29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.



Ver. 29. Are without repentance] When God is said to repent, it is Mutatio rei non Dei, effectus non affectus, facti non consilii, a change, not of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man is the change of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change. But what a sweet comfort is this, that God’s favour is so constant that what he hath written he hath written, that there is no blotting out of the book of life ( Nulla litura in decretis sapientum, say the Stoicsno erasure of the decrees of the wise,), that it is, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; and that his blessing is (as Thucydides saith of a well composed history), êôçìá åéò áåé îõãêåéìåíïí , an everlasting possession.