the most suitable means of virtue and happiness. Throughout his vast empire, he surrounded his throne with Intelligent creatures, to fill the immense and perfect scheme of being, which originally existed with infinite splendour in his own incomprehensible Mind. Independent of all possible beings and events, he sits at the head of this universe, unchanged, and incapable of change, amid all the successions, tossings, and tumults, by which it is agitated. When empires are overthrown, or angels fall; when suns are extinguished, and systems return to their original nothing; he is equally impassive and unmoved as when sparrows expire, or the hairs fall from our heads. Nothing can happen, nothing can be done, beyond his expectation, or without his permission. Nothing can frustrate his designs, and nothing disappoint or vary his purposes. All things, beside him, change, and fluctuate without ceasing. Events exist, and vanish. Beings rise, and expire. But his own existence, the thoughts which he entertains, the desires which he admits, the purposes which he forms, are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Throughout the coming vast of eternity also, and the boundless tracts of immensity, he sees with serene complacency his own perfect purposes daily and invariably advancing, with a regular fulfilment towards their absolute completion. In its own place, in its own time, and in its own manner, each exists in exact obedience to his order, and in exact accordance with his choice. Nothing lingers, nothing hastens but his counsel exactly stands, and all his pleasure will be precisely accomplished.

2. How necessary are these attributes to the character of God as the Ruler of all things.

By his eternity this glorious Being is always in existence, to know and to bring to pass, to approve or to condemn, to reward or to punish, whatever he pleases, and whatever is done by his intelligent creatures. As an Eternal Being only, can he form plans of existence and administration which shall extend through eternity, and propose designs invested with boundless perfection. As an Eternal Being only, is he qualified to execute those designs in an everlasting progress, and to complete for ever the infinite good which he has begun.

By means of his Eternity only, is he able to offer to his

creatures eternal rewards, and place before them infinite motives to obedience and virtue: rewards and motives, in their nature, differing immensely from all others. Without this attribute, with whatever wisdom the system of his works was planned, however bright and benevolent the designs which he formed, however just and excellent his administrations, while they continued; still, at a period comparatively near, the splendour and the promise of this day-spring would set in darkness, and the sun of glory and of good be extinguished for The universe of matter and of minds, holden in being by his hand, would at an untimely day find that hand withdrawn, and itself, with all the prospects formed, the hopes indulged, and the blessings enjoyed, by the unnumbered hosts of intelligent beings, sink at once into the abyss of annihilation.

ever.

By his Immutability, God is possessed of immeasurable dignity and greatness: and fitted to be entirely feared, loved, honoured, and obeyed, by all his rational creatures. The humble and imperfect dignity of created beings is entirely dependent for its existence on stability of character. Infinite dignity cannot belong to a character, which is not literally unchangeable. Created dignity is completely destroyed by fickleness: the least mutability would destroy that which is uncreated. The least possible change would be a change from perfection to imperfection: a change infinite in itself, and infinitely for the worse. God, if changed at all, would cease to be God, and sink down, from his infinite exaltation of being and character, towards the humble level of imperfect creatures. How differently in this case would his nature, his laws, his designs, and his government appear to us! Were the least change to commence, who can divine its consequences, or foresee their progress and their end? Who can conjecture what whould be its influence on his character, his designs, or his conduct? Who can foretel the effects which it would produce on the empire which he has created, and on the innumerable beings by which it is inhabited? Who does not see, at a glance, that God could no longer be regarded with that voluntary and supreme veneration, now so confessedly his due, because he had descended from his own infinite dignity, and was no longer decked with majesty and excellency, nor arrayed in glory and beauty? Who does not feel, that a serious apprehension of such a

change would diffuse an alarm through all virtuous beings, and carry terror and amazement to the most distant regions of the universe?

By his Immutability, God is qualified to form and to pursue one great plan of Creation and Providence; one harmonious scheme of boundless good, and to carry on a perfect system in a perfect manner, without variableness or shadow of turning." An Immutable God only can be expected to do that, and nothing but that, which is supremely right and desirable; to make every part of his great work exactly what it ought to be, and to constitute of all the parts a perfect whole. In this immense work, one character is thus everywhere displayed; one God, one Ruler, one Sun of Righteousness; enlightening, warming, and quickening the innumerable beings of which it is composed. Diversities indeed, endless diversities of his agency, exist throughout the different parts of this work; but they are mere changes of the same light, the varying colours and splendours of the same glorious Sun.

