First, he hath laid the shoulders of the unchangeableness of his own nature to this work : Mai. iii. 6, " I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." These "sons of
II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NA.TURE. 121
Jacob" are the sons of the faith of Jacob, the Israel of God, not all the seed of Jacob according to the flesh/ The Holy Ghost in this pro- phecy makes an eminent distinction between these two, chap. iii. 16", 17, iv. 1, 2. The beginning of this chapter contains a most evident and clear prediction and prophecy of the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ in the gospel, wherein he was to purge his floor, and throw out the chaff to be burned, Matt. iii. 1 2. This his appearance makes great work in the visible church of the Jews, Very many of those who looked and waited for that coming of his are cut off and cast out, as persons that have neither lot nor portion in the mercy where- with it is attended.^ Though they said within themselves that they had Abraham to their father, and were the children and posterity of Jacob, yet, Mai. iii. 5, to them who are only the carnal seed, and do also walk in the ways of the flesh, he threatens a sore revenge and swift destruction, when others shall be invested with all the eminent mercies which the Lord Christ brings along with him. Lest the true sons of Jacob should be terrified with the dread of the approaching day, and say, as David ^ did when the Lord made a breach upon Uzzah, " Who can stand before so holy a God ? shall not lue also in the issue be consumed?" he discovereth to them the foundation of their preservation to the end, even the unchangeableness of his own nature and being, whereunto his love to them is conformed; plainly intimating that unless himself and his everlasting deity be subject and liable to alteration and change (which once to imagine were, what lieth in us, to cast him down from his excellency), it could not be that they should be cast off for ever and consumed. These are the tribes of Jacob and the preserved of Israel, which Jesus Christ was sent to raise up, Isa. xlix. 6 ; the house of Jacob, which he takes from the womb, and carries unto old age, unto hoary hairs, and for- saketh not, chap. xlvi. 3, 4.
This is confirmed, James i. 16-lS, " Do not err, my beloved breth- ren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." He begets us of his own will by the word of truth ; for whatsoever men do pretend, we are born again, " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John i. 13. " Now herein," saith the apostle, " we do receive from him good and perfect gifts, — gifts distinguished from the common endowments of others." Yea, but they are failing ones perhaps, such as may flourish for a season, and be but children of a night, like Jonah's gourd. Though God hath begotten us of his own will, and bestowed good and per-
• Rom. ix. 6, xi. 4-6. 2 Isa. xlix. 3-6 ; Luke ii. 34 ; Eom. ix. 30, 31.
3 The expression was used not by David in reference to Uzzah, but by the men of Beth-shemesh. See 1 Sam. vi. 20. — Ed.
122 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCR [CHAP.
feet gifts upon us, yet he may cast us off for ever. " Do not err, my beloved brethren," saith the apostle ; " these things come from the ' Father of lights/ God himself is tlie fountain of all liii^hts of grace which we have received ; and with him ' there is no variableness, nei- ther shadow of turning,' — not the least appearance of any change or alteration." And if the apostle did not in this place argue from the immutability of the divine nature to the unchangeableness of his love towards those whom he hath begotten and bestowed such light and grace upon, there were no just reason of mentioning that attribute and property there.
Hence, Rom. xi. 29, the " gifts and calling of God" are said to be " without repentance." The gifts of his effectual calling {h Bia BvoTv) shall never be repented of They are from Him Avith whom there is no change.
The words are added by the apostle to give assurance of the cer- tain accomplishment of the purpose of God towards the remnant of the Jews according to the election of grace. What the principal mercies were that were in God's intendment to them, and whereof by their effectual calling they shall be made partakers, he tells us, verses 26, 27 : the Deliverer or Redeemer, which comes out of Sion, shall, according to the covenant of grace, turn them from ungodli- ness, the Lord taking away their sins. Sanctification and jxistification by Christ, the two main branches of the new covenant (Jer. xxxi. 31-34, xxxii. 38-40 ; Ezek. xxxvL 25-28 ; Heb. viii. 8-12, x. 16, 17), do make up the mercy purposed for them. The certainty of the collation of this mercy upon them, notwithstanding the interposition of any present obstruction (amongst which then' enmity to the gospel was most eminent, and lay ready to be objected), the apostle argueth from the unchangeableness of the love of election, wherewith the Lord embraced them from eternity : " As touching the election, they are beloved." And farther to manifest on that account the fulfilling of what he is in the proof and demonstration of, — namely, that though the major part of "Israel according to the flesh" were rejected, yet that the " election should obtain, and all Israel be saved," — he tells them that that calling of God, whereby he will make out to them those eternally-designed mercies, shall not be repented of; eminently in that assertion distinguishing the grace whereof he speaks from all such common gifts and such outward dispensations as might be subject to a removal from them on whom they are bestowed. And if, upon any supposition or consideration imaginable, the mercies mentioned may be taken away, the assertion comes very short of the proof of that for which it is produced.