Yea more why are we not consumed with an eternal consumption Why are the best of us all not in Hell Why are we not stated in an eternity of woe and misery Why are we not now roaring and sweltering under the Wrath of God Why are we not Companions with Devils and damned Spirits in everlasting burnings Is it because our sins are few and small and have not deserved it No surely Why then is it Because our God is unchangeable unchangeable in Being Counsel Covenant and Love Oh! my Beloved if we seriously consider what we are and how we have carryed it what our sins and provocations have been and how high they rise against the blessed God and the like we may well wonder we are out of Hell that we have a being any where on this side the Pit of Perdition nor can we resolve it into any other cause but God's Unchangeableness Let me therefore entreat you to consider things a little that you may give glory where 't is due 1. Consider what you are I mean as to your nature and the depravedness of it You are a meer lump and mass of sin Enemyes yea enmity it self against God and Christ Rom. 8.7 your heart is a meer Sink a Fountain an Abysse of sin and wickedness against God The heart is deceiful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it None but God can look to the bottom of that sin wickedness and deceit that is in your heart Jer. 17.9 O the aboundings of sin that are found in the best of us Oh the pride the passion the earthliness the sensuality the uncleanness the unbelief the hypocrisie the atheisme the disregard of God the aversion from all good that dwells works wars and oftentimes prevails and predominates in the hearts of the best Saints while here O the risings of sin and oh the aboundings of iniquity that are found among us 2. Consider what you have done and how you have carried it God-ward If you seriously consider things you will find I fear that you have done and to this day do little else but sin against the Lord You have despised his Goodness abused his Love violated his Laws trampled upon his Authority grieved his Spirit wounded his Son darkned his Glory and oftentimes struck even at his very Crown and Being yea and this has been your manner from your youth as God charged them of old Jer. 22.21 there is not that day nor scarcely that hour wherein you have not and do not sin against God often have you made him serve with your sins and wearied him with your iniquities as those Isa 43.24 Your lives have been lives of sin for the most part against God 3. Consider what black and horrid aggravations your fins are cloathed with Are not your sins my Beloved of a scarlet dye and crimson tincture Are they not heightened with many black and crying aggravations have they not at least many of them been committed against much love much light much mercy many motions of the Spirit many checks of Conscience many bonds and obligations to Duty many signal and eminent appearances of God to you and for you many tastes many sealings of his Love and the like what shall I say such every way are our sins yea the sins of the best of us all that we cannot possibly look to the further end of them Who can understand his Errors sayes holy David Psal 19.12 David was an holy Man a Man after God's own Heart and yet he cryes out Who can understand his Errors His sins were beyond search or understanding and if his were so what are ours Truly my Beloved our sins in the number nature and aggravations of them are beyond our reach and well may we all with him cry out Who can understand his Errors 4. Consider what an infinite evil and demerit there is in every sin even the least sin As you are guilty of so much sin and your sins clothed many of them with so many and such crying aggravations so you must know that there is evil enough in the least sin to damn you eternally should God render the desert thereof to you The wages of sm is death sayes the Apostle Rom. 6.23 Mark he speaks of sin indefinitely every sin the least sin and sayes he the wages that which is due to it is death Every sin is an offence against God 't is infinitely contrary to his Purity and Holiness his Will and Glory his Life and Being 't is universally contrary to him and so must needs have an inconceiveable evil and demerit in it Every offence sayes a learned Man against the chief good Omnis offencio summi boni meruit summam poenam eternam creaturae destructionem Ursin even the eternal destruction of the Creature O Sirs we little think the evil there is in a vain thought an idle word an unholy irregular action we little think the evil the least sin carries in it 5. Consider how much God hates sin sin is even infinitely odious and abominable to him God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity to wit without loathing and detestation Hab. 1.13 and he is once and again in Scripture represented as a God hating sin sin indeed is infinitely odious in his sight Now let us weigh these things and lay them together and then we shall see that it can be nothing else that keeps us from destruction but God's Unchangeableness to which therefore we