44 Of the death..of Chrlf. and therefore to that before exprefled, I fay, Chrift bath a rually and ipfo flak procured our deliverance : hence we have attire right unto it,'but not attual pofleffion of it ; and where the difficulty of this Ihould red, I know not. Men may as oft as they pleafe erne cohtradi&ions in their own minds, and entan- gle themfclves withdoubts iffthe knots which themfelves have tied. But, a. Knowledge, faith he, andpaffefon of a deliverance are far different things. (1.) He maketh them fo, who plainly intimates, that the reufon why it is -. not apprehended, is, becaufe it is not pottered : and always fpeaks disjunttive- fyof them. (a.) Betdes, this propofition of the difance of thefè two, is hot univerfallp true, as I could eafly demonhrate. ;. Our knowledge therefore, he adds, doth not give as poj on ; fa that the Plati- tude fails : fir it is the creditor'sknowledge and fatisfaflion that is requite to deliverano, and our creditor wat not in it far and Jirange country, but knew immediately, and could either have made no quickly know, or domed za free beforewe had known the tarife. (t.) Whether or no, or howfar knowledge gives us pofleffion, I (half not now difpute ; only confdering in what fence knowledge is here ufed, and of- ten in theScripture, the deliverance air:, fpoken of, being loch, as no -(Mall part thereof confts in this knowledge, and without it (in the feed at leaft) is not; I cannot but fay, that fuch kind of affirmations in things of this weight, are very (lender proofs. Yea further, whereas the enjoyment of this deliverance is either as to the being of it, or to the comfort of it ; the latter i5 given us by this knowledge merely, the former confts therein. mainly, ,joh. 5). 3... (a.) Similitudesare allowed their grains to make them current but yet, as our creditor's knowledge and fatistaltion is required to our deliverance, fo not that only ; but ours alto, as to our attual enjoyment of it. It is true, he could have made us quickly know it, but who bath been his counfellor ? This is left to his fovereign and free ditpelal, our deliverance being purchafed to he made out in the feafon thereby appointed. But, that God could have made us free, before we knew the cacti ; fuppofrng his conditution oftheway of falvatton, revealed in the blood of Jefus, which tees at the bottom of all thefe difputes is a mot anti-evangelical alfertion, and diametrically oppofed to the whole way of God's dealingwith fientes. But he adds, 4. Neither can it be undorflood howGod can fo long deny at theplfefon of heaven, if we had fuch aílual, abfalute right fo long ago, which feems to me to rxprefs a jus ad rem, andin re. (t.) I love not to enquire into the reafon of God's allings, which are accord- ing tothe counfel of his ownwig? + and et think it not very difficult to conceive how a Son is for a feafon kept as a fervent, though he be heir of all. (a.) He fpeaks as though this deliverance lay all in heaven, whereasit is here fully enjoyed on the earth, though not in all the degreesof the fruits thereof. t (s.) If the right whereof we fpeak, were jott in re, I fee not well indeed how God could keep us from thepoffeIIion ofit as Mr. Baxter lays: a man cannot be kept long from what he hash. But, faith he, S. If he mean a right to future popfeJTon, I do not fee how right and po .bJfon fhoukt ¡land at fo many years diflame r to have right to God's favour, and poffefon Of that favour, feetn toneof nearer kin, except he fhould think that poffefon offavour ünothing but the knowledgeor feeling of it ; and that Pith juflfeth only in forb confcientie' but Iwill not conjure fo hardly until I know. (1.) If at fo many years difance itmay not be allowed, he had done well?o exprefs at how many it might. For my part, placing this tight upon the pur- chafe of Cheift, as before, and pollatiion in the attuai enjoyment of the freitsof that purchafe ; then referring the dillance between theta to the good pleafure of God, who had granted and ellablifhed that right to -an enjoyment fob termìno, I fee no difficulty, no perplexity in this at all. (a.) That no (mall portion of favour, confits in a fence and knowledge -Of the kindnefs of God p in its a:ings terminated upon the confcience, I mull Elh. t. or. Gal.4. r. tJoh. r. os. Rom. 5. to. Epla s. a,. Cot 1. is, Or iq. Il Pfal, 4. 6. s Cot. 4.6 believe 1,
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