Have we no inivard fire, which, if suffered to burst
forth, ivould effect our ruin? We should soon follow Judas and Ahithophel, if God should withdraw from us his restraining
grace Have we not at some time or other been, as it
were, within a hairs breath of ruin, either from sickness, or accident, or from some foul transgression which would have
issued in final obduracy? Let us then " give God the
glory." Our preservation has not been the effect of our own wisdom, or strength, or goodness, but of God's unchangeable love and mercy. It is to his immutability we owe it, that, notwithstanding all our provocations, he has not been stirred up to destroy us : had he been mutable, like us, his wrath would long since have broken forth against us, and consumed us utterly.]
In this view the Holy Scriptures uniformly represent
our obligations to the Deity —
[Moses traced to this source, even to the immutability of Jehovah, the continued mercies which Israel experienced in his day q. In the Psalms, God himself has been pleased to shew explicitly in what manner he will deal with his offending peo- ple, so as to reconcile their welfare with his own veracity1".
p Josh, xxiii. 14. n Deut. vii. 6—9. r Ps. lxxxix. 2S — 35.
By the Prophet Isaiah he expresses a holy jealousy, lest his dispensations should be misconstrued as violations of his word : and declares, that whatever come to pass in the course of his providence, he will never break his covenant with his people, nor suffer his kindness to depart from thems. In short, the whole volume of inspiration attests the same blessed truth, that " we are not consumed, because the Divine compassions fail not* ; " and that " the Lord does not forsake his people, because it hath pleased him to make them his people11."]
Infer —
1. What evidence have we of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus?
[Immutability is the unalienable prerogative of the Deity. Creatures may be fixed by God in the condition in which they are : but, as they have only a derived existence, there must have been a period when they began to be what they were not before. But Jesus is, and ever has been, the same with respect to the nature which he possessed before his incarnation x ; and therefore, with respect to that nature, he is truly and properly Gody. Let us then hold fast this blessed truth, and rejoice in Christ as an unchangeable Saviour.]
2. What consolation does this subject administer
to believers ?
[The frames and feelings of believers are extremely va- riable : but He who hath chosen them has " no variableness, neither shadow of turning2 ;" and " whom he loveth, he loveth to the enda." Now this consideration God has endeavoured strongly to impress upon our minds, (he has even confirmed his promises with an oath,) on purpose that we may derive strong consolation from itb. Let every one therefore take comfort from it : and be encouraged, not to indulge sloth and security, (for that were a horrible abuse of this doctrine,) but to apply to God for fresh mercies, and to regard past communications as an earnest and pledge of future blessings.]
3. What a ground of terror is here afforded to the impenitent ?
[God has said, that " except we repent, we shall all perish ; " and, that " except we be born again, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven c." If therefore any impenitent or unrege- nerate man be saved, God must falsify his word. O that those
s Isai. liv. 8—10. * Lam. hi. 22. « 1 Sam. xii. 22.
x Heb. i. 10—12. and xiii. 8. y 1 Tim. hi. 16.
2 Jam. i. 17. a John xiii. 1. b Hob. vi. 17, 18.
c John. iii. 3.