our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Holiness Does God reveal himself to be a gracious God a God of Grace and Love This calls upon us to choose him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Love Doth he reveal himself to be a faithful God a God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy This calls upon us to choose him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Faithfulness so here Does God reveal himself to be an Unchangeable God This calls upon us to chuse him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Unchangeableness taking up the rest and happiness of our Souls in him and accordingly O that we would look and live above changeable Creatures taking up our rest and happiness in this unchangeable God which to do is even infinitely our safest and sweetest course for pray consider who or what will you chuse for your Portion and wherein will you place the rest and happiness of your Souls if not in the Unchangeable God Sure I am you have but God or the Creature to make choice of Now what is the Creature to God What is the changeable Creature to the unchangeable God Alas the one is infinitely short of the other God indeed is every way and in all respects a most desirable Good He is an original Good a full Good a suitable Good a satisfying Good an unmixed Good an all-sufficient Good and which crowns all an Unchangeable Good a Good that never fades never failes He is the Living God and stedfast for ever Dan. 6.26 The Creatures are all changeable and perishing An Heathen could say Inter peritura vivimus Sen. We live among perishing things And 't was a great saying of one of the Aucients We have nothing Nulla res longa mortalium est omnisâ—â—â— faelicitas saeculi dum tenetur amittitur here sayes he of any long continuance and all the felicity of this world is gone while we hold it and lost even while we injoy it Such and so great is the changeableness and uncertainty of all these things But God as you have heard and all that Good that is in him is alwayes and for ever the same which speaks him to be infinitely sweet and desirable and so infinitely worthy to be imbraced by us for our God and Portion This indeed crowns and perfects all that good that is in God Look as the changeableness of the Creatures lowers and allays that good and sweetness that is in them so the Unchangeableness of God does infinitely raise and commend that good and excellency that is in him Had the Creatures ten thousand times more good and excellency in them than they have yet this one consideration that they are changeable were enough to damp all and quash all though the Creatures had never so much sweetness and goodness in them and though I had never so full free and ample injoyment of them though the streames ran never so pleasantly on each hand of me yet this one thought that all this is fading and changeable and will last but for a season were enough to allay my joy and even imbitter all to me So on the other hand though God be such an infinite Ocean of Goodness Sweetness and Blessedness as he is yet that which crowns all is his Unchangeableness in all and without this 't is not the whole of God could make us happy Now shall the consideration hereof induce you to chuse him for your God and Portion and take up your rest and happiness in him for ever Possibly you have never yet chosen God to be your God and Portion nor have you taken up the rest and happiness of your Souls in him you have chosen the Creatures you have chosen this World you have chosen carnal sensual things and in these have you placed your rest and happiness but as for God he has hitherto been far from your Reins you have centred in changeable Creatures and forgotten the Unchangeable God But will you now change your Choice and take up a new Rest Oh now let an Unchangeable God not changeable Creatures be your God and Portion your Rest and Happiness O that the language of your Souls to God might now be that of the Psalmist Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Lord thou and thou alone shall be my God my Rest my Portion my Happiness and my All for ever Indeed I had chosen the Creatures for my Portion and Happiness but now I renounce that choice I 'le have no more to do with changeable Creatures the World was my happiness and I sat down with it so foolish was I and ignorant but now I have done with the World this flitting fading dying World and thou Lord alone shall be my All for ever Oh that you would indeed thus chuse the Unchangeable God and take up your rest and happiness in him this day And you that have chosen him and taken up your happiness in him make a new choice of him and take up your rest more purely and entirely in him say over this Unchangeable One This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 Oh labour to get more above the Creatures and live more in God and upon God The more purely and entirely you take up your rest in God the sweeter will he be to you and the more satisfaction will your souls find in him Now to quicken you thus to chuse God and live upon him and his Unchangeableness 1. Consider what a changeable World we live in we live in a changeable World in a World that rings changes every day many changes and great changes the truth is This World is a very changeable world and 't is not long e're it will be changed once for all the day is coming when all these things shall be dissolved the Heavens shall pass away with a noise the Earth shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.10.11 and in the mean time the world is not without its changes and how great changes we may live to see who knows such changes seem to be coming upon the world as that nothing but an Unchangeable God will be able to bear us up under them In Luk. 21.25 26. we read of distress of Nations which shall be upon the Earth with perplexity mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that shall come to pass upon the Earth The sum of which amounts to this that there shall be such changes such rendings such shakings such terrible convulsions and concussions wrought in the Nations of the World such desolations shall be made and such terrible storms of wrath and vengeance shall fall upon the World as that men shall be even exanimated and driven to their wits end they shall fall under a deliquium Animi a swooning of Spirit they shall breath out their very Souls or they shall be
