor doth it always shine with an equal force and brightness in it. Such shadows and variations have no place in the eternal Father of lights ; he hath not the least spot or diminution of brightness ; nothing can cloud him or eclipse him. For the better understanding this perfection of God,
* AXXo/wff.sw$ xgtirruv, above all change, Theodor. t Gamacheus. ' J Amy rant sur Heb. ix. p. 153.
PS. CII. 26, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 381
I shall premise three things. 1. The immutability of God is a perfection. Immutability considered in itself, without relation to other things, is not a perfection. It is the greatest misery and imperfection of the evil angels, that they are immutable in malice against God. But as God is infinite in essence, infinitely good, wise, holy ; so it is a perfection necessary to his nature, that he should be immutably all this ; all excellency, goodness, wisdom, immutably all that he is ; with out this he would be an imperfect being. Are not the angels in heaven, who are confirmed in a holy and happy state, more perfect than when they were in a possibility of committing evil and becoming miserable ? Are not the saints in heaven, whose wills by grace do unalterably cleave to God and goodness, more perfect than if they were as Adam in paradise, capable of
losing':their felicity as well as preserving it ? We count a rock, in regard of its stability, more excellent than the dust of the ground, or a feather that is tossed about with every wind. Is it not also the perfection of the body to have a constant tenor of health, and the glory of a man not to warp aside from what is just and right, by the persuasions of any temptations ?
2. Immutability is a glory belonging to all the attributes of God. It is not a single perfection of the divine nature, nor is it limited to particular objects thus and thus disposed. Mercy and justice have their distinct objects and distinct acts ; mercy is conversant about a penitent, justice con versant about an obstinate, sinner. In our notion and conception of the divine perfections, his perfections are different ; the wisdom of God is not his power, nor his power his holiness, but immutability is the centre wherein they all unite. There is not one perfection but may be said to be, and truly is, immutable ; none of them will appear so glorious without this beam, the sun of immutability, which renders them highly excellent without the least shadow of imperfection. How cloudy would his blessedness be if it were changeable ; how dim his wisdom if it might be obscured ; how feeble his power if it were capable to be sickly and languish ; how would mercy lose much of its lustre if it could change into wrath, and justice much of its dread if it could be turned into mercy, while the object of justice remains unfit for mercy, and one that hath need of mercy continues only fit for the divine fury ? But unchangeableness is a thread that runs through the whole web, it is the enamel of all the rest ; none of them without it could look with a triumphant aspect. His power is unchangeable : Isa. xxvi. 4, ' In the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength ;' his mercy and his holiness endure for ever; he never could, nor ever can, look upon iniquity, Hab. i. 13 : he is a rock in the righteousness of his ways, the truth of his word, the holiness of his proceedings, and the rectitude of his nature. All are expressed: Deut.
xxxii. 4, « He is a rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment ; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right he is.' All that we con sider in God is unchangeable, for his essence and his properties are the same, and therefore what is necessarily belonging to the essence of God belongs also to every perfection of the nature of God ; none of them can receive any addition or diminution. From the unchangeableness of his nature the apostle James, chap. i. 17, infers the unchangeableness of his holiness, and himself in Mai. iii. 6, the unchangeableness of his counsel. r; 3. Unchangeableness doth necessarily pertain to the nature of God. It is of the same necessity with the rectitude of his nature ; he can no more be changeable in his essence than he can be unrighteous in his actions. God is a necessary being ; he is necessarily what he is, and therefore is unchange ably what he is. Mutability belongs to contingency ; if any perfection of his nature could be separated from him, he would cease to be God ; what
CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. Oil. 26, 27.
did not possess the whole nature of God could not have the essence of God ; it is reciprocated with the nature of God. Whatsoever is immutable by nature, is God ; whatsoever is God, is immutable by nature. Some creatures
are immutable by his grace and power ; * God is holy, happy, wise, good by his essence ; angels and men are made holy, wise, happy, strong, and good by qualities and graces. The holiness, happiness, and wisdom of saints and angels, as they had a beginning, so they are capable of increase and diminution, and of an end also ; for their standing is not from themselves, or from the nature of created strength, holiness, or wisdom, which in them selves are apt to fail and finally to decay, but from the stability and confirma tion they have by the gift and grace of God. The heaven and earth shall be changed, and after that renewal and reparation they shall not be changed.
Our bodies after the resurrection shall not be changed, but for ever be 'made conformable to the glorious body of Christ,' Philip, iii. 21 ; but this is by the powerful grace of God : so that, indeed, those things may be said afterwards rather to be unchanged than unchangeable, because they are not so by nature, but by sovereign dispensation ; as creatures have not necessary beings, so they have not necessary immutability. Necessity of being, and, therefore, immutability of being, belongs by nature to God ; otherwise, if there were any change in God, he would be sometimes what he was not, and would cease to be what he was, which is against the nature, and, indeed, against the natural notion of a Deity. Let us see then,
I. In what regards God is immutable. II. Prove that God is immutable.
III. That this is proper to God and incommunicable to any creature. IV. Some propositions to clear the unchangeableness of God from any thing that seems contrary to it.
