3. Carry yourselves to him as unto an immutable good ; in the greatest change of things see him always the same : when there is little in the creature, there is as much in God as ever : Ps. cii. 26, 27, ' They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; they shall all wax old as a garment: thou art the same for ever, and thy years have no end.' All creatures vanish, not only like a piece of cloth, but like a garment. Cloth would rot of itself, or be eaten out by moths ; but a garment is worn and wasted every day. But God doth not change ; there is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity ; the arm of mercy is not dried up,, nor do his bowels of love waste and spend themselves. And truly this is the church's comfort in the saddest condition, that however the face of the creatures be changed to them, God will be still the same. It is said somewhere, that ' the name of God is as an ointment poured out.' Certainly this name of God's immutability is as an ointment poured out, the best cordial to refresh a fainting soul. When the Israelites were in distress, all the letters of credence that God would give Moses were those, Exod. iii. 14, ' I am that I am hath sent me unto you.' That was comfort enough to the Israelites, that their God remained in the same tenor and glory of the divine essence ; he could still say / A 31. With God is no change, no past or present ; he remaineth in the same indivisible point of eternity; and therefore saith, I A 31. So the prophet Malachi iii. G, eyo) Kvpto<i, ovk ijWoM/jiai, ' I am the Lord, that change not ' (or am not changed) ; ' therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.' Our .safety lieth in God's immutability ; we cannot ])erish utterly, because he cannot change.
Ver. 18. Of his own <jood-iuill begat he n.s,hy the luord of truth, iliat we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.
The apostle showeth that his main aim was to set forth God as the author of spiritual gifts, and therefore inslanceth in regeneration.
Of his own good-will, /SovXijdel^;. — Because he would, or being willing. The word is put : — (1.) To deny compulsion or necessity :
JaS. I. 18.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 115
God needed not to save any; and (2.) To exclude merit; we could not oblige him to it, it was merely the good pleasure of God ; for this jSovXrjOek is equivalent to that which Paul calleth evooKia, the natural bent, purpose, and inclination of God's heart to do the creatures good : Eph. i. n , it is called ' the counsel of his will,' and elsewhere ' abundant mercy ; ' 1 Pet. i. 3, ' Out of his abundant mercy he hath begotten us to a lively hope ; ' in other places ' the pleasure of the Father.'
Begat he us. — A word that properly importeth natural generation, and sometimes it is put for creation ; and so as we are men we are said to be his yevo^, ' his offspring,' Acts xvii. 28 ; and indeed so some take it here, applying these words to God's creating and forming us, and making men to be his first-fruits, or the choicest piece in the whole creation ; or, as Zoroaster called him, ToX/iT^poTar??? tj}? ^va€co<; ayaX/jia, the masterpiece of over-daring nature. But this is beside the scope ; for he speaketh of such a begetting as is ' by the word of truth/ which, in the next verse, he maketh to be an argument of more conscience and sense of the duty of hearing ; therefore begetting is put to imply the work of grace upon our souls. The same metaphor is elsewhere used : 1 Peter i. 23 ' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth for ever ;' so 1 Peter i. 3, ' Begotten to a lively hope.' I have brought these two places to show you the two parts in the work of grace ; the one is qua regeneramur, by which w^e are begotten, the other quel renascimur, by which we are born again; the one is God's act purely, the other implieth the manifestation of life in ourselves ; a distinction that serveth to clear some controversies in religion : but I go on with my work.
By the ivord of truth. — Here is the instrument noted. Those that refer this verse to the creation, understand it of Jesus Christ, who is the eternal uncreated Word of the Father, and by him were all things made ; see John i. 1,2; Heb. i. 3, &c. ; but clearly it is meant of the gospel, which is often called ' the word of truth,' and is the ordinary means whereby God begettetli us to himself.
That ive shouldhe a kind of first-fruits of Ms creatures. — Those that apply the verse to the creation say the apostle meaneth here that man was the choicest, chiefest part of it ; for all things were subjected to him, and put under his feet, Ps. viii. But I conceive it noteth rather the dignity and prerogative of the regenerate ; for as it was the privilege of the first-fruits of all the sheaves to be consecrated, so believers and converts among all men were set aside for the uses and purposes of God. The first-fruits of all things were the Lord's : — (1.) Partly to testify his right in that people ; (2.) Partly for a witness of their thankfulness ; they having received all from him, were to give him this acknowledgment : Prov. iii. 9, ' Honour the Lord with thy sub- stance, and with the fir.-^t-fruils of thy increase ;' this was the honour and homage they were to do to God. Now this is everywhere attributed to the people of God ; as to Israel, because they were God's peculiar people, called out from all the nations : Jer. ii. 3, ' The first-fruits of his increase is holiness to the Lord ; ' that is, of all people they were dedicated to God. So the holy worshippers, figured by those vu-gins in Eev. xiv. 4, are said to be ' redeemed from among men. to