Psal 42.11 which may be further opened afterwards as ever therefore you would live purely and entirely at Rest in God get your interest in him as your God and Father cleared up to you first chuse him for your God and Portion and do it every day never Rest till you can say Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee my Heart and my Flesh fail but God is the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever Psal 73.25 26. Then Pray hard for the sealings and witness of the Spirit beg the Lord with Austin to say unto thy Soul I am thy Salvation 4. Would you indeed live at Rest in God Then meditate and contemplate him much dwell much in the view of his glorious Excellencies and Perfections Deep and frequent meditation of God and his Excellencies does marvelously endear God unto Souls and withal brings them into an acquaintance with those satisfying delights that are to be found in him and so to a Rest in him My Soul saies David shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches Psal 63.5 6. In vers 3. he is even ravished with the sense and incomes of God's Love to him Thy loving-kindness is better than Life my lips shall praise thee and here he speaks of Satisfaction the sweetest Satisfaction and all that which came in a way of holy meditation and again my meditation of thee shall be sweet Psal 104.34 Holy meditation of God produces many sweet experiences of God in the Soul experiences of his Grace of his Love of his Sweetness of the Blessedness of Communion with him and the like and these experiences issue in the Soul's Rest in him eveâ—y new experience of God draws the heart further into God and makes it center more in him every taste every sight of God every new emamanation of his Glory before the Soul of which in the holy meditation of God the Saints have not a few weans and works the heart off from carnal sensible things and makes him to cleave more closly and entirely to God gathering in about him as his All. O be much in the meditation of God 't is not enough for us to know him and to know him in Christ no nor to know him as ours as our God in Covenant but we must study him we must meditate what a God he is and single him out now under one and then under another Notion or Consideration to meditate upon begging God to help us in our meditetions of him The most know and enjoy little of God because they meditate him so little they are little in holy meditation 5. Would you indeed be at Rest in God Then improve all your experiences of the Creatures vanity for the carrying of your Souls more into God as your Rest and Centre Holy David did so and 't is indeed a great piece of a Christians skill Psal 39.7 And now Lord saies he what wait I for my hope is in thee If you veiw either the foregoing or following part of the Psalm you will find that David was under great experiences of the Creatures vanity he saw the vanity of worldly Injoyments they are all but a vain shew he saw his own vanity he saw the vanity of others he found every one and every thing nothing but vanity and what is the issue What use does he make of it this he gathers in more to God as his only Rest and Happiness now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee q.d. Now I have done with the Creatures I see what they are and what all persons and things are and I have done with all thou thy self only O Lord art my Rest my Happiness my All. Thus when at any time you meet with fresh experiences of the Creatures vanity improve them for the carrying of your Souls more into God as your Rest You scarce live that day wherein you do not meet with new experiences of the Creatures vanity this is lost and that is imbittered to you now you meet with disappointments and then with sorrows wounds and snares and that where it may be you expected your chief Comfort and Satisfaction now in all such cases what should we do retire the more into God as our Rest and Happiness say with the Psalmist Now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee I have done with the streams I 'le cleave only to thee the Fountain the Creatures ever serve me thus they leave me under sorrows snares and disappointments thou Lord shalt be all in all to me thou art my only Rest for ever 6. Would you indeed live at Rest in God Then pray for much spirituality of Heart much suitedness of Spirit to God and Christ The more Spiritual you are the more are you suited to the blessed God and the more you are suited to God the more fully and genuinly will your Souls Rest in him I suppose you to have a new heart for I speak unto you as to Saints the old heart to be sure will never Rest in God the old heart is wholly avetse from God and at enmity with him it hates him 't is wholly carnal sensual and unclean and delights only in things suitable to it self Let all therefore that would Rest in God first get a new heart such as God promises in his Covenant Ezek. 36.26 and having gotten a new heart pray for much spirituality of heart and affection Alas alas we are carnal as Paul charged his Corinthians and being carnal we lean to and hanker after carnal things and till we get more spirituality we shall not Rest so fully in God as we should therefore pray unto God hard for more of this pray for more of his Spirit to act and influence you and not only so but to change you more and more into the Divine Life and Image To conclude all Live at Rest all that even you can in God here but withal look and long and hasten to that Rest which remaines for Saints with God in the other World True Rest in God here is sweet but we shall never be fully and perfectly happy till we enter that future Rest that indeed carryes a compleat happinss in it O to be wholly swallowed up in the Divine Will the Divine Life the Divine Fulness the Ocean of Divine Love to have every faculty and every affection perfectly suited to God and filled with God this cannot but be perfect Rest and Happiness especially considering what an enlargement there will be of all the Faculties and how much of God they will then take in But till we reach this Rest we cannot have any compleat Rest therefore breath and suspire after the future Rest keep your eye much there and let your eye affect your heart look and love love and long long and hasten to that sweet that holy that heavenly that inviolable that unchangeable and eternal Rest which remains for Saints in God and with God in the other World crying out both in your Spirits and lives Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS The Author hath two other Treatises VIZ. The Best Match or The Soul 's espoulal to Christ Opened and Improved The great Concern Or A serious Warning to a timely and thorough Preparation for Death With Helps and Directions in order thereunto Being the last that ever he preached There is now published an Eccellent Treatise Intituled The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed How the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are glorified in that Great and Blessed Work By William Bates D. D.
