Isa. xlvi. 9-11, The Holy Ghost speaks expressly to our purpose: " Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my plea- sure : calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth ray counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." Verse 9, the Lord asserts his own deity and eternal being, in opposition to all false gods and idols, whom he threatens to destroy, verse 1. Of this he gives them a threefold demonstration : —
First, From his prescience or foreknoicledge : " There is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done;" — " In tins am I infinitely discrimi- nated from all the pretended deities of the nations. All things from the beginning to the end are naked before me, and I have declared them by my prophets, even things that are future and contingent in ■ Matt. xi. 26 ; 1 Cor. i. 2G-28 ; James ii. 5 : 2 Tira. ii. 10.
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 145
themselves. So are the things that I now speak of. The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians is a thing to be carried on through innumerable contingencies ; and yet as I have seen it so have I told it, and my counsel concerning it shall certainly be executed."
Secondly, By his power, in using what instruments he pleaseth for the executing of his purposes and bringing about his own designs: " Calling a ravenous bird from the east ;" — one that at first, when he went against Babylon, thought of nothing less than executing the counsel of God, but was wholly bent upon satisfying his own rapine and ambition, not knowing then in the least by whom he was anointed and sanctified for the accomplishment of his will. All the thoughts of his heart, all his consultations and actions, all his pro- gresses and diversions, his success in his great and dreadful under- taking, to break in pieces that " hammer of the whole earth," with all the free deliberations and contingencies wherewith his long war was attended, which were as many, strong, and various, as the nature of things is capable to receive, were not only in every individual act, with its minutest circumstances, by him foreseen, and much also fore- told, but also managed in the hand of his power in a regular subser- vience to that call which he so gave that "ravenous bird" for the ac- complishment of his purpose and pleasure.^
Thirdly, By the immutability of his purposes, which can never be frustrated nor altered: " My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; — I have purposed it, and I will also do it." The stand- ing, or fixedness and unchangeableness, of his counsel, he manifests by the accomphshment of the things which therein he had deter- mined ; neither is there any salve for his immutability in his counsel, should it otherwise fall out. And if we may take his own testimon}' of himself, what he purposeth, that he doth ; and in the actual ful- filling and the bringing about of things themselves purposed, and as purposed, without any possibility of diversion from the real end in- tended, is their stability and unchangeableness in them manifested. An imaginary immutability in God's purposes, which may consist and be preserved under their utter frustration as to the fulfilling of the things themselves under which they are, the Scripture knows not, neither can reason conceive. Now, this unchangeableness of his purposes the Lord brings as one demonstration of his deity; and those who make them liable to alteration, upon any account or sup- position whatsoever, do depress him, what in them lies, into the number of such dung-hill gods as he threatens to famish and destroy.
Ps. xxxiii. 9-11, " He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and
it stood fast. The Loed bringeth the counsel of the heathen to
nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The
counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all
' Jer. 1. li. ; Isa. xliv. 25-28.
VOL. XL 10
14G DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCK [CIIAP.
generations/' The production and establishment of all things in that order wherein they are, are by the psalmist ascribed to the will and power of God. By his word and command they not only are, but stand fast; being fixed in that order by him appointed. Both the making, fixing, and sustaining of all things, is by " the word of his power." As tlie first relates to their being, which they have from creation, so the other to the order in subsistence and operation, which relates to his actual providence. Herein they stand fast. Them- selves, with their several and respective relations, dependencies, in- fluences, Circumstances, suited to that nature and being which was bestowed on them by his word in their creation, are settled in an exact correspondency to his purposes (of which afterward), not to be shaken or removed.^ Men have their devices and counsels also, they are free agents, and work by counsel and advice; and therefore God hath not set all things so fast as to overturn and overbear them in their imaginations and undertakings. Saith the psalmist, " They imagine and devise indeed, but their counsel is of nought, and their devices are of none effect; but the counsel of the Lord/' etc. The counsel and purposes of the Lord are set in opposition to the counsel and purposes of men, as to alteration, change, and frustration, in respect of the actual accomplishment of the things about which they are. "Their counsels are so and so ; but the counsel of the Lord shall stand." He that shall cast verse 11 into verse 10, and say, " The counsel of the Lord, that comes to nought, and the thoughts of his heart are of none effect," let him make what pretences he will or flourishes that he can, or display what supposals and conditions he pleaseth, he will scarcely be able to keep the field against him who will contend with him about His prerogative and glory. And this antithesis between the counsels of men and the purposes of God upon the account of unchangeableness is again confirmed, Prov. xix. 21, "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Herein is the difference be- tween the devices of men and the counsel of God : Men have many devices to try what they can do. If one way take not, they will attempt another (" hac non successit, alia aggrediemur via"), and are always disappointed, but only in that wherein they fall in with the will of God. The shallowness of their understanding, the shortness of their foresight, the weakness of their power, the changeableness of their minds, the uncertainty of all the means they use, puts them upon many devices, and often to no purpose.^ But for Him who is infinite in wisdom and power, to whom all things are present, and to whom nothing can fall out unexpected, yea, what he hath not l)im- self determined, unto whom all emergencies are but the issue of his