pleading for a Saving Light the necessity of Obedience to it the Eternal Reward of Life or Death Happiness or Misery as it is conformed to or rebelled against prove our Faith in that Matter to be quite another thing If this be your Champion I dare warrant his own Baseness shall be his own Overthrow we need no more against him then his own Ignorance Malice Lyes Forgeries and Slanders to his utter Confutation in the Minds of all Impartial Persons CHAP. IX Of Justification and something of Satisfaction THe Doctrine of Justification is the next Particular that I am to take notice of He begins with the Quaker thus Pray what is your Opinion of Justification by that Righteousness of Christ which He in his own Person fulfilled for us WHOLELY WITHOVT VS Quak. Justification by the Righteousness which Christ fulfills for us in his own Person WHOLELY WITHOUT US we boldly affirm it to be a Doctrine of Devils and an Arm of the Sea of Corruption which doth now deluge the World Will. Penn Apol. p. 148. This Apology cited was written against a Malicious Priest in Ireland who in a Book by him published not long afore laid it down as Unscriptural and a very heinous Thing in us to deny Justification without any Distinction exprest by the Righteousness which Christ wrought in his own Person WHOLELY WITHOUT US To whom I made the Answer given by T. Hicks And if therein I have crost the express Testimony of the Scriptures let any shew me But if I have only thwarted a most Sin-pleasing and therefore Dangerous Notion let such as hold it look to that He has not offered me one plain Scripture nor the Shadow of a Reason why this Passage ought to be reputed unsound or condemnable If any Living will produce me but one Passage out of Scripture that tells of a Justification by such a Righteousness as is WHOLELY WITHOUT US I shall fall under its Authority but if we only deny Men's corrupt Conceits and Sin-pleasing Glosses and they offer us nothing to our Confutation or better Information we shall not think bare Quotations of our Books to be sufficient Answers But to the end all may understand the Reason of my so Answering that Priest take those short Reasons then rendered with any one of which I am to suppose T. Hicks desired not to meddle First No Man can be Justified without Faith sayes Jenner No Man hath Faith without Works any more then a Body can live without a Spirit sayes James Therefore the Works of Righteousness by the Spirit of Jesus Christ are necessary to Justification Second If Men may be justified whilst Impure then God quits the Guilty contrary to the Scripture which cannot be I mean while in a Rebellious State Third Death came by Actual Sin not Imputative in his sense therefore Justification unto Life comes by actual Righteousness not Imputative Fourth This speaketh Peace to the Wicked whilst Wicked but there is no Peace to the Wicked saith my God Fifth Men are Dead and Alive at the same time saith this Doctrine for they may be dead in Sin and yet alive in another's Righteousness not Inherent and consequently Men may be damned actually and saved imputatively Sixth But since Men are to reap what they sow and that every one shall be rewarded according to his Works and that none are Justified but the Children of God and that none are Children but who are led by the Spirit of God and that none are so led but those that bring forth Fruits thereof which is Holiness 'T is not the Oyle in anothers Lamp but in our own only which will serve our turns I mean the Rejoycing must be in our selves and not in another yet to Christ's holy Power alone do we ascribe it who works all our Works in us All which was not only not answered but not cited by him He brings me in again thus Justification is not from the Imputation of another's Righteousness but from the actual Performing and Keeping God's Righteous Statutes Sand. Found p. 25. To which after this base and disingenuous Citation he returns me this only Answer Is it not written Rom. 5.19 By the Obedience of one many are made Righteous But before I explain the Truth of that Scripture be pleased to hear my Argument as it is laid down in my Book and then give thy Judgment Reader upon the Man The Son shall not bear the Iniquity of his Father The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him When a Righteous Man turneth away from his Righteousness for his Iniquity that he has done shall he dye Again When the Wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness and doth that which is Lawful and Right he shall save his Soul alive yet saith the House of Israel The Wayes of the Lord are not Equal Are not my Wayes Equal If this was once Equal it s so still for God is Unchangeable And therefore I shall draw this Argument That the Condemnation or Justification of Persons is not from the Imputation of another's Righteousness but the actual Performance or not keeping of Gods righteous Statutes or Commandments