A32723:1121
Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God
Several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God by that late eminent minister in Christ, Mr. Stephen Charnocke ...
London: printed for D. Newman, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. The third thing to speak to is,
That Immutability is proper to God, and incommunicable to any Creature. Mutability is natural to every Creature as a Creature, and Immutability is the sole perfection of God: He only is infinite Wisdom, able to fore-know future Events; He only is infinitely powerful, able to call forth all means to effect; So that wanting neither Wisdom to contrive, nor Strength to execute, he cannot alter his Counsel: None being above him, nothing in him contrary to him, and being defective in no Blessedness and Perfection, he cannot vary in his Essence and Nature. Had not Immutability as well as Eternity been a Property folly pertaining to the Divine Nature, as well as creative Power and eternal Duration; the Apostles Argument to prove Christ to be God from this perpetual sameness, had come short of any convincing strength. These words of the Text he applies to Christ, Heb 1.10, 11, 12. They shall be changed, but thou art the same. There had been no strength in the reason, if Immutability by Nature did belong to any Creature.
That Immutability is proper to God, and incommunicable to any Creature. Mutability is natural to every Creature as a Creature, and Immutability is the sole perfection of God: He only is infinite Wisdom, able to fore-know future Events; He only is infinitely powerful, able to call forth all means to effect; So that wanting neither Wisdom to contrive, nor Strength to execute, he cannot alter his Counsel: None being above him, nothing in him contrary to him, and being defective in no Blessedness and Perfection, he cannot vary in his Essence and Nature. Had not Immutability as well as Eternity been a Property folely pertaining to the Divine Nature, as well as creative Power and eternal Duration; the Apostles Argument to prove Christ to be God from this perpetual sameness, had come short of any convincing strength. These words of the Text he applies to Christ, Heb 1.10, 11, 12. They shall be changed, but thou art the same. There had been no strength in the reason, if Immutability by Nature did belong to any Creature.