are Justified by his Death and by his offering up once for all answer in plain words And whether or no you will make a Sect that he died for some ungodly and some sinners only for the sons of Adam were the sinners and ungodly But he that believes is born of God and they receive Christ and he gives them Power to become the sons of God and they know he died for them and have the Testimony of it and have the Benefit of his Death and Resurrection And what was the Light that shined in the Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not What was the Spirit that the Wicked grieved vexed and quenched Where is it and what is the Spirit of Truth that reproves the World of sin Where is it that leads the Saints into all Truth Come we must have plain Scripture for these things What is the Law that God will write in the Heart and put in the Mind that all shall know Him from the greatest to the least that they shall not every one teach his Brother and shall all know the Lord What is that Light that shines in the Heart to give the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 4. What is the Word of God in the Heart the Apostle Preached and the People was to obey it and do it And what was that Rule that Adam had and all the Holy Men in the Old World And what was the Rule of Enoch's Faith by which he was translated And Abraham's Faith who obeyed God and forsook his Countrey Answer these things by Scripture because you say The Writings the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith And Presbyterians and Independants have you forgotten all your Petitions and Addresses you Petitioned and made to the other Powers against the Quakers If you have forgotten them read William Caton 's Book of your Petitions and Addresses gathered up and down the Nation What you said of Oliver and Richard and how the People of God in scorn called Quakers the first beginning of calling them so was at Darby by one Bennet an Independant about 19 year since and then when the People called Quakers were gathered together in divers places to Worship God then you said they were Plotting together against Oliver whom some of you called the Light of your Eyes and breath of your Nostrils to bring in King Charles and Oliver said We would not hurt a Mouse at that time though he did cast many of us in Prison through you after that and then you Baptized us in your Prisons by cruel sufferings Of all men you should hold your Tongues in bawling so against us seeing the Light of your Eyes and breath of your Nostrils is gone And what was it not through some of you That the Act against Sturdy Beggars came forth upon which Friends at that time could hardly travel three or four miles from their own Houses but they were Whipped men worth three or four-score pounds or an hundred a year were Whipped for Beggars and Vagrants And then did you not get another Act That we must not speak to you in going or coming from a Steeple-house And how Friends were thronged in Prison up and down in the Nation by you Answer these Queries And thus you may see what a Havock you made in your Day but when Persecution came you durst hardly look out with your heads your selves And was there ever the like known or seen how your Brethren turns from North to South and from South to North and there they can turn and chop and change And yet you could tell us then That the Common-Prayer was Hell and Egyptian Bondage And we could hardly have a Meeting but you were incensing the Rulers against us That we were Plotting to bring in King Charles and how many in those dayes were put in Prison upon that account by you because we went to Meetings We can tell you we have a List of them And yet the Quakers were House Creepers said you when you had gotten the Mass-houses and Tythes and your Easter-Reckonings and Midsummer-Dues and straining our Goods for your Bread and Wine And who are become the House Creepers now Then you had gotten the old Mass-houses Oh! your filthiness comes to be made manifest to all men and you have made your selves ridiculous who are fighting against an innocent People that wishes hurt to no man but the good of all men And do you think that the Lord will nor remember and reckon with you for all these things Dare you look into the Book of your Actions and Consciences and see what is written there and see if they be not Recorded How now Presbyterians High Priests What is this your Doctrine that you now Preach up for your Hearers to go to a Bawdy-house as Thomas Vincent speaks What Liberty here do you give to Youth and your Hearers who sayes It 's worse to go to the Quakers Meetings than to a Bawdy-house You pleaded for a body of sin as long as you live but now it 's com'd out indeed when you plead for a Bawdy-house rather than Quakers Meetings it 's like the Presbyterian Priest knows where they are it appears as if he thought more of a Bawdy-house than of Christ and Vertue So it 's clear here you are Them that turn the People to Vice and from the Lord and his Truth Ellimas like seeking to pervert For the Quakers Meetings are in the Fear and Power and Spirit of God who meet together in the Name of Christ Jesus so it 's like you love Meetings at Bawdy-houses more then the Meetings of the People of God who meet to Worship God And if this be your Doctrine then you must enlarge your Brothel and Bawdy-houses as they do at Rome Legorn and Venice and other parts in Italy and then they will give you Tythes and Easter-Reckonings and Midsummer-Dues For have you not called Bawdy-house People good Church Members And have you not taken Tythes of them And would you not say The Peace of God to them for paying you Tythe Who would have thought that we should have had such Unvertuous Expressions from the Presbyterians that this stinking savour should have lyen covered under their Weeds Well the Quakers must Declare against all your Bawdy-houses which thou Vincent sayes Thou hadst rather thy People should go to than to the Quakers Meetings where the Word of God is Preached And so Presbyterians if this be your Doctrine to your People to send them to Bawdy-houses rather then to send them to a Meeting of the People of God we utterly deny you and your Bawdy-house too And is it not a shame to put in Print to tell the World That thou wouldst rather have thy People go to a Bawdy-house than to a Quakers Meeting For it 's like if thou wilt set up that House thou mayst have a yearly Revenue like thy Father the Pope out of your Bawdy-houses it 's like if you were there you might
Believers and if he loves his Image in his People freely then he is satisfied in his own Image and that which brings to know and injoy this Image and the renewing of it within is that which brings into Love and Union with God which is his Divine Spirit and Power that renews man into the Heavenly Image and Righteousness of the Everlasting God which they that injoy have the acceptable Sacrifice and from thence can present Living Sacrifices unto God to his Eternal Praise And to T. V's saying That if Christ were not punished for us to satisfie God's Justice it would follow from W. P 's words that Christ should be a sinner and that he was punished for his own sins Reply That 's a blasphemous Consequence indeed but not truly charged upon W. P. for he never intended by his words to render Christ a sinner nor that he was punished for his own sins for he never sinned but he was Punished and Suffered by sinners who by wicked hands and so by their injustice put him to Death and under the buden and weight of their Transgressions he Suffered as also his tender Spirit that made Intercession and suffered for Transgressors from a fore-sight of the Wrath that should come upon the Rebellious and was not the Wicked the Instruments that wounded bruised and afflicted him and that oppressed his Righteous Soul And did not his Innocent Life and Righteous Soul suffer under a great oppression and weight of man's Transgression when he was in his Agony and sweat drops of Blood before his being Crucified And so was not his Suffering two-fold both Inward and Outward And then if so that the pure Life and holy Spirit suffered as bearing the burthen of their sins and if the God-Head being in Christ so nearly united as to bear up the Manhood under the Suffering as is confessed How then can it be deemed that God inflicted the punishment of Eternal Wrath or Vengeance on his Son Surely his permitting wicked men by their wicked hands to punish him with a Temporal Suffering and Death could not be his Eternal Wrath or Vengeance which is supposed to Answer and Satisfie Divine Justice for man and so to acquit man Living and Dying in sin a great Error from Eternal Wrath whereas Christ Jesus was the Son of his Love were it not inconsistent to say That God's Justice did punish or execute Wrath upon his Love Seeing that it 's confest That Grace and Justice are very well consistent and that there is a free Exercise both of Justice and Love without force or compulsion How does T.V. his matter hang together let the moderate judge But had he stated it in the Language and sense of the Scriptures of Truth there had not appeared this Contrariety nor Opposition either between us or with himself For Scripture-accounts concerning Christ and his Sufferings for sinners both inward and outward I do own and Confess to and have a reverend Esteem of all his Sufferings and the worth thereof and do greatly prize his Meekness and Humility who hath freely condescended according to the Good Will and Pleasure of God not from Wrath nor Compulsion to offer himself a Lamb without spot to God to bear our griefs and sorrows yet saith the Prophet Isaiah chap. 53 we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed he was oppressed he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter he made his Grave with the wicked and with the rich in his Death because he had not done no violence neither was any deceipt in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the Pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand This is he that hath been despised and rejected of men This is he who hath been as a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World This is he men have evilly entreated and evilly requited for his kindness and good Will that he hath shewed forth towards them This is he whom they have caused to suffer by their iniquities and so thereby have shewed great unworthiness and ingratitude towards him and his Father whose Pleasure and Good Will he came to perform both in his being delivered up to undergo Afflictions and Bruises and many hard Sufferings for Mankind and surely God was in him Reconciling the World even in and through that low and suffering state which the Righteous Seed and renowned Plant of the Lord hath undergone but now what effect hath all this Love Tenderness and Compassion of God in and through Christ upon and in man whilst Sin Transgression and Imperfection term of Life is pleaded for by the Priests Surely they herein do not make a right use of Christ's Suffering but both reject him and the End thereof and this was not the use that the true Ministers did make thereof for they witnessed that he died for all that as many as lived should not live unto themselves but unto him that died and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 and his own self bare our sins in his Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live to Righteousness this was not a living to sin nor pleading for Imperfectiom as T. V hath done who farther adds viz. The 7 th Consequence is childish and a shame that a man that pretendeth to any brains should mention it That though Christ hath satisfied for us the Debt remaineth still to Christ pag. 66. Reply Is this such a childish shameful or brainless Consequence that the Debt remains still to Christ Has not T.V. herein shewed his Ignorance of Scripture for ought nor Christ to be obeyed who is the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5. and we are not under the Law to God but under the Law to Christ and to what end is his spiritual Law written in the Heart and his Spirit in the inward Parts but to be obeyed and we are Debtors not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh Rom. 8.12 to what then but to live after the Spirit and through it to mortifie the Deeds of the Body vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. The Apostle was far from pleading for sin and Imperfection as Priests do for which God will judge them by Jesus Christ to whom all Judgment is committed who hath Power to proclaim the Day of Vengeance as well as the acceptable year of the Lord. The truth of it is T.V. has Confessed to what W. P. has writ in many places but to his own Contradiction but here he falls a Railing and vilifying him with such terms as Abominable Worm c. He has not at all dealt fairly or honestly
get some gain if you had Bawdy-houses but if you go to the People of God's Meetings then you will get no gain Well might William Pen say the Priest prayed whiningly and looked pale when you had lost your Easter-Reckonings and Midsummer-Dues Is not the Great Bason holden at Door What this is a new way Is it Whether brings in more profit to the Priests mouths Tythes and Easter-Reckonings and Midsummer-Dues or the Great Platter Now do you not cry up Bawdy-houses or any way so that you can get gain I wonder for all this idle time you have had that you could not Answer Samuel Fisher's Book amongst you for it stands upon your heads he hath Answered all your Principles and more then you have questioned Have you forgot your Regiment of Fighting Priests and how the Presbyterians and Priests beat the Quakers Read the Book of Fighting Priests how they tore the Cloaths off Lasses and young Men and drew their Rapiers upon them and broke their heads and shed their blood and yet you must have the Title of Gospelers but more like unto raging Heathens who imagine vain things against God and Christ and his People but the Lord hath broken your horn the wild beast and put him under a chain So we looked you would have given out a Book of Repentance for all your wicked Actions in the other Powers dayes and shewed forth a work of Reformation Do you not remember how you came with your Drums and Fiddles Independants and Presbyterians Is it not clear here to all People That you deny God and Christ and the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in your saying That God hath ordained some Persons to be damned when God saith Ezek. 18.32 He desires not the death of him that dieth And in Isa. 1.18 it 's said Come let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and though they be red like crimson they shall be like wooll And vers 16. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well And the Apostle saith in 1 Tim. 2.4 God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth And Christ hath given himself a Ransom for all to be testified in due time And Christ tasted death for every man and is a Propitiation for the sins of the whole world And his Blood was shed for all men And the Gospel is to be Preached to every Creature And Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28. Now is it not clear That these Presbyterians and Independants who say That Christ died but for some and offered but for some Have they not denied Christ's Blood for all men and his Propitiation for all men And in doing this they deny God's Will who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth And would they not lay the fault in God when the fault is in man by not believing And do they not make Sects here in saying he died but for some and would have but some to be saved and he shed his Blood but for some And the Scripture saith That all are gone astray both Jew and Gentile that he might have mercy upon All See Rom. 11.32 And they say That he will not have mercy upon all and do not you say That he will have mercy upon some contradicting the Apostle and the Rule For the Scripture saith Christ enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World and you say that he enlighteneth but some And the Scripture saith That the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men and you say The Grace of God that brings Salvation hath appeared but to some and all have not received Grace And the Scripture saith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son into the World that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And do not you say he gave him but for a few and loved some of the World And do not you Contradict Scripture and God and Christ and the Prophets and Apostles words and so are found in an Erronicus Principled Spirit And so is it not clear that you deny Christ who died without the Gates at Jerusalem whose Blood was shed for all men and denies the Propitiation and Attonement for all men and denies Jacob's Prophecy who prophesied That the gathering of all Nations shall be to Shilo And you say That some of the Nations shall be saved not all and here do you not deny the very Scripture it self and God and Christ and the Prophets and Apostles words and denies their Doctrine And also Is it not clear that you deny the true Faith of God's Elect that the Just lives by And is not Faith the Gift of God And do you not say That Faith is not perfect Do not you hold Justification without and that it is without Man and Woman And doth not Faith heal See Matth. Mark Luke and the Acts. And was not the Church Established in the Faith Acts 16.5 Is it not called the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.13 And how that the Saints are Heirs by Faith and it is called the Word of Faith Rom. 10. And it is called the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 Gal 5.6 and Faith that works by Love So it 's clear that you are out of this Faith that lives in malice and hatred And the Scripture speaks of one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4. and the Unity is in the Faith and Faith gives Victory over that which hath separated from God And Faith is the Shield And the Saints was to strive together for the Faith of the Gospel 1 Thes. 3. Remember your work of Faith and put on the brestplate of Faith 1 Thes. 5.8 The work of Faith with Power and holding Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 5.19 And have not you made shipwrack of this Faith in Christ Jesus and God to say Christ's Blood was not shed for all men and God would not have all men to be saved and hath ordained some to damnation Is not Faith called a Mystery 1 Tim. 3.9 Were not the Saints to fight the good Fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 Are not you among them that have erred concerning the Faith and have overthrown the Faith of some in not believing the one Offering once for all his Blood for all his Death for all and so are become Reprobates concerning the Common Faith Tit. 1.4 And without Faith it is impossible to please God who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith which you made yours at Savoy in eleven dayes time in Oliver's dayes And the Just shall live by his Faith Heb. 2. and hearts purified by Faith Acts 15. and Sanctified by Faith Acts 26. Rom. 3. a man is Justified by Faith So it 's clear Reader that Faith Justifies Sanctifies and Faith purifies rhe heart and so this