V. The use.
I. First, In what respects God is unchangeable. . 1. God is unchangeable in his essence. He is unalterably fixed in his being, that not a particle of it can be lost from it, nor a mite added to it.
If a man continue in being as long as Methuselah, nine hundred and sixtynine j^ears, yet there is not a day, nay, an hour, wherein there is not some alteration in his substance ; though no substantial part is wanting, yet there is an addition to him by his food, a diminution of something by his labour; he is always making some acquisition or suffering some loss ; but in God there can be no alteration by the accession of anything to make his sub stance greater or better, or by diminution to make it less or worse ; he who hath no being from another cannot but be always what he is. God is the first being, an independent being ; he was not produced of himself, or of any other, but by nature always hath been, and therefore cannot by himself, or by any other, be changed from what he is in his own nature : that which is not may as well assume to itself a being, as he, who hath and is all being, have the least change from what he is. Again, because he is a Spirit, he is not subject to those mutations which are found in corporeal and bodily natures ; because he is an absolutely simple Spirit, not having the least particle of composition, he is not capable of those changes which may be in created spirits.
(1.) If his essence were mutable, God would not truly be. It could not be truly said by himself, / am that I am,, Exod. iii. 14, if he were such a thing or being at this time, and a different being at another time. What soever is changed properly is not, because it doth not remain to be what it
* Archbold. Serm.
PS. Oil. 26, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 383
was ; that which is changed was something, is something, and will be some thing ; a being remains to that thing which is changed, yet, though it may be said such a thing is, yet it may be also said such a thing is not, because it is not what it was in its first being ; it is not now what it was, it is now what it was not ; it is another thing than it was, it was another thing than it is ; it will be another thing than what it is or was ; it is indeed a being, but a
different being from what it was before. But if God were changed, it could not be said of him that he is, but it might also be said of him that fie is not; or, if he were changeable or could be changed, it might be said of him he is, but he will not be what he is ; or he may not be what he is, but there will be or may be some difference in his being, and so God would not be I am that I am ; for though he would not cease utterly to be, yet he would cease to be what he was before.
(2.) Again, If his essence were mutable, he could not be perfectly blessed, and fully rejoice in himself. If he changed for the better, he could not have an infinite pleasure in what he was before the change, because he was not infinitely blessed, and the pleasure of that state could not be of a higher kind than the state itself, or at least the apprehension of a happiness in it ; if he changed for the worse, he could not have a pleasure in it after the change ; for according to the diminution of his state would be the decrease of his pleasure. His pleasure could not be infinite before the change if he changed for the better ; it could not be infinite after the change if he changed for the worse. If he changed for the better, he would not have had an infinite goodness of being before ; and not having an infinite goodness of being, he would have a finite goodness of being ; for there is no medium between finite and infinite. Then though the change were for the better, yet being finite before, something would be still wanting to make him infinitely blessed ; because being finite, he could not change to that which is infinite ; for finite and infinite are extremes so distant, that they can never pass into one another; that is, that that which is finite should become infinite, or that which is infinite should become finite ; so that supposing him mutable, his essence in no state of change could furnish him with an infinite peace and blessedness.
(3.) Again, if God's essence be changed, he either increaseth or diminisheth.* Whatsoever is changed doth either gain by receiving something larger and greater than it had in itself before, or gains nothing by being changed. If the former, then it receives more than itself, more than it had in itself before. The divine nature cannot be increased ; for whatsoever receives anything than what it had in itself before, must necessarily receive it from another, because nothing can give to itself that which it hath not ;
but God cannot receive from another what he hath not already, because whatsoever other things possess is derived from him, and therefore contained
in him, as the fountain contains the virtue in itself which it conveys to the streams, so that God cannot gain anything. If a thing that is changed gain nothing by that change, it loseth something of what it had before in itself, and this loss must be by itself or some other. God cannot receive any loss from anything in himself; he cannot will his own diminution; that is repugnant to every nature. He may as well will his own destruction as his own decrease ; every decrease is a partial destruction ; but it is impossible for God to die any kind of death, to have any resemblance of death, for he
is immortal, and * only hath immortality,' 1 Tim. vi. 16, therefore impossible to be diminished in any particle of his essence ; nor can he be diminished by anything in his own nature, because his infinite simplicity admits of
* Hugo Victorin. in Petavio.