otherwise God should forget to be Equal Therefore how wickedly Unequal are those who not from Scripture Evidences but their dark Conjectures Interpretations of obscure Passages would frame a Doctrine so manifestly inconsistent with God's most pure and equal Nature making him to condemn the Righteous to Death and justifie the Wicked to Life from the Imputation of another's Righteousness A most Unequal Way indeed Where observe that the Answer he makes me give in his Dialogue is delivered by me with an If it be so fetcht expresly from the Text it self so that the Scripture and not W. Penn is most struck at by him However it be he has offered us no Opposition yet but that Passage out of the Romans which will not be found inconsistent with Ezekiel's Testimony on which my Argument was grounded The whole Verse was thus For as by one Man's Disobedience many were made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous which if the whole Chapter be well considered is no more then this that as Adam representative of Mankind from whence he had that Name was he by whom Sin entred into the whole World So Christ was He by whose comeing and Obedience Righteousness had an entrance to the Justification of many In short the Work Christ had to do was two-fold 1 To remit forgive or justify from the Imputation of Sin past all such as truely repented believed and obeyed him And 2ly by his Power and Spirit operating in the Hearts of such to destroy and remove the very Ground and Nature of Sin whereby to make an End of Sin and finish Transgression present and to come that is the first removes the Guilt the second the very Cause of It. Now I grant
yet put so high an Estimation upon every thing writ against us He shews he would have us misrepresented at any rate Let it suffice that E. Burrough gave no harder Names then the Scripture by Rule allows we read of Dogs Bears Wolves Swine Serpents Vipers Foxes Children of the Devil and such like and as that Nature to whom they were then given thought them hard so does T.H. now but the same Power that then gave them has now us'd them to the same End and Purpose and I abide by it 3. Whereas Th. Hicks insinuates that what E.B. said was to the Man especially as to determining his Eternal State I say he has in a great part mistaken both him and us For it was not so much to the Person as that accursed Seed which was transfâ—rmed in him by whom the Soul was deceived and the Heel of the true Seed bruised Therefore it was an Answer of Love to the Priest though a sharp and heavy Answer of Judgment upon that Mind in him which never did nor never will nor can please God in any 4. 'T is very 〈◊〉 and wicked with a Witnâ—ss in T.H. that he should run 〈◊〉 with two oâ— thrâ—e leaves of a large Folio Book of about nine hundred pages consisting of so 〈◊〉 soâ—id Tâ—stimonies pertinent Answers heavenly Epistles his Pâ—eas of Liberty of Conscience his Letters Prophecyes and Messages to the Powers some of which his party is concerned in and overlook them all yea and like a most Irreligious Miscreâ—nt indeed for 't is but a Misbeliever and with as much Hard-heartedness and Inhumanity as could be shewn by one Man trample upon all his Valiant Acts Tedious Labours Great Sufferings and Testimony unto Death it self for the free Exercise of a Good Conscience to God and all Men And as if it were not enough to rob him of the Praise due to his Life and to speak Evil of him now he is dead he endeavours what in him lyes to invalid his Reward by rendring him unworthy of any Portion but what 's to be had in Hell God is my Record this day I would not to inherit more Worlds then there are Stars in the Firmament have so violâ—â—ed the Law of Charity against the most violent of our deceased Opposers and God is aâ—l-sufficient both to find out question and recompense this Ungodly Traducer whose Envy I doubt not has Fire enough in it to burn that good Man's Bones with his Books as the Blood-thirsty Pope did honest Wicâ—â—â—ss But Thanks be to almighty God 't is not in his Power nor any of his old Covenant-breaking cankered Adherents God has swept them off the Stage And I declare it to be both my Faith and Prayers that they may never come on it more For it is scarcely to be doubted but if that Day were come rather then not root out the Quakers Th. Hicks would first forge Faults and then Evidence to prove them No Man can be secure of him in common Converse who to compass his End upon such as oppose him will SELF-CONTRADICT PERVERT LY FORGE beyond which in this World is nothing but direct Murder and that 's a Question since in some Cases it were less irksome to dy then to be defamed Is this Doing as Men would be done to Was D. Patricks Friendly Debate betwixt the Conformists and Non Conformists so Unrighteous in the Account of the Non-Conformists because he made their Answers and doth Tho. Hicks pursue that Example yea to a Continuation also