dealt with the Church of old Sometimes I am under some revivings which seem to give hopes of a return from the Grave Anon nothing but Death seems to be in view And in this dubious state I am waiting upon the Will of God which I am sure is Holy Wise and Good and which I hope shall be welcome to me whether it be for Life or Death Hitherto through Grace Death hath not been terrible to me what it may be in its nearest approaches I cannot tell but I look to and rest upon him who hath destroyed both Death and him that had the power of Death And now only two things I beg of you One is That you all give me a room in your Prayers while I am in the Land of the Living and I desire you would beg of God these things for me First That all sin and guilt cleaving to me may be fully expiated and discharged through the Blood of Christ O beg both forgiveness and repentence for me which God knows I greatly need Secondly That my Will may be throughly resigned up into the Will of God either for Life or Death Thirdly That I may have much of God's Presence with me and may alwaies have good Thoughts of Him and his Dispensations towards me in all He doth or shall lay upon me Fourthly That if God shall please to restore me I may come out of this Furnace purisied and refined as Gold that is tryed seven times and more fitted for my Masters Service or if his pleasure is which seems at present most probable to put a period to my mortal life that his Love and the Light of his Countenance may shine upon me to sweeten the bitter pangs of Death to me we cannot live comfortably without his Love much less can we die comfortably without it That is my first request The other is That you will accept and embrace some plain but weighty counsels God is my Record that my hearts-desire and Prayers for you is and has been that you may be saved and in love to your salvation I leave these Directions with you 1. Above all things look well to and labour to make sure of an Union with Christ knowing assuredly that without Union with him all your Religion is vain and ineffectual 2. Take heed of too much addictedness to his World as remembring that if any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him and that the friendship of this World is enmity to God 3. Dwell much within and be much conversant in Heart-work in studying the Heart searching the Heart cleansing the Heart keeping the Heart looking alwaies upon it as the veriest Cheat and Impostor in the World deceitful above all things and desperately wicked 4. Take heed of splitting upon that fatal Roek of self-deceit of which you have sometimes heard and upon which the greatest part of Professors split and perish for ever 5. Set up and keep up the Worship of God both in your Families and Closets for the Lord's sake let none of yours be Prayerless Families 6 Alwaies maintain a great honour and reverence for all God's Ordinances and in an especial manner honour and sanctifie his Sabbath The Sabbath-day is your Souls Market day O lose not your Market 7. Be universally honest and upright in your Callings and your Dealings in them the fraudulent dealings of Professors do much reproach the Gospel 8. Covet to seat your selves under a sound clear searching Gospel ministry and keep mainly to the same Ministry and the Lord guide you therein 9. Labour that your profiting under the Ministry may appear unto all men it will be a dreadful thing to enjoy rich means and bring forth no fruit to perfection O Sirs be fruitful Christians 10. Expect further Trials and Sufferings and prepare for them there is a dark and gloomy Day coming such as I am apt to think you and I have never seen any like unto it and such as wherein possibly you will think it best with them that God shall have hid in the Grave before hand But be not troubled it will be short and a glorious Day will follow a Day wherein the Church of God shall sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb a Day wherein our dear Lord and Head shall reign gloriously And therefore 11. Pray and long long and pray much and earnestly for the coming of the Day of God for the coming of Christ's Kingdom Thy Kingdom come is a Petition should be much upon our hearts O do not Rest in low things as to divine appearances and manifestations both in the World and in your own Souls These Counsels I leave with you out of that entire love and affection I bear to your salvation and our Lord's honour as concerned in you I will conclude all with â—hat solemn and cordial profession to you which Augustine often made to those to whom he was wont to preach viz. that it is the desire of my Soul that as we have been often crowded together to worship God in one Earthly House or Temple so we may all worship him together for ever in the Heavenly House or Temple And if we must never Pray and Preach and Hear and Mourn together more on Earth yet we may Love and Sing and Praise and Admire and Rejoyce together for ever in Heaven Which that we may do the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shephed of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make us perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you and me that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen and Amen My dear dear dear Friends I am your weak and languishing but yet Cordial Friend and willing Servant in Christ and for Christ EDWARD PEARSE Hampstead Octob. 3. 1672. A Beam of Divine Glory OR The Unchangeableness of God Asserted Opened Vindicated and Improved from Mal. 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed CHAP. I. Wherein way is made to the Text the Words thereof opened the Foundation of our intended Discourse laid and the principal Matters to be considered in the prosecution of it hinted at IT is a great as well as a true Observation which I have read in a Learned Man namely That all the many various Attributes of God mentioned in the Scripture are no other than his very Essence Multae est varia Dei attributa sunt ipsa Dei essentia Deo propter captum nostrum tribuuntur qui non possumus sub uno nomine aut actu intellectus quod de Deo percipiendum est intelligere Schar and are ascribed to him to help us in our Conceptions and Vnderstandings of Him who are not able to apprehend what may be known of God under any one Name or Notion or by any one Act of the Intellect We read you know of
