Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

2. Immutability is a Glory belonging to all the Attributes of God. 'Tis not a single perfection of the Divine Nature, nor is it limited to particular Objects thus and thus disposed. Mercy and Justice have their distinct objects, and distinct acts; Mercy is conversant about a Penitent, Justice conversant about an obstinate Sinner. In our notion and conception of the Divine Perfections, his Perfections are different; The Wisdom of God is not his Power, nor his Power his Holiness; but Immutability is the Centre wherein they all unite: There is not one Perfection but may be said to be, and truly is immutable; none of them will appear so glorious without this Beam, this Sun of Immutability, which renders them highly excellent without the least shadow of imperfection: How cloudy would his Blessedness be, if it were changeable? How dim his Wisdom, if it might be obscured? How feeble his Power, if it were capable to be sickly and languish? How would Mercy lose much of its lustre, if it could change into wrath; and Justice much of its dread, if it could be turned into Mercy, while the object of Justice remains unfit for Mercy, and one that hath need of Mercy continues only fit for the Divine Fury? But unchangeableness is a Thread that runs through the whole Web; 'Tis the enamel of all the rest; none of them without it could look with a triumphant aspect: His Power is unchangeable;^* In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength; his Mercy and his Holiness endure for ever; He never could, nor ever can look upon iniquity^*: He is a Rock in the righteousness of his ways, the truth of his word, the holiness of his proceedings and the rectitude of his nature: All are expressed, Deut. 32.4. He is a Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are Judgment; A God of Truth and without Iniquity, just and right is he. All that we consider in God is unchangeable; for his Essence and his Properties are the same, and therefore what is necessarily belonging to the Essence of God, belongs also to every perfection of the nature of God; none of them can receive any addition or diminution: From the unchangeableness of his nature, the Apostle, James 1.17. infers the unchangeableness of his Holiness; and himself in