should give the glory 'T is the Grace and Love of God that first brings us into a condition of Life and Salvation and 't is the Unchangeableness of God that keeps us there Truly when some of us reflect a little upon our selves and consider what we are and have been in our Spirits and carriages God-ward how much we have provoked him what frequent forfeitures we have made and do make of our Lives Souls and all we see infinite cause to wonder that we are alive that the flames of divine Wrath had not long since kindled upon us and the revenges of divine Justice broken out against us and blessed be God that we are out of Hell O that such a proud such a stubborn such a stiff-necked people as we are should yet live that persons of so many and high provocations against God as thou Reader and I are guilty of should yet have a being out of Hell This is solely from the unchangeableness of God And my Beloved we do not rightly consider the matter if we do not see and acknowledge it to be so O blessed be God for his unchangeableness had not God been unchangeable where had I now been I had now been shut up in the infernal Pit I had now been a companion with Devils and damned Spirits I had now been separated from God for ever and how miserable then had I been O my Soul adore the Unchangeable One and bless him for his unchangeable Counsel his unchangeable Covenant his unchangeable Love CHAP. VII Several grounds
with stripes Nevertheless O gracious nevertheless my loveing-kindness will I not take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not braek c. We sin and break and break and sin and God chastises us it may be for our sin but yet still his Covenant remaines firm and unchangeable So 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself Oh I have an unbelieving heart and I shall I fear forfeit all although thou hast an unbelieving heart yet God remains faithful Thus God is unchangeable in his Covenant Alas his Covenant is built upon unchangeable Love and seal'd with unchangeable Blood and cannot therefore but be unchangeable and as the Covenant so all the Promises of the Covenant are sure and unchangeable they are all yea and Amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1.20 that is they are all sure firm unchangeable Promises Promises that will certainly be made good Men promise many times and change but God promises and changes not and this some conceive to be held forth in that Name of his I am Exod. 3.14 I am that I am or I am what I was or I will be what I was that is as one expounds it Eroquteram i. e. ero factis qut eram in promissis Alting I will be in my Performances what I was in my Promises God makes good all his promises to a tittle he that is Truth it self and Faithfulness it self cannot lie cannot faile Promissa tua sunt Domine quis falli timeat cum promittit veritas Aug. 'T is a sweet saying I have read in Austin They are thy Promises O Lord and who need fear being deceived when Truth it self promises Oh we need not fear we need not question for God is true God is faithful Oh how sweet are the thoughts of an unchangeable Covenant God has laid himself under bonds to his People when he was infinitely free in himself and under bonds to do great things for them to pardon their iniquities transgressions and sins to give them a new heart and a new Spirit to pour out his Spirit upon them to cause them to walk in his Statutes and Judgements to do them to write his Laws in their Hearts and put them into their inward parts to cleanse them from all their filthiness and idols to put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him and which is all in one to be a God unto them and that they shall be his People that is he has laid himself under bonds to be to them and to do for them what a God can be to and do for them and he is firm and unchangeable in all and all shall assuredly have its accomplishment in its season Oh how sweet is this this was Davids death-bed Cordial 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my House be not so with God yet he hath made with me an Everlasting Covenant and this is all my Salvation and all my Desire and indeed well it might for what could David or any desire more than is contained in God's Covenant which has Heaven and Earth God and the Creature Time and Eternity all in it Oh study this Covenant of God and the unchangeableness of it and you will find it an unchangeable Spring of Comfort to you God himself found fault with the first Covenant 't is said and why Why because it made no provision for his People against sin but you will be able to find no fault with this Covenant this being well-ordered in all things and sure as in the place last quoted you have it 6. God is unchangeable in his Grace and Love to his People God loves his People and that with a choice and peculiar Love a Love like that wherewith he loves Christ himself Joh. 17.23 They are indeed the dearly beloved of his soul as you have it Jer. 12.7 and in this Love of his towards them he is unchangeable alwayes the same which I shall at once a little open and evince