Spiritual Peace and Comfort. 289 Juflification or Salvation. I have faid enough be- fore to prove their doetrine deteftible. Their reafon is, flecaufe God changeth not as we change, and Juftification is never loft. To which I anfwer, 1. God hated us while we were workers of iniquity, Wed.' i I.5 . & 5.5. And was angry with us whenwe were Childrenofwrath, 8ph. 3.1,2,3. Andafterward he laid by that Hatred and Wrath : and all this without change. If we cannot reach to apprehend howGods unchangablenefs can Randwith the fulleft and frequenteft exprellions of him in Scripture,muft we therefore deny what thofe expreflions do con- tain ? as Aufin faith Shall we deny that 'which is plain becaufe we cannot reach that which is ob- fcure and difficult ? 2. But if thefe men had well ftudied the scriptures , they might have known that ç the fame man that was Yefterday hated as an Ene- my, may to Day be Reconciled and loved as a Son, and that without any change in God ; even as it fais out within the reach ofour Knowledge : For God Ruleth the world by his Laws : They are his Moral Inftruments : By them he Condemneth: By them he Juftifieth ; fo far as he is faid in this Life, before the Judgement day, todo it (unlefs there be any other fecret at of ¡unificationwith him, which man is not able now tounderftand.) The change is therefore in our Relations, and in the Moral Altionofthe Laws. When we are Unbelievers and Impenitent, we are Related to God as Enemies, Rebels, Unjuftified and Unpardoned: being fuch as Gods LawCondemneth and pronounceth Enemies ; and the Law of Grace doth not yet julifie or pardon ; and fo God is, as it were, in fome fenle obliged according to thatLaw Y which
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