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
Vera Effigies R di Edwardi Pearse Aetatis Suae 40. 1673. R White sculp A BEAM OF Divine Glory OR THE Unchangeableness of God Opened Vindicated and Improved Whereunto is added The Soul's Rest in God By EDWARD PEARSE To which is prefixed the Author's last Letter written in the time of his Sickness to some peculiar Friends Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord c. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard and Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil 1674. TO THE READER THE Vnchangeableness of God is one of those Perfections of his whereby he is in a peculiar manner distinguished from the Creatures The Creatures are made up of Changes Their Beings Life Conditions are subject to many Changes But God knows none of these Changes his Being is most immutable his Life the most even constant Uniform serene Life his Happiness at all times alike and the Same God doth alwayes abide in the same likeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judaeus sayes one of the Ancients with him there is no Variableness nor shaddow of Change Now there is an instinct in us whereby we are carryed out to desire unchangeableness Every thing doth naturally desire its Perfection Man therefore being a reasonable Creature finding himself subject to many Changes longs after a perfect State which is to be Unchangeable he would fain come to an Vnchangeable Life to an Vnchangeable Happiness Now what we cannot find or attain unto in our selves we should aspire after by attaining Vnion and Conjunction with our Maker Every thing is made perfect by reaching or attaining its First Cause or Principle God is the Fountain of Life the Fountain of Vnchangeableness so far as unchangeableness is communicable to the Creatures Indeed in a strict and proper sense Vnchangeableness is one of the Incommunicable Attributes of God none but God is simply and absolutely Vnchangeable or can be so It implies a Contradiction to suppose a Creature and that Creature intrinsecally and in its own Nature not to be under a possibility of Change but yet after a sort the Creatures may be made Vnchangeable in having an Vnchangeable Life an Unchangeable Happiness given to them by some kind of participation of God who is the chief Good and who hath all Life and Happiness in himself Thus the holy Angels who are not simply and absolutely unchangeable in themselves do yet enjoy an unchangeable Life and Happiness in way of donation and Communication by the sight of God and Communion with God We should therefore aspire after the sight of God and press after the most perfect adherence to him God only is the Centre of Unchangeableness and by fixing our hearts in him we shall after a sort become unchangeable Joyn thy heart to Eternity sayes Austin and thou thy self shalt be eternal Junge Cor tuum aeternitati aeternus eris The Author of the following Discourses hath now blessed experience what that participated Vnchangeableness is if we may so Call it which glorified Souls have in the Divine presence by having Communion with God the first unchangeable Being Whilst he lived here on Earth he saw many Changes passing over himself both as to his Person and Condition this put him upon the Contemplation of the Vnchangeableness of God and caused him to seek for that Rest in God which he could not find in himself nor in any thing here below And as those that observed his Spirit did clearly perceive that he was much quickned and helped as to his Spiritual Estate by meditating much of an Holy Rest in God So it is not to be doubted if we take the same Course and keep the eye of our minds fixed on God labouring to take up all our Rest and Satisfaction in him there shall we find that true quiet to our Souls which we vainly seek after in the Variety of Objects here below And the serious perusing of these Discourses which carry much of the Impress of the Authors Spirit upon them may be of good use to us to help us to attain such an end The Author had no thoughts at first of bringing forth these Sermons unto publick view but being much perswaded hereunto by his Nearest Relation at last he yielded unto that Importunity and perfected them with his own hand The rest of his Notes being left in Characters it is much to be feared these are the last Sermons of his that are like to see the Light For a close I may only add this That it is matter of sad Lamentation to us to consider how many of the Faithful Servants of God who have been eminent in their Generations have been taken away in a few years Certainly it becomes us to bewail greatly the deaths of so many Godly Ministers and since the Harvest is great and the faithful Labourers are but few we should pray the Lord of the Harvest that he would thrust forth Labourers into the Vineyard Thine in the Lord Christ JOHN ROWE Mr. Pearse ' s last Letter To my dearly beloved Friends that small Company to whom by the providence of God I have some years last past preached the Everlasting Gospel Dearly and longed for in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace unto you from God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ by the Eternal Spirit IT is now many years since by the providence of God we have been called to worship his great and Reverend Name together during which time God hath â—een exceeding good to us manifesting his Power in our weakness and his Love in our unworthiness He hath declared his Name to be recorded amongst us by his coming to us and blessing of us Some of you have been Convinced some Converted some Edified and all I hope quickened and encouraged Heavenwards And not only your selves but through the Grace of God many others have been born to Christ amongst us and more built up in the holy Faith O the many warm sweet and refreshing Sabbaths we have enjoyed together And what shall we say to these things or what shall we do O let us bow down at the foot of God and adore his infinitely infinitely infinitely free rich and powerful Grace ascribing all the glory to that alone to which I am sure all is due God hath now called me aside from you and not only from you but he seems to be calling me out of his Vineyard yea out of this World I have long had a weak and infirm Body but now God in his wise and holy Providence hath seen good to reduce me to a far lower and weaker state of Body my Health being now vtterly broken Yet I must say God is exceeding good to me and deals in fatherly tenderness with me I have neither much sickness nor much pain only my Disease according to its name gradually consumes me nor am I without some lucid intervals God both lifts me up and casts me down as he