self not be added to or diminished from 7thly That the Goodness of God where it takes impression or is received in man in the free tenders of it in Christ Jesus it is the principal inducement or cause of Repentance and forsaking of Sin 8thly And the Tenders of Grace and Salvation in Christ are free to all so that man's rejecting and slighting of it and of God's Kindness therein is the cause of his being rejected of God O man thy destruction is of thy self but thy help is in me saith the Lord. 9thly Seeing that many of their own Brethren have confessed God to be infinite in his Power and in all Perfections and to his Divine Attributes as their term is and that he is free in them and so his Love Goodness and Mercy which attend his Judgment being felt in the way thereof by them that wait therein upon him Why should any Doctrine or Supposition be brought forth that doth at least seem to diminish his Love and Good Will by either mis-representing it in its self or render it partially in its extent as only design'd or but free for a few that upon full payment and also the same full punishment and wrath that sinners deserved by a Person distinct and separate from himself as Jesus Christ hath been mis-represented He being One with the Father who said Hitherto the Father worketh and I work and the Son doth nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do that he doth 10thly Christ being the Brightness of the Glory of God and the express Image of his Divine Substance as also truly called the Son of his Love by him is exprest and clearly signified God's Free Love Goodness and Mercy towards Mankind both in his Life Ministry and Sufferings in the dayes of his Flesh. 11thly It being the Love Patience Long-suffering of God and Riches of his Grace that leads to Repentance Rom. 2. all which were truly expressed signified and bore Testimony unto by Christ Jesus both in his Ministery Suffering and Death on the Cross as also by his Resurrection and most Glorious Ascention The Almighty Power of God which is unto Salvation to the true Believers was shewed forth and born witness unto and blessed are they that receive the true sense thereof in its operation and effects 12thly I also know and confess That it was in God's Infinite and Free Love that Christ gave himself a Ransom for all to be testified of in due time And that in the same Love he hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5. and therefore God is to be followed and Christ obeyed by all that receive his Love But now to T. V. his Terms and Assertion seeing he has not been plain nor given any ingenious nor satisfactory Answer I ask and Query 1st WHere doth the Scripture say That it is impossible for God to pardon or forgive without a plenary Satisfaction as an act of Law made to his offended or vindictive Justice by another 2dly And if this Satisfaction depend upon a second Person or God equal with the Father as T.V. saith Christ is proved to be and not upon any finite Creature Is not this all one as to say that God satisfied God and then what non-scence is it to lay it upon a second Person distinct from him and yet coequal with him where doth he prove these words in Scripture Doth not this like the former Doctrine either render them two distinct Gods differing between themselves the one abounding in Judgement the other in Mercy or else God to differ from himself and so to give Christ for his own Pacification and not Man's real Reformation whilst the Notion of plenary satisfaction is made a cover or pretence for Peoples continuing in an imperfect sinful polluted state which the Priests Plead for the continuance of in all term of Life And does not this their Doctrine lead People to trample the Blood of the New Covenant under foot and this is to deny the one Offering 3dly And was that the end of Christ giving himself a Ransom being an Offering and Dying for All that men might live in sin all their time and say they are Pardoned and Redeemed whilst they are still in Bondage 4thly Is God fully satisfied that any should live in sin or is his infinite Justice satisfied so as not to lay hold on them in the sinful state 5thly If the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and every disobedience shall have a just Recompence of Reward How then is Divine Justice fully satisfied and answered for All in that state without their coming under the sence of it in themselves For if so then nothing is to be done within them and then how did the Believers know the terrors of the Lord the sentence of Death in themselves the Law that Ministers Wrath the Ministration of Condemnation which in his time was Glorious and the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in them by Christ Jesus who came to condemn sin in the Flesh for that end wherein still we confess to the one Offering and the blessed effects thereof 6thly And if All must live in sin all their time does not this tend to settle People upon their Lees and set them at ease in a false security in Sin and Transgression and so to deny the one Offering and Sacrifice that puts away sin 7thly And if such a plenary Satisfaction as it is called be made for some in that sinful state why not for all Do ye not here render God partial whereas Christ died for All tasted Death for Every man gave himself a Ransom for All which you Presbyterians to wit T. D. and others have denyed and so you make Sects and therein have opposed Scriptures and the Extent of God's Love and Good Will to all men but we Testifie to it and own Christ's Death and Sufferings and Effect of his Righteousness to be manifest within by the Spirit to every one that believeth 8thly Why doth T. V. so vilifie a man for Confessing according to Scripiture to the infinite Love and Mercy of God towards Mankind and his reasoning for it from Scripture seeing that he himself confesseth the impossibility of any finite Creature to make any plenary satisfaction to his offended Justice And many of his Brethren have confessed the Divine Attributes to be in God and he free in them as infinite Love Goodness Mercy as well as Justice As also he may find in the Common Prayer Book That the Graciousness and Mercifulness of God is confessed unto more then he has done And whereas T. V. accuseth W.P. with seeming to insinuate that he denys only the impossibility of Gods pardoning sin without satisfaction but that his Arguments are against Satisfaction it self he saith Whereas W. P's own Testimony stands against him in this matter in Pag. 32. which T. V. to his own Contradiction is also made to
unto himself and Christ is the Son of his Love and it was out of his Free Love that he sent him into the World His sending Christ surely was his own Free Grace and no man's Purchasing and then his Love was openly testified of when Christ was come who came in that Free Love of God which was testified and held forth in Christ Jesus to man and he gave himself a Ransom to Redeem and Purchase man out of Transgression and not to let him lye in sin and imperfection all his life time the Good Will of God in sending Christ in delivering him up for man and giving him for a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and his tenders of Free Pardon Remission and Redemption in him was that man might receive Christ and come into the Living Faith and be partaker in himself of those precious benefits Heavenly Priviledges tendred in Christ not that man should live in sin all his time for an Act of Free Pardon is not granted that men may take liberty to live in Sedition and Treason all their life but for those Offences past Nor that men should Plead that all Offences past present and to come are Pardoned therefore they cannot be free from Rebellion Sedition and Treason all their Life time this were a sad Consequence and not to be born then you that plead a Satisfaction made to God extending thus far your sin and imperfection term of Life being in you the ground of this Plea and also that which you cover and maintain by it and then when God and Christ require true Repentance perfect Obedience Righteousness c. you tell God the Debt is paid and all satisfied by another without you How then do you Answer the pure Law and requirings of God within Priests and Professors their Answer viz. We indeavor and strive and press after perfection as much as we can but we don't believe it is attainable here Reply Then your indeavouring and striving is all in the unbelief How do you indeavour and strive Priests We Pray and seek God in Ordinances and perform Duties Query But what doth all your performances amount to while Perfection is denied and Sin contended so much for by you Pr. All our best performances are sinful we had need to ask forgiveness for the sins of our best Duties of our Prayers and all other Performances See our Directory Catechism c. So that all our Righteousness in our best state are but polluted and filthy Raggs Dross Dung c. Query How now Professors Do you thus requite God for his Love and is this the use you make of your Plea for a full Satisfaction and Debt paid for you do you thus requite the Lord and answer his requirings will he accept of these things at your hands Pr. God looks not upon us as we are in our selves but upon Christ's Righteousness in his Active and Passive Obedience whereby he fully satisfied for us Query What then Do you think that God will be satisfied on your parts with your filthy Raggs rotten Clouts Dross and Dung which you offer to him or will he not rather take it as a mockery or wrong at your hands thus meanly to requite him what do you signifie for him Was this the end of Christs suffering for Man and his being a Sacrifice well-pleasing to God and a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World did he appease Wrath fulfil Righteousness bear the Sins or the burthen of them in his own Body that men might take this liberty to Sin Pollution Rebellion term of Life and so live all their time in Disloyalty and without subjection to him and then when he requires Obedience of you and to answer his pure Law in the heart you go and offer a few rotten Clouts filthy Raggs Dross and Dung and such nauceous stuffe to him will not he return it upon your own faces as a mockery and contempt done to him Behold I will spread Dung upon your faces even the Dung of your solemn Feasts Mal. 2. So it may be justly said Even the Dung of all your best Performances feigned Humility feigned Confessions feigned Prayers feigned Pretences feigned Applications feigned claiming an Interest in the Satisfaction and Imputation of the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ whilst you are out of it cloathed with your own rotten Clouts and filthy Raggs And if a People should deal thus with their Prince after he has granted and given an Act of Free Pardon and Indempnity that they should both take liberty to Rebellion and Treason and not only so but Plead for it as you do for sin term of Life and tell People they must lay hold and apply this Pardon but they must not expect to be free from actual Rebellion against their Prince while they live How would this be taken and what ungratefulness and unworthiness would this import on their parts How would they be acquitted before him Nay if they should go to requite their Prince by spreading a deal of rotten Clouts before him and a deal of Dross and Dung under his Nostrils every day upon his Table and not only so but publickly in the sight of the People once or twice a Week at least as you do your sinful Prayers and Performances would not this be taken as an high Affront and Indignity put upon a Merciful Prince Judge what would be the effect hereof Nay if you should present an Oblation before him mixt with Poyson and Infection and he know it to be so what would be your recompence And do you not present your sinful Prayers and Performances before the Lord from your sinful polluted hearts which are deceitful and desperate wicked above all things and therefore full of deadly Corruption and Poyson will your feigned Humility feigned Applications stand you in any stead herein Bring no more vain Oblations before the Lord go offer it to thy Prince and see if he will accept thy Person Mal. 1. That the Son of Man came to give his Life a Ransom for many and that he is the Propitiation through Faith in his Blood and that in due time he died for the ungodly bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree that he was wounded for the Transgressions of the People that he hath loved us and given himself for us an Offering and Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour See Matth 20.28 Rom. 5.6 1 Pet. 2.24 Isa. 53.5 Rom. 3.25 yea we own and confess to Christ in his Suffering being an Offering dying for the ungodly more than you Presbyterians do First as to the Universal Love of God shewed forth therein Secondly As to the Vertue Power and Effects of his Death Sacrifice Blood c. First In that he Died for All men for the Ungodly in general tasted Death for every man gave himself a Ransom for All to be testified of in due time that he is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole World which you say is
concerning the Terms and Conditions whereon Sinners may be interested in the Satisfaction made by Christ J. O. saith pag. 167. It may also be farther evinced that there is nothing asserted in them but what is excellently suited unto the common notions which mankind hath of God and his Righteousness and that in their practice they answer the Light of Nature and common Reason exemplified in sundry instances among the Nations of the World Answ. First it is to be observed that a great stress is laid upon these Explications Declarations or Confessions of yours as relating to the terms and interest you claim in Christ's Satisfaction unto the determination of God's Will and Confirmation of Divine testimonies according to J. O's words wherein no less then Salvation appears to be concerned for without an interest in Christ and his Righteousness men cannot be saved Secondly Your Assertions herein being suited unto the common notions of mankind and as answering the Light of Nature and common Reason as it is called and as J. O's words are whether herein hath he not rendred this Light and common Reason together with the common notions mankind hath of God to be of a saving property since it so suits those things wherein Salvation is so deeply concerned according to J. O. but then if he does not reckon mens common Notions Light or Reason which is natural to be saving as indeed we do not believe that any thing natural as of man in the Fall can save then may we not reasonablely look upon J.O. to have asserted and declared those things wherein Salvation is not concerned or which we are not to look upon as answering that Light which is Spiritual and Saving but only common Notions and natural Reason whilst he and his Brethren keep not to plain Scripture Language and but run into notions terms distinctions which they have by Tradition from men mens inventions more suiting common and corrupt reason then Divine Light But and if the Light in men be Divine which manifests divine Revelations and Testimonies relating to Salvation such as J. O. would have us believe his matter to be grounded on then it follows that such a light is common or universal in mankind and not only given to a few nor natural as it hath been often rendred by such as J. O. and what doth this spiritual or divine Light teach concerning God and his Righteousness but that he is to be feared obeyed and honoured and that all sin and iniquity should be forsaken and God's Righteousness Power and Image which is Christ Jesus lived in obeyed and followed by man for herein is God well pleased and satisfied in beholding his own Image and birth renewed and brought forth which admits not of sin nor imperfection much less of either pleading contending disputing or preaching for its continuance in all term of life and this Light of Christ within however any miscall it is that which gives the knowledge of God's Love in Christ and of the vertue and efficacy of his Suffering and so of his Blood and to eat of his flesh which is given for the Life of the World wherein we partake of him as the one Offering at the Altar of God in his Sanctuary which the carnal Professors both among Jews and pretended Christians were and are ignorant of and in this Light are we come to know and receive Christ and reconciliation through his Death and also the glory of God through him in whom we have received the Attonement Peace and Union with the Father in the Son which all you that either slight oppose or deny this Light within and say its but natural are ignorant of being but in your dark notions natural apprehensions and conceivings which you intermix with Scripture so that the Dignity Glory Power and Vertue that is and ever was in Christ you do but talk of without the real sence discerning or enjoyment thereof but every one that truely waits upon the Living God in his Light and Life within whereby their minds and spirits being subjected unto his Will and their hearts truly broken before him such know the Ransom and Attonement which the Righteous and redeemed of the Lord knew and witnessed in all Ages and have that to offer unto God and such Sacrifices to present before him wherein he behold of his own glory and beauty and savours of his own vertue which is truly acceptable and well pleasing unto him who delighteth in his own Image Seed and Royal Off-spring which none truly know but who come into the Light to receive Christ the promised Seed which bruiseth the Serpents head and to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood without which you have no Life in you for all your talk and notions Pag. 185. J. O. The Sacrifice denotes his Humane Nature whence God is said to purchase his Church with his own Blood Acts 20.28 For he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit there was the matter of the Sacrifice which was the Humane Nature of Christ Soul and Body his Soul was made an Offering for Sin Isa. 53.10 his Death had the nature of a Sacrifice c. Answ. These Passages are but darkly and confusedly expressed as also we do not read in Scripture that the Blood of God by which he purchased his Church is ever called the Blood of the Humane Nature nor that the Soul of Christ was the Humane Nature or was put to death with the Body for the wicked could not kill the Soul though his Soul was made an Offering for sin and he poured it out to death he bore the sin of many and made intercession for Transgressors but what death and in what manner was it is a mystery truly to know for his Soul in his own being was Immortal and the Nature of God is Divine and therefore that the Blood of God should be of Humane or earthly nature appears inconsistent and where doth the Scripture call the Blood of God Humane or Humane Nature Neither do we read that the Blood which beareth record in the Earth and agrees in one with the Spirit and which purgeth the Conscience washeth and cleanseth the Believer in the Light from all sin was ever called by the Apostles the blood of the Humane Nature nor do we read that the Saints did eat and drink Flesh and Blood that was of a Humane Nature to receive Divine Life in them thereby for the Water of Life and Blood of Christ which are said to wash sanctifie and justifie which agree in one with the Spirit in those works and effects we never read that they are called in Scripture by the name of Humane Nature for the Spirit that quickens is divine and it is the Spirit that gives Life the Flesh profiteth nothing John 6. And the Soul of Christ is Immortal and did not die with the Body though it s deemed as being of the Humane Nature with the Body and so as of the Sacrifice in Suffering and Death whereas though his Soul