384 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GIL 26, 27.
nothing distinct from himself, or contrary to himself. All decreases come, from something contrary to the nature of that thing which doth decrease. Whatsoever is made less than itself was not truly unum, one and simple, because that which divides itself in separation was not the same in con junction. Nor can he be diminished by any other without himself, because
nothing is superior to God, nothing stronger than God which can oppress him ; but whatsoever is changed, is weaker than that which changeth it, and sinks under a power it cannot successfully resist; weakness belongs not
to the Deity.* Nor, lastly, can God change from a state wherein he is to another state equal to the former, as men in some cases may do ; for in passing from one state to another equal to it, something must be parted with which he had before, that some other thing may accrue to him as a recompence for that loss, to make him equal to what he was. This recompence then he had not before, though he had something equal to it ; and in this case it could not be said by God, I am that I am, but I am equal to what I was ; for in this case there would be a diminution and increase which (as was shewed) cannot be in God.
(4.) Again, God is of himself, from no other.f Natures, which are made by God, may increase, because they began to be ; they may decrease, because they were made of nothing, and so tend to nothing ; the condition of their originals leads them to defect, and the power of their Creator brings them to increase. But God hath no original, he hath no defect, because he was not made of nothing ; he hath no increase, because he had no beginning ; he was before all things, and therefore depends upon no other thing which by its own change can bring any change upon him.| That which is from itself cannot be changed, because it hath nothing before it, nothing more excellent than itself; but that which is from another, as its first cause and chief good, may be changed by that which was its efficient cause and last end.
2. God is immutable in regard of knowledge. God hath known from all eternity all that which he can know, so that nothing is hid from him ; he knows not at present any more than he hath known from eternity, and that which he knows now, he always knows : ' All things are open and naked before him,' Heb. iv. 13. A man is said to be changed in regard of know ledge, when he knows that now which he did not know before, or knows that to be false now which he thought true before, or hath something for the object of his understanding now, which he had not before ; but
(1.) This would be repugnant to the wisdom and omniscience which be longs to the notion of a Deity. That cannot be God that is not infinitely wise ; that cannot be infinitely wise that is either ignorant of or mistaken in his apprehension of any one thing. If God be changed in knowledge, it must be for want of wisdom : all change of this nature in creatures implies this defect preceding or accompanying it. Such a thought of God would
have been unworthy of him that is ' only wise,' that hath no mate for wis dom, 1 Tim. i. 17, none wise besides himself. If he knew that thing this day which he knew not before, he would not be an only wise being, for a being that did know everything at once might be conceived, and so a wiser being be apprehended by the mind of man. If God understood a thing at one time which he did not at another, he would be changed from ignorance to knowledge ; as, if he could not do that this day which he could do to morrow, he would be changed from impotence to power. He could not be always omniscient, because there might be yet something still to come which
* Victorinus in Petavio. £ Petav. torn. i. p. 817. t Austin. Fulgen in Petavio.
PS. CII. 26, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 401
event which was not foreseen, or upon an after knowledge of the evil of the thing which was acted by the person repenting. But God is so wise that he cannot err, so holy he cannot do evil, and his certain prescience or foreknowledge secures him against any unexpected events. God doth not act but upon clear and infallible reason. And a change upon passion is accounted by all so great a weakness in man, that none can entertain so unworthy a conceit of God. Where he is said to repent, Gen. vi. 6, he is also said to grieve ; now no proper grief can be imagined to be in God. As repentance is inconsistent with infallible foresight, so is grief no less incon
sistent with undenled blessedness : ' God is blessed for ever,' Bom. ix. 8, and therefore nothing can befall him that can stain that blessedness ; his blessedness would be impaired and interrupted, while he is repenting,
though he did soon rectify that which is the cause of his repentance : * God is of one mind, and who can turn him? what his soul desires, that he doth,' Job xxiii. 13.
2. But God accommodates himself in the Scripture to our weak capacity. God hath no more of a proper repentance than he hath of a real body : though he, in accommodation to our weakness, ascribes to himself the members of our bodies to set out to our understanding the greatness of his perfections, we must not conclude him a body like us ; so, because he is said to have anger and repentance, we must not conclude him to have pas sions like us. When we cannot fully comprehend him as he is, he clothes himself with our nature in his expressions, that we may apprehend him as we are able, and, by an inspection into ourselves, learn something of the nature of God ; yet those human ways of speaking ought to be understood in a manner agreeable to the infinite excellency and majesty of God, and are only designed to mark out something in God which hath a resemblance with some thing in us. As we cannot speak to God as gods, but as men, so we cannot understand him speaking to us as a God, unless he condescends to speak to us like a man. God therefore frames his language to our dulness, not to his own state, and informs us, by our own phrases, what he would have us learn of his nature, as nurses talk broken language to young children. In all such expressions, therefore, we must ascribe the perfection we conceive in them to God, and lay the imperfection at the door of the creature.