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
this perfection of his this is all that we can do and 't is indeed our Glorifying of him to display and make mention of the excellencies and perfections of God and with both our Spirits and Tongues to celebrate the glory of them which indeed will be our work for ever O let us be much in it now 3. Would we give God the Glory of his Unchangeableness Then let us see and acknowledge him and his Unchangeableness to be the sole Spring and Fountain of all that Unchangeableness that either Men or Angels do attain unto the Creatures Men and Angels not excepted in themselves are all changeable but yet there is a blessed Unchangeableness which some of them I mean the Saints and holy Angels do at last attain unto they are as the School-men speak of them in omni bono confirmati eternally and unchangeably confirmed in all Good in all Holiness all Happiness And whence comes this to pass Verily from the Unchangeableness of God that is the Spring and Fountain of all were not God unchangeable unchangeable in his Covenant Counsel and Love they would never arrive to such an Unchangeableness to God's Unchangeableness therefore we should give the glory of it Look as Christ said in another case because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 So may God say both to Men and Angels because I am unchangeable therefore shall ye be unchangeable also Indeed the Unchangeableness which Saints and Angels do attain unto is but a beam as it were of God's Unchangeableness emitted down upon them they shall be unchangeably holy because God is so they are unchangeably blessed because God is so and they have communion with him by Christ in his unchangeable holiness and blessedness see therefore and acknowledge God and his Unchangeableness in that unchangeableness which Saints and Angels attain unto ascribing theirs wholly to his 4. Would we give God the glory of his Unchangeableness Then let us live upon this Unchangeableness of his The more we live upon the Unchangeableness of God the more we honour it and give him the glory of it Now we should live upon it under a double notion 1. We should live upon it as the sole cause of all our preservation expecting all from it and ascribing all to it This God challenges from us in the very text I am the Lord I change not therefore ye are not consumed q. d. 't is from my Unchangeableness that you are alive that you are out of Hell and 't is my Unchangeableness that must keep you alive and preserve you for ever and I expect you should own it and live upon it accordingly Our language should be I am alive and why Because God is unchangeable I am out of Hell and why Because God is unchangeable yea I hope I shall live and that for ever But why Because God is unchangeable True I am a changeable Creature and being left to my self I shall quickly forfeit Life Soul Salvation and all yea I am forfeiting all every day and hour by sin but God is an unchangeable God he is for ever the same his Counsel his Covenant his Love are all unchangeable and therefore I do live and shall live yea live eternally Oh this is so to live upon the Unchangeableness of God as to give him the glory of that perfection of his 2. We should live upon the Unchangeableness of God as a sweet Spring of Comfort and Refreshment to us under all those afflictive changes which here in this World we meet withall We here meet with many afflictive changes Changes and War are upon us but the Unchangeableness of God is a sweet Spring of Comfort and Refreshment in all and under all and when we live upon it as such bearing up our Souls thereupon then do we give this Attribute its proper glory This is what is called for Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever that is live rest depend upon him Why so for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength the words are the Rock of Ages the Rock of this Age the Rock of former Ages the Rock of Ages to come a Rock in all Ages and the Rock of all Ages that is to say a firm unchangeable One and being such an one he is he must be the proper object of trust and unless we do trust in him and live upon him as our life we do not give him his proper glory We should as it were sit down and say Well though my estate changes yet God does not change and so long all is well Though my Friends and Comforts change my Friends turn Enemies and my Comforts Crosses yet God does not change and so long all is well yea 't is true my Spirit changes there is no fixedness no stability in it as to any thing that is good and gracious yet however God changes not he is alwayes the same and I 'le live on him The Lord lives and blessed be my Rock saies David Psal 18.46 Friends dye Trade dies and my self am a dying but the Lord lives and there is enough in that to bear me up under all O when thus we live upon God's Unchangeableness as a Spring and Fountain of Comfort to us under all afflictive changes here then do we give him the glory of this Attribute of his 5. Would we give God the glory of his Unchangeablenes then let us labour to imitate him and to be as like him herein as possibly we can let us labour as much as possible for an holy Unchangeablenes a fixednes and stability in what is good even here and that in conformity to God we cast an honour as one observes upon them whom we imitate for by our imitation of them we acknowledge an excellency in them which is all that honouring in the first Notion of it imports sure I am the more like to God we covet to be and the more we imitate him in this perfection of his by coming up to an holy evenness and stability in what is Good the more do we honour him and give him his proper glory But this may possibly be spoken to in a Chapter by it self in its proper place Thus you see how to give God that glory which is due to him upon the account of his Unchangeableness CHAP. IX God's Unchangeableness should induce us to choose him for our God and Portion and to take up the rest and happiness of our Souls in him with arguments to quicken thereunto THe Unchangeableness of God calls aloud upon us all to choose him for our God and Portion and to take up the rest and happiness of our Souls in him and not in the Creatures The truth is to choose God for our God and Portion and to take up our rest and happiness in him is what every discovery of God in one or another excellency or perfection of his does chalenge and call for at our hands Does he reveal himself to be an holy God This calls upon us to choose him for