was made an Offering for sin he having offered himself through the Eternal Spirit yet his Soul or Spirit did not die with the Body though J. O. hath ignorantly made no distinction but joyns both as being but Humane Nature which was Sacrificed to death but yet its evident that though his Soul and Spirit did not die with the Body yet his Soul was offered for sin for the sins of men were laid upon him or did meet on him as is frequently confessed and so he suffered and his Soul travelled under the burthen of them so that his Sufferings were twofold both inward and outward and which were the greater suppose ye Professors and whether there be not a mystery to be known in the Sufferings Death and Blood of Christ beyond what could be seen or perceived with the carnal or outward eye since that he is truly and savingly to be known after the Spirit as the Apostles knew him who experienced the Fellowship of his Sufferings and a conformity unto his Death and bare in their bodies the Dying of the Lord Jesus that his Life might be manifest in them And Christ being touched with the feeling of their Infirmities was able to relieve them that were tempted and as Paul saith Colos. 1. You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds through wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the Body of his Flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight if you continue in the Faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard which is preached to every Creature which is under Heaven whereof I Paul am made a Minister who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his Body sake which is the Church verse 21 22 23 24. where mark that the reconciled state was not that of enmity in their minds and the end of this reconciliation through his Death was to present them holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight which does not admit of sin and imperfection term of life nor yet of Professors arguing or pleading for sin as they do and was there any of Christ's afflictions or sufferings then to be filled up in the Apostle for the sake of his Church how do Professors resent this Doctrine and what meaning will they give to it can they say that Christ's suffering was all at an end or fulfilled at once whilest yet some was behind to be filled up in his Saints and that for his Churches sake although still he was the one Offering Ransom and Sacrifice for sin and was offered once for all as both being opposed to and ending the many Offerings under the Law and consecrating a new and Living Way and establishing an Everlasting Covenant of Life and Salvation as also that in what he did and suffered be set us an Example bare Testimony unto and confirmed the Truth this J. O. confesseth page 199. And as to his being a perfect High Priest and discharging the Office thereof and all other the Father required of him these we never opposed nor went about to slight or lessen as some injuriously represented us Neither would we have any unreverent and slighty Contests entertained on any hand about the Sufferings Afflictions and Death of Christ in the least to lessen or undervalue them nor yet ought you to meddle and tamper about either God Christ or Holy Spirit or about the Suffering and Sacrifice of Christ with your pitifull sorry confused School-terms and distinctions and beggerly scraps of mens Traditions and Rudiments of the World c. wherein you have laboured more to fill your heads with airy notions invented words and brain knowledge rather then your hearts and souls with a saving Knowledge and experimental sence and feeling of the Life and Power of Godliness or of the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ Jesus and his Reconciliation as the one Offering and Sacrifice which puts away sin and whose Blood both remits and clenseth from all iniquity But to evade these blessed Effects which are only known to them that walk in the Light 1 John 1.7 many of you Professors have found out a very easie way and notion of all being fully satisfied and payed for you both for sins past present and to come and of all being suffered and perfectly obeyed for you by Christ in your stead though you deny his dying and being a Propitiation for all men in the whole World so that you can plead and wrangle for sin imperfection and body of sin all your life and say Christ hath fully payed all and perfectly obeyed for you as also you can easily evade or refuse to suffer either with him or for him if but a little Storm Trial or Persecution doth arise you and your Leaders can secure your selves and creep into corners though now you can make a shew and bluster in this time of calm and some of you make a boasting and insulting against W. P. and a hidious reviling of him now he is in suffering and you at liberty thinking probably that you may get your selves some credit and repute with those in power by your railing Pamphlets which you bring out one after another like cowardly base spirited men so many to go to trample upon a man that is already underfoot as to the outward man in regard of his confinement which some report that some of you Presbyterians were the Instigators and occasion of by such invective Clamours and Complaints as some of you are accustomed to clear your selves as well as you can but yet withal you do but befool your selves in so many of you going to war against and reproaching a poor man in Prison who freely offered up himself to suffer which the most of you would be loath to do for by that your so great stir and noise you make against him you render him how mean soever he be in himself such a potent Antagonist contrary to your many slighty and scornfull Characters of him in your Books that you make many momoderate people the more enquire after him and to have the better conception of him because of your enmity and outrage but such who wait upon the Lord and in his Light stand still can see beyond you all and your spirits and work which the day hath declared More Errors escaped the Press IN the Epistle Page 2. Line 12. for agree in read are p. 23. l. 2. blot out 1. l. 23. for for r. in p. 25. l. 10. r. produced l. 35. for 13 r. 3. In the Answer to T. V. p. 65. l. 1. blot out that In the Answer to T. D. p. 2. l. 24. for gifts r. gusts p. 5. l. 18. for in r. on p. 7. l. 5. for 13 r. 3. l. 11. for by r. high p. 9. l. 10. for and all r. an act p. 12. l. 2. for he r. the. p. 17.
could suffer pag. 55. Contrad T. V. It being impossible for any finite Creature to make plenary Satisfation to the infinite Justice of God which requireth an infinite Satisfaction pag. 54 55. If Christ had not been God as well as Man the Sufferings and Satisfaction would have been but finite Obs. First This Person that should make satisfaction by suffering and death it seems now is counted a Creature which yet as such could not satisfie infinite Justice as Contradictorily is confessed But as before it 's said He was the Eternal Son of God proved to be God equal with the Father but now in Contradiction again it was as God and Man that he satisfied whereas it was not as God that he suffered and died but we confess that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself T.V. Christ did bear the punishment of our sins viz. the curse and punishment our sins deserved that he might give Satisfaction unto God's Justice pag. 57 58. Obs. Query But did God undergo that punishment surely nay Or did Christ as man undergo that eternal Punishment Death and Curse due to sinners Could Christ's Death or Temporal Sufferings be Eternal Yet still we confess That God both had and hath still full satisfaction and pleasure in his Son Christ the Anointed the Lamb that was offered without spot to God a Sacrifice for sin though your abuse of Christ confusion and darkness in stating your Matter we cannot own as proceeding from any sence or savour of Christ either as a Sacrifice or Saviour T.V. His Righteousness obligeth him to take vengeance upon all that have transgressed his Law pag. 54. Our righteousness are as filthy Raggs Contrad T. V. He doth Exercise his Justice freely as he doth love his Image in his people freely pag. 65. Obs. Then your filthy Raggs cannot cover you from his vengeance for therein you are not in his Image which he loves freely in his People and yet you would be accounted his People where you are it 's high time for you to Repent and no longer cover your selves with such Raggs polluted Garments For God will lay you bare and naked 3. Of Justification T.D. There is no need of inherent Righteousness for Justification Contradiction But yet there is need of it to make us meet for Heaven Col. 1.12 pag. 45. Contrad Inherent gives us a fitness for the injoying of it it lying in Communion with God without likeness of disposition there can be no liking of each other pag. 46. Obs. What then are persons in a Justified state while they are neither meet for Heaven not fit to enjoy it nor yet partakers of that which makes like to God and brings into Communion with him Which is this inherent Righteousness of Christ as it is called which T.D. hath shut out as not needful for Justification contrary to plain Scripture 1 Cor. 6.11 Rom. 2.13 Jam. 2.21 Heb. 12.14 T.D. Satisfaction is a compensation or recompence made to God for injury done him by sin which may be both by doing and suffering Vindictive Justice Contrad T. V. Godliness is enjoyned upon all pag. 67. Obs. How then did Christ undergo infinite Wrath from offended infinite Justice that sinners and sin deserved when he never sinned For here every one is to obey and answer the pure Law of God viz. by Godliness and if Godliness be enjoyned upon all I ask must all remain in a sinful ungodly state and Commands to Perfection be construed but as the measure of our duty according as T. D. saith pag. 57. who formerly affirmed also That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us was meant in Christ and not in our persons so then must we look on Christ as his being Godly Righteous Obedient to Death for men fully to satisfie and take off the Righteous Injunction laid upon them to Godliness perfect Obedience c. That it is to be meant Christ must be perfect for us he is to be only the subject of all those Commands enjoyning perfect Obedience Righteousness and Holiness and not we which is as absurd and all one as to say That when God Commands us by his Grace not to sin but to be perfect or perfectly to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly soberly c. That he all this while intends his Son Jesus Christ as the subject of these Commands And whereas he never said Son Jesus Christ Do not thou sin be not thou ungodly do thou deny worldly lusts live thou godly soberly be thou perfect for all and it shall satisfie me fully instead of Perfection or Righteousness in men seeing none can be perfect or free from sin in this life c. But this absurd Course is the current tenour and intent of our Opposers Doctrine And yet they must confess That Christ never sinned nor could sin neither was there guile found in his mouth so their presenting him only as the subject of perfect Obedience and not Men or Believers is all one as to say That all those Commands directed to us for that end was only intended to Christ for T.D. construes his Satisfaction and Payment in men's stead to consist in both Doing and Suffering viz. Both in Christ's Obedience and Subjection to the Law and God's Precepts as also to its Penalties and Curses pag. 19 20. But T. V. layeth it upon his Death in their room and thus they manifestly Contradict themselves whereas God was alwayes well pleased or satisfied in Christ both in his active obedience and also in his passive subjection to suffering death as man even in all his whole Conversation Ministry Life and Death for Mankind he being a perfect Sacrifice for sin but God is not therefore satisfied with man out of Christ or out of obedience to the Law of his Spirit but as he comes to be found in Christ having and possessing his Righteousness within and the Life and Effects thereof which doth not admit of sin and imperfection term of life seeing as is Confessed by T.D. and T.V. That God loves his Image in his People freely and without likeness of disposition there can be no likeing of each other And surely the Image likeness and disposition of God in his People is pure and perfect which sin and imperfection bears no resemblance of T.V. No persons being the subjects of Gospel Justification but as ungodly that is as having sinned Contrad T. V. Where he removeth the guilt of sin he also removeth the filth of sin Justification and Sanctification being unseparable Companions Justification is never without Sanctification Obs. See the apparent Contradiction here in this latter to the former for here note then That no Persons are the subjects of Gospel Justification as ungodly or as in their sins but as being sanctified and the filth of sin removed so then justified not in sin but in the Truth and Righteousness of Christ they being washed cleansed and sanctified and only such are they that are Justified in the Name
THE Divinity of Christ AND Unity of the Three that bear Record in Heaven WITH The blessed End and Effects of Christ's Appearance coming in the Flesh Suffering and Sacrifice for Sinners confessed and vindicated By his followers called Quakers And the principal matters in Controversie between Them and their present Opposers as Presbyterians Independants c. Considered and Resolved according to the Scriptures of Truth And more particularly to Remove the Aspersions Slanders and Blasphemies cast upon the People called QUAKERS and their Principles in several Books Written By Tho. Vincent Will. Madox their railing Book stil'd The Foundation c. Tho. Danson his Synopsis John Owen his Declaration Which are here Examin'd and Compared by G. W. And their Mistakes Errors and Contradictions both to themselves and each other made manifest As also A short Review of several Passages of Edward Stillingfleet's D.D. and Chaplin in Ordinary so called to his Majesty in his Discourse of the Sufferings of Christ And Sermon preached before the KING wherein he flatly Contradicts the said Opposers Mark 14.56 For many bare false witness against him but their witness agreed not together Coll. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceipt 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5 20. If any man consenteth not to the wholsome words of our Lord Jesus Christ c. he is puft up or proud c. Acts 24.14 After the way which they call Heresie do I Worship the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets c. London Printed in the Year 1669. An Epistle to the Presbyterians and Independants and their Rough Hearers who profess the Scriptures to be their Rule whereby they are examined and tryed and their wayes discovered 1 st WHether do the Scriptures speak of Three Persons in the God-head according to your own Rule in these express words let us see where it is written Come do not shuffle for we are resolved that the Scriptures shall buffet you about and that you shall be whipped about with the Rule 2 dly Where doth the Scripture speak of Christ's Righteousness imputed unto Unrighteous men who live in their sins and that in their Unrighteousness and Sins they shall live and die seeing that Faith purifies the heart from unrighteousness And he that believes passes from Death to Life and so from Sin that brought Death And he that receives Christ receives Righteousness it self by Faith in him the Lord the Righteousness this is Scripture 3 dly And where doth the Scripture say That a man shall not be made free from sin and that it is not attainable in this Life Let us see where ever Christ or the Prophets or Apostles preached such Doctrine Give us plain Scripture without adding or diminishing for Christ's bids men be perfect and the Apostle spoke Wisdom among them that were perfect 4 thly You that deny Perfection do ye not deny the One Offering Christ Jesus who hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified Do you not deny the Blood of Christ Jesus in trampling it under your feet and the Blood of the new Covenant which Blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin and whose garments are made white by the Blood of the Lamb and he throughly purges his floor with his Fan and gathers his Wheat into his Garner 5 thly And did Christ make Satisfaction for the sins of men that they should live and die in their sins for he came to save his People from their sins and so he Died for them that they should not live to them but to God through him 6 thly Where do the Scripture speak of a Trinity of distinct Persons from Genesis to the Revelation give us plain Scripture for it without shuffling adding or diminishing you that talk so much of Scripture to be your Rule for the Father Word and Spirit this is owned according to Scripture and they agree in One. And we charge you to give us a plain Scripture that saith there are three separate Persons let us see Scripture we will have Scripture for it or otherwise be silent 7 thly And where do the Scriptures say That Christ the Light of the World which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World is not sufficient to guide men to Salvation Christ saith Believe in the Light that you may become Children of the Light and Children of the Day and who walk in the Light there is no occasion of stumbling And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and men love Darkness rather than Light because their deeds be evil And is not the Light sufficient that lets a man see whether his deeds be wrought in God read John 3. 8 thly Where doth the Scripture say from Genesis to the Revelation That the true Faith of God is without Works Hath not Faith works that purifies the heart Doth it not give Victory Will you deny the Works of Faith because the Works of the Law was denyed by the Apostle 9 thly Where doth the Scripture say That it self is the Word of God Do you not belye the Rule here For doth not the Scripture say That Christ is the Word and the Scriptures are Words read Exodus 20 and Revelation 22. He that adds to these Words and takes from these Words the Plagues of God are added to him So see whether you are not adders to these Words as it is made appear before And Christ saith My words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and Life c. And in many places of Scripture God saith My Words Doth not Scripture signifie Writing For all your high Schollar-ship you may go to the English School-Master and it will tell you what it signifies What is all the writing in Peoples hearts Is Paper and Ink in Peoples hearts Come do not cheat People but confess truth you affirm Scripture to be the Rule but are found contrary to the Rule But what is all the Scripture the Rule from Genesis to the Revelations to walk by and practice Or what part of Scripture is the Rule are Herods words Pharoahs words Nebuchadnezars words Judas words the Jewes words Jobs Friends words the Devils words the Offerings and the Sacrifices c. Come what part of Scripture is your Rule Distinguish For you say the Scripture is your Rule Is it all a Rule for practice Must we obey every tittle of it for we own the Scriptures more then you do which Holy Men of God gave forth Christ Jesus and the Apostles and Prophets and they made a distinction but you make none Do not go with your Malice and envious minds to possess the People and say That we dis-esteem the Scriptures for we esteem Scripture more than you do that have kept People under your Teaching that they might be paying of you and so make a Trade of them The Scriptures speaks plentifully concerning Christ being the Word of God God is the Word is not this Scripture And in the Beginning
