97 / 504
M'G's Exceptions to
God's
U
nchangeablenefíe removed.
C
A
P.11.
4.
17.
think
they
have
a
folid
Pillar, no
leffe
then
an
Efí'entiall
Property
of
the
na-
41
ture
of
God to
reft upon,
they
shall
finde themfelves
leaning on
a
Cloud,
or
----
Shadow,
or
on
a
broken Reed,
that
will
runne into
their
hands; infteed
of
veil-
ding them the
leaft
fupportment.
God deales
not
thus with his Saints:
His
difcoveries
of
himfelfe in
Chrift,for
the
Eftablifhment
ofthe
Hearts
of
his,
are
not
fuch Flints,
as
from whence
the
moft fkilfull,
and
exercifed
Faith
cannot
expe& one
drop
of
Confolation.
Whatfoever
of
his
Name
he holds
out to
the
Sonnes
of
men,
it
will
be
a
flrong
Tower,
and
place
of
Refuge
and
fafety,
to
them,
that
flye
unto
it
Secondly,
the Confideration
of
that
Love in its continuance, wherein
the
Lord
fettles
and puts
out
of
doubt the
Smiles
of
his,by
the
ingagement
of
his
vnchangeableneJe,
or the
calling
of
them
to
the
Confideration
of
that Proper-
ty
in him,
from whom
that
Love
doth
flow, adds
ftrength
alfo
to
theway
of
arguing we
infift
upon.
Were the
Love
of
God to
his
nothing :but
the
de
claration
of
his
Approbation
of
fuch
and
fuch
things,,annext
to
the
Law
and
Rule
of
Obedience,
it
might (land
firme
like
a
Pillar in
a River,
though
the
water be not thereby
caufed
to
ftand !till one
moment,but
only touch
it, and
fo paffe
on, there
were
Tome
colour
of
Exception
to
be
layd againft
it:
And
this
is
indeed
the
.7.1g7or
4
JPP&
of
Mr
Goodwin
in this whole Controvert),
that
he acknowledgeth no
other Love
of
God
to
Believers,
but
what
lyes
in
the
outward
Approbation
of
what
is
good, and
mens
doing it: upon
which ac-
count,
there
is
no more Love inGod
to one,
then another;
to
the
choi ceft
Saint,
then
to the moll profligate
Villain in
theworld:
nay
it
is
not
any Lave
at
all,
properly
fo
called, being no internall vitall
A&
of
Gods"
will,
the
feat
of
his
Love;
but
an externall
Declaration
of
the
iffue
of
our Obedience.
The
declaration
of
Gods
Will,that
he approoves
Faith
and Obedience,is
no more
Love
to
Peter,
then
it
is
to
7udas.
But
let
now the Love
of
God
to
Believers
be
confidered,
as
it
is
in
it
felfe,
as
a
vitals All
of
his
will
, willing
if (I
may
fo
fpeake) good
things
to them;
as
the Immanent
purpofe
of
his
Will,& alto
joyned with
an Acceptation
of
them
in
the
Effeds
of
his
Grace,
Favour,
and
Love
in Jefus Chrift,
and it
will
be
quickly evidenced, how an Alteration
therein
will
entrench
upon
the Immutability
of
God,
both
as
to
his
Effence
and Attributes and Decrees.
Having thus reinforced
our
Argument from this place
of
Scripture,
by
re-
4.
57.
ftoring
unto
it thofe confiderations,w hich being its maine
ftrength, it
was
maymed, and deprived
of
by
Mr
Goodwin
in
his
propofall thereof,
I
!hall
briefly
confider
the
Anfwers,
that
by him
are
fuggefted
thereunto.
Thus
then he proceedeth;
By
the
Tenour
of
this
Arguing
it
will
as
well
follow
that in
cafe God
fhould
at
any
time
withdraw his
Love,
and
his
Favour
from
a
Nation, or
body
of
a
People,
which
he
fometimesFavoured,
or Loved, he fbould
be
changed: But
that
no
fuch change
of
difpenfation
as
this
towards
one, or
the
fame
P
eople
or Nation, argueth
any change
at
all in
God,
at
leafl any
fuch
change,
which
he
difclaimeth, as incompetent
to
him,
is evident
from
thofe inflances
without
number
recorded
in s'cripture,of
fuch
diferent
difpenfations
of
his
,towards
fundry
Nations,
and
more efpecially
towardsthe
Iewes,
to whom
[centimes
he
gives
Peace
fomtimes
confumes
them
with Warr
;,
fometimes
he makes them
the
Head,
and
sometimes
again the
Tayle
of
theNationsround
about them.
The
Loveand favour
of
God
to
a
Nation
or
People, here
brought into the
An .
lifts
of
Comparifon
with the
peculiar Love
of
God
to
his Saints, which
he
Secures
them of, upon
the
account
of
his
Immutability,
is
either
theoutward
Difpenfation
of
Good
things
to
them,
called
his
Love,
becaufe
it
exprefléeth
and
holds
out
a
fountaine
of
Goodneffe, from whence
it
flower,
or
it
is
an
Eternal),
a&
of
Gods will
towards
them,of
the
fame
nature with the
Love
G
try