as he did before him Nay did not T. Hicks once upon a time condemn the Disingenuity of that Way of Writing Yet himself the Man Let us but consider the Early and great Care of some called Anabaptists to detect the Forgery of the New-England Bloody Baptism lately cryed and vended in this City Could one think that a Chieftant of them should be so Guilty of the same Injustice and which is worse hardened in it too and which is worst of all at that very Instant when they were testifying their great Abhorrence to all such Actions and using all possible Means to check and interdict the Forgery But we may learn from hence how hard it is for Th. Hicks and some of his Abettors in the midst of all their pretended Zeal for the Christian Religion to do as they would be done by They can fly to the Council-Board for an Order against it to the Lord Major for a Prohibition of its Sale To the Arch-Bishops Chaplain both to recall his License to the Forgery and give them one to detect it What have they mist to clear themselves But this had less suspected to be done meerly out of Reputation if they had taken that Vile yet their Brother Anabaptist T. Hicks into hand for his Envious Lying Pamphlets against us whose Greater Pretences to Religion renders him far the worse Forger of the two For the Author of that Pamphlet did not so much make it the Principle of those People to destroy as to recount under the Relation of a Brother to the Party murdered the Lamentable Tragedy acted by a Member or two of that People which if it had been true as perhaps it is a Lye the whole Body had not been concern'd to answer for the Passion and Fury of two or three particular Persons further then to renounce that Action But T. Hicks hath publickly avowed Lyes against us the Grossest imaginable rendring us Inconsistent with Christanity and Destructive of the Government under which we live and that by OUR PRINCIPLES too then which no greater Charge can be given as well as no greater Lyes told against us Well! God will be even with them for these things and will rid both Himself and us of that Generation of Vipers and Hypocrites who make Lyes their Refuge and glory in their Warfare against the Lamb and his Followers who will assuredly have the Victory But the Tender-Hearted God will gather and that speedily I do believe as well as that I do very greatly desire it To conclude In both Books he has given those Answers in our Names which never were our Answers at all And that little he has quoted out of our own Books he has given as those Answers to other Questions many times to other Matter therefore not our Answers but his own And consequently Th. Hicks is guilty of Forgery and so a Forger Thus much of this Subject to his eternal Infamy if not wip'd away by unfeigned Sorrow and Amendment of Life Of his RAILING ILL LANGUAGE and EVIL TREATING of our Friends in general and my Self in particular Arg. V. He that Rails Reviles calls Names c. is no True Christian but such is T. Hicks therefore no True Christian It seems a great Crime with Tho. Hicks that the Quakers will not own the Scurvy Reflections of their Adversaries which were the next way to be thought Guilty And which is stranger he calls them Names for defending themselves If we refuse their base Epithetes
him any Oath and therefore refused implying that Oaths were not made for the best of Men and that there is a State attainable which is more excellent then that in which Oaths are used And thus was that Evangelical Precept Swear not at all arrived at preferred and honour'd by profest Gentiles about five hundred years before it was uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ therefore the Light from T. H's Objection answered is proved Sufficient 4 But here is an utter Insufficiency if we will believe him in this meer Light within to direct us the right Way of Worshipping God This sayes he is manifest from the great Loss the Wisest among the Heathen have been and are at about this very thing the Multiplying their Deityes Worshipping Devils c. He is an incompetent Witness against the Light 's Sufficiency that has never tryed the Extent of its Ability by a Life conform'd to what it leads to If T. Hicks walkt without all Reproof it were something But for a Man to talk of its Insufficiency whilst it shews that which he is not come up to as well as that it condemns for daily Failings is Arrogancy with a Witness But why is it Insufficient to direct him the Right Way of Worship Because T. Hicks has not found it Is it a good Argument against the Scripture that because those who pretend to Square their Faith by it manifestly Err therefore it is Insufficient to direct them Right Tho. Hicks will never allow this against the Scriptures and yet he calls us Names for not tacitly suffering his base Abuses against the Lord's Light What if any of the Heathen became vain in their Imginations who when they knew God worshipped