that there is any condition implied in thefe threatenings, he hath confirmed them by an oath; that by this immutable fign, in which it is impoffible for God to lie, finners might have ftrong terrors, and not be able to fly to any, in hopes of refuge. Secondly, The confideration of God's unchangeablenefs, fhould likewife be a very powerful argument to urge finners to repentance. If they will but leave their fins, and turn to him, they will find him ready to receive them, upon their repentance and fubmiffion; for he is a God gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and ready to forgive; he is unchangeably good, and his mercy endureth for ever: but if they will not come in, and fubmit to thefe terms, there is nothing before them but ruin and deftruction nothing then remains but a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, to confume them. God hath declared to us the terms of our pardon and peace; and if we will not come up to them, he is at a point, he cannot change his nature, nor will he alter the terms of his covenant. There is a perfect and eternal oppofition between the holy nature of God, and an impenitent finner; and it is impoffible fuch an one fhould be happy, till this oppofition be removed; and to do that, there are but two ways imaginable, by changing God, or by changing ourselves. The nature of God is fixed and unalterable; God cannot recede from his own pure nature; therefore we muft depart from our finful and corrupt nature. God cannot quit his holiness; therefore we mnft leave our fins: we can have no hope to change God, therefore we must change ourfelves. Rectify, finner, thine own corrupt nature, and renounce thy lufts; do not venture upon impoffibilities; rather think of altering thy finful nature, which may be changed, than of altering the divine nature, which is effentially immutable, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. God hath once condefcended fo far, as to take our nature upon him, to make us capable of happiness: but if this will not do, he can go no no lower; he will not, he cannot put off his own na_ ture, to make us happy. Secondly, In reference to good men, the confideration of God's unchangeableness, is matter of great confolation to them; in all the changes and viciffitudes of the world, their main comfort and hope is built upon a rock, the rock of ages, as the expreffion is in the Prophet Ifaiah, chap. xxvi. 4. it re lies upon the unchangeable goodness and faithfulnefs of God, all whofe promifes are yea and amen, truth and certainty. All other fupports and hopes may fail us; but God will not fuffer his faithfulness to fail; his covenant will be not break, nor alter the thing which is gone out of his lips, as the Pfalmift affures, Pfal. lxxxix. 33. Men may break their word, and be less than their promifes; but God is faithful, who hath promised to give grace and glory, and to with-hold no good thing from them that walk uprightly. He is not a man, that he should lie, neither the fon of man, that he should repent. Hath he spoken, and shall be not do it? Hath he said it, and shall not he bring it to pass? If there be any thing that hath the appearance of a change in God, it is ufually on the merciful fide; as when he ftops the execution of his threatnings upon the repentance of a finful nation; as in that remarkable text which I mentioned before, Jer. xviii. 7, 8. At what inftant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them: And fo likewife, when his faithful people and fervants are in great diftrefs, and there is no visible help and means of relief; in this cafe likewife God is faid to repent, and to appear for their refcue, Deut. xxxii. 36. The Lord fhall judge his people, and repent himself for his fervants, when he feeth that their power is gone. Thus we should comfort ourselves in the greatest extremities, with the confideration of the immu table goodness and faithfulness of God. The things D d 2 of of the world are mutable, and the men of the world, even those things which feem most conftant, as the heavens; and to be fettled upon the furelt foundations, as the earth; yet thefe fhall be changed, Pfal. cii. 25, 26, 27. Of old haft thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou shalt endure; all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vefture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years hall have no end. From whence the Pfalmift infers this comfort to the church and people of God, ver. 28. The children of thy fervants shall continue, and their feed fhall be established before thee. Nothing that is mutable can be a folid foundation of comfort and confidence. Men are inconftant, and riches are uncertain, and all other things which men commonly truft to; and therefore the Apoftle chargeth them that are rich in this world, not to truft in uncertain riches, but in the living God. He only that lives for ever, is a firm foundation of hope and confidence. When God would comfort the Ifraelites in EBypt under their great oppreffion, he bids Mofes only to declare to them his immutability. Exod. iii. 14. Say unto them, I AM THAT I AM hath sent me unto you. And this is the great comfort of Chriftians, that he who is their Saviour and their hope, is the fame yesterday, to day, and for ever: he that was, and that is, and that is to come, in all du rations the fame. We are continually changing, and are not the fame we were; fome of us were young, and now are old; once, perhaps, flourished in great profperity, but now are poor and needy; were once ftrong and healthful, but now fickly and weak: It should comfort us in all thefe changes, that God is still the fame, and he alone is instead of all other comforts and fupports: when all other things fail, we may rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our falvation. Youth and health, and riches, and friends. may forfake us; but God hath promised, that he he will never leave us, nor forfake us; that he will not leave us when we are old, nor for fake us when our ftrength faileth; when our strength fails, and our heart fails, then is he the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever; and when our great change fhall come, and the terrors of death fhall take hold of us, we have ftill the fame comfort, the Lord li veth, and bleffed be the God of our falvation. In a word, the confideration of God's immutability, fhould keep us fixed and unmoved in all the changes and accidents of this world, and not apt to be ftartled and furprised at them, according to that of the Pfalmift, He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, because his heart is fixed, trufting in God. This fhould make us conftant to him and his truth, ftedfaft and immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord; forafmuch as we know that our labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord: it fhould make us hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering, in full affurance that God will be as good to us as his word, and in a firm hope and perfuafion of that eternal life which God, that cannot lie, hath promised. I SERMON CXXXIV. The knowledge of God. I SAM. ii. 3. The first fermon on this text, Come now to fpeak of thofe properties and per fections which relate to the divine underftanding, and will, and manner, and power of acting. Knowledge confiders things abfolutely, and in in themfelves: Wisdom confiders the refpects and relation of things one to another, and under the notion of means and ends. The knowledge of God is a perfect comprehenfion of the nature of all things, with all their powers and qualities, and circumftances; the wifdom of God is a perfect comprehenfion of the refpects and relation of things one to another; of their harmony and oppofition; of their fitnefs and unfitnefs to fuch and fuch ends. The knowledge of God only implies his bare understanding of things; but his wifdom implies the skill of ordering and difpofing things to the beft ends and purpofes, to make every thing, and to govern and adminifter all things in number, weight, and measure. I fhall at prefent fpeak of the firft of these, the knowledge of God; which, as I faid, is a perfect comprehenfion of the nature of all things, and of every thing belonging to their nature of the powers, and qualities, and circumftances of things. Thefe words fignify God to be the fountain of knowledge; that is, that he poffeffeth it himself, and communicates it to others. In the handling of this 1 fhall, First, Endeavour to prove, that this attribute belongs to God. Secondly, Shew the perfection and the prerogatives of the divine knowledge. Thirdly, Draw fome practical inferences from the whole. First, For the proof of it, I fhall attempt it two ways: 1. From the dictates of natural light and reason. 2. From fcripture or divine revelation. 1. From the dictates of natural light and reafon. I begin with this firft; becaufe, unless this be establifhed, all divine revelation falls to the ground unlefs natural reafon affures us, that God is endowed with knowledge and understanding, it is in vain to enquire after divine revelation. For to make any revelation credible, two things are requifite on the part of the revealer, ability and integrity; that he have a perfect knowledge and understanding of the |