then sayes suppose as a subsistent or Person c. But which of these terms it is this Notionist hath not declared to us in his 13th page And this Notionist goes on in the said 13th page and sayes Nor can we say that the Notion of the Father as one Person in the God-head includes the Son nor the Notion of the Son as one Person in the God-head includes the Father Reader Didst thou ever hear the like This is but a Notion of the Father and a Notion of the Son indeed And are these Presbyterian Priests like to interpret Scripture with their Notions Conceptions and Suppositions no no. No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him Nor none knows the Son but the Father and to know God and Jesus Christ is Life Eternal and none can call him Lord but by the Holy Ghost And so this Knowledge is beyond all your false Conceptions Suppositions and Notions And if the Holy Ghost the Saints bodies be the Temple of it which Holy Ghost leads them into all Truth And if the Holy Ghost be a Person then have not the Saints a Person in their bodies And why did not the Apostle say That their bodies were the Temples of a Person according to your Doctrine and Rule the Holy Ghost is a Spirit and so let us see that Scripture which gives the Holy Ghost the Name of a Person And he speaks again in his 14th page of Three distinct Persons are one with the God-head Now Reader is not here Four to wit Three Persons and the God-head But Reader we charge him to give us Chapter and Verse for this Doctrine for we must order him with the Rule And then he tells us of a Notion of the Father and including the Son it 's but his own Notion for if he had known him he would have spoken in a form of sound words whereby he might not have been reproved And again the Presbyterian sayes the Three Persons are distinct and the Rule is to be understood that they are One among themselves only in respect of that wherein they agree not simply Answ. Reader take notice he sayes The Father and Son and Holy Ghost which he calls Three Persons doth not agree simply Is not this contrary to Scripture What agreement is this which is not simply What! separate distinct Persons not agreeing simply Come what is this agreement then if it be not an agreeing simply Tell us what it is by Chapter and Verse thou sayes the Scripture is the Rule Where doth the Scripture say That the Father Son and Spirit doth not agree simply Didst thou not say That God was so simple that he admitted of no parts what agreement is this if it be not simple What is it then tell us Dost thou not abuse the Father Son and Spirit and Scriptures clear thy self and make this good That the Father Son and Spirit doth not agree simply if not simply then tell us how and give Chapter and Verse for it out of the Scriptures or else acknowledge thy self to be of a Sandy Foundation Seeing thou sayst A Man is a Person and God is a Person and the Scripture saith God is a Spirit and Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost the begotten of the Father Was Christ the Image of the Father as he was of the Generation of Abraham or David or Adam or according to the Spirit Whether of these was he the express Image of his Father's substance because thou calls the Father a Person And the Scripture sayeth He suffered according to the Flesh which he did not die as he was God and the Scripture calls him Son of Man and Son of God and he being the express Image of his Fathers substance see the Old Translations And dost thou not in thy 16th page of thy Synopsis bring the Greek Philosophers to prove the Persons Yes How now Presbyterian Priest thou hast run beside thy own Directory and Scripture both but the Greek Philosophers must be thy Rule and Leader surely People will not alwayes have their Eyes blinded by you Christ is come to open them And in the 17th page of his Book the Presbyterian saith that Hypostasis must be rendred Person or Subsistent or some word to that Effect he sayes So People see it must be some word but what it must be he knows not and so in this manner they are giving Names to Christ and God besides the Rule of Scripture we charge thee shew us a Verse in Scripture that speak such Language and where one word may be put for another by Metalepsis and so leave People in Doubts and Questions you are going beside your Scripture and Rule that at last People shall not know what to call God and Christ. So the Presbyterians and Independants must give us Scripture For we will not be satisfied with your Notions and Whymsies and false Conceptions which you have from Aristotle and the Greek Philosophers and the Papists and Cardinals We do command you to give us Scripture Chapter and Verse Presbyterians and Independants for these things plainly seeing you are of late perked up in a way of scolding against us not like the Holy Men of God Patient and Meek and apt to Teach as you may see in the latter end of your Brother Vincent's Book Is that the Language of a Christian No He hath declared what spirit you are of Rabshecha's spirit railing and speaking evil of the way of Truth he thinks to overcome by Railing and complaining not by Love nay the Lamb must have the victory Whether or no was Christ's Blood shed for All men and by it Justifies All men they living in their sins and not believing in it are they saved by their saying they believe in the Blood and not believing in the Light which Christ Commands and become Children of the Light and they say they believe and yet not pass from Death to Life and from sin that brings Death And whether or no any are cleansed from all sin by the Blood of Christ but such as walk in the Light of Christ as in 1 Joh. 1. And so whether or no are those Justified who believe not in the Light of Christ nor passes from Death to Life nor walks not in the Light whether or no are those Justified by Christ's Blood and have not the Testimony of Justification in them as in the accompt to God Christ's Blood was shed for All men but for a man to come to partake of this Justification is it not to feel the Blood sprinkling the Heart and Conscience For the outward Jewes in the Figure had Blood sprinkled upon them in the outward Offerings Come answer us by Scripture Do not daub up People with untempered Mortar do you know the Mortar that is tempered Whether or no was Christ an Offering for the sins of the whole World and died for the sins of the whole World Whether or no all the sinners and ungodly of the whole World
with the full bent of his will as do the wicked because he is born of God Doth not this reflect upon that pure Relation he hath with the Father and so upon the Nature of God for begetting and bringing forth such an impure birth And is not this to frustrate the end of the Son of God in being made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil whereas he that abides in Christ sinneth not see further 1 Joh. 3.5 6 7 8 9 10 verses 2. Whereas T. V. his contrary meaning to plain Scripture accuseth the Apostle John and others that were born again with committing sin from that chap. 1. vers 8. that doth not prove it against John and such as he hath so accused whereby he hath rendred John to be of the Devil for he that commits sin is so 1 Joh. 3.8 no more then James his saying With the same Tongue bless we God and curse we men doth prove himself to be one that so cursed which he said ought not to be for John writes to divers states and degrees of growth as to them that had sin to be cleansed from that they might walk in the Light to know the Blood of Christ to cleanse them from all sin vers 7. As also he said If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness vers 9. Surely John was come further then a Confession of sin at that time besides having sin may relate either to a former state or to its besetting the Creature in the temptations when it is warred against and in the Faith withstood in its motions in order to a Conquest when the Creature doth not commit sin but withstands it as Paul said It s not I that sinneth so that having some sin and committing sin are two things for it doth not appear that the beloved Disciple or Apostle John was a committer of sin in that state when he wrote that Epistle for he saith vers 10. If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us which relates to a state that was past If we say we have not sinned is not all one as to say if we say we do not commit sin c. Yet he saith chap. 2.1 My little Children these things I write unto you that ye sin not Now had John been of T. V's perswasion that such a state of Perfection or not Sinning is not here attainable why should he exhort them not to sin and so plainly shew the difference between him that is born of God and him that is of the Devil See 1 Joh. 3. throughout And then as to T. V. his supposed Consequence from our Doctrine of Perfection That whoever found any sin in them were not born of God which I say that its neither our Assertion nor the Consequence of our saying That he that 's born of God doth not commit sin for having sin when it is withstood and warred against by that which is born of God and committing sin are two things yet we know that that which is born of God overcomes the World and this is the Victory even our Faith and the end of Christ's manifestation is to destroy sin that it may not have a being so long as we live in us And T.V. further adds That if they should die with any sin remaining they would certainly go to Hell and so none there yea none in the World would be saved he saith Hereby he still takes it for granted That there 's no such Perfection here as a freedom from all sin but that all God's Children die with sin remaining in them I then ask How long after death shall sin remain and when and where is the time and place of being fully cleansed after death is it in the Grave or is it in some Purgatory For if God's Children must be cleansed after death they must be cleansed somewhere and then in the mean time betwixt death and this supposed time and place of cleansing and purging where lyes the sin and pollution and the stain of it is it in the Soul or in the Body Surely not in the Body when dead neither can the Soul go to God with sin or pollution in it for no unclean thing can enter into his Kingdom or dwell with him so then the Question still remains where the Soul is after death and where is the place of its purging and fully cleansing If T. V. and his Brethren are not Papists let them answer and clear themselves and Principle from the Popes Purgatory T. V. his reviling and calling us Audacious Quakers who have not the least degree of true Grace because of damnable Opinions This his harsh language and railing signifies little to us for any proof against us or what we hold but only shewes his own peevishness and implacable enmity as one vexed and fretted in his mind and so not fit to intermeddle with things of so high concernment as he hath presumptiously attempted to stir in as about Perfection and the Deity and Satisfaction of Christ Justification Righteousness c. nor yet to call and exhort others whilst he himself had need to be called and exhorted to repent of his hard and uncharitable speeches and censours and to come to meekness and moderation which would better become his Profession And his confidence that we have not the least degree of true grace is both a false and uncharitable confidence and charge against us as also his flaunting and jearing W. P. as having but some smattering of Learning and being but little of a Scholar never to have read nor understood Logick or to have forgot or laid it aside Herein hath he manifested himself both scornful and ridiculous to make so much use of his own pretended Learning Arguments Logick Demonstration c. to such as he reckons hath neither true grace nor Learning it appears T.V. had a mind to shew himself in a vain flourish and boasting over such whom he hath endeavoured to render contemptible mean and ignorant as he hath done us all which doth but the more manifest the pride of his heart vain-glorying c. And then he adds I told them that all true Believers were perfect in a sense they were Evangellically perfect but not legally not absolutly perfect they had perfection of parts but not of degrees I Answer What confusion is here and what contradiction to his former Doctrine of Imperfection and Sin in this Life for first an Evangelical Perfection he grants but not a Legal as if either the Law or the state under it were above the Gospel or else that the state of the Gospel is not a state of Perfection exceeding that under the Law but rather inferiour both which are false and absurd For this Doctrine doth not only charge Imperfection upon the Creature under the Gospel but upon the Gospel it self whilst Evangelical Perfection is deemed either Imperfection or not a
without any just cause both then and when we were afterward at their Meeting to clear our selves from T. V's and W. M. their malicious and slanderous accusation of Blasphemy yea even in the time when I sate silent amongst them some of their Hearers both Men and Women would be railing and clamouring against me when I gave them no seeming much less real occasion at all I being silent So that of all the Assemblies I have been in I never met with any that shewed less Christianity Civility or good Education And whereas T. V. is neither so honest nor yet so ingenious as to acknowledge his apparent and palpable Contradictions in his Sermon set down and observed by W. P. but rather would out-face us and the Readers as though they were no Contradictions Let the Reader therefore take a short review of them as first That a Person that is born of God overcomes the World and yet the Victory in this Life incompleat Is not here an evident inconsistency and contradiction is his Doctrine and ignorance of the Child of God and the Saints Victory which was their Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 For if he have alwayes enemies or sins unsubdued in this Life how are they overcome and victory obtained Or is there a Victory over Enemies and they not overcome What false glosses would he set upon his Contradictions And his instance of the Canaanites among the Children of Israel being like Thorns doing them mischief This was when they did not as God commanded drive them out before them which is no proof in this case to him that is born of God for the wicked one cannot touch him much less mischief him And T. V. his saying That such as are in Christ and cast off the old Man and known a change altogether New and yet worldly Lusts cannot be extirpated out of God's People in this World Do but mark his plain Contradiction again here and how doth he clear himself by questions May not Have not Worldly Lusts a being and some power to oppose in God's People where they have lost their rule But how then are they in Christ and have cast off the old man and known a change altogether new what must the old worldly Lusts still remain unextirpated in this Life in Christ Where then is the newness of Life altogether or the Grace of God in its teaching to deny those things obeyed And how then are such as be in Christ new Creatures Or how have they that are his crucified the flesh with the Affections and Lusts Which to accuse all God's People of worldly Lusts all their life time what an abuse is it to them Did not Paul see and attain a state beyond that wherein he had seen a Law in his members warring and leading him captive c. Did not he see the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ to make him free from the Law of Sin Death when through Christ he became more than a conqueror And could he be in all those states he mentioned to the Romans then at one and the same time to wit carnal sold under sin led captive having a will to do that which was good but knew not how and also to be freed from the Law of Sin and Death by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus one dead to sin that could not live any longer therein and more than a conqueror c. could these states be consistent or all his at one and the same time viz. To be Carnal Wretched a Captive ignorant of his Duty and yet a Delivered Freed Spiritual man more than a Conqueror and an Apostle that then knew how to write that Epistle Instruct others and Preach to them in the Fulness of the Gospel Were not these Latter his Attainments at that time wherein he shews his deliverance from the former Bondage Servitude and Thraldom under the power of Sin and the Law and Body of it which is not to remain alwayes but to be ended abollished and destroyed by the Power and Operation of Jesus Christ in them that believe For if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness And where the old man is crucified with him it is to the destruction of the body of sin that henceforth sin should not be served Rom. 6.6 chap. 8.10 And Paul speaking to the Romans after the manner of men because of the infirmity of their flesh ch 6.19 And his so condescending to speak of several states that he had passed through was not to encourage any to plead or contend for sin term of life as most injuriously his Intention is perverted by these Ministers of Sin and Antichrist whilst that he also shews his Deliverance and Conquest but rather that men should believe as he had done in order to their obtaining perfect Victory and Conquest by the same Power and Spirit of Christ in which true Believers confide and trust against all the powers of Darkness Temptations and evil Motions knowing that Christ's Power is stronger than the Devil's power And it 's for Christ's Power and Work that we contend both against the Devil his Work and Messengers who dispute and contend for sin term of life which is their great injury both against Christ his Work and People and that which hath greatly strengthened the hands of evil-doers And T.V. his telling That Sin may tyrannize over Believers and yet not have Dominion but be in Captivity in Chains Who is so blind that cannot see his Contradiction herein and his silly come off in instancing that a Slave in Chains may sometimes break loose and Tyrannize what then is this Captivity and these Chains under which the sin is held and how doth it tyrannize and yet not have dominion what silly work is this But his saying You must kill or be killed either you must overcome the world or the world you What must they kill but sin and worldly lusts Surely this is further than an incompleat Victory and further than an Enemy breaking loose if he be killed for if he be slain he hath neither power to break loose lead captive and much less to tyrannize over Believers It is strange how T.V. can so far shut his eyes or endeavour to blind others as to seek to gloss over these notorious Contradictions as if they were in unity and then lightly to say Can you forbear smiling at the man he calleth these Contradictions How shallow and ridiculous hath he rendered himself herein CHAP. II. In Answer to W. Madox together with several Contradictions between him and his Brother T. Vincent and their Absurdities manifested and detected which shews also their ignorance of the True and Living God c. THese men having prostituted themselves to an Idol of their own brains The Light within which is their Christ Saviour count the Doctrine of the true God a strange Doctrine Answ. The Light within which we do own witness