unto you in three Propositions 1. God is unchangeable in his Love it self to his People that being alwayes the same towards them I have loved thee sayes God to his People with an Everlasting Love Jer. 31.3 with a Love that is from everlasting to everlasting without change or period God's Love to his People is so firm and stable that nothing whatever can possibly null or alter it nothing can possibly cast them out of his heart if any thing could do it it would be their sinnings against him and their breakings with him but these do not cannot do it so he has told us Psal 89.30 31 32 33. If they sin I 'le correct them for their sin but my loveing-kindness I will not take from them or as some render it I will not so much as interrupt my Love towards them as if he should say though they sin yet I 'le love them still God does not love the sins of his People no he hates them but he loves their persons notwithstanding their sins But what if afflictions and temptations be added to their sins and both the one and the other rise high will not this break off his Love from them No see that triumph of the Apostle upon this account Rom. 8. ult Who shall separate us from the Love of God shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution and the like Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerers through him that loved us for I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalityes nor Powers nor Things present nor Things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Here you see are afflictions and temptations added to sins yea here are heights and depths of these things but all cannot separate God's People from his Love nor cast them out of his Heart One I remember gives the sum of the whole in this short word Ab aeterno dilexit in aeternum diliget Scult in loc God hath loved from eternity and he will love to eternity The truth is could either sins or sufferings cast us out of God's Heart and separate us from his Love who then among the Saints could hope to continue in his Love and upon his Heart Besides in the place lately quoted Isa 54.9.10 God sayes expresly that though the Mountains should be removed yet his kindness to his People should not be removed no that remains firm and stedfast for ever True God may possibly afflict his People and that many wayes and very sorely he may speak against them as against Ephraim Jer. 31.20 write against them and that bitter things as against Job Job 13.26 He may fight against them as against those Isa 63.10 He may frown upon them and let in his terrors into them as he did upon and into Heman Psal 88. ult but yet still he loves them still they are dear to him 2.
filled with such anguish horror and confusion of Soul as that they shall be ready to lay violent hands upon themselves and take away their own lives and my Beloved should we live to see such things how good will an Unchangeable God be O Sirs living in such a changeable World who would not fix upon an Unchangeable God as a Man's Portion and Happiness Who would not get upon yea into this Rock of Ages And how good how sweet will it be to have an Unchangeable God to retreat to and ark in 2. Consider what changeable things all our Creature-comforts and contentments are As the World wherein we live is a changeable World So all our Creature-comforts are changeable comforts Should the World stand where it does and as it does without any such changes as we have mentioned yet our best Creature-comforts here are subject to change every day and how soon we may say of one or another or all of them as Jacob sometimes did of his two sons Joseph Simeon Gen. 42.36 Joseph is not and Simeon is not How soon we may say this and that Comfort is not who can tell I have now a Trade to morrow it may be I shall have none I have now an Estate to morrow it may be I shall have none I have now a pleasant Habitation to morrow it may be it will be in Ashes I have now my Friends and Relations about me my Husband or my Wife lying pleasantly in my Bosom my Children like Olive branches round about my Table to morrow it may be they will all sleep in the Dust and go down to the Gates of the Grave and I shall see them no more Alas these things are not as Solomon speaks of Riches such is their changeableness that they have scarce a being Or suppose these things should stay with us yet how soon may they be imbitter'd to us How soon may the best of this Wine be turned into Wormwood How soon may the sweetest of these Comforts be changed into bitter Crosses Sometimes the desire of our eyes is taken away from us with a stroke as God threatned the Prophet of old that is suddenly and e're ever we are aware of it our dearest sweetest and most delightful Comforts are taken from us At other times the desire of our Eyes becomes the burthen of our Souls our dearest Comforts are imbittered to us that which yesterday was sweet and pleasant to day possibly is bitter and burthensom to us that which to day is the joy of our hearts to morrow it may be will be as a goad in our sides and as thorns in our eyes O how soon many times