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On the Unchangeableness of God.

DISCOURSE XVII.

JAMES i. 17.

Every good Gift, and every perfect Gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning.

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T is the latter Part of the Words that I fhall particularly infift upon, With whom is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning.

It is one great Excellency of the facred Writings, that they every where abound with the noblest Descriptions of the Supreme Being, fuch as tend to fill us with the most admiring Thoughts of him, and

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to produce in us fuitable devout Affections and Difpofitions towards him. He is every where reprefented as moft amiable and most venerable, worthy of our highest Love, and of our profoundest Veneration and Efteem. Great Care is taken to guard Men against entertaining any unworthy Conceptions of the Deity, unbecoming his glorious Greatness, his Goodness, and Purity. We are there taught to take the Blame of all the Evils we are guilty of wholly to ourfelves, and to give God the Glory of the Good that is in us, or that we are enabled to perform. To this Purpose St. James here declares, Ver. 13. Let no Man fay when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with Evil, neither tempteth

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any Man. And then he adds, Ver. 17. Every good Gift, and every perfect Gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning. How amiable is God, confidered as the great Fountain and Author of all Good! But tho' he were moft kind and beneficent, as earthly Princes fometimes are in their imperfect Measureand Degree, yet if like them he were variable and inconftant, he could not be fafely depended on. But when we confider, that he is good and kind, fo he is always the fame, unchangeable in his Being, in his Perfections,

Perfections, and in his Purposes; this tendeth greatly to heighten our Efteem of him, and rendereth him the proper Object of our Love, Admiration, and Affiance.

God is here called the Father of Lights, in Allusion, as fome fuppofe, to that glorious Luminary the Sun, the great Fountain of Light and vital Warmth to this lower World, which may exhibit an imperfect Refemblance of the diffufive Goodness and` Benignity, the unutterable Splendor and Glory of the fupreme Lord of the Universe. And the Allufion feems to be ftill carrying on, when it is here declared concerning God, that with him is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning. For the Critics observe, that the Expreffions in the Original are the fame that are used by Aftronomers to denote the Changes and Variations that happen to the heavenly Bodies. Thofe glorious Orbs put on different Afpects; they are in themselves mutable, and at length liable to a total Diffolution; but God is not fubject to the least Variation. With him is not so much as a Shadow of Turning, as the Apostle here most emphatically expreffeth it. He is, from everlafting to everlasting, the fame immutably perfect, the fame most amiable and beneficent Being, the eternal indeficient Source of Glory and Happiness, This is a mighty Confolation,

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lation, and a juft Ground of Confidence and Joy.

This Immutability of the Supreme Being is what I now propofe to confider; and in treating of this Subject, I would obferve,

First, That God is unchangeable in his Being and Perfections.

Secondly, He is unchangeable in his Counfels and Purposes.

Thirdly, He is unchangeable in his Ways of Procedure, and Methods of acting.

First, God is unchangeable in his Being and Perfections. This is one Thing that feems to be intended in that glorious Character by which he describeth himself, I am that I am. The fame Thing is fignified by the Name Jehovah, which is appropriated to him in the facred Writings, and which leadeth us to confider him as the eternal felf-exiftent Being. All other Things are contingent; they do not exist neceffarily of themselves, but owe their Existence to the Power and Will of the Cause that produced them; and therefore it implieth no Contradiction to fuppofe them never to have exifted at all, or to fuppofe them to cease to be, or to be liable to Change, and different from what they now are. But the original and moft fundamental Notion we can form of God, is, that he is abfolutely eternal, that he derived not his Being from any exter

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