to and obey is the Light of Christ which witnesseth against all sin against all Idolatry and unrighteousness and leads us in the Doctrine of the true God which we receive in the Light and not mens Traditions and corrupt Doctrines and Inventions whereby People have been kept in the dark by such perverse and prejudiced Spirits as thus blasphemously deem the Light within an Idol of our own brains whereas it is the Light and Life of the Eternal Word which enlightens every man that cometh into the World that we testifie unto against all the dark opposers and gain-sayers whose wayes are dark and crooked as thine W. M. is who thus falsely and blasphemously hast represented the Light within like those that put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light And now let the Reader judge Whether such dark envious Persons as thou herein hast shewed they self are fit to be Judges in these things of Controversie about such high matters touching the Three that bear Record in Heaven viz. The Father The Word and The Spirit when thou in thy earthly sensual wisdom never camest there neither canst thou till thou countest it loss unto thee and com'st to loose it that the Babe's state that enters the Kingdom be known in which the Light and Life of the Son of God is manifest which discovers the hidden things of darkness and reveals the Mysteries of God's Salvation to them that obey it but not to such as count it an Idol and now what may we expect but darkness from such an one as calls the Light within an Idol and they that look into thy following work against us may see the gross darkness thereof yea darkness that may be felt W. M. By their three Persons you mean the three increated Persons of the ever blessed Trinity the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost Three increated Persons are thy own words and terms but the Father Word and Spirit we really own and bear witness to both as mentioned in the Scripture and as knowing the absolute Testimony and Eternal Power thereof manifested where that which may be known of God is manifest even within both in creating begetting and quickening us again to God out of death and darkness And these Three which are One which bear Record in Heaven to wit The Father the Word and the Spirit as I could not own the title of Three distinct and separate Persons to be put upon them as thy Brother Erroniously did being not Scripture-language so it was never my intent nor Principle to compare them to three Apostles or finite Creatures as most falsely and injuriously thou accusest me But to endeavour to make the People understand both the grosseness and falseness of Tho. Danson's and Tho. Vincent's Principles of three distinct separate Persons in the Deity you naming each Person God which renders them Three Gods whilst but One God by shewing the Consequence of this your Principle After I had from Scripture shewed how inseperable the Father and the Son were and the Oneness of the Father Word and the Spirit but if I had simply compared them to three Apostles who were distinct and separate Persons then had I owned your own Terms and Principle and then the Controversie had fallen between us But instead thereof I am accused for opposing your Doctrine of distinct separate Persons and thus you confound your selves in wronging of me for were not the three Apostles Paul Peter and John three distinct separate Persons did I ever deny that they were how like then to finite Creatures doth your own Doctrine render the Eternal God his Word Spirit which to shew was my end in instancing three Apostles for we never believed the Eternal God to be like to corruptible man since we knew any thing of his Divine Power But T. Danson in his Synopsis pag. 12. plainly instanceth three Apostles Peter James and John as also his instance of David and Solomon for their Trinity or three Persons in one nature Was not this an instance of finite Creatures and such an indignity put upon God as I never intended How can such men but blush for charging that on others which so evidently they are guilty of themselves Madox We call the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons or Hee 's according as they are held forth in the Scriptures Answ. Nay had you stood to Scripture-language there had not been any Controversie between us therein but it would not satisfie you but you must obtrude your Popish unscripture-like terms and distinctions or rather worse in telling not only of distinct but separate Persons which being plainly refuted from Scripture you may remember I several times called to T. D. and T. V. to confess their Error I shewing how inseparable the Father and the Son were reflecting chiefly on the words separate Persons which how you come off about will appear hereafter And as for their being Three Hee 's thou W. M. durst not keep to any Argument from thence or to make that any Cause or Reason why we must own them to be Three Persons though here thou seem'st to make the terms equivolent viz. Three Persons or Hee 's so then it appears that either will serve if the Three that bear Record in Heaven be but own'd under the Name of Three Hee 's it will serve instead of Three distinct Persons but then are all Hee 's or Males Persons and all Shee 's or Females no Persons What strange Logick is implyed here And where doth the Scripture mention three increated Persons thou tell'st of are they three distinct increated Persons If so then mayst thou not as well say they are three distinct Infinites three Eternals and so three Gods Where is now the blasphemy and blasphemer And Christ's speaking of another Comforter which was the Spirit of Truth Joh. 14.16 was not another Person distinct from him for that Spirit was then in him neither doth he use those words for the same Comforter or Spirit was in him and was that divine Life that then spoke in him when he was personally present with them He doth not say he would send them another Person to Comfort them but speaks more spiritually for though they had been Comforted in his outward Presence and Ministry yet his spiritual Presence was that other Comforter for ever to abide with them for in that Joh. 14.17 Christ speaking of the Spirit of Truth or that other Comforter saith he that dwelleth with you shall be in you vers 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you which clearly explains his former words which to say this Comforter was a Person distinct from Christ is all one or as absurd as to say the Spirit or Life that was in him was a distinct Person from him or that he was a Person distinct from himself for I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you or were it not gross to say That Christ in his People is a Person distinct from Christ or
confess that W. P. confesseth That Christ offered unto God a satisfactory Sacrifice c. yea a most satisfactory Sacrifice but not to help God as being otherwise unable to save men However it is evident that W. P. has according to Scriptures confessed to God's Power Omnipotency Infiniteness and also That Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death fulfilled his Fathers Will and offered up a most satisfactory Sacrifice so that he hath been wrongfully accused concerning this matter And whereas T. V. saith That God's Righteousness and Truth obliegeth him to take vengeance upon all that have transgressed his Law and his will to punish sin and sinners according to their desert his Justice doth ingage him c. Answ. How then is God free in his Attributes as they confess and his Good Will shewed by Christ unto men for their good in order to Salvation or hath God two contrary Wills the one obliging him to take Vengeance or execute Judgement to the uttermost upon All and the other to Exercise Patience Forbearance and shew Mercy and so not to Will the Death of Sinners but rather their Return that they may Live Is there any variableness or shaddow of Change in God or rather is not the Love and Good Will of God held forth in Christ to all men in the first place and that then when he Chasteneth Corrects Reproves any for sin it is not in Vengeance or Fury but in Love and Good Will for his Vengeance is to fall upon his Adversaries that have rejected and turned against him and the free proffers of his Love in Christ Jesus and who have Crucified Christ unto themselves a-fresh and trampled upon the Blood of the Covenant and so despised the one Offering which was offered up once for all as a real Witness of God's Good Will Patience Forbearance Long-suffering towards all And now to T. V. his saying That Sinners must have Divine help to inable them to their duty or in doing good and when they have done their duty their works are but imperfect and they unprofitable servants and for it brings Luke 17.10 When you have done all the things commanded say we are unprofitable servants our Righteousness is as filthy raggs Isa. 64.6 Answ. If you Presbyterians and Professors were come to know a Divine help in what you do and to do all the things Commanded you would give us a better account of those Works and Performances brought forth by Divine help than to compare them to filthy Raggs Divine help would cloath you with better Garments than filthy Raggs What sad Doctrine is this to say the Good that is done by Divine help and that doing all things Commanded of God are but as filthy Raggs What darkness is this not to distinguish between self-Righteousness which are but as filthy Raggs and the good that 's done by Divine help that hath a beauty and splendour of God's Righteousness with it Is this the construction you make of Christ's Satisfaction or being a Sacrifice to God that you must be cloathed upon all your Life time with your own filthy Raggs of self-Righteousness And then to cover over all these your Babylonish Brats with a pretence of Christ's Satisfaction paying your Debt for you imputation of his Righteousness deceitfully and feignedly applyed by you to your selves in your filthy Raggs whilst you have no share in it nor feel in you the Effect of his sufferings as if you were only to believe and apply and sin all your time you are far from the state of the unprofitable Servant that did all that he was Commanded You are daily breaking the Commands of God and Plead for it much more farther from the state of those whom Christ called no more Servants but Friends T. V. That God never doth nor will nor can pardon any sinner without satisfaction made to his offended Justice for their sins Reply But then in Contradiction to himself he saith I shall not concern my self to inquire what God could or might do if he pleased Why then doth he say he never will nor can and seem to lay such an Impossibility upon God in the case as if he could not freely Pardon whereas he could do whatsoever he pleased and certainly he could both please and satisfie himself And then I Query How is this Satisfaction made by Christ T. V. It depends upon him as the second Person in the Trinity pag. 54. Query Does it depend upon him as Man or as God and Man T. V. It was necessary that the Person that should make Satisfaction should be Man because none but a Creature could suffer But then he adds It were necessary he should be God othewise the sufferings and satisfaction would have been but finite Query What then were the Sufferings Infinite that the Wicked inflicted upon the Body of Christ seeing nothing but a Creature could suffer he saith and yet as a Creature could give no proportionable Satisfaction to Infinite Justice What Confusion is here For as God he could not Suffer nor Die as is confessed but God did strengthen the Manhood to bear up under such opressure of Wrath But where doth the Scripture say That Christ the second Person in the Trinity did suffer under infinite Wrath either as God or Man or both He should have produced his plain Scripture for Scripture we own and Christ's Satisfaction as rightly stated and what a most acceptable Sacrifice he was to the Father for All yea his Suffering as Man or in the Flesh without the Gates at Jerusalem was all acceptible to God his Soul was also made an Offering for sin and that he was a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World the Mystery Virtue and Effects of his Sufferings none knows but they that believe in his Name and receive the Righteousness of Faith But indeed the manner of T. V's stating the business I do not see that sense can be made of it whilst he makes it a Payment of a second Person distinct from God and yet not as a Creature for as such the Sufferings were finite as he faith that could not bear a proportionable Satisfaction to infinite Justice and then it being as God united that did bear up and strengthen the man under opressure of Wrath that made this Satisfaction as he hath stated it c. Obs. What amounts this to that God made a satisfaction to and paid himself either by inflicting infinite Wrath upon Christ as God which cannot be or else that he satisfied himself by the finite Suffering of Christ as man when as that which was finite could not satisfie infiniteness they say And as God-man can they say he was the subject of Wrath or vindictive Justice as their term is How these things should be reconciled I leave to the ingenious Readers to judge Answ. Yes still we know that God was ever satisfied and well-pleased in Christ Jesus and in all his Works and it was God that was in him reconciling the World
but for a few only for a select number the World of Believers c. as both T. D. and other Professors both Presbyterians and Independants both in Words and Writings and T.V. brings 1 Tim. 2.6 and mentions only gave himself a Ransom and leaves out the words for All pag. 56. And thus minces as if he had no mind to hear that Grace is free for All as well as himself but only for a few perhaps Presbyterians and such-like whom there is no reason or equallity for God to take such special notice and regard of more than others for their Spirits and Hearts are as perverse and corrupt as others if not more ridged and envious and their Garments of Self-Righteousness are as polluted ragged and filthy as others or worse Thus much they will acknowledge in their Prayers but perhaps they 'l take it ill that another should tell them of it Then Secondly The Power of Christ and his blessed Effects in his Death acceptable Sacrifice c. we own more than they for he gave himself to Redeem Man from Sin and Transgression and the servitude of it and his Blood purgeth the Conscience cleanseth from all sin his Flesh is given for the Life of the World that Man may come to rise out of sin and live again to God in perfect Righteousness God hath set him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins past through the forbearance of God Rom. 3.25 He doth not say for sins past present and to come and that all must be sinful and imperfect all their dayes and yet all forgiven God being satisfied in Christ for all whilst he is not satisfied in them but his Spirit daily grieved where as Christs Appearance was to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself and if it was to put sin away to cleanse man from it and not that he should say that only the Guilt is done away but not the Act and Pollution of Sin which is the gross corruption and false construction of Presbyterians and others And as to T.V. his wonder at W.P. his challenging any Person to give him one Scripture phrase which doth approach the Doctrine of Satisfaction But T.V. has deceitfully left out his following words viz. Considering to what degree it is stretched the degree whereto it is stretched by these Priests is mentioned before not that we do deny but really confess that Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death fulfilled his Father's Will and offered up a most satisfactory Sacrifice but not to pay God as otherwise being unable to save men he saith And further adds And for a Justification by an imputative Righteousness whilst not real it 's meerly an Imagination not a reality and therefore rejected otherwise that which is real which is the Righteousness of Faith really received and injoyed in the true and Living Faith is confessed and known to be justifying before God because there is no abiding in Christ's Love without keeping his Commandements I therefore saith he Caution thee in Love not longer to deceive thy self by the over-fond imbraces of Humane Apprehensions for Divine Mysteries but rather be informed that God hath bestowed a measure of his Grace on thee and me to shew us what is good that we may obey and do it which if thou diligently wilt observe thou shalt be led out of all unrighteousness and in thy obedience shalt thou receive Power to become a Son of God in which happy estate God only can be known by Men and they know themselves to be justified before him whom experimentally to know by Jesus Christ is Life Eternal So that the infinite God in his infinite Love Good Will Kindness Patience Forbearance Long-Suffering fully expressed declared and signified by Christ Jesus the Son of his Love and express Image of his Divine Substance not a separate Person from him and Gods good Pleasure and real Satisfaction in him and all for the regaining restoring redeeming and saving of lost man to himself out of the fallen estate out of sin and corruption and from Wrath to come this we know really own and confess in the Light and Life of the Son of God bestowed upon us which is that alone that can give the true knowledge of the blessed Effects of Gods Love in Christ and of the Righteousness of the true and Living Faith in his Name and Power as also of their true Peace and Satisfaction receiving the Attonement Reconciliation and union with God in Jesus Christ who is the Way Truth and Life to all that truly believe in him T. V. In the Scriptures he alleadgeth against Christ's Satisfaction W. P. Not that we do deny but really confess that Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death fulfilled his Fathers Will and offered up a most satisfactory Sacrifice Obs. This clears him from alleadging Scripture against Christ or what was really his satisfaction as he is falsely accused T.V. God proclaims himself to be gracious and merciful whereby be declares what he is in his Son whom he had before promised to give and in whom alone all Nations of the Earth that ever should obtain his favour were to be blessed Reply His giving his Son and his Favour and Blessedness in him proceeds from the Graciousness and Mercifulness of God How then does this agree with that of Impossibility freely to Pardon and with that of his being oblieged to take Vengeance upon all and yet ready to forgive and that he hath ingaged himself to do it pag. 60. Can this be deemed to be of the Nature of Debt full Payment c. by the rigour and punishment of Law Secondly If that it be in the Son of God alone in whom God declares what he is and in whom alone his Favour and Blessing is obtained then in him is the knowledge both of his Judgment and Mercy and if blessed in Christ it is not blessed out of Christ nor meerly for what he hath Suffered in the Flesh without being in him for we are accepted only in the Beloved as is confessed and God is well pleased with us only in Christ then not with us in sin And if so be God proclaims himself to be Gracious and Merciful in his Son how was God's infinite Wrath that sinners deserved inflicted upon him as a Person distinct from him Where does the Scripture say so Or were it good Doctrine to say that God so loved the World that he hated his only Son How then was he the Son of his Love who freely gave himself to bear the sins sorrow and burthen of all T.V. Pag. 62 63. I grant that God's Love of Benevolence or Electing Love is not the Effect of Christ's Satisfaction from whence it was that he sent his Son into the World for our Salvation but his Love of Complacency was the Effect of Christ's Satisfaction Matth. 3.17 Reply Where doth the Scriptures use these Expressions or this distinction of an Electing Love and
