knows as much now as ever, neither more nor less; he has the same consummate skill, and the same infinite forecastings. He is unchanged, blessed is his name, in his justice. Just and holy was he in the past; just and holy is he now. He is unchanged in his truth; he has promised, and he brings it to pass; he has said it, and it shall be done. He varies not in the goodness, and generosity, and benevolence of his nature. He has not become an Almighty tyrant, whereas he was once an Almighty Father; but his strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity. And blessed is his dear name, he is unchanged in his love. When he first wrote the covenant, how full his heart was with affection to his people. He knew that his Son must die to ratify the articles of that agreement. He knew right well that he must rend his best beloved from his heart, and send him down to earth to bleed and die. He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor did he shun its fulfilment. He loves as much now as he did then; and when suns shall cease to shine, and moons to show their feeble light, he still shall love on for ever and for ever. Take any one attribute of God, and I will write semper idem on it (always the same.) Take any one thing you can say of God now, and it may be said not only in the dark past, but in the bright future it shall always remain the same: “I am Jehovah, I do not change.”
7. 3. Then again, God changes not in his plans. That man began to build, but was not able to finish, and therefore he changed his plan, as every wise man would do in such a case; he built upon a smaller foundation and commenced again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but was not able to finish? No. When he has boundless stores at his command, and when his own right hand would create worlds as numerous as drops of morning dew, shall he ever stop because he has not power? and reverse, or alter, or rearrange his plan, because he cannot carry it out? “But,” some say, “perhaps God never had a plan.” Do you think God is more foolish than yourself then, sir? Do you go to work without a plan? “No,” you say, “I have always a scheme.” So has God. Every man has his plan, and God has a plan too. God is a master mind; he arranged everything in his gigantic intellect long before he did it; and once having settled it, note you, he never alters it. “This shall be done,” he says, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. “This is my purpose,” and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. “This is my decree,” he says, promulgate it angels; rend it down from the gate of heaven you demons; but you cannot alter the decree; it shall be done. God does not alter his plans; why should he? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform his pleasure. Why should he? He is the All Wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should he? He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before his plan is accomplished. Why should he change? You worthless atoms of existence, ephemera of the day! you creeping insects upon this bay leaf of existence! you may change your plans, but he shall never, never change his. Then has he told me that his plan is to save me? If so, I am safe.
My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress’d on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.
8. 4. Yet again, God is unchanging in his promises. Ah! we love to speak about the sweet promises of God; but if we could ever suppose that one of them could be changed, we would not talk any more about them. If I thought that the notes of the bank of England could not be cashed next week, I would decline to take them, and if I thought that God’s promises would never be fulfilled — if I thought that God would see it right to alter some word in his promises — farewell Scriptures! I want immutable things: and I find that I have immutable promises when I turn to the Bible: for, “by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,” he has signed, confirmed, and sealed every promise of his. The gospel is not “yea and nay,” it is not promising today, and denying tomorrow; but the gospel is “yea, yea,” to the glory of God. Believer! there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday; and this morning when you turned to the Bible the promise was not sweet. Do you know why? Do you think the promise had changed? Ah, no! You changed; that is the place where the matter lies. You had been eating some of the grapes of Sodom, and by it your mouth was put out of taste, and you could not detect the sweetness. But there was the same honey there, depend upon it, the same preciousness. “Oh!” says one child of God “I had built my house firmly once upon some stable promises; there came a wind, and I said, Oh Lord, I am cast down and I shall be lost.” Oh! the promises were not cast down; the foundations were not removed; it was your little “wood, hay, stubble” hut, that you had been building. It was that which fell down. You have been shaken on the rock, not the rock under you. But let me tell you what is the best way of living in the world. I have heard that a gentleman said to a negro, “I cannot think how it is you are always so happy in the Lord, and I am often downcast.” “Why massa,” said he, “I throw myself flat down on the promise — there I lie; you stand on the promise — you have a little to do with it, and down you go when the wind comes, and then you cry, ‘Oh! I am down’ whereas I go flat on the promise at once and that is why I fear no fall.” Then let us always say, “Lord there is the promise; it is your business to fulfil it.” Down I go on the promise flat! no standing up for me. That is the place where you should go — prostrate on the promise; and remember, every promise is a rock, an unchanging thing. Therefore, at his feet cast yourself, and rest there for ever.
9. 5. But now comes one jarring note to spoil the theme. To some of you God is unchanging in his threatenings. If every promise stands fast, and every oath of the covenant is fulfilled, listen you, sinner! — note the word — hear the death knell of your carnal hopes; see the funeral of the fleshy trustings. Every threatening of God, as well as every promise shall be fulfilled. Talk of decrees! I will tell you of a decree: “He that does not believe shall be damned.” That is a decree, and a statute that can never change. Be as good as you please, be as moral as you can, be as honest as you will, walk as uprightly as you may, — there stands the unchangeable threatening: “He that does not believe shall be damned.” What do you say to that, moralist? Oh, you wish you could alter it, and say, “He that does not live a holy life shall be damned.” That will be true; but it does not say so. It says, “He that does not believe.” Here is the stone of stumbling, and the rock of offence; but you cannot alter it. You believe or be damned, says the Bible; and note, that threat of God is as unchangeable as God himself. And when a thousand years of hell’s torments shall have passed away, you shall look on high, and see written in burning letters of fire, “He that does not believe shall be damned.” “But, Lord, I am damned.” Nevertheless it says “shall be” still. And when a million ages have rolled away, and you are exhausted by your pains and agonies you shall turn up your eye and still read “SHALL BE DAMNED,” unchanged, unaltered. And when you shall have thought that eternity must have spun out its last thread — that every particle of that which we call eternity, must have run out, you shall still see it written up there, “SHALL BE DAMNED.” Oh terrific thought! How dare I utter it? But I must. You must be warned, sirs, “lest you also come into this place of torment.” You must be told rough things; for if God’s gospel is not a rough thing, the law is a rough thing; Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe to the watchman that does not warn the ungodly! God is unchanging in his threatenings. Beware, oh sinner, for “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
10. 6. We must just hint at one thought before we pass on, and that is — God is unchanging in the objects of his love — not only in his love, but in the objects of it.
If ever it should come to pass,
That sheep of Christ might fall away,
My fickle, feeble soul, alas,
Would fall a thousand times a day.
If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be, and then there