him not as God will it follow that God's Manifestation of himself as the Apostle plainly speaks in Man was an Insufficient Manifestation The Jews turned Idolaters they worshipp'd a Calf and offer'd their Children to Moloch Devotion made up of Murder and Idolatry was God's Light Law or Good Spirit and that whole Series of Love and Mercy shown unto them Insufficient because of their Rebellion I affirm that Thomas Hicks by this Argument is the horridst Blasphemer that ever lived among Men For if the false Deities of the Heathen and their worshipping of Devils with the horrid Idolatries of the Jews were not the Effects of their own Erring from a Sufficient Light or Manifestation to have better informed directed them but through the Insufficiency of the Light to discover the True God how to worship him T.H. has evidently laid that horrid Charge at God's Door for he could not reap where he had not sown And thus far doth he render the Almighty accessory to those Impieties that he gave not Man a Sufficiency of Light to inform him better that he might have escaped so gross Abomination which ends in that detestable Doctrine of Eternal Vnconditional Reprobation an Off-spring of Satan a Murderer from the beginning In short Christ is the Light of Men The Way of the Just is a shining Light He that is the Way Truth and Life is the Light Therefore those who Worship God according to the Light Worship him in the Spirit and in the Truth and walk in the Just Man's Path For that Men should walk up to the Light of Christ and yet be Ignorant of the Right Way of Worship is gross Ignorance and Darkness For Tho. Hicks then to say that God doth make more known then is or can be known by the Light is false and contradictory For unless there be two Distinct Divine Lights by Nature which is an absurd Thing so much as to conceive or that God can manifest any thing without Light it will follow that both the Light is One and that by that One Light it is whereby God hath revealed himself through all Ages And here I would be well understood for I know one Age hath been attended with larger Discoveries yet this argues no Deficiency to have been in the former Manifestation though it implies Weakness in the People that they could not receive the same Light in a greater The Light is therefore One in it self however variously it may break forth in any Age and Generation I know it hath arisen higher and higher the Difference is in Degrees not in Nature and so T.H. in great contradiction to himself acknowledges Dial. pag. 36. What hath been the Duty of every Age it hath shewen and the best Reason and Rule for the Obedience to any thing superadded hath been the Convictions and Leadings of the Light according to that Manifestation it gave before Those that went from the Light and sat down grew Rich in Literal Knowledge were the Opposers of the more glorious Breaking forth of Light and not those who kept close to what was revealed So 't is at this Day Such as have kept to the Tendering Grace and Spirit among Professors such are most moderate to us and inclin'd after us The Hard Dry and Cavilling amongst them as they are strongest in their Combattings like the Pharisees of old so are they most darkened from the Light and most of all despise the Testimony of it and set at nought and oppose as to the Death all those who are become Witnesses of the fresh Resurrection of Light and Life If I may so speak in the Hearts of People I know not what better to call them then Thieves and Robbers spoken of by Christ who have gone aside from the tender Spirit of Jesus Christ that in Dayes past strove with them and with whose secret Voice they were in some measure affected and have set up themselves in a Form without Power Praying Preaching Dipping and all other Acts of Worship Ordinance c. without the Leadings of God's Spirit Wherfore said Christ of the like People All that came before me are Thieves and Robbers they climbe over the Wall they come not in at the Door which Door is that State of Witnessing at which that Light and Frothy Prophanist T.H. bestowes so many foul Reflections forgetting how much of the ancient Puritan Brownist and Baptist Religion 〈◊〉 made up of Experiences which with Men that understand Words hath the same Signification as well as that Witnessing is more Scriptural And indeed I wonder not at all at it for where Men that have had some Inward Sense of Life Eternal give not way to the more full Breaking forth of the same but run into Forms and take up their Rest by the way and so come to withstand it they â—ose what they had and center where those be who at first oppos'd them emptying from one to the other till they arrive at Rome again that so the Battel may be of Michael and the Devil the True Church against the False Power and Form of Godliness against Form without Power and the Traditions Superstions and Inventions of Men by which they have endeavoured to make void God's Law For whoever have lost their Inward Sense of God and withstand
