Isa. xl. 27-31, "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his under- standing. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; the}^ shall Avalk, and not faint." Verse 27, Jacob and Israel make a double com- plaint, both parts of it manifesting some fear or dread of separation from God; for though in general it could not be so, yet in parti- cular believers under temptation may question their own condition, with their right unto and interest in all the things whereby their state and glory is safeguarded. " My way," say they, " is hid from the Lord;" — " The Lord takes no more notice, sets his heart no more upon my way, my walking, but lets me go and pass on as a stranger to him." And farther, " My judgment is passed over from my God ;" — " Mine enemies prevail, lusts and corruptions are strong, and God doth not ajipcar in my behalf ; judgment is not executed on
II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 127
them, and what will be the issue of this my sad estate?" What the Lord proposeth and holdeth out unto them, for their establishment in this condition, and to assure them that what they feared should not come upon them, he ushers in by an effectual expostulation : Verse 28, "Hast thou not known?" — "Hast thou not found it true by experience ? " " Hast thou not heard ? " — " Hast not thou been taught it by the saints that went before thee?" What it is he would have them take notice of, and which he so pathetically insinuates into their understandings and affections, for their establishment, is an exurgency of that description of himself which he gives, verse 28: from his eternity, — He is " the everlasting God;" from his j^ower, — He is " the Creator of the ends of the earth ;" from his uncliange- ahleness, — " He fainteth not," he waxeth not weary, and therefore there is no reason he should relinquish or give over any design that he hath undertaken, especially considering that he lays all his pur- poses in that whereby he describes himself in the last place, even his vjisdom, — " There is no end of his understanding." He establisheth, I say, their faith upon this fourfold description of himself, or revela- tion of these four attributes of his nature, as engaged for the effect- ing of that which he encourageth them to expect. - " Who is it, O Jacob, with whom thou hast to do, that thou shouldst fear or com- plain that thou art rejected? He is eternal, almighty, unchange- able, infinitely wise; and if he be engaged in any way of doing thee good, who can turn him aside, that he should not accomplish all his pleasure towards thee? He will work; who shall let him?" It must be either want of wisdom and foresight to lay a design, or want of power to execute it, that exposeth any one to variableness in any un- dertaking. Therefore, that they may see how unlikely, how impossible a thing it is that " their way should be hid from the LoitD," and " their judgment passed over from their God," he acquaints them who and what he is who hath undertaken to the contrary. But, alas ! they are poor, faint creatures : they have no might, no strength to walk with God ; unstable as water, they cannot excel ; it is impossible they should hold out in the way wherein they are engaged unto the end. To obviate or remove such fears and misgiving thoughts, he lets them know, verse 29, that though they have, or may have, many decays (for they often faint, they often fail, whereof we have ex- amples and complaints in the Scripture, made lively by our own experience), yet from him they shall have supplies to preserve them from that which they fear. He is eternal, almighty, unchangeable, and infinitely wise ; he will give out power and increase strength when they faint and in tliemselves have no might at all. The Lord doth not propose himself under all these considerations to let them know what he is in himself only, but also that he will exert (and act suitably to) these properties in dealmg with them, and
128 DOCTRINE OF THR SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
making out supplies unto them, notwithstanding all their misgiving thoughts, which arise from the consideration of their own faintings and total want of might. Though in themselves they are weak and faint, yet their springs are in him, and their supplies from him, who is such as he hath here described himself to be. Hereupon, also, he anticipates an objection, by way of concession : Verse 30, " Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." Men that seem to have a great stock of strength and ability may yet fail and perish utterly; — an objection which, as I formerly observed, these days have given great force unto. We see many who seem to have the vigour of youth and the strength of young men in the ways of God, that have fainted in their course and utterly failed; they began to run well, but lay down almost at the entrance. " And be it so," saith the Lord; " it shall so come to pass indeed. Many that go out in their own strength shall so fall and come to nothing: but what is that to thee, O Jacob, my chosen, thou that waitest upon the Lord? The unchangeable God will so make out strength to thee, that thou shalt never utterly faint, nor give over, but abide flying, running, walking, with speed, strength, and steadfastness, unto the end," verse 31. That expression, "They that wait upon the Lord," is a description of the persons to whom the promise is made, and not a condition of the promise itself It is not, " If they wait upon the Lord," but " They that wait upon the Lord." If it were a condition of this promise, there were nothing promised; it is only said, " If they wait on the Lord, they shall wait on the Lord." But of the vanity of such conditionals I shall speak afterward.