Complacing Love in God Is there any Love in God that is not well pleasing unto himself or that is not of his Good Will or Benevolence which is confest to be saving Or if this Love of Complacency so termed was the Effect of Christs Satisfaction and not the other then was it not in Being in God before But if you say his Love of Benevolence so called or Good Will was only intended for a few or a certain select number and for them only he received Satisfaction or was Pacified doth not your Doctrine herein render him partial and unequal in his wayes whereas he willeth not the Death of sinners but rather their Return that they may Live and God's Love Good Will Patience Long-suffering Forbearance and Goodness is towards all in the first place till men reject it and is manifest in Christ towards Mankind and evidently testified both in his Sufferings Dying for all men and giving himself a Ransom for all to be testified of in due time and that by his Righteousness the free Gift of God came upon all men It 's not said in Scripture that God's Love of Benevolence was to the Elect only or that Christ died for a few only or was given a Ransom for Believers only but for All though All do not accept of the Good Will of God towards them nor of the Offering or Price which would purchase them to God out of their sins and thraldom T. V. Whether is it any absurdity to say that God should be at the Charges of his own Satisfaction Job 33.24 I have found a Ransom Reply In that place cited he should have set down all the verse where it 's said He is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom or an Attonement So that it 's manifest that this Ransom was all from the Graciousness of God manifest in God's delivering Man from going down to the Pit after that Man is chastened with Pain vers 19 20. and his Flesh consumed under the sence of God's Judgments then a Ransom is found through God's Graciousness to him who delivers his Soul from going into the Pit that his Life shall see the Light v. 28. Lo all these things oftentimes worketh God with Man to bring back his Soul from the Pit to be inlightened with the Light of the Living vers 29 30. Surely Elihu knew more of God's dealing and of his inlightnings thereby than they do who put his Work a far off from them and oppose his Light within being neither willing to wait under his Corrections nor bear his Judgments till they feel his Graciousness and partake of a Ransom thereby from the Power of Sin Death and Hell and to tell of God's being at the Charges of his own Satisfaction how does that agree with the former Doctrine That he never will nor can Pardon without Satisfaction made c. If the Graciousness and Satisfaction was in himself before surely what was performed by Christ for man was an effect of God's Graciousness to bring man to himself and it 's without Controversie that all that is in God and all the Gifts and Benefits proceeding from him to man-wards as also all his Works are acceptable and well pleasing to himself but his Works man ought not to put a far off from himself since that those things which are for man's deliverance and preservations of his Soul out of the Pit God worketh with man and he hath wrought all our works in us Isa. 26. And as for Believing and Obeying his Precepts as a Concurring Cause of Remission T.V. calls this Rank Popery as importing Justification by Works Reply What was said in that case was sufficiently proved from Scriptute and not at all refuted by T. V. when upon man's Return to God forsaking his evil way and believing in Christ the Lord has promised Pardon not to turn away his face but to shew Mercy c. 2 Chron. 30.9 Isa. 55.7 Jer. 31.31 33 34. Joh. 3.16 Acts 10.34 This is no Popery at all to assert Scripture and to confess the receiving of Remission through Repentance and Justification through Faith and that God hath wrought all our works in us and this we confess to and truly own though unjustly we are accused for Popery And if Grace and Justice be very well consistent as is confess'd from Rom. 3.24 25 26. I ask how this consists with your sence of Vindictive Justice else where And the Lord saith I am a just God and a Saviour there is none beside me Isa. 45.21 So he that is a just God is a Saviour and in this was manifest the Love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might Live through him herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a Propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Now we knowing the Life and Power of Christ and having partaken both of the saving Vertue and blessed Effects of his Sufferings in the fellowship thereof in Spirit as also of the benefit of his Mediation and Intercession we must needs Confess him in all and the Love and Graciousness of God through all And whereas T. V. accuseth W. P. That his enumerating some of the Ends of Christ's mission into the World doth reach no higher then by his setting him forth as a perfect Example Reply Herein he hath wronged and belyed W.P. For in his Book pag. 9.16 17 18 19. W. P. brings several Scriptures both to prove God's Love and Graciousness in giving Christ as also the benefit of Christ to man for his Reconciliation Redemption through his Blood Salvation and Eternal Life through him which is higher or more then being a bare Example for hereby its evident that he was not only a perfect Living Example of Good to Man but a Minister and Giver of it as also the Worker and Author of mans Salvation As also W. P. in his 19. pag. Confesseth That Christ as being Attributed in his Doctrine Life Miracles Death and Sufferings to God as the Gift and Expression of his Eternall Love for the Salvation of men 1. In abolishing that other Covenant which consisted in External and shadowy Ordinances and that made none clean as concerning the Conscience 2dly In promulgating his Message of a most free and universal Tender of Life and Salvation unto all them that believe and follow him the Light in all his Righteousness the very end of his Appearance being to destroy the works of the Devil the which every man comes to experiment as he walks in a holy subjection to that measure of Light and Grace wherewith the Fulness hath enlightened him 3dly In seconding his Doctrines with Signs Miracles and a most innocent self-denying Life 4thly In Ratifying and Confirming all with great Love and holy Resignation by the offering up of his Body to be Crucified by wicked hands who is now ascended far above all
Righteous whilst such as if God's Righteousness or Workmanship were impure This Doctrine has led many in the way to Hell and Destruction But T.V. in 2 Cor. 5. should have read vers 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Which is a real change in that man that is in Christ from sin and transgression and not a Justification therein for the Spirit of God both discovers to man his sin and reproves him as a transgressor and one Guilty whilst therein and surely God does not accept of men as his own Righteousness and in Christ whilst his Spirit in them judges them to be both unrighteous and out of Christ for if he did that were to make God contradict himself and to speak quite contrary to his own Spirit which were very absurd and blasphemous to assert But had T.V. rightly minded and understood that of Rom. 8.1 2 3 4 he might have seen how contrary it is to his Doctrine before and himself therein confuted For 1st They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and it s to such only to whom there is no Condemnation therefore Justification and this is not a sinful imperfect or guilty state 2dly The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made such free from the Law of Sin and Death 3dly God sending his Son to condemn sin in the Flesh was not to look upon man Justified in the sinful state or whilst he walks after the Flesh. But 4thly That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in such who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and this doth absolutely confute T.V. and his Brethren And whereas for the proof of his Doctrine of Guilty Persons being the Righteousness of God he citeth Rom. 4.6 7. where it is said David described the blessedness of that man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works to which I say not without the Works of the True and Living Faith in Jesus nor yet without a subjection to the Law of Faith but without that the Works or Deeds of the Law of Works chap. 3.19 20 21 24 25 26 27 28. the Apostle did not exclude the Works Obedience or Righteousness of the true Faith from a justified state for if Paul had so done it had been contrary to James his Testimony who said Was not our Father Abraham justified by Works when he had offered up Isaac See Jam. 2. And Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness We say That Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness Rom. 4.3 9. which Faith was not without its own Works although it be not the Works of the Law as Circumcision and others that were Types or Signs wherein the Righteousness of Faith doth not consist which they that are in the uncircumcision as the Gentiles that were the ungodly spoken of Rom. 4.5 11. chap. 3.29 do receive through Faith in Christ and become really partakers thereof being Justified from all those things from which they could not be Justified by the Law of Moses And so such are Justified or made Just or truly so Accepted of God not in sin or ungodliness but as Redeemed out of it and Sanctified from it See 1 Cor. 6.11 And blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin This is no Proof for T. V. his sinful Doctrine for them whom the Lord doth bless and imputeth not Iniquity to are in the way of God and partakes of his Righteousness through Faith cannot feed upon an imagined Imputation or Justification in sin for in Psal. 32.2 David describeth the blessedness of such in these words Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no guile These words in whose Spirit there is no guile the Priests use to leave out in their talk of Imputation but as their Faith without Works or a real Obedience on the Creatures part is but a dead empty and feigned Faith So their laying a claim to and pretending a Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ whilst they are sinners and polluted pleading for Imperfection whilst here 't is but a false imagination of their own for though we confess that Justification is in the Righteousness of Christ by Faith in him and that this True and Living Faith and the Righteousness of it is reckoned to the true Believer yet we do not therefore grant that Sinners or Polluted Persons in that state are cloathed with this Righteousness nor that 't is imputed to them as theirs whilst they are out of it for they that have put on Christ are translated from sin and unrighteousness and so are made partakers of the Righteousness of Faith which T.V. saith is without us and so puts it a far off and yet cites Phil. 3.9 which plainly Contradicts his Doctrine for Paul having confessed Christ Jesus to be his Lord and suffered the loss of all things that he might win Christ it was that he might be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith that said he I may know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the Fellowship of his Suffering being made conformable to his Death vers 9 10. Mark his winning Christ being found in him his not having his own Righteousness but that of Faith extends to a real injoyment of Christ and his being in him and not to an imagined Imputation in sin but to his knowing Christ and the Power of his Resurrection Fellowship of his Suffering and Conformity to his Death this was a blessed estate which all you that plead for Sin and Imperfection and a Justification whilst you are out of Christ or strangers to him being both unacquainted with his Power and Fellowship of Suffering and never came ye so to be conformable to his Death you being yet alive in your sins And as to T. V. his Argument or Syllogism it proves nothing of his Doctrine of impure or guilty Persons being Justified by Imputation for Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ and his Righteousness we never denied but this Faith is not a dead Faith nor without its own Works for it purifieth the heart but so does not your Faith who plead for sin by which you apply Christ's Righteousness whilst you are out of it and it without you as T.V. confesseth pag. 17. How hath he and the rest of you that own this his Doctrine soothed and daubed People up in their sins flattering them with a Pretence of Imputation and Justification therein when your Faith is but dead and empty as a body without a Spirit is dead That we are Justified by Faith without Works By what Faith and without what Works is mentioned and manifest according to Scripture both
thereby being to his satisfaction how can men continuing in their sins truly plead they are fully acquitted at once without them and they onely in the implicite belief thereof received from the ridged Presbyters rest satisfied in their sins all their life time And where doth T. D. prove his Doctrine of Christ's being holy by a true inherent righteousness of the humane Nature pag. 25. what Scripture hath he for this or these Expressions was not his Righteousness from the Divine Nature and was it not Everlasting but is not that which is humane Finite And T. D. saying that the Socinians vomit the Quakers have now lickt up pag. 27. herein hath he spoken scornfully and falsly against us which will not at all tend to convince Socinians if they were as bad as rendred but to that they can answer him And his saying the Elect whilst Sinners in state where proves he this that the Elect are Sinners in state seeing the state of the Elect is a sanctified and chosen state out of the World and its wayes chosen in Christ through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth 2 Thes. 2.13 the impossibility of deceiving the Elect is signified Matth. 24.24 where the Calling and Election is made sure they shall never fall 2 Pet. 1.10 And that Christ was made surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 And came to do his Fathers Will Hebr. 10.7 And that his being a Surety is an Act of Grace pag. 28. This we confess and own more then you that contend for Sin for the Will of God is our Sanctification and the better Testament and Covenant which Christ is the Surety Mediator and Establisher of is that of Righteousness Life and Peace wherein Sins and Transgressions are done away and wherein true Believers live to God And as for T. D. his so often comparing God to a Creditor Christ to the Surety and Sinners as the Debtors telling of God being considered as a Creditor and as a private Person pag. 32. But where doth the Scripture so call him Reply He does not speak from a true sence of God or Christ or of Gods Covenant but a Notion he hath learned by Tradition and as to Sinners their case is worse then meerly Debtors they not onely owing obedience to God and Christ but are disobedient and rebellious as the case of Fellons Traytors and other Malefactors is worse then that of Debtors yet Christ is our Surety Mediator and Intercessor to make agreement between God and man and to deliver man from the Punishment and Wrath to come by delivering from Sin the cause of it and destroying the Devil the Author of Sin not for us still to live in Sin and daily both contract more Debt and incur tribulation and anguish upon our Souls Howbeit the Wayes of God extend beyond T. D's comparison his Wayes are not as man wayes nor his Thoughts as mans thoughts for as the Heaven is higher then the Earth so are my Thoughts higher then your thoughts saith the Lord whose graciousness also to poor deceived lost man for his restoration is infinitely beyond mans legality and exactions as the Lord said I will not execute the fierceness of mine Anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man the Holy One in the midst of thee Hosea 11.9 But is there not perfect obedience now for men to perform must they all live in Sin and Imperfection tearm of life and say all our Debts is paid and if all their Debts be paid why are they not out of Prison Are not all that are in Sin and Bondage of Corruption in Prison and would it be glad Tydings to tell them that though Christ has paid all their Debts and procured their release and ransomed them that they must not expect personal freedom out of Prison nor out of their Chains and Fetters so long as they lived here or if one should tell the Slaves in Turkey that they are ransomed and yet they must not expect personal freedom from their Vassalry and Slavery so long as they live here would this be glad tydings no sure but rather sad news and is just like these Presbyterians and Independants preaching to people and the tendence of their Gospel and pretence of Satisfaction Redemption Ransom c. whilst they hold none of them in Truth nor Righteousness nor in the same Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures of Truth and Testimonies of Christ or his Apostles T. D. pag. 29. He is satisfied and the debt paid too by his Intercession which being grounded upon his Satisfaction supposes it to be what it pretends full and compleat Observ. Here it is to be observed that notwithstanding this his Assertion of the Satisfaction both by payment and punishment being compleatly made and the debt fully paid yet he confesseth to Christ's Intercession but what does he ever live to make Intercession for if all be fully done paid satisfied at once by Christ's personal subjection and obedience must there ever be an intercession for that which is already so fully and dearly paid for as they reckon Christ hath done and God hath granted how will this hold consistent But then it appears it supposes it to be what it pretends full and compleat saith T. D. pag. 30. So here is now supposition and pretence put upon Christ's Intercession and Satisfaction what sorry shallow work is this but it appears But to proceed from one that hath followed his own conceptions notions weak judgement and humane understanding as also one that by his Logick and Traditional borrowed Notions and Doctrines goes about to make People to believe that from him that he hath no Scripture phrase for as that of God being a private person and other things And therefore like a Lawyer is fain to patch up his work as well as he can though in many things it be very inconsistant and repugnant to it self And whereas our confessing Christ both in Life and Suffering to be a perfect and real Example is so much struck at by these Priests and Professors we still withal confessing both to his Power and Living Effects through all and of all his Sufferings Afflictions Death and Life which we reverently esteem touching which I testifie in the Lord that if Christ be not really owned and confessed as he was a real Example both in Life Conversation and in Patient Suffering neither the Fellowship of his Suffering nor the Power thereof is truly known or experienced for they who would partake of the Benefit and blessed Effects of Christ's Death and Sufferings and yet will not own him for their Example shall never enjoy him therein seeing that Christ also hath suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps who did not sin neither was guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.21 22. Again Forasmuch then as Christ hath Suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath sufferred