formerly and that is enough Yea do God's dispensations change towards thee he did smile now he frowns he did lift up now he casts down the light of his Countenance did shine brightly upon thee now 't is veild clouded Well however thy God himself changes not his Heart his Counsel his Covenant his Love are still the same towards thee that ever they were howbeit the dispensation be changed Oh this one word God is Mine and he is Unchangeable has infinite sweetness in it and it speakes me to be infinitely and unchangeably happy Oh you that are the People of God labour to see and rejoice in this happiness of yours Which that you may the better do let me add onely two short Words to this and I will shut up the whole Discourse 1. Consider that as your God is unchangeable so you are unchangeably interested in him This Unchangeable God is unchangeably your God what though God be unchangeable may some poor Soul say what will that avail me my interest in him I fear will change and fail there will shortly be an end of that No Soul the Unchangeable God being indeed thine he is thine for ever so the Church This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 O Soul thou through infinite free and rich Grace hast a Covenant-interest in and relation to the Unchangeable God and this Interest and Relation of thine is a firm lasting and Unchangeable Interest and Relation Nothing that either Men Devils or Lusts can do can possibly break or null it and so he tells us Psal 89.30 31 32. of which we have spoken before I shall here onely add a saying or two of Austin The chief good saies he which is God Summum bonum nec invitis confertur nec invitis aufertur is neither given to such as are unwilling to have him nor taken away from such as are unwilling to part with him and elsewhere Te nemo umittit nisi qui dimittit qui te demittit quo it aut quo fugit nisi a te placito ad te natum Aug. Conf. lib. 4. Cap. 9. No man does or can lose thee O God saies he unless he that is willing to lose thee and go without thee and he that willingly parts with thee whither does he go Whither does he flee but from thee smiling to thee frowning from thee a reconciled Father to thee an angry Judge O Soul as long as thou art willing to have God thine so long he shall be thine yea more thine interest in him depends not upon thy willingness of it but upon his Unchangeable Love and Covenant and his Love and Covenant both must change e're thine interest in him can fade and change 2. Consider as your God is Unchangeable so after a while you shall unchangeably enjoy him and be with him your Vision and Fruition of him shall be Unchangeable Beatitudo electione inchoatur adeptione impletur Our happiness saies Austin is begun here in Election but 't is perfected hereafter in Fruition You that have chosen the Unchangeable God you shall after a few dayes injoy the God whom you have chosen your happiness is great in your chusing of him but how much more great will it be in your injoying of him Psal 73.24 25. Thou shalt guide me by thy Counsels and afterwards receive me unto glory whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee q.d. I have chosen and I do again chuse thee for my God and Portion and some injoyment I have of thee here and more I shall have hereafter in Heaven I shall e're long be taken to injoy thee in thy Glory fully immediately and for ever for thou art mine and I have made a solemn choice of thee O Saints the Unchangeable God is yours and some communion you have with him here in the waies of his Grace which is sweet and happy but after you have injoyed him in the waies of his Grace a while here you shall be taken to the Unchangeable injoyment of him in his Glory Above which will be infinitely more sweet and happy your injoyment of him here is low and remote as well as changeable and unconstant but your injoyment of him Above will be full close and Unchangeable here you have now and then a gracious visit from him he visits you in this Duty and that Ordinance in this Mercy and in that Affliction but Oh how short many times are those visits of his Alas he is gone again in a moment but after a while you shall injoy him in his Glory and there you shall not have a short visit now and then onely but his constant presence for ever We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 Oh blessed Souls there he will unchangeably delight in you unchangeably shine upon you unchangeably communicate himself in his Grace and Glory to you Oh how sweet and blessed will this be Well for a close of all Saints the Unchangeable God is unchangeably your God and howbeit your visions of him be yet but dark and your communion with him but low yet wait a while and the day will break and all your shadows shall flee away you shall change your ebbing Waters for a full Tyde your Glimmerings and Dawnings for a noon-day your imperfect beginnings for a full and perfect consummation of communion with him Howbeit there be now a Veil upon his Face that you cannot behold him yet wait awhile and the Veil shall be taken away and you shall behold his Face his Glory for ever and that so as to be fully changed into the Image thereof and eternally solaced and satisfied therein suitable to that word Psal 17.15 with which I 'le close all As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Amen The True Rest OR The Soul's Rest in GOD. Opened and improved from PSAL. 116.7 Return unto thy Rest O my Soul CHAP. I. An Introduction to the Words What that Rest is which David calls upon his Soul to return unto The sum of the words and of our intendment from them laid down in one general Position IT is the great happiness of the Saints that howbeit they meet with many sore troubles and afflictions here in this World yea though they meet with little else but trouble and affliction here yet there is a Rest to come for them a sweet Rest a blessed Rest a glorious Rest a Rest not lyable to either decay or disturbance for ever So the Apostle tells us Heb 4.9 There remaineth a Rest to the People of God Nor is this all their happiness for not only does there remain a Rest for them hereafter but there is also a Rest a sweet Rest a blessed Rest which they do or may attain unto here a Rest even in the midst of all those troubles which here they are exposed unto and blessed be God for this Rest
general proof of the unchangeableness of God THe Creatures yea the best of Creatures in themselves are subject to change but God is every way and in all respects unchangeable God himself expresly here you see asserts his own unchangeableness I am the Lord I change not and 't is frequently asserted also elsewhere Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect Gift sayes the Apostle cometh down from Above from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness or shadow of change God is here called the Father of Lights He is sometimes called Light it self 1 John 1.5 God is Light Quo Majestas Sanctitas Perfectio et Beatitudo ejus notatur Glass Rhet. Sac. By which as a learned Man observes is noted to us the Majesty Holiness and perfect Blessedness of God and here he is called the Father of Lights To note that all Light all Glory all Holiness and Blessedness is originally in him and that whatever of these Creatures do partake of does come from him as its proper Spring and Fountain Now with this Father of Lights there is sayes the Apostle no variableness no mutation the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Astronomical term taken from the Heavenly Bodies which suffer many Declinations and Revolutious the Heavenly Lights have their Vicisitude and Eclipsis their Decreases and Increases but with God the Father of Lights there is no such thing he alwayes shines with a like Brightness Lustre and Glory with whom is no variableness nor shaddow of turning that is he is without the least shew or resemblance of change nothing that looks like a change is found in him God is a Son which doth not Set and Rise that can never be Overcast or Eclipsed So also Psal 102.24 25 26 27. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all Generations Of old hast thou laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands They all perish but thou shalt endure all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same At tu idem es id est nihil est firmum et perpetuum nisi tu nullis enim alterationibus et mutationibus es obnoxius Mol. and thy years shall have no end Pray observe the Heavens are the purest part of the Creation yet they the Psalmist tells us shall wax old and be changed but sayes he to God thou art the same and thy years shall have no end thou changest not but what thou wert thou art and wilt be so for ever The Heavens and so all the Creatures do not only wax old and change but observe they change and wax old like a Garment Cloth by degrees will rot and be eaten out by Moths but a Garment or Vesture is worn and wasted every day every day brings changes upon the Creatures more or less but God changes not he remains the same for ever from everlasting to everlasting he is God as you have it Psal 90.2 that is he is unchangeably one and the same infinitely Holy and Blessed One. Deus est immutabilis mutans omnia nunquam novus nunquam vetus Aug. God sayes one of the Ancients who changes all things who works all the changes are in the world is himself unchangeable never new never old Thus you see that God is unchangeable Now if you ask me what this unchangeableness of God is I answer that 't is that Attribute of God whereby he is free from all corruption and alteration is alwayes like himself so as that he can neither cease to be what he is nor begin to be what he is not and hereby he is infinitely distinguished from all the Creatures in Perfection and Glory they are all subject to corruption and alteration at least in their own nature they are so if not in their condition they may cease to be what they are and may begin to be what they are not they may lose what they had and may attain somewhat which before they had not even the very Angels themselves are in themselves thus mutable As may be more fully hereafter shewn But now with God their is no such thing he is free from all possibility of corruption or alteration he is alwayes the same nor can he cease to be what he is or begin to be what he is not But that God is unchangeable and also what his unchangeableness is will further appear by what next falls under consideration CHAP. III. Which shews wherein in a peculiar manner God is unchangeable HAving thus given you a general proof of God's Unchangeableness our next Work shall be to consider wherein he is unchangeable by which we shall be both further enlightened and confirmed in this Truth and withall brought I hope into an acquaintance with the Life Power and sweetness of it at least in some measure God then is unchangeable especially in six things all which do carry unexpressible Sweetness as well as Glory in them and should be great encouragements to our Faith and Comfort He is unchangeable 1. In his Being and Essence 2. In his Blessedness and Glory 3. In his Council and Decree 4. In his Kingdom and Rule 5. In his Covenant and Promise 6. In his Love and Grace to his People 1. God is unchangeable in his Being and Essence Deus ut in Essentia sua consideratur est actus purus a quo omnia sunt in quem omnia redeunt Scharp What the Being or Essence of God is is not easy for us to conceive or apprehend the Learned tell us that the Essence or Being of God is that one meer and pure Act whereby God is God or thus that God in respect of his Essence is one most pure and meer Act from which all things are and to which all things return that is which is the first Cause and the last End of all things but whatever the Essence or Being of God is yet to be sure he is therein unchangeable he cannot be changed into another Essence or Being nor can that which he hath or rather is be corrupted or decay so much is held forth in my very Text. God therein stiling himself Jehovah Which Name or Title of his notes as the truth and absoluteness so the sameness and unchangeableness of his Being Thus Calvin and others note upon the place and therefore do make that I change not to be but an Exegesis or somewhat added by way of explication of this Title Jehovah which here God gives himself I am Jehovah I change not q. d. I am an absolute independent unchangeable Being in my self and one that gives Being to all the Creatures and thus the Learned in the Hebrew Tongue do all expound this glorious Name of God they tell us that this glorious Name of his notes both his Being and the unchangeableness of his Being and when God as in my Text
they thought not of before and so they wish that undone which they have done and do seek wayes of retracting their own Acts and 't is a saying I have read in Austin God sayes he changes his Works Deus mut at Opera non mutat Consilium Aug. not his Counsels O let us reverence and adore God in this his unchangeableness 4. God is unchangeable in his Kingdom and Rule God has a Kingdom and Dominion over the whole World which Kingdom and Dominion of his is that absolute Right and Power whereby he possesseth all things as his own and also orders and disposes of them as he pleases ruling and governing the whole World according to the Counsel of his own Will and in a subserviency to his own most wise and holy ends hence he is said to be over all Rom. 9.5 And above all Eph. 4.6 to wit in Kingdom Power and Dominion he has a right to all and he has the ordering and dispose of all both Persons and Things States and Kingdomes He is the most High that ruleth in the Kingdomes of Men and gives them to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.32 He workes all and orders all in the Kingdom of Providence as well as in the Kingdom of Grace and that according to the Counsel of his own Will Eph. 1.11 He rules and commands all He hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all In Coelis i. e eminentissimè splendidissime potentissime universalissimeque gubernat omnia Gojer Psal 103.19 He doth whatsoever he pleases in Heaven and on Earth in the Seas and in all deep places Psal 135.6 Now in this Kingdom and Dominion of his he is unchangeable it admits of neither stop nor period he ruleth by his Power for ever Psal 66.7 Thy Kingdom O Lord is an everlasting Kingdom a Kingdom of Ages and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Generations * Regnum tuum Aeternum durat cum hominum regna morte saltem finiantur Mus in loc Psal 145.13 And I blessed the most High sayes Nebuchadnezzar whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom from Generation to Generation Dan. 4.34 Ah sirs whatever men think yet God governs the World and his Dominion is over all The Lord reigns saith the Psalmist Psal 93.1 He hath reigned He doth reign and He will reign for ever There is a day coming when all Rule Authority and Power shall be put down and that once for all even the Principality of the Angels themselves as Calvin observes not excepted 1 Cor. 15.24 But God reigns for ever and ever and his Kingdom has no end Thus he is unchangeable in his Kingdom and Rule in the World which is a great encouragement to the People of God O my Beloved God governs the World now as well as heretofore yea and he governs it in our Nature now as well as heretofore Joh. 5.27 He governs all by the Man Christ who has a natural tender care of and respect to his Church and People in all let us therefore say with the Psalmist The Lord reigneth let the people tremble the Lord reigneth let Sion rejoyce God is not God cannot be put by his Throne and Kingdom 5. God is unchangeable