that his Obedience unto Death was in order to make Men Righteous because it was in the Nature of a Sacrifice by which God testified unto the World his Desire of Reconciliation through the Remission of the Sins that are past which was held forth and came and was confirmed by that Obedience even to the Death of the Cross In which Sence the Just sufferd for the Vnjust and whilst we were Sinners Christ dyed He was made Sin that is to take away Sin for us an Hebraism and he justifieth the Vngodly that is remitteth the Vngodly upon Repentance and bore our Iniquities or bore away our Iniquities that is by this Offering for Sin was Remission for Sins past declared and confirmed unto all as an Vniversal Propitiation For God was in all these Sufferings shewing forth his Love and reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them But still Repentance was that which brought home the general Pardon promulgated in and by that holy Offering up of his Body once for all unto every particular Soul Thus by the Obedience of that one Man even to the Death of the Cross many come to be made Righteous that is justified from many Offences see Rom. 5.6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. But if this first part of Justification which is Remission of Sin be not obtainable by any however general it be in Christ without Repentance from dead Works which implyes Faith Contrition and Amendment of Life How miserably is T. Hicks out who brings this very Scripture we are upon to prove that we are compleatly justified which takes in both Forgiveness of Sin past and a being Inwardly made Just through the casting out of Sin by the just and holy Power and Spirit of God operating in the Heart and Conscience by Christ's Righteousness WHOLELY WITHOUT US I grant it that Forgiveness of Sin is God's free Love meer Grace and rich Mercy declared in and by Christ Jesus to the World and that this Grace abounded unto all for He was a Propitiation not only for the Sins of those that believe but of the Whole World yet the whole Benefit thereof should never redound unto any whilst alienated from God by wicked Works Peter preached another Doctrine For though Christ dyed for the Vngodly yet they were not thereby Justified that is pardon'd for Sin past while Unrepentant Peter sayes Repent and then they should receive Remission of Sins Now I would fain know how this Repentance is wrought by which as a Condition any come to have an Interest in that great Pardon held out to the whole World Is the Spirit of Christ unconcern'd in it Can we think one Good Thought of our selveâ— Are we not altogether degenerated Plants of a Strange Vine by Nature Children of Wrath c. Is not this frequently confest by the Professors of Religion in our times and the most affected piece of their Righteousness too Well then If we cannot repent of our selves and that Repentance is a Condition that it is in the Soul and that it cannot be there without the Spirit of Christ work it tell me plainly if something is not to be done within and therefore of the Nature of Inward Righteousness before any Benefit be procured deriv'd or receiv'd from Christ's Death and Sufferings to any particular Person This is close to our Point for therefore is it that we affirm that such as go on to transgress against the Law of the Spirit of Life and so disobey the Light and grieve the Holy Spirit by wicked Works are not in that State Justified I mean now that they are not so much as forgiven and least of all that they should be look'd upon as compleatly justified that is by Qualification and Participation of the Divine Nature truly and inwardly made Just since it would be to say that by the Obedience of one many shall be made Righteous who notwithstanding remain Disobedient and Rebellious to God's Grace which has appeared unto them We do say again that such a Doctrine so speaking Peace to a State of Sin and Death and shutting out an Inward Work many wayes necessary to the Forgiveness of Sin past or dayly Acceptante with God IS NO LESS THEN THE DOCTRINE OF DEVILS and the worst they have to propagate to the Dishonour of God and the Eternal State of People Souls In short here lyes the gross Mistake of our Adversaries They make the Sufferings of Christ which peculiarly relate to the first part of Justification Remission of Sins past to be that which has answered not only for Sins past but present and to come so as to acquit them from all Inward Work as necessary to Justification compleatly taken contrary to express Scripture Rom. 5.25 and the great End of Christ's Spiritual Manifestation in his People There might be much more said in this matter but because he thinks I have not made a little for him in my Book truly entituled The Sandy Foundation Shaken and that I am to be short I shall proceed to dispatch what remaines as God