Wherefore it is man, not God, that turns.  When men reject the mercy and ways of God, they cast themselves under his wrath and displeasure; which, because it is executed according to the nature of his justice and the severity of his law, they miss of the mercy promised before; which that we may know, those shall one day feel that shall continue in final impenitency.  Therefore God, speaking to their capacity, tells them he hath repented of doing them good.  It repented the Lord that he had made Saul king; and yet this repentance was only a change of the dispensation which Saul by his wickedness had put himself under; otherwise the Strength, the Eternity of Israel will not lie nor repent.

The sum is, therefore, that men had now by their wickedness put themselves under the justice and law of God; which justice, by reason of its perfection, could not endure they should abide on the earth any longer; and therefore now, as a just reward of their deed, they must be swept from the face thereof.

Providence of god.

We should tremblingly glory and rejoice when we see God in the world, though upon those that are the most terrible of his dispensations.  God the Creator will sometimes mount himself and ride through the earth, in such majesty and glory that he will make all to stand in the tent-doors to behold him.  O how he rode in his chariots of salvation, when he went to save his people out of the land of Egypt.  How he shook the nations.  Then his glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.  His brightness was as the light:  he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power.

These are glorious things, though shaking dispensations God is worthy to be seen in his dispensations as well as in his word, though the nations tremble at his presence.  “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest comedown,” saith the prophet, “that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.”

“We know God, and he is our God, our own God; of whom or of what should we be afraid?  When God roars out of Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, when the heavens and the earth do shake, the Lord shall be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel.”

He that knows the sea, knows the waves will toss themselves; he that knows a lion, will not much wonder to see his paw or to hear the voice of his roaring.  And shall we that know our God, be stricken with a panic fear when he cometh out of his holy place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity?  We should stand like those that are next to angels, and tell the blind world who it is that is thus mounted upon his steed, and that hath the clouds for the dust of his feet, and that thus rideth upon the wings of the wind:  we should say unto them, “This God is our God for ever and ever, and he shall be our guide even unto death.”