do our most pleasant Streams turn into waters of Marah to us Now all on this side God being thus changeable who would not rest in Him and his Unchangeableness Oh Unchangeableness Unchangeableness this is to be found in God alone and therefore let him alone be the Rest and Portion of our Souls 3. Consider how near our last and great change is unto us should the World never wax old nor admit of any change and should our Creature-comforts and contentments live and last for ever yet we our selves must change we are fading dying perishing Creatures we pass under many changes and great changes and 't is but a little while e're our last and great change will come Death is our last and great change till the Resurrection So the Holy Ghost by Joh speaks of it Job 14.14 and this is a great change indeed a change from Work to Reward from Time to Eternity a change out of this World into another from these Tabernacles of Clay to live in eternal Regions either of Light or Darkness and thus shall We all be changed a few years a few months a few weeks a few dayes a few hours yea it may be but a few moments more and we shall all be thus changed changed by Death out of Time into Eternity and how much then are we concerned to make choice of and take up our rest in an Unchangeable God Then namely when we pass under this change to be sure nothing but Unchangeableness will be of any avail to us and this is to be found in God alone him therefore should we chuse and take up our rest in This very consideration induced David to make a fresh choice of God and cleave more entirely to him as his Rest and Happiness Psal 39.5 6 7. Behold O Lord thou hast made my dayes as an hand-breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquietted in vain Well and what now Why sayes he And now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee He saw his vanity and changeableness as also the vanity and changeableness of all others both Persons and Things he saw both himself and all others in their very best state to be not only vain but even vanity it self subject to change every hour in the sight and sense of which he cleaves to God chuses him centers in him as his God his Portion his All Now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee q. d. Now Lord that I have seen my own vanity and changeableness and the vanity and changeableness of others too now I look to thee I cleave to thee I rest in thee as my onely Good Portion and Happiness I have now done with the Streames with the Creatures and Creature-contentments and I 'le now bathe only in the Fountain rest wholly in thy self the Fountain of living Waters And my Beloved did we dwell more in the consideration of the nearness of our last and great change we should doubtless cleave more closely and entirely to the Unchangeable God as our rest and Portion Our thus numbering our dayes deep and frequent consideration of the shortness of our lives and how soon we may be changed would make us to apply our hearts to this Wisdom to get an interest in the Unchangeable God Psal 90.12 O be much therefore in this Work 4. Consider that then and not till then shall we be happy indeed when we come to look and live above changeable Creatures upon an Unchangeable God 'T is happiness my Beloved that is the great interest of Souls and 't is happiness we all desire and pursue after now then are we happy indeed and not till then when we get above the Creatures and take up our rest in the Unchangeable God Pray Sirs let us consider things a little Suppose you had this whold World at will and might injoy as much of the Creature as your Souls could wish suppose you could all your dayes live in a Paradise of all earthly Delights and swim chin-deep in the Streams of all Creature-contentments yet what were all this Alas it would not make up one dram of true happiness your happiness must be in God still Mind how the Psalmist speaks as to this Psal
and this is the Rest which I am now calling you into And yet a little further to set home the Call upon you consider a few things 1. Consider what a sad and dismal thing it is for a Soul to Rest in any thing but God alone A Rest one or another the Soul will have if God be not its Rest it will be taking up a Rest elsewhere Now 't is a sad and woful thing for a Soul to Rest any where but in God alone Woe to them that are at ease in Zion saies the Prophet Amos 6.1 Woe to them that are quiet and at Rest in Zion that is to say that are at Rest in carnal sensual things in Zion so the Prophet afterwards explains himself Woe to them that are at Rest in the Creatures that take up their solace and satisfaction in Carnal Contentments and not in God To take up our Rest in the Creatures and not in God is for us to prefer the Creature before God and to be content with the Creature without God for our Portion and Happiness for ever and which is more 't is a dreadful Argument that a Man 's All lies in the Creature and that God intends him nothing but the Creature for ever Woe unto you that are Rich saies Christ for you have received your consolation Luk. 6.24 Woe