that we should be happy in one another, and therefore there must be a change either in God or us, to bring about this likeness. The nature of God is inflexible, fixed and unchangeable; therefore change thyfelf, finner, and endeavour to be like God; for fince he cannot depart from his holiness and purity, thou must leave thy fins, and be holy as he is holy, if ever thou hopeft to be happy, as he is: Every man that hath this hope in him, must purify himfelf, even as he is pure.

Now to this happy and only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, and dwelleth in that light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath feen, or can fee to him be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

SERM ON CXXXIII.

The unchangeableness of God.

JAMES i. 17.

With whom is no variableness, nor shadow of

turning.

The whole period runs thus :

Do not err, my beloved brethren: Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

T

HE connexion and dependence of thefe words upon the former is briefly this; the Apoftle had afferted before, that God is not the author of fin and evil, ver. 13, 14. Let no man fay, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted

with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own luft, and enticed: And here in the text he afferts, that God is the fountain and author of all good Do not err, my beloved brethren; as if he had faid, do not mistake me, though fin and evil be not from God, but from ourselves, and our own corrupt hearts; yet all good is from God, and not from ourselves: though we be the authors of the fins we commit, yet we are not fo of the good that we do, that is from God; Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights. Sin, which is nothing but evil and imperfection, is not from God, but wholly from ourfelyes; whatever is good and perfect, is not from ourselves, but from God; we are neither inclined to that which is good, nor are able of ourselves to perform it; both the inclination and the power are from God, who is the fountain of goodness and perfection, and can never be otherwife, and can never change nor ceafe to be fo; for with him is no variableness, nor fhadow of turning.

Every good gift, and every perfect gift; all that goodness, and all thofe degrees of perfection, which are in the creatures, in the highest Angels or faints, in the best of the fons of men, whatever there is of excellency and perfection, of goodness or happiness in any of them, is from above, that is from heaven; it is the gift of God, and cometh down from that perfect, good and glorious Being, whom the Apostle here calls the Father of lights; in allufion to the fun, which is a kind of univerfal benefactor to the world, and liberally difpenfeth his light and heat and influence upon all things here below but then there is this difference, the fun changeth its habitudes and pofitions in reference to us, and varies its fhadows; it rifeth and fets, comes nearer to us, and goes farther from us; but it is otherwife with this intellectual and immaterial Sun, the Father of lights,with whom there is no variableness, nor fhadow of turning, παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα, which are all afronomical

C & 3

nomical words; the firft, apanayn, fignifies the various habitudes and pofitions wherein the fun appears to us every day, at its rifing, in the meridian, and when it fets; TPOT is a word which belongs not to the daily, but to the yearly courfe of the fun, which is nearer to us, or farther from us, as he approacheth nearer towards the northern or fouthern tropicks; and hence it is that it cafts feveral fhadows to people in feveral countries; and agreeably to this, the word drooniaojia, cafting of shadows, being joined with porn, fignifies the variation of the fhadows according to the courfe and motion of the fun.

But God is an eternal fpring of light, which never rifeth nor fets, which hath no mixture of fhadow nor darkness, hath no changes nor variations, but is always the fame free and liberal difpenfer of good things to his creatures; the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor fhadow of turning; which words fignify the immutable perfection and goodness of the divine nature; which thall (by God's affiftance) be the fubject of my prefent difcourfe; in which I fhall proceed in this method :

First, I fhall briefly explain what is meant by the immutability, or unchangeableness of the divine na

ture.

Secondly, I fhall fhew that this is a perfection effential to God, to be immutably what he is, that is, good and perfect.

Thirdly, I fhall answer an objection which lies against it, from the mention fo often made in fcripture of God's repenting himself. And,

Fourthly, Apply the confideration of it to ourselves. I. For the explication of it. By the immutability of God, we mean, that he always is, and was, and to all eternity will be the fame that he undergoes. no changes either of his effence and being, or of his properties and perfections. In reference to the unchangeableness of his being, he is faid to be eternal, incorruptible, and only to have immortality. In re ference to his perfections, he is always the fame infinitely wife, and good, and powerful, and holy,

and

and just being; from whence it follows, that he is conftant and immutable in all his decrees and counfels, his purposes and promises. We are uncertain and mutable in our very nature and beings, and in all thofe qualities and perfections which belong to us, in all our purposes, refolutions and actions; we are continually growing or decreafing in this or that quality, and do frequently change from one extreme to another, from that which is more perfect, to the contrary; now knowing, and then ignorant; fometimes wife, and oftner foolish, stronger and weaker, better or worse, as it happens, and as we order ourselves, continually waxing or waining in our knowledge, and wifdom, and goodnefs, and power; we frequently change our minds, and alter our purpofes, and break our promises, and contradict our firmest and most ferious refolutions, and speak thing and do it not, fay it, and do not bring it to pafs, but God is everlastingly the fame in all his perfections, conftant to his intentions, fteady to his purposes, immutably fixed and perfeve ring in all his decrees and refolutions. I proceed

to the

Second thing I propofed, namely, to fhew that this perfection is effential to God, to be unchangeably what he is. And this I fhall endeavour to make manifest both from natural reason, and from the divine revelation of the holy fcriptures.

1. From the dictates of natural reason, which tell us, that nothing argues greater weakness and imperfection than inconftancy and change. This is the great vanity of all creatures, that they are uncertain, and do not long continue in one ftate; this is the vanity of the world in general, that the fashion of it paffeth away; and of man in particular, that he is liable to fo many natural changes, by age, and dif eafes, and death; for which reafon, he is faid by the Pfalmift, to be, in his beft eftate, altogether vanity; and that he is liable to fo many moral changes, to be deluded and deceived in his understanding, and to alter his opinion fo often, to be fo fickle in his will, and to change fo often his purposes and refo

lutions,

lutions, according to the alteration or appearance of things. We attribute change and inconftancy to perfons of the weakest age and understanding; as children, who are liable to be toffed to and fro, and carried about with every wind, as the Apoftle fpeaks, Eph. iv. 14.

Now if the divine nature were fubject to change, this would caft an universal cloud upon all the divine perfections, and obfcure all other excellencies, and make them like the flower of the field, which, how gay and glorious foever, is fading and perishing; and the greater the divine perfections are, the greater imperfection would mutability be; for as the corruption of the best things is the worst, fo the better any thing is, fo much the worse it would be to have it liable to corruption and change.

And as mutability in God would darken all his other perfections, fo would it take away the foundation and comfort of all religion; the ground of our faith, and hope, and fear, of our love and esteem of God, would be quite taken away. We could have no great honour or efteem for a being that is fickle and inconftant; if his power and juftice were uncertain, his threatenings would in a great measure lofe their awe and force; if his truth and faithfulness could fail, no promifes and declarations, how gracious foever, would be any fecurity, or firm ground of truft and confidence.

And this reafoning is not the refult of divine revelation, but clearly founded in the natural notions and fuggeftions of our minds, as will appear by citing one or two teftimonies to this purpose, of those who had no other guide but natural light. Plato, in his Phadrus, enquires, "Whether the most perfect (that is God) be always the fame, or fome"times, thus, and fometimes otherwife that is, (faith he) Whether that which is equality and goodness and bounty itself, receives any the leaft change at any time, and be not conftant and uniform, and of itself always the fame, Kai fauñ σε εδαμῶς ἀλλόωσιν ἐδεμίαν ἐνδέχεται, and is ne"yer in any wife, upon any account, fubject to any "change

"