in the Flesh hath ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the Will of God Chap. 4.1 2. Now the ceasing from Sin and following of Christ's steps in the harmless sinless state is the right use and end of his Suffering for man and his Example to man But then mark T. D's Doctrine as followeth what an example and subject of Wrath and Vindictive Justice so tearmed he renders Christ viz. T. D. pag. 36.4 Christ when he suffered was not innocent and when God required satisfaction of him it was due from him Christ was guilty of our sin when he suffered for it for guilt is but obligatio ad paenam an obligation to undergo punishment which Christ was under by contract Hebr. 7.22 Answ. It s no wonder that these Presbyterians and those of their affinity accuse all Christ's Followers of being Sinners and imperperfect all their life time since that T. D. one of their Leaders or Chieftains hath accused Christ not to be innocent when he suffered saying also Christ was guilty of our Sin when he suffered for it which how false and blasphemous this charge is against Christ I appeal to all sober and moderate Professors of Christianity who have any real esteem and reverence to the Name of Christ and his Glory and how contrary to plain Scripture-testimonies plentifully given of him as being a Lamb yea the Lamb of God which declared his innocency and purity being without sin or guile who offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit a Lamb without spot to God 1 Pet. 1.19 chap. 2.22 Hebr. 9.14 Isa. 53.7 Acts 8.32 Now his being a Lamb without spot and without blemish manifests him to be a perfect Offering and Sacrifice for Sin as also how guilt is more then barely an obligation to undergo punishment being always imputed to the Transgressors and disobedient for sin and not to Christ Rom. 3.19 Jam. 2.10 1 Cor. 11.27 Deut. 19.13 and 21.9 Exod. 34.7 Although t is true those chief Priests false Witnesses and Persecutors of Christ among the Jews and such as accused him for a Blaspemer they said also that he was guilty of death Mat. 26.65 66. Mark 14.64 whose example T. D. hath followed in accusing Christ of being guilty and not innocent But if T. D. should say he meant not that Christ was really or inherently or personally guilty of sin but by imputation and so not innocent but guilty of our sins by this we may perceive then what he means by imputation that on the one hand an innocent person is made guilty and is not innocent whilst he hath no sin nor guile or evil in him and so on the other hand by their own rule of contraries contraria contrariorum ratio persons are to be reckoned imputatively righteous and innocent in God's sight whilst there is neither righteousness nor innocency really in them which is both unreasonable unscriptural and apparently false It was a false imputation of the persecuting Jews and Tho. Danson to impute guilt of sin to Christ and to accuse him with not being innocent when no sin evil nor guilt was in him and it is as false an imputation of theirs to impute Christ's Righteousness to sinfull persons who are not in it nor partakes of it in them so it s neither God's imputation nor Christ's for had Abraham no righteousness really in him when his Faith was reckoned to him for righteousness where then was his Faith and the righteousness and obedience of it if in reallity he was not a partaker and an enjoyer thereof within from whence did his acts or works of real obedience proceed and flow if not from his living Faith and its righteousness within Surely they are of very mean capacities that cannot see T. D's absurdities ignorance in these matters And his vain imaginations and conceits about imputation further will appear and that the stress and drift of all his and his Brethrens work in these invented Doctrines â—s to keep people in their sins and imperfections all their dayes and so their work in rendring Christ the subject of guilt and so of vengeance that belongs to Devils and their rendring people the subjects of his Righteousness and Justification by imputation whilst unjust and sinful in themselves it all centers in their sinfull Doctrine for sin and imperfection term of life Pag. 37. As to T. D's telling of the Son of God's Incarnation the creation of his Body and Soul the parts of that nature he subsisted in c. To this I say if the Body and Soul of the Son of God were both Created doth not this render him a Fourth Person for Creation was in time which contradicts their Doctrine of Three distinct Increated Co-eternal Co-essential Persons in the Deity seeing that which was created was not so but herein whether doth not his and their ignorance of the only begotten of the Father and their denial of Christs Divinity plainly appear yea or nay where doth the Scripture say that his Soul was created for was not he the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Divine Substance But supposing the Soul of Christ was with the Body created in time I ask if from Eternity he was a Person distinct from God and his holy Spirit without either Soul or Body and where doth the Scripture speak of any Person without either Soul or Body le ts have plain Scripture Pag. 38. Whilst T. D. grants our actual freedom from sin and wrath depends on what Christ did and suffered as on and upon its means what becomes of his Doctrine and Pleas for sin and imperfection which they that continues in term of life cannot be truly said to be Actually freed from sin nor yet imputatively righteous in Gods sight whilst actually and really sinfull And if Christ's obedience was not intended to exempt us from a personal obedience to the Law as is confest in pag. 38. then it s contrary to the end of his Obedience to live in sin and disobedience term of life and for any to be reckoned imputatively righteous when actually disobedient Secondly And if we be only so far made righteous by Christs Obedience as unrighteous by our own disobedience how far is that have we not been actually unrighteous and shall we so far be made righteous by Christ's Righteousness Is not this more then your Doctrine of Imputation whilst personally sinfull amount to but your flat contradictions in these matters are evident Pag. 39. And though Christ is our Surety this doth not exempt us either from following him or walking in the Way of God but the more ingage us therein and herein we know acceptance in the Beloved of God in that holy conversation which his pure Law within enjoyns without obedience to which God is not well pleased nor satisfied on man's part though he was even well pleased and satisfied in his own Son both in his doing and suffering
make man righteous as his condemning Sin in the Flesh was that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit which righteousness fulfilled in us T. D. formerly said was to be meant in Christ's Person and not in ours by which likewise he hath both excluded man from the real enjoyment of Christ and his Righteousness and from that obedience and sanctity which he requires and answers the end of his coming and manifestation and by this means the Professors have made the Law and Commands and Teachings of God ineffectual as to the Creature whilst Christ only is made the subject of them and not man and this gives a liberty to people to live in sin all their time and to pervert Gods Laws and neglect the teachings of his Grace and vainly to excuse themselves in their disobedience like as T. D. hath done as where the Grace of God and his pure Law requires perfect obedience from us and that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and that we should live godly righteously and soberly in this present world now if any man should say that this was not intended to us but to Christ as if God did require him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to forsake all sin and live righteously when he never did nor could sin nor had the Prince of the world any thing in him this would be a strange put off and gross perversion of the Law of God to lay it all upon Christ and put it from themselves whereas Christ's Example is perfectly to be followed and where he is manifest and his Life brought forth in man there is a conformity to his Heavenly Image and not a living in sin nor to the lusts of the world but to the Will of God Pag. 42. But as to T. D's confessing to the Creditors cancelling the Bâ—nd letting the Debtor out of Prison giving a legal Discharge upon the Sureties payment of the Debt as he could have done upon his personal payment First Hereupon I do enquire if man that hath been in Prison and bondage under sin and corruption be let out of that Prison upon Christ's Obedience if he be then he must not remain in personal bondage all his life time from partaking of Christs Righteousness and Obedience for if he be released from the servitude of sin and be let out of that bondage then he is made free from it by the Law of the Spirit of Life to serve obey and walk in the Law of Righteousness by Faith and this is not an imagined fixion or conceit of Freedom or Justification whilst people are in real bondage which your Doctrine tends to keep people in Though it be true as amongst men that the Act of one Person may by contract or Act of Law become the Act of another as the Sureties payment of the Debt is accepted for the Debtor yet in this case it doth not reach the real and full intent of Christ's Coming Obedience and Righteousness which is to bring man into his Image and to fulfil the righteousness of the Law in man that he may follow his Steps and have the same Mind Spirit and Righteousness in him that was in Christ that he may walk after his Example in all purity and holiness of conversation Yet so far as releasement out of Prison is imported in the comparison or any thing tending to a real Deliverance of the Creature out of Sin and Corruption and so from Condemnation it may be admitted of so for then it contradicts their pleading for sin and imperfection term of life and surely God doth not legally declare any to be righteous whilst his Spirit and Law within reproves them for sin and declares them unrighteous for God and his Spirit do not contradict one another neither doth God declare people to be out of Prison whilst they are really in bondage to their sins lusts and vanities as the carnal Priests and Professors have falsly done but the Liberty which Christ proclaims to the Captives is really to be injoyed and received by every one that believes and receives him his Message and Testimony And this is not a false Imputation or an imagined Application of Righteousness and Freedom to People in their personal bondage of Sin and Corruption such as T. D. and such false Guides have led people into And that of Ezek. 18.20 the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father T.D. saith Imports Gods gracious recession from his right because of their more then ordinary Audacity in charging his Ways with inequality This is his false construction For God sheweth his Way to be equal vers 25 26 27. which is no recession from his right as his condemning such as turn from righteousness and Justifying and giving Life to such as turn from wickedness for both Graciousness Mercy and Judgement are his right and he rewardeth every man in Righteousness according to the Equality of his Wayes T. D. Nor doth God Justifie what is opposite to his pure Nature in Justifying a person who in himself is impure upon the righteousness of another imputed to him Reply Is not a person that is in himself impure opposite to God's pure Nature Surely purity and impurity are opposite and whilst the impure Person is rendred the subject of Justification upon another's righteousness imputed he then it seems is accounted pure by T. D. and not opposite to God's pure Nature though he be personally impure but surely God doth not then account him pure whilst in impurity for God cannot lye nor account as the Wicked and Hypocrites do who are pure in their own eyes though not washed from their filthiness and here we may see T. D. and his Brethrens false notion and conception of Imputation and Justification and how contrary it is to Justum facere which the word Justifie signifieth as by him before confest viz. to make Just when now he falsly renders an impure person not opposite to the pure Nature of God from his notion of Imputation and Justification in that state Pag. 44. Arg. 3. Sin came not by Imputation but by actual Transgression This is laid down as the Quakers To which T. D. Answers The sin of Adam was made his Posterities by Imputation Rom. 5.12 14. Adam was a common Root of Mankind by nature Reply Herein hath he perverted the Scripture which doth not say that the Sin of Adam was made his Posterities by Imputation neither doth he hereby prove his notion of Imputation of Righteousness to impure persons for sure he cannot prove that all Adam's Posterity were pure and sin not actually theirs but only imputed to them whilst not partakers of it this is contradictory and as false as their Imputation of Righteousness and Justification to men whilst unjust but the Scripture he mentions Rom. 5.12 saith As by one man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin so Death past upon all men for that all have sinned mark that for
until the Law Sin was in the World but Sin is not imputed where there is no Law verse 13. But now mark there is a Law transgressed whereby Sin and Transgression is imputed to them that are guilty of transgression as all in Adam in the earthly state and nature are and therefore on the other hand righteousness is not imputed to persons out of Christ or to such that are not partakers of his righteousness Pag. 45. Arg. 4. Quaker A man cannot be said to be actually sinfull and imputatively righteous he may as well be said to be actually damned and imputatively saved To which T. D. answereth Why not as well as to say a man is actually poor and not worth a groat but imputatively rich as having by Surety paid his debt of thousands Reply Here he hath plainly discovered their notion of Imputation and the falseness of it viz. that a man is imputatively righteous when actually sinfull or actually damned and yet imputatively saved what gross Corruption and Ignorance is this and what an improper Comparison doth he bring to back it let the wise judge and we do not admit of it in this case as that a man should be actually damned and imputatively saved or actually guilty and yet imputatively innocent but that such to whom righteousness and true riches are reckoned as being theirs have right therein and are partakers thereof and what he asserts herein by his simile is but a beging the question and taking that for granted which is still opposed as both unscriptural and unreasonable viz. men being actually damned and imputatively saved or actually guilty and imputatively innocent by the same reason he might as well say persons really Theeves are innocent or persons really and actual trecherous and rebellious are true and good Subjects or actually Devils and imputatively Saints But Christ being or becoming our Suerty was not to impute righteousness to men in transgression but to bring them into Covenant and Peace with God which stands in everlasting righteousness and not in sin for he was also a perfect example to be followed as well as profest and he is the Surety of the new Testament and Covenant which is spiritual and is manifested and enjoyed in his people And T. D's instance that nine men throughout a mutinous Army are actually guilty and yet imputatively innocent when the tenth man is admited to sustain the punishment due to the rest is as sottish and impertinent as the rest before for neither is a mutinous Army innocent nor is Christ any of the mutinous or guilty Persons And where proves T.D. that Imputation is an Act of Law and makes a Relative and not a real change I ask what Law it is an act of is it real or true or no if it be of God it must be true if not then false and it is a false imputation which is not real and contrary to the Apostles Doctrine who knew that Abraham's Faith was imputed or reckoned to him for righteousness and to that state to which there was no condemnation but justification which was a state of being walking in Christ and not a walking after the Flesh but after the Spirit and this they that experience and witness know a real change from death to life from condemnation to justification from sin to righteousness from the wayes of death and darkness to the wayes of Life Light and Peace Pag. 45. T. D. saith There is no need of inherent Righteousness for Justification buâ— yet there is need of it for other ends