shall enable me To that Answer he gave out of the Romans by the Obedience of one c. already with other Scriptures explained and vindicated from his Abuse of them he makes me thus to answer him Quak. It is a great Abomination to say God shall condemn and punish his Innocent Son that he having satisfied for our sins we might be justified by the Imputation of his perfect Righteousness O why should this horrible thing be contented for by Christians Penn. ibid. p. 25.30 To which he returns Chr. How now Mr. Penn Is this the Doctrine of Christ's Sufferings for Sinners to make Satisfaction to Divine Justice an horrible thing and an Abomination to you Do you consider what you say And thus brings me in answering him Qu. This I do say that the Consequences of such a Doctrine are both Irreligious Irrational Penn. ibid. P. 16. Now that he has dealt Blasphem ously with God and Injuriously with me as well as that he has given me no account of his thoughts upon the Errour he makes me guilty of in case I held it besides that impertinent Question plainly appears First he has dealt Blasphemously with God in calling Christ's Suffering God's condemning and punishing his Innocent Son c. which his Censure of my so Phrasing their Opinion manifestly implyes Now I appeal to all Impartial People which of us two is most to be blamed I that confess to Christ's Sufferings as the Effect of Gods's Love thereby not to satisfie himself as a Revenger or as he could not forgive for none of that is in the Verse at all which yet is in their Sordid Opinion but as a God full of Mercy Forgiveness and Pardon to all true Penitents to declare to the World his free Remission of Sins and that he would not impute their Iniquities unto them if they would repent believe obey or T. Hicks who holds
contradictory and unscriptural as he could but that all lights upon himself and I doubt not but in the end it will appear that I have contended for the Justification of Life whilst his aimes will have been at nothing more in all his Bussle then to promote a Justification in a State of Death where the indwelling Life Power and Virtue of Christ which gives to live to God in the nearness of Life cannot be enjoyed nor known else what means his reputing that Assertion in my Sandy Foundation shaken so Erroneous namely without Good Works there is no Acceptance with God which without any Wrong to him causes me to believe that it is his Faith that Men may be accepted with God without Good Works and consequently that they are not necessary to Salvation I wish for his sake more then mine own he had been no more Injurious to me and the Truth I have defended then I have been to him in expressing but the natural Result and Tendency of his Doctrine I shall now be as good as my Word and that is to produce an Argument or two against the Common Doctrines of rigid Satisfaction and Justification as they have been opposed by me in this short Discourse and that out of my Book called The Sandy Foundation Shaken because it has been most in this Adversary's Eye That if he thinks fit to reply he may have something else to employ his Mind about then to write Dialogues filled with Lyes Shifts Forgeries Scoffs Impudence and Scurrility Of SATISFACTION 1. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his Anger forever because he delighteth in Mercy Can there be a more express Passage to clear not only the Possibility but real Inclinations in God to pardon Sin and not retain his Anger for ever since the Prophet seems to challenge all other Gods to try their Excellency by his God herein describing the Supremacy of his Power and Superexcellency of his Nature that he pardoneth Iniquity and retaineth not his Anger for ever so that if the Satisfactionists should ask the Question Who is a God like unto ours that cannot pardon Iniquity nor pass by Transgression but retain his Anger until some-body make him Satisfaction I answer Many amongst the harsh and severe Rulers of the Nation but as for my God he is exalted above them all upon the Throne of his Mercy who pardoneth Iniquity and retaineth not his Anger for ever but will have Compassion upon us 2. And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Where nothing can be more obvious then that which is forgiven is not paid And if it is our Duty to forgive without a Satisfaction receiv'd and that God is to forgive us as we forgive them then is a Satisfaction totally excluded Christ farther paraphrases upon that part of his Prayer v. 14. For if you forgive their Trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you Where he as well argues the Equity of God's Forgiving them from their Forgiving others as he encourages them to forgive others from the Example of God's Mercy in forgiving them which is more amply exprest in Chap. 18. where the Kingdom of Heaven that consists in Righteousness is represented by a King Who upon his Debtors Petition had Compassion