I. Unchangeable in his nature : 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No pe- riod put to his being.
1. No eclipse of his brightness : his es- sence shines with a fixed lustre, James i. 17., " W'llh whom is no variableness, nei- ther shadow of turning ;" Ps. cii. 27., " Thou art the same." All created things are full of vicissitudes : 1. Princes and em- perors are subject to mutation. Sesostris, an Egyptian prince, having subdued divers kings in war, made them draw like horses in his cliaviot, as if he intended to turn them to eat grass, as God did king Nebu- chadnezzar. The crown hath many suc-
cessors.— 2. Kingdoms have their eclipses and convulsions : What is become of the glory of Athens ? The pomp of Troy ? Jam seges est ubi Troja full I Kingdoms, though they have a head of gold, yet feet of clay. — 3. The heavens change, Ps. cii. 26., " As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." The matter of the elements, as it is more pure, so more firm and solid ; the heavens are the most ancient records, wliere God hath written his glory witli a sunbeam, yet these shall change ; though I do not think they shall be destroyed as to their substance, yet they shall be changed as to their qualities ; they shall melt with fervent heat, 2 Pet. iii. 12., and so be more refined and purified. Thus the heavens shall be changed, but not he who dwells in heaven • " With him there
GOD'S UNCIIANGEABLENESS.
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is no variableness, nor shadow ot turning." — 4. The best s§,ints liuve their eclipses and changes. Look upon a Christian in his spiritual estate, and he is full of variation. Though the seed of grace doth not die, yet the beauty and activity of it doth often wi- ther. A Christian liath his aguish fits in religion ; sometimes his faith is at an high tide, sometimes low ebb ; sometimes his love flames, and at another time like fire in the embers, and he hath lost his first love. How strong was David's grace at one time, 2 Sam. xxii. 3., " The God of my rock, in him will I trust !" And at another time, " I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul." What Christian can say he doth not find a change in his graces : that the bow of his faith doth never unbend, the strings of his viol do never slacken ? Sure we shall never meet with such Christians till we meet with them in heaven ! But God is without any shadow of turning. — 5. The angels were subject to change ; they were created holy, but mutable. Judo 6., " The angels which kept not their first e- state." These morning-stars of heaven were falling stars. But God's glory shines with a fixed brightness. In God there is nothing looks like a change, — no better or worse ; no better in him, because then he were not perfect ; nor worse in him, for then he should cease to be perfect. He is immutably holy, immutably good, there is no shadow of change in him.
Obj. Christ, who is God, assumed the hximan nature, here was a change.
Ans. If indeed the divine nature had been converted into the human, — or the human into the divine, — here had been a chan^'e, but not so. The human nature was distinct from the divine, therefore there was no change. As suppose a cloud over the sun, this makes no change in the body of the sun ; so, though the divine na- ture be covered with the human, this makes no change in the divine nature.
II. There is no period put to his being : 1 Tim. vi. 16., '' Who only hath immor- tality." The Godhead cannot die: 1. An infinite essence cannot be changed into fi- nite ; but God is infinite. 2. He is eter- nal, ergo he is not mortal ; to be eternal, and mortal, is a contradiction.
Use 1st. Hec here the excellency of the di- vine nature in its immutability : tMs is the glory of the Godhead. Mutableness denotes weakness ; it is not so in God, he is " the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. Men are fickle and mutable, like Reuben, " unstable as water," Gen. xlix. 4. They go in changeable colours.
1. They are changeable in their princi- ples,— sometimes protestant, sometimes pa- pist ; if their faces altered as fast as their opinions, we should not know them.
2. Changeable in their resolutions ; as the wind that blows in the east, presently turns about to the west. They resolve to be virtuous, but quickly repent of their re- solutions ; their minds are like a sick man's pulse, alter every half-hour ; these the a- postle compares to ' waves of the sea,' and ' wandering stars,' Jude 13. ; they are not pillars in God's temple, but reeds.
3. Others are changeable in their friend- ship,— quickly love, and quickly hate ; sometimes will put you in their bosom, then excommunicate you out of their fa- vour ; thus they change as the cameleon in- to several colours. But God is immutable^