3. Therefore repentance in God is only a change of his outward conduct, according to his infallible foresight and immutable will. He changes the
way of his providential proceeding according to the carriage of the creature, without changing his will, which is the rule of his providence. When God speaks of his repenting that he had made man, Gen. vi. 6, it is only his chang ing his conduct from a way of kindness to a way of severity, and is a word suited to our capacities, to signify his detestation of sin and his resolution to punish it, after man had made himself quite another thing than God had made him. « It repents me,' that is, I am purposed to destroy the world, as he that repents of his work throws it away ; * as if a potter cast away the vessel he had framed, it were a testimony that he repented that ever he took pains about it ; so the destruction of them seems to be a repentance in God that ever he made them, it is a change of events, not of counsels.
Repentance in us is a grief for a former fact, and a changing of our course in it. Grief is not in God,f but his repentance is a willing a thing should not be as it was, which will was fixed from eternity ; for, God foreseeing man would fall, and decreeing to permit it, he could not be said to repent in time of what he did not repent from eternity ; and, therefore, if there were no repentance in God from eternity, there could be none in time ; but
* Mercer in loc. t Petavius Theol. Dogmat VOL. I. 0 C
402 ' CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. GIL 26, 27.
God is said to repent when he changes the disposition of affairs without himself; as men when they repent alter the course of their actions, so God alters things extra se, or without himself, but changes nothing of his own purpose within himself ; it rather notes the action he is about to do than
anything in his own nature, or any change in his eternal purpose. God's repenting of his kindness is nothing but an inflicting of punishment, which the creature, by the change of his carriage, hath merited ; as his repenting
of the evil threatened is the withholding the punishment denounced, when the creature hath humbly submitted to his authority and acknowledged his crime.
Or else we may understand those expressions of joy, and grief, and re
pentance to signify thus much,* that the things declared to be the objects of joy, and grief, and repentance are of that nature that if God were capable of our passions he would discover himself in such cases as we do ; as when the prophets mention the joys and applaudings of heaven, earth, and the sea, they only signify that the things they speak of are so good, that, if the heavens and the sea had natures capable of joy, they would express it upon that occasion in such a manner as we do ; so would God have joy at the obedience of men, and grief at the unworthy carriage of men, and repent of his kindness when men abuse it, and repent of his punishment when men reform under his rod, were the majesty of his nature capable of such affections.
Prop. 4. The not fulfilling of some predictions in Scripture, which seem to imply a changeableness of the divine will, do not argue any change in it. As when he reprieved Hezekiah from death, after a message sent by the prophet Isaiah that he should die, 2 Kings xx. 1, 5, Isa. xxxviii. 1, 5, and when he made an arrest of that judgment he had threatened by Jonah against Nineveh, Jonah iii. 4, 10.
There is not, indeed, the same reason of promises and threatenings alto gether, for in promising the obligation lies upon God, and the right to de mand is in the party that performs the condition of the promise ; but in
threatenings the obligation lies upon the sinner, and God's right to punish is declared thereby ; so that, though God doth not punish, his will is not changed, because his will was to declare the demerit of sin, and his right to punish upon the commission of it, though he may not punish, according to the strict letter of the threatening, the person sinning, but relax his own law for the honour of his attributes, and transfer the punishment from the offender to a person substituted in his room ; this was the case in the first threatening against man, and the substituting a surety in the place of the malefactor.
But the answer to these cases is this,f that where we find predictions in Scripture declared and yet not executed, we must consider them not as absolute, but conditional, or, as the civil law calls it, an interlocutory sentence. God declared what would follow by natural causes, or by the de merit of man, not what he would absolutely himself do ; and in many of those predictions, though the condition be not expressed, yet it is to be understood ; so the promises of God are to be understood with the condi
tion of perseverance in well-doing, and threatenings with a clause of revoca tion annexed to them, provided that men repent. And this God lays down as a general case, alway to be remembered as a rule for the interpreting his threatenings against a nation, and the same reason will hold in threaten ings against a particular person : Jer. xviii. 7-10, * At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up,
* Daille, in Sermon on 2 Peter iii. 9, p. 60. t Rivet in Genes, exercita. 61, p. 213.
PS. GEE. 26, 27.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 403
and pull down, and destroy it ; if that nation against whom I have pro nounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do
unto them ; ' and so, when he speaks of planting a nation, if they do evil he will repent of the good, &c. It is a universal rule by which all particular
cases of this nature are to be tried, so that when man's repentance arrives, God remains firm in his first will, always equal to himself, and it is not he that changes, but man ; for since the interposition of the mediator, with an eye to whom God governed the world after the fall, the right of punishing was taken off if men repented, and mercy was to flow out, if, by a conversion, men returned to their duty, Ezek. xviii. 20, 21. This I say is grounded