and forgave him but the same treating his Fellow-Servant without the least Forbearance the King condemned his Vnrighteousness and delivered him ever to the Tormenters But how had this been a Fault in the Servant if his Kings Mercy had not been proposed for his Example How most unworthy therefore is it of God and Blasphemous may I justly term it to be in any's daring to assert that Forgiveness impossible to God which is not only possible but enjoyn'd to Men. Consequences Irreligious and Irrational 1 That it 's Unlawful and Impossible for God Almighty to be Gracious and Merciful or to pardon Transgressors then which what 's more Unworthy of God 2 That God was inevitably compell'd to this way of Saving Men the highest Affront to his incontroleable Nature 3. That it was Unworthy of God to Pardon but not to inflict Punishment on the Innocent or require a Satisfaction where there was nothing due 4. It doth not only disacknowledge the true Virtue and real Intent of Christ's Life and Death but intirely deprives God of that Praise which is owing to his greatest Love and Goodness 5. It represents the Son more Kind and Compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as Loving as the Son or the Son as Angry as the Father 6. It robs God of the Gift of his Son for our Redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that Redemption from the Father by the Gift of himself to God as our compleat Satisfaction 7. Since Christ could not pay what wâ—â— not his own it follows that in the Payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the Debt is not hereby absolv'd or forgiven but transfer'd only and by consequence we are no better provided for Salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father 8. It no way renders Men beholding or iâ— the least oblieg'd to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the last Farthing so that the acknowledgments are peculiarly the Sons which destroys the whole current of Scripture Testimony for his Good Will towards Men. O the Infamous Portraiture this Doctrine draws of the Infinite Goodness Is this your Retribution O Injurious Satisfactionists 9. That God's Justice is satisfied for Sins past present and to come whereby God and Christ have lost both their Power of injoyning Godliness and Prerogative of punishing Disobedience for what is once paid is not revokeable and if Punishment should arrest any for their Debts it either argues a Breach on God's or Christ's part or else that it hath not been sufficiently solv'd and the Penalty compleatly sustained by another forgetting that every one must appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the Body Yea every one must give an account of himself to God But many more are the gross Absurdities and Blasphemies that are the genuine Fruits of this so confidently believ'd Doctrine of Satisfaction Of JUSTIFICATION 1. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but He that doth the Will of my Father Whosoever heareth these Sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a Wise Man which built his House upon a Rock c. How very fruitful are the Scriptures of Truth in Testimonies against this absurd and dangerous Doctrine these Words seem to import a two-fold Righteousness the first consists in Sacrifice the last in Obedience the one makes a
T.H. Doth not this import that a Man must be formally Just before he be Justified for nothing is imputed or reckoned to us according to your Reasoning but what is inherent in us p. 55. Answ Your Reasoning It seems 't is not his then would he not here separate and divide between a Righteousness imputed and a Righteousness inherent or the Exercise of Christian Virtues if so be that a man must be justified i.e. in his Sense imputed or accounted Righteous before he be formally just how agrees this with his Concession before viz. that they would not separate divide between Imputed Inherent Righteousness T.H. I would ask you Whether Remission of Sins be not one part of Justification Answ yes 't is a Degreee of it the next Step to an absolute Justification Remission is of Sins past receiv'd upon true Repentance and Conversion from â—in to newness of Life Justification and Acceptance with God in Christ is enjoyed in the Newness of Life by such as continue in sincere Obedience to Christ This Remission Pardon or Justification from Sins past though not inherent in the Natural Fallen or Sinful Man yet 't is inwardly received through Faith in the Name of Christ by such as truly depart from Sin and Evil and give up to serve the Living God T.H. Certainly he that 's pardon'd must be a Sinner p. 56. Answ No He must be one that ceaseth from Sin for if I sin then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine Iniquity Job 10.14 And certainly he that 's not acquited is not pardon'd nor justify'd But I must confess â—e somewhat mends the Matter in adding viz. That is such that were so