in his Covenant and Promise his Covenant and Promise with his People in Christ God hath made a Covenant with his People in Christ a Covenant of Peace a Covenant of Grace a Covenant of Love a Covenant founded upon Grace a Covenant full of Grace a Covenant wholly made up of Grace and Love from first to last therefore called Grace in the Abstract Rom. 6.14 a Full Covenant a Rich Covenant a Pretious Covenant a Covenant made up of Rich yea exceeding rich and pretious Promises and filled with exceeding rich and pretious Treasures pretious Grace pretious Peace pretious Pardon pretious Righteousness pretious Salvation with a pretious God a pretious Christ a pretious Spirit a pretious Heaven and Blessedness for ever Now in this Covenant and in all the pretious Promises of it is God the Lord unchangeable hence you have it so often called an Everlasting Covenant I will establish my Covenant between me and thee sayes God to Abraham for an Everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee Gen. 17.7 Again I will make an Everlasting Covenant with them speaking of his people and I will not turn away from them to do them good Jer. 32.40 and as an Everlasting Covenant so an Everlasting and Sure Covenant God hath made with me an Everlasting Covenant sayes David well-ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23.5 and again Come and I will make with you an Everlasting Covenant even the Sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 Hence also 't is called a Covenant of Salt * Pactum Salis q. d. incorruptum stabile perpetuum Vatab. Num. 18.19 that is a firm a durable an unchangeable Covenant Many other wayes does God set forth the immutability of his Covenant Sal symbolum incorruptions ideoque in foederibus sanciendis usurpatum ad indicandum ea incorrupte inviolate servanda esse Bonfr in loc and that for the encouragement of our Faith and Comfort how sweet is that Word and what a rest may it be to Faith Isa 54.9 10. This is as the Waters of Noah unto me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so have I sworn that I will no more be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my Peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Pray observe God had in the two foregoing verses promised his Church and People that though for a small moment he had forsaken them yet with great Mercies he would gather them and that though in a little wrath he had hid his face from them for a moment yet with Everlasting kindness he would have mercy on them and here in these two verses he gives them a double ground of the assurance hereof the one taken from his Oath and the unchangeableness thereof ver 9. the other from his Covenant and the unchangeableness thereof ver 10. For the Mountains shall depart c. as if he should say The Mountains and Hills may sooner be removed than my Covenant yea the time will come when these shall be removed but the time will never come that my Covenant shall fail or be removed But what if his People sin what then Why then he will correct and chastise them for their sin but his Covenant he will keep firm and inviolable for ever notwithstanding For this you have a full and an express Text Psal 89.30 31 32 33 34. If his Children forsake my Law and walk not in my Judgments if they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their Transgressions with a Rod and their Iniquities
of humbling from the consideration of God's Unchangeableness as our unlikeness to him therein our charging him with change our living so little upon his Unchangeableness AS the Unchangeableness of God is very teaching and instructive so also very humbling if rightly weighed and improved by us there are several things which the consideration thereof do call aloud upon us to be humbled for and Oh that we would lay them to heart 1. Is God unchangeable Then how should we be humbled for our exceeding great changeableness and therein our unlikeness to God the chief good The more changeable we are in what is good the more unlike God we are and the more unlike God we are the more cause we have of humbling Oh how should we loath our selves and be abased at the foot of God in the sense of our great fickleness and changeableness Alas how changeable are we in all that is good how changeable are many of us in our Judgments and Opinions being like Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine as you have it Eph. 4.14 being apt to be soon removed from the Faith of the Gospel as the Galatians were at which Paul marvelled Gal. 1.6 How changeable are we in our affections to God and the things of God Now the heart flames with love to God and Christ anon 't is chill and cold Now we are full of holy longings and desires after God and Christ Grace and Glory we can say with the Church of old The desire of our Soul is unto thee O God and to the remembrance of thy Name Isa 26.8 yea our Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Yea as the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth our Soul after God as the Psalmist speaks Anon there is not any one holy breathing to be found within us No we are even made up of worldly sinful unclean desires we pant after the dust of the Earth as those Amos 2.7 we are athirst for the Creature and nothing but that will satisfie us Now we delight in God and his Wayes We rejoce in the Lord and our Soul is joyful in our God as 't was with the Church Isa 61.10 and his Wayes are sweet and pleasant to us his Law is our delight anon we relish no sweetness we take and excercise no joy no delight either in the one or in the other but we drive on heavily every duty being a burthen to us and the very thoughts of God a trouble Now we fear and stand in a we of God not daring to sin against him we stand in awe of his Presence we stand in awe of his Holiness we stand in awe of his Goodness we stand in awe of his Power and the like Anon we are fearless and regardless of him boldly venturing upon sinning against him Now we dread sin as Hell it self yea and worse too anon we imbrace it and delight in it Again how changeable are we in our holy purposes and resolutions We take up this and that holy resolution we purpose to walk so and so with God to keep such and such a watch over our spirits and wayes to live more in communion with God to drive a greater trade and design for Heaven and to hasten more to that better Countrey and the like but alas how do such resolutions fade and change and die within us not one of many of them ever proves firm and effectual yea many times no sooner are such resolutions taken up by us but presently we run Counter to them and break with God more than before the first temptation that comes turns us quite beside our purpose and we miserably miscarry in the very things we resolved about Our holy purposes are for the most part abortive We turn aside like a deceitful bow as God complains of those Psal 78.57 'T is a sad complaint which I have read in one of the Ancients Oftentimes says he have I promised refolved to amend Multoties permisi me emondare nunquam tenut sed semper ad peocatu redii prioribus seeleribus nova deterior a conjunxi nunquam ut debui mores meos in melius mutari c. Bern. de ascen Domini but I never made it good but alwayes I returned to sin and to my former wickednesses I added new and worse I never reformed as I ought