Without this uniformity, this oneness of character, supreme dignity could not exist in the great Agent. Without this consistency, safety could not be found; reliance could not be exercised by his creatures. God is the ultimate object of appeal to intelligent beings, the ultimate object of confidence and hope. However injured, deceived or destroyed by his fellow-creatures, every rational being still finds a refuge in his Creator. To him ultimately he refers all his wants, distresses and interests. Whoever else may be deaf to his complaints, he still is assured that God will hear. Whoever else withholds the necessary relief of his sufferings, or the necessary supplies of his wants, still he knows that God will give. This consideration, which supports the soul in every extremity, is its last resort, its final refuge. Could God change, this asylum would be finally shut; confidence would expire, and hope would be buried in the grave. Nay, the immortal Mind itself, unless prevented by an impossibility inherent in its nature, would languish away its existence, and return to its original Nothing.

It ought here by no means to be forgotten, that this glorious attribute, so absolutely indispensable to the government of all things, is in an illustrious degree manifested in that government. The laws of Nature, as they are customarily

called; or, as they are in much better language styled in the Scriptures, the Ordinances of Heaven; are eminent and affecting displays of the Immutability of God. These laws are no other than rules or methods which God has formed for the guidance of all things, and in conformity to which he is pleased to act. Thus, by the attraction of gravitation, all the atoms of which the material universe is composed, are drawn towards each other, by a power, diminishing exactly in proportion to the increase of the squares of the distances between them. By this law atoms are united into worlds, and worlds into systems. By this law, moons perform their revolutions round the planets, and planets and comets round the sun. By this law, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, so useful and so necessary to mankind, regularly perform their successions. In the same regular manner the planets revolve around their axes, and furnish us with the delightful and indispensable vicissitudes of day and night. By other laws, equally uniform, the vegetable world is regulated from its first implantation in the soil to its full growth, and thence to its final decay. By others still, animals are born, arrive at maturity, decline and die. The mind also, with all its faculties and operations, is by similar laws governed, and conducted towards a future immortality. Thus, independently of the few miraculous events, originally inwoven in the great system, as useful, indubitable, and intentional proofs of the immediate agency of God for particular important purposes, all things are directed, each in its own manner, by fixed uniform laws. These, like their Author, have been unchanged from their commencement. In the language of the scoffers in the last days,' mentioned by St. Peter, All things have continued as they were from the beginning of the creation:' and instead of proving, according to their Atheistical suggestions, the failure of the promise of his coming,' they clearly and only display the immutability of the Creator. This divine attribute we are thus enabled to trace in the regularity manifested by the progress of the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms; in the steady confinement of the ocean within its bounds, the permanency of the mountains, and the stability of the earth. We read it in lines which cannot be mistaken, in the exact and wonderful revolutions of the planets; in the unaltered position, aspect, influence and glory of the sun; and in the uniform stations and

VOL. I.

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brilliancy of the stars. In all, one immutable purpose, one uniform agency, is everywhere seen; and must, if Reason be permitted to decide, be everywhere acknowledged.

This agency of God is remarkable in all cases, where we are able to understand its nature, for its extensive efficacy; producing at the same time, and by the same thing, many important consequences. In this respect it is in a great measure a contrast to our agency, which usually employs many things to bring to pass a single consequence. Thus the uniformity of this agency, together with the regularity and stability which it gives to the universe at large, is the foundation of almost all our knowledge. From this source are derived the two great principles, that the same causes produce the same effects, and that similar causes produce similar effects. These principles are the basis of all our analogical reasoning, and of the analogy from which we reason. This analogy runs through creation and providence, and is the source whence we derive almost all the knowledge which we possess of the works of God. It extends alike to the natural and the moral world; and without it we could hardly be said to know any thing. In this manner therefore is displayed, not only the immutability, but also in a glorious manner the wisdom of God.

3. By these attributes, the character of God is peculiarly rendered awful in the sight of wicked beings.

By his Eternity he will exist for ever; and they cannot but know that he will exist for ever to execute his threatenings against all the impenitent workers of iniquity. By his Immutability every hope is forbidden, that he will change any purpose which he has formed, or fail to accomplish any declaration which he has made. If he has ever been infinitely opposed to sin and to sinners, this opposition cannot but be always and unchangeably the same. Of course, impenitence cannot rationally indulge a single hope of escaping from the punishment which he has denounced. All rational beings are, from this source, presented continually with a character of God inconceivably awful. Dreadful indeed will God be, in this character, to the finally impenitent. How will they abide in the day of his anger? How will they stand in the fierceness of his eternal indignation? A fearful looking for of judgment, must that be, which is derived from a full conviction, that all