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illustrate, in some degree, the nature of the SERMON divine immutability; and then make application of it to our own conduct.

EVERY good and every perfect gift, cometh down from the Father of Lights. The title which in the text is given to the Deity, carries an elegant allusion to the Sun, the source of light, the most universal benefactor of nature, the most regular and constant of all the great bodies with which we are acquainted in the universe. Yet even with the Sun there are certain degrees of variableness. He apparently rises and sets; he seems to approach nearer to us in summer, and to retire farther off in winter; his influence is varied by the seasons, and his lustre is affected by the clouds. Whereas with him who is the Father of Lights, of whose everlasting brightness the glory of the Sun is but a faint image, there is no shadow of turning, not the most distant approach to change. In his being or essence it is plain that alteration can never take place. For as his existence is derived from no prior cause, nor dependant on any thing without himself, his nature VOL, II.

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SERMON can be influenced by no power, can be affected by no accident, can be impaired by no time. From everlasting to everlasting, he continues the same. Hence it is said, that he only hath immortality; that is, he possesses it in a manner incommunicable to all other beings. Eternity is described as the high and holy place in which he dwelleth ; it is a habitation in which none but the Father of Lights can enter. The name which he taketh to himself is, I am. Of other things, some have been and others shall be; but this is he, which is, which was, and All time is his; it is measured out by him in limited portions to the various orders of created beings; but his own existence fills equally every point of duration; the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

which is to come.

As in his essence, so in his attributes and perfections, it is impossible there can be any change. To imperfect natures only it belongs to improve and to decay. Every alteration which they undergo in their abilities or di positions, flows either from internal defect, or from the influence of a superiour cause. But as no higher cause can bring from

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from without any accession to the divine SERMON nature, so within itself it contains no principle of decay. For the same reason that the self-existent Being was from the beginning powerful and wise, just and good, he must continue unalterably so for ever. Hence, with much propriety, the divine perfections are described in scripture by allusions to those objects to which we ascribe the most permanent stability. His righteousness is like the strong mountains. His mercy is in the heavens; and his faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. These perfections of the divine nature differ widely from the human virtues, which are their faint shadows. The justice of men is at one time severe, at another time relenting; their goodness is sometimes confined to a partial fondness for a few, sometimes runs out into a blind indulgence towards all. But goodness and justice are in the Supreme Being calm and steady principles of action, which, enlightened by perfect wisdom, and never either warped by partiality, or disturbed by passion, persevere in one regular and constant tenour. Among men, they may sometimes break forth with transient splendour, like those wander

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SERMON wandering fires which illuminate for a little the darkness of the night. But in God, they shine with that uniform brightness, which we can liken to nothing so much as to the untroubled, eternal lustre of the highest heavens.

From this follows, what is chiefly material for us to attend to, that in the course of his operations towards mankind, in his counsels and decrees, in his laws, his promises, and in his threatenings, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with the Almighty. Known to him from the beginning were all his works. In the divine idea the whole system of nature existed, long before the foundations of the earth were laid. When he said, Let there be light, he only realised the great plan which, from everlasting, he had formed in his own mind. Foreseen by him was every revolution which the course of ages was to produce.

Whatever the counsels of men can effect, was comprehended in his decree. No new emergency can arise to surprise him. No agitations of anger or of sorrow, of fear or of hope, can shake his mind or influence his conduct. He rests in the eternal possession

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of that Supreme beatitude, which neither SERMON the virtues nor the crimes of men can in the least affect. From a motive of overflowing goodness, he reared up the universe. As the eternal lover of righteousness, he rules it. The whole system of his government is fixed; his laws are irrevocable; and, what he once loveth, be loveth to the end. In scripture, indeed, he is sometimes said to be grieved, and to repent. But such expressions, it is obvious, are employed from accommodation to common conception; in the same manner as when bodily organs are, in other passages, ascribed to God. The scripture, as a rule of life addressed to the multitude, must make use of the language of men. The divine nature, represented in its native sublimity, would have transcended all human conception. When, upon the reformation of sinners, God is said to repent of the evil which he hath threatened against them; this intimates no more than that he suits his dispensations to the alterations which take place in the characters of men. disposition towards good and evil continues the same, but varies in its application as its objects vary; just as the laws themselves,

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His

which