And who of us may not in a great measure make the same complaint Yet once more How changeable are we in our ways and walkings How uneven and unconstant in our goings We have an heart that loveth to wander as God speaks of them of old Jer. 14.10 O the turnings aside and O the turnings back that we are guilty of in our walking with God! Oh the gaps and pauses and interruptions that are in our obedience we should go on in one even constant tenure of holy Obedience but alas we are in and out off and on often in the day yea in the hour yea many times sudden and great changes are found in our spirits and carriages God-ward and that for the worse I 'le give you one and but one instance of this and that in an eminently holy Man an instance that may well make all of us tremble and that is of Jeremiah Jer. 20.13 14 15. Sing unto the Lord praise ye the Lord for he hath delivered the Soul of the poor from the hand of evil doers Cursed be the day wherein I was horn let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Cursed be the man that brought tidings to my Father saying A man-child is born unto thee making him very glad Pray mark what a great change there was wrought in this good man's spirit and that all of a sudden in vers 13. he looks like one dropt out of Heaven praising God for his Goodness and Salvation and calling upon others so to do but in vers 14 15. he looks rather like one broken loose out of Hell cursing himself and almost every one about him In the one he looks more like an Angel than an imperfect Saint in the other he looks more like a Devil than a Man so great was the change in his spirit and this suddenly made When he had in vers 13. been praising God and was as it were taken up to Heaven the very next news you hear of him is that he is full of cursing and truly thus changeable are we all here O how suddenly many times do we change and fall from the best into the worst of frames and carriages before God from love to hatred from faith to unbelief from holy fear to carnal security from obedience to rebellion from delight in God to a neglect of God and a weariedness of his wayes and presence O let us be humbled for this our exceeding changeableness and therein our unlikeness to God in his Unchangeableness 2. Is God unchangeable Then how should we be humbled that we do so often wrong God charging him with
as an undenyable evidence of the truth of our Position the Saints are under mighty Obligations thus to be at Rest in God I shall insist only on four which are full of weight and I beg they may accordingly affect and influence us 1. The first Obligation the Saints are under to live at Rest in God is this The blessed God hath freely made over himself in his Covenant to them and that in all his glorious Riches and Fulness that in him their Souls might be at Rest He hath given himself to them as their Rest and Portion and is not this a mighty Obligation in the case God my Beloved in the Covenant of his Love hath freely given and made over himself to his People in all his Riches and Fulness in all his Excellencies and Perfections to be used possest and injoyed by them as an All-sufficient Rest Portion and Happiness for ever This is evident in the very tenour of the Covenant and where-ever you have a formal Mention or Record of the Covenant in Scripture this is put in I will be your God You have three great and solemn mentions of the Covenant in Scripture and in all of them this is in one is Gen. 17.7 another is Jer. 31.33 34. and the third is Heb. 8.10 11 12. In these places you have the most express Records of the Covenant God's Covenant with his People that are in all the Scripture and in all there is this I will be your God In the two later places we have other Promises Promises of Pardon cleansing Teaching and the like but in that to Abraham in Genesis we have only this I 'le be thy God for indeed this comprehends all the rest and all the other Promises that are contained in the Covenant of God are but branches growing out of this Root and do but open this to us this as one speaks is Caput Faederis the Head or Top of the Covenant Anima Faederis as another the Soul of the Covenant Substantia Foederis as another the Life and Substance of the Covenant And indeed when God saies to a Soul I 'le be thy God he does therein say I 'le Pardon thee I 'le cleanse thee I 'le teach thee I 'le save thee I 'le make thee happy for ever For God to be our God is for God to be and communicate all good to us that a God can communicate and Creatures receive 't is for God to love us to bless us to care for us to make us happy for ever 't is for God to give us eternal Life to be a Friend a Father an Husband and a Saviour to us 'T is as Luther somewhere expounds it for God to make over himself in all his Excellencies Perfections and Glory his Wisdom Power Goodness Faithfulness All-sufficiency Vnchangeableness and Eternity to his People as their Rest and Happiness to be possest and injoyed by them for their good for ever In a word for God to say to a poor Creature I will be thy God is as much as if he should say look whatever I am that I will be to thee and look whatever I can do that I will do for thee so far as thou art capable of the one or thee other to make the happy for ever I am a Fountain of Life and such will I be to thee I am a God of Peace and Pardon and such will I be to thee I am a God of Grace and Love yea I am a God that is Love it self and such I will be to thee I am the Father of Mercies and the God of all Grace and such will I be to thee I 'le beget new Mercies for thee every day I am a God of Comfort yea of all Comfort and such will I be to thee I am an Unchangeable Eternal All-sufficient God and such will I be to thee I can pardon guilty Souls break the hardest Hearts inlighten the darkest Minds cleanse the impurest Spirits I can make unbelieving Hearts believing I can support drooping Spirits all this I 'le do for thee I can carry thee through Life and Death and bring thee safe to Heaven and there communicate my self to thee for ever to the filling of thy Soul with delight and satisfaction and this I will do for thee and surely happy is the Soul that has thus the Lord for his God and well may he sit down satisfied with him and at Rest in him Now my Beloved hath God made over himself in his Covenant to his People as their Rest that in him they might find Rest and should they not be at Rest in him O sirs Is not God enough for us has he laid himself under bonds to us to be a God to us and to do like a God for us and should we not Rest in him and satisfie our selves with him alone Surely we should 2. The Second Obligation the Saints are under to live at in God is this They have solemnly voucht and chosen and often do vouch and chuse God to be their Rest and Happiness As God has freely made over himself in his Covenant to them so they have solemnly vouch't and chosen him and often do solemnly vouch and chuse him to be their Rest and Happiness When the Saints first enter into Covenant with God then do they solemnly chuse vouch him â—o be their God and Portion their rest and happiness their language to God then is Lord thou shall be my Lord my Rest my Portion my Happiness my all for ever I will have none in Heaven or on Earth but thy self Thus David had chosen God and he puts his Soul in mind of it