viz. Sinners till Justified not such as remain so being Justified p. 56. At length we agree in this 1st That such as are pardoned were sometimes Sinners Disobedient before 2. But being pardoned and justified by the Grace of God in his beloved Son they do not remain Disobedient therefore they that remain Sinners and Disobedient are not in a Justified State I had writ something against T. Hicks's gross Abuse of our Reputation as we are Men as well as Christians by his most false and Unjust Consequences he draws from our Owning the Light within as the Rule Immediate Motions Directions of the Spirit of Christ within especially in Matters of Worship T.H. his Persecuting Spirit in his falsly Accusing us with Disrespect to Parents Magistrates c. being destructive to all Humane Society But W.P. having reprehended him in these things in his part before I forbear to publish mine at present for I have in this endeavoured Brevity G.W. THE Present Controversie Drawing to an End Or those Doctrines and Principles which have been chiefly Controverted between us Granted and Confest to by our present Opposer Thomas Hicks and his Brethren Here the Reader may see how like to us called Quakers divers of the Baptist-Teachers have been made some times to speak and hold forth Truth in Words which I would have them seriously to review and lay aside all Envy and Prejudice which hath caused so much Contradiction and Gain-saying on their parts both to themselves and the Truth professed by us Our Principles and their Concessions truly Stated and Compared 1. Quaker THat God is and that he is Light the Eternal Word of Life and Power which was with God c was God was that in which was Life and the Life was the Light of Men and that was the True Light that enlightens every Man coming into the World John 1.1 4 9. Baptist Christ in you and he is the Life and Light of Men Dial. p. 22. And Jesus Christ is God the most high God of the same Substance and Essence H.G. Light from the Sun p. 83 84 c. II. Qua. The Light of Christ or the Eternal Word in Man is Divine and Increated Bap. The Lord Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word enlightens all Men and Women that come into the World Light from the Sun of Righteousness p. 8. III. Qua. God is Infinite and Omni-present and his Presence doth both afford Life Virtue and Light to Man and Jesus Christ as God over all in respect of his Divinity or Divine Nature is therefore in all through all and over all though not revealedly nor unitedly Bap. Christ in respect of his Divine Nature is in all places Contin pag. 34. How could you call the Light Within Christ if some Scriptures had not mentioned Christ in you and that he is the Life and Light of Men Dial. p. 22. IV. Qua. The Light of Christ in Man is a certain Rule and Guide to direct Man out of Sin and Death into the Way of Life and Peace and for that End ought to be obeyed Bap. I grant it ought to be Obeyed I acknowledge there is something within that checks for many Evils and excites to many Good Things and that I ought to shun those Evils and do that Good It will be our Wisdom yea our Duty to attend to the Light Within we being accountable to God for every Dispensation of Light Dial. p. 7 8 13. V. Qua. Though this Divine Life or Light of the Son of God be manifest by Degrees in Man yet the Degrees alter not the Property of it and it ought to be obeyed with respect to God and Man 's own Salvation Bap. No Disparagement to the Light Within Each Degree of Light is Serviceable to its End Dial. p. 36. VI. Qua. This Light Within is that General Rule extending to Man alwayes or throughout Ages and that is the Will of God that Man should alwayes be under the Obligation of this Rule that he might acknowledg God's Soveraignity and Power and be in Subjection to him as having the sole right to Rule in the Creation that Man may truly discharge the Duty he owes to his Maker in true Obedience and Worship Bap. Indeed 't is not to be denyed but that Man was alwayes under an Obligation of a Rule that God's Soveraignity over him and his Inferiority unto God might be acknowledged This Rule must be the Will of God revealed to us for it is the Will of God which is the Formal Reason of the Obligation The Will of God being the Ground of the Creation of Men and Angeâ—s therefore as it is the Ground of their Being it must be the Rule of their Acting Dial. pag. 31. There was something commendable in the Heathens p. 36. That Light in every Man that doth convince of Sin and reprove him for Sin Christ as he was the Woâ—â— with Gâ—d so he was the Light of the World c. W. Burnet's Capitâ—â— pâ—in p. 8 10 16 17. VII Qua. That the Holy Spirit Unction or Living Word within which is received by them that wait in and obey the Light thereof is to be preferred as a more Eminent and Universal Rule then the Scriptures and it opens them and brings Man to the true Understanding of them and leads