unto you that are Rich that is you who Rest in your Riches as Calvin rightly expounds it who take up your happiness in these things Woe unto you and what Woe to them truly a most dreadful Woe You have received your consolation saies Christ you have all the good you are ever like to have you shall have no more and no other happiness or consolation for ever Your resting in these things argues these things to be your All and Oh what a woeful dreadful thing is it for a man to have his All in this World in a few vain empty bitter-sweet perishing Vanities here 'T was a cutting killing Word which Abraham is brought in giving Dives when he said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things Luke 16.25 He had all his happiness in this World which is the woe and misery of such as take up their Rest any where but in God alone tremble therefore at this 2. Consider how impossible it is to find any true Rest Solace and Satisfaction of Soul any where but in God and with God alone You may as soon find Life in Death or Light in Darkness as Rest for your Souls any where but in God alone Pray Friends where will you look or whither will you go to find Rest on this side God and Christ Will you have recourse to sin to your lusts to these multitudes run they pursue their Rest Solace and Satisfaction from sin and the pleasures of sin yea as Solomon speaks they rest not unless they sin unless they do evil But my Beloved is there Rest to be found in sin Can that give Rest that is the greatest evil in the World Can that give Rest that is the cause of all our troubles and difficulties Can that give Rest that is the cause of all the confusions and desolations that are in the World Can that give Rest that was the first and onely cause and founder of Hell Had there been no Sin there had been no Hell Can that give Rest that makes us like the Devil that restless Spirit yea and that made him of a glorious Angel a Devil Can that give Rest that is infinitely contrary to God that is the only Object of his hatred and that alone can and does separate between God the chief Good and our Souls O the folly of Souls to pursue a Rest in sin in the satisfaction of a lust True a base brutish pleasure and delight wicked men take in sin as he said Will it not be bitterness in the latter end the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult Yea and not only death at last but many times anguish and torment here Will you have recourse course to the good things of this World to Creature-comforts and Injoyments to Friends Relations Estate and the like These thousands make their Rest practically Saying with him Luk. 12.19 Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for thee for many years thou hast a good trade a fair estate pleasant injoyments take thine ease Soul sit thou down at Rest But my Beloved can these things give Rest Alas 't is the joynt-language of all the Creatures to us Rest and Happiness for your Souls is not to be found in us seek it elsewhere if you intend to find it The Creatures sayes a worthy Divine are not good at least they are not the Souls Good nothing saies he but an infinite God-head can allay your hunger after happiness Can Wind can Vanity can a Shadow can a Fancy can things of nought things that are not things that are even made up of emptiness and changeableness give Rest Such you know these things are in Scripture represented to be Could these things have given Rest why had not Solomon found it in them He had certainly the fullest enjoyment of them that ever man had and not only so but moreover he had wisdom and skill to extract the sweetness of them to improve whatever they have in them yea and he improved this Wisdom and skill of his to the utmost for he set himself as he tells us to enjoy whatever the Creature could possibly afford he gave himself up to a full enjoyment of all Well but did he find Rest in them after all no he was so far from finding Rest that he cries out of all All is Vanity and vexation of Spirit and this he does often you know All is vanity and vexation of Spirit and can vanity and vexation of Spirit give Rest What if a man has an affluence an abundance of these things and they are also increasing daily Will they not afford a Rest for him then No he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase this also is vanity Eccles 5.10 Silver abundance encrease all is Vanity and cannot give Rest And my Beloved does not our experience tell us the same thing Alas did we ever find any true Rest and Satisfaction of Soul in these things True we are apt to promise our selves Rest in this and that in this Condition and that Injoyment but did we ever find that which we promised our selves Have we not alwayes met with disappointments We have dreamed of a Rest in these things but it has been but a dream it has been with us as 't is in the Prophet Isa 29.8 It shall be as when a hungry man dreameth and behold be eateth but he awaketh and his Soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his Soul hath appetite Just so 't is and it has been with us while we are or