Psal 16.2 O my Soul sayes he thou hast said unto God thou art my Lord thou hast chosen God for thy God thy Portion thy Happiness and upon this account he calls his Soul to Rest in God and in him he Rests vers 5.6 And as at their first entring into Covenant with God so also often afterwards upon several occasions do they chuse and vouch God for their Rest Portion and Happiness for ever they make new choices of God and do lay new claimes to him as theirs in their procedure of their walking with him Sometimes upon occasion of outward troubles and afflictions difficulties and distresses they make a new choice of God and vouch him afresh for their Rest and Happiness So David Psal 31.14 I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God here he makes a new choice of God and layes a new claim to him as his and when or upon what occasion was this When he was surrounded with outward troubles as appears v. 10.11 12 13. My life is spent with grief and my years with sighing I was a reproach among all mine Enemies I am forgotten as a dead man out of minds I have heard the slander of many fear was on every side they devised to take away my life and being thus distrest he flees to God and chuses him afresh and layes a fresh claim
of these things will be who can tell In Jer. 16.5 we read that God had taken away his Peace from that People I have taken away my Peace from this People saith the Lord and truly now he seemes to have taken away his Peace from the World I 'le leave only two Scriptures with you one out of the Old and the other out of the New-Testament both which I am apt to think may have a great aspect to the present dayes and may in a great measure receive their accomplishment in them One is Zeph. 3.8 Wait ye upon me saith the Lord untill the day that I arise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the Nations that I may assemble the Kingdoms to pour out upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger for all the Earth shall be devoured with the fire of jealousy The other is that Luk. 21.25 26. There shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and these we have had and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken I say nothing only I fear I fear as we have seen some of these things accomplisht so there will be a more full accomplishment of them and that ere the present generation passes away Doubtless great stormes are a coming and happy they that have an Ark to hide themselves in God has now great Works to do he has the Kingdom of Antichrist utterly to destroy the Kingdom of his Son Christ to set up in its Lustre and Glory the final Redemption of his People to work out his ancient Ones to call in and his suffering Name Attributes and Glory fully to right and vindicate and these things are not like to be brought about without great Stormes Convulsions and Concussions in the World Well and what is the language of all this to us Verily this Souls retire into God take up your Rest in him make him your All both here and in eternity and Oh that we would do so Then should we Rest in the day of trouble When Noah fore-saw the Deluge a coming he prepared him an ark to the saving of both himself and Family Heb. 11.7 Surely he s blind indeed that does not see a Deluge coming upon the World a Deluge of outward Troubles and Calamities O why do we not enark in God by making him our Rest this God invites his People unto Isa 26.20 Come my People enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy Doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until theindignation be overpast for behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the Inhabitants of the Earth for their iniquity What is it for God's People to enter into their Chambers hide themselves but to retire more into him live at Rest and in Communion with him to put themselves under his protection and the like 't is for them to retire from the World and worldly Concernes and to make him all living and resting wholly in him and upon him O let this viz. the restlesness of the World you live in draw your Souls into an holy rest in God 5. Consider what enemies you are to your own Souls by not living at Rest in God He that sinneth 't is said wrongeth his own Soul he that lives not at Rest in God greatly sinneth and thereby greatly wrongeth his own Soul On the one hand you hereby deprive your Souls of much Good and on the other hand you expose your Souls to much Evil. 1. Hereby you deprive your Souls of much Good yea of much of the best Good Solomon found this in experience and tells us that pursuing Rest and Happiness in the Creature and not in God he did thereby bereave his Soul of Good Eccles 4.8 and what Good Verily the best Good the Good of Grace of Holiness of Communion with God of the Comforts of his Spirit and the like and Oh how much of this Good do you bereave your Souls of dayly This is that which hath bereaved you of much Grace much Love much Spiritual Comfort many Imbraces in the Armes and Bosome of Christ's Love This namely our pursueing Rest from the Creature and not living at Rest in God is that which hath made us so lean so dead so dry so barren in our Spirits as we are O my Beloved while we have been off our Rest in God and have taken up in other things what have we been doing but feeding upon Husks and Swill when we might have eaten Bread and drunk Wine in the Fathers Kingdom what have we been doing but following after lying vanities to the forsaking of our own mercies Oh did you know how sweet a Life it is to be at Rest in God you would then know what Good you have bereaved your Souls of by not living at Rest in him 2. Hereby you expose your Souls to much evil I remember a saying of Austin * In hoc peccabam quod non in Deo sed in creaturis ejus me atque caeteras voluptates quaerebam atque ita irruebam in dolores confusiones errores animae Aug. In this I sinned says he that I sought my Happiness not in God but in his Creatures and so I rusht upon all manner of Dolours Confusions and Errors of Soul and have not we done So O the wounds the Confusions the Errors of Soul which we have exposed our selves unto while we have been off our Rest in God! Sin and Satan have made great waste and desolation upon our Spirits and 't is what exposes us to nothing but sorrows snares and Death and as we would not wrong our Souls let us retire to and live at Rest in God 6. Consider that your living at Rest in God here will be a clear and unquestionable evidence to you that you shall live at Rest in God and with God for ever O how sweet is it to have any one clear evidence of living at Rest in God and with God in Heaven and what would some of our Souls at some times give for such a blessing yea how sweet is a small glimpse of Hope a secret whisper an inward hint or intimation of such a thing from the Spirit of God in our Souls O live at Rest in God here and this will be a broad evidence of it to you and truly unless you do live at Rest in him here I know not however you will make it out to your Souls that you shall live at Rest in him and with him in the other World In short my Beloved if we do indeed desire to live at Rest with God for ever in Heaven why should we not desire to live at Rest in God here Sure I am the thing is the same and we should desire the one as well as the other and the one as the