as to make us meet for Heaven Col. 1.12 Answ. It appears that he means by this inherent righteousness that of Sanctification or the work of Gods Spirit within which he afterwards calls personal righteousness and is there no need of this for Justification what darkness is here as if men were justified while in the unsanctified state this is like the rest of his sottish stuff quite contrary to the Apostles Doctrine which is But ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 And also what contradiction hath T. D. brought to himself herein whilst he hath confessed that the word Justifie signifieth to make Just as also he hath confessed that inherent Righteousness as he call it gives a fitness of enjoying the Heavenly Inheritance it lying in Communion with God pag. 46. then it follows that it gives a fitness for Justification whilst Justification and Sanctification are unseparable Companions and God loves his Image in his People freely saith his Brother T. V. Thus without Washing Clensing and Sanctification men are not Justified seeing the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and they that live in unrighteousness cannot be accepted of him It being not the Hearers of the Law but the Doers that shall be Justified Pag. 46. And now concerning good works that are acceptable to God which T. D. accuseth us with placing Merit for Justification or as a deserved cause thereof c. Concerning this particular that faithfull Servant of the Lord S. Fisher hath very fully answered T. D. and his Brethren and it hath been manifest how he did wrong and abuse S. Fisher about this point and how contrary to his intent he construed good works as being ours relating to self works or imperfect obedience which S. Fisher never intended but with Relation to those works which are perfect which Christ is the Author of which if Christs Works be not deserving whose are and to those which God hath wrought in us who having ordained Peace for us hath wrought all our works in us Isa. 26. now we never placed a merit upon self-acting nor upon mans best works in the faln sinfull and corrupt state so that there is not a correspondency betwixt us and the Papists in this particular as falsly we have been accused see S. Fisher's Rusticus ad Accademicos where the point is fully explained which you Presbyterians and Independants are never able to answer Where did we ever profess or hold forth that we were able or could fulfil the Law our selves or merit or deserve Salvation by any thing that we could do but we do profess and witness that through the Power of Christ we are enabled to faithfull and sincere obedience not of our selves knowing that good works how ever rejected and undervalued are ordained of God and without them your faith is dead as a body without a Spirit is And it is true enough as T. D. saith That you are averse to obedience through corruptions who plead for sin term of life and yet would cover over all your filthy raggs with a pretence of Christ's Righteousness Satisfaction Imputation Justification and Merit whilst you are yet in your sins and corruptions and in the weakness of your flesh but as under the Law of works wherein you are in no perfect obedience Pag. 47. Seeing the Law of Faith is acknowledged I ask how far it
extends whether to enjoyn to the perfect obedience of Faith yea or nay seeing sin and corruption is so prevalent amongst you and so contended for surely where the excercise of the true and living Faith is experienced there is obedience to the Law of it or else what doth it signifie whilst persons remain in disobedience Further T. D. confesseth that we have an immediate dependancy upon God in our operations John 15.5 without me ye can do nothing Siorsima me separate or apart from me It s well he hath at some time assented to the Truth but how doth this contradict the greatest part of his own and his Brethrens work elsewhere in their pleading for imperfect obedience and their imagined imputation of Righteousness and Justification to the unrighteous and unjust for those operations which have a relation to an immediate dependence upon God which he that is in Christ doth experience and bring forth do accord with the mind and will of God which is the Sanctification of those that believe and with that most holy Faith which purifies the heart and these are not imperfect nor to be slighted as undeserving according to the vain notions of Priests concerning Faith its works and inherent Righteousness as they term it Pag. 47. T. D.. Their dependancy upon Christ in all the good they do is as near and intimate as the Branches upon the Vine by vertue of their natural union in bearing Fruit. Answ. This is also a Truth that grants a perfect obedience in them that have such a near intimate dependency upon Christ as the Branch hath that grows upon the Vine by vertue of the natural Union thereof this also contradicts their pleading for imperfection and sin in all obedience and works which also shews that they do not flow nor spring from Christ the true Vine as also that they have not union with him nor are Branches of him and indeed how they have not immediate dependency upon God in Christ whilst they deny Immediate Teaching Revelation and Divine Inspiration to be attainable in those dayes But seeing without or apart or separate from Christ men can do nothing how then can they be any thing without him as righteous or acceptable or justified For men must be something in that Relation before they can do any thing acceptable and it is the Spirit and Power of Christ which sanctifieth and maketh just and bringeth into the true Obedience Works and Righteousness of Faith and to live by Faith as the Just doth Pag. 48. But Faith as a work is not opposed to nor excludes it self as T. D. saith because in one sence it is opposed to the deeds of the Law for true Faith as a Work is the Work of God which is not opposed to it self besides it being the work of God to believe in Christ this hath not relation to those deeds of the Law that the Jews wrought out of him and out of or besides that Faith wherein they fell short of the Righteousness of the true and living Faith and of the perfect Obedience or Righteousness of the Law Now seeing he confesseth pag. 49. to a righteousness bestowed upon men by Faith I ask if that man is not a partaker and enjoyer of that righteousness by Faith Surely Faith and its Righteousness are not separate nor divided Also he confesseth Faith in God through the Messias is called a walking humbly with God Micah 6.8 To this I say whilst he thus considereth Faith as such a walking were it not very gross nonsence and contradiction to say that it excludes it self as before or that those works or effects of Faith viz. Walking humbly with God were opposed to the Faith it self which is the Root thereof But this is even like T. Vincent's affirming Faith to be opposite not only to the works of the Law but to its own Works Pag. 51. I find T. D. upon James 2.24 doth not distinguish betwixt the Works of Faith and the Works of the Law and so talks like an ignorant blind Guide with his vain babling and perverting of the Scripture to exclude perfect Obedience and Perfection from the Believers And seeing he granteth that Justification imports the Absolution of Sinners and the Approbation of a Believer which he distinguisheth betwixt Then it is to be minded that a Believer that is approved of is absolved being Justified and what from if not from Sin and Transgression Otherwise Faith that stands but in a bare profession without a living work of purifying the heart overcoming the World c. is but a dead Faith as T. D. in fine confesseth And we are Justified by works as our Faith is made perfect by works James 2.22 but these are not the works of the Law but the Works of the Living Faith which manifesteth Fruit to God and demonstrates the nature of the Living Faith But his telling of a Sinner being Justified in the sight of God where doth the Scripture say so he quotes Rom 3.23 to prove it but it doth not but only that a man by Faith is Justified without the deeds of the Law which deeds of the Law a man may be Justified without and yet not a Sinner nor without the Obedience Works or Righteousness of the True and Living Faith which Purifieth the heart and Justifieth from all those things from which they could not be Justified by the Law of Moses And as to his saying That we are made free meritoriously by the Law of the Spirit in us from the Law of Sin and Death The word meritoriously he addeth But the freedom of the Law of the Spirit in us from the Law of Sin and Death we do confess and that it is the same Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ and the Saints according to the Apostles Doctrine the Freedom of which we testifie is of Everlasting worth for that it is not wrought by our selves but by Christ and his Law and Spirit Pag. 52. T. D. saith That we observe that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in the Persons of the Saints Indeed we do observe it believe it and experience it and do not wholy put it off from us to be fulfilled in the Person of Christ as T. D. and some of his Brethren have corruptly done though we do confess that the Righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in Christ's Person but not therefore to exclude it out of us since that he was a faithfull Example to be followed as well as a Captain and Leader to guide in all the Wayes of Peace and true Holiness Pag. 52. And as we do observe that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in the Persons of the Saints contrary to T. D. and his Brethrens observation and thereupon not only suppose but really assert a state of Freedom from Sin attainable in this life we do not place the Merit of Justification upon the Creatures imperfect obedience or works but origionally on the Spirit of Truth and its perfect work in which
either required a thing not attainable or as if being perfect as he is perfect were but the measure of our Duty and so to be put off till the Life to come wherein the Saints had not such Commands given to them seeing they are not capable of sinning in the Life to come but John said As is he so are we in this world 1 John 4.17 And herein they knew their Love made perfect and this is more then either the small resemblance of Children to their Parents which T. D. speaks of and beyond his imperfect sinfull state and Doctrine for the perfect Love which they had was in them a perfect resemblance of God who is Love verse 16. But this way of T. D. his slighting and diminishing and falsly interpreting the Commands of God which require such perfection only as the measure of our Duty is like his Brethren saying That a Child of God his not committing Sin is to be meant he doth not make a trade of Sin which indeed is a very easie way they have taken to pervert the Commands of God and to give ease and liberty to the Transgressors in their sins as if when a thing is absolutely required of them they should put it off with this It is meant only as but in part to be obeyed and so if they should deal thus with God and say Lord then requires us not to Steal or not to commit Adultery or not to Covet but we are to understand it as that we cannot altogether abstain from Stealing Adultery or Covetousness only we are not to make a trade of these things nor wholy make it our business to be imployed in them what acceptance do they think such a Plea would have before the Lord and what Answer would he make them to this their corruption and what resentment would such Doctrine have in the minds of sober people if they should preach them and give such meanings to the Scriptures and tell them that where Stealing and Adultery and worldly â—usts and Covetousness are forbidden that they are not to go to the extent of the Commands but only not make a trade or a common practice of Stealing or these things c for thus they have dealt with many of God's Commands enjoyning perfect Holiness and Righteousness but then they have an easie way to lay all upon Christ as having paid their debt and fulfilled the Righteousness of the Law in his Person in their stead so that they must not expect its fulfilling in their persons for where the Scripture speaks of its being fulfilled in us we are to understand by in us that it is in Christ's Person and this is the manner of their course from time to time both to shut Christ his Works and Righteousness out of People so much as in them lies 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin T. D. saith to this We may interpret it as he is born of God he doth not sin every Child of God is mixta persona Pag. 57. as our Law sayes of the King consists of an old and new nature and so his new nature is Principium quo the Principle from which he acts graciously and the old nature the Principle from which he acts sinfully Reply Here again he hath palpably perverted plain Scripture and contradicted the Apostle John as may be seen in that 1 John 3. For he that is born of God who doth neither commit sin nor can sin because he is born of God has put off the old nature and is not acted by that Principle which leads to act sinfully because he cannot sin and that gracious Principle in him hath overcome the sin and the nature of it and so to tell of his being mixta persona is T. D's gross blindness For first that which is born of God that overcomes the World is not mixt with sin nor with the old sinful nature Secondly He or whosoever is born of God whose Seed remains in him who abideth in Christ is not acted by that old sinful nature because he is born of God and abideth in Christ in whom is no sin neither is mans having divers parts as Body and Soul c. or his being liable or not liable to death any reason to shew that he that is born of God doth act sinfully from the old nature for the Bodies of the Saints were the Temples of the Holy Ghost and their Bodies were sanctified and so brought into subjection unto the Divine Spirit or Principle in them so as they might glorifie God in their bodies and in their spirits which were his Again T. D's meaning to that first of John 3.9 is That it may intend the manner of sinning so the 8 th verse seems to limit it be that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning the Comparison quoth he is not between the act simply for then it should have been said only for the Devil sinneth but from the beginning implies a Comparison between the manner of man's sin and the Devils in respect of which he is said to be of the Devil because he immitates his example who from the day he began never ceased to sin nor ever did one truly good action Observ. By this we may gather T. D's limitation put upon that of 1 John 3.9 and the Comparison he makes between not the act simply but the manner of mans sin and the Devils still taking it for granted that he that is born of God doth sin and acts sinfully from the old nature but not in that manner as he that is of the Devil who intimates his example so that his meaning and comparison seems to amount to this that he that is born of God doth sin but not always or not as the Devil sinneth he is somewhat better then the Devil in that he doth some good actions but the Devil doth none Reply Surely our opposer hath come off but very poorly in his arguing for the Devils work contrary both to the state and testimony of such as were born of God whom he hath here very meanly debased and sadly abused the Scriptures misrepresenting Gods Children whom he by his Eternal Power hath delivered from the power of Sin and Satan and given them a Heavenly place in Christ where the Devil cannot come and in whom the Prince of the World hath nothing nor his sinfull Ministers any part or interest whilst they plead against God's Promises holy Commands and against the very end and purpose of Christ's manifestation as T. D. and his Brethren have done wherein they have shown themselves to be Antichrist's Agents and Ministers and not the true Christ's Now touching Christ's Enlightning every man whose Light we affirm to be saving this is set down as an Error by T. D. he and his Brethren denying the Light of Christ in every man to be Saving in its own nature and property which we do affirm it to be but that he enlightens every man to
Presbyterian Teachers give such occasion by their light and vain contests confusions and contradictions to stir up the minds of people into such disputations about things which both they themselves are yet to seek in and by which they do the more darken the Enquirers J.O. should seriously review and examine his Bro. Vincent and T. Danson their contests in their late Pamphlets and see how lightly and sorrily they have contended and how they have contradicted themselves and whether such as they be fit Champions in the management of their Cause it concerns them to pause upon their work and examine it and compare their Books together for they have very palpably contradicted one another in divers passages of principle concernment and if several of them write Pamphlets again against the Quakers they had need to compare them very diligently for otherwise in all probability they will contradict one another as they have done as is the nature of Babel's Builders so to do Pag. 150. J. O. For the term of Satisfaction the right understanding of the word it self defends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration Answ. It appears J. O. and his Brethren's understanding of their Doctrine herein depends on notions of Law not yet taken into consideration and not on any living experience of the Gospel of Gods Divine Power wherein the Righteousness of Faith is revealed and the living and blessed effect of Christ's suffering and death and here they bring us their notions instead of Gospel so that what they tell us in this matter it is not from a saving knowledge or sence of the work of God in themselves but notions received by tradition from one another though they intermix many Scriptures among their notions and therefore would have all go for Gospel that they divulge but who knows the Power of God within and the fellowship of Christ's Sufferings will own the Scriptures of Truth as we do and not relie upon their uncertain notions about which so much of their confusion and contradiction amongst themselves doth appear that little of their work can certainly be laid hold on as with any confidence of their stability howbeit J. O. has in several things consented to the Truth in words which we do own though we do not believe that he or his Brethren do experience the Life and Power of what they profess as where J. O. Confesseth That God out of his infinite Goodness Grace and Love to mankind sent his only Son to save and deliver them viz. from their sins and that this Love was the same in the Father and Son and that Christ gave himself a Ransom for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.6 And gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Titus 2.14 And to finish Transgression and to make an end of Sin to make Reconciliation to bring in Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 And that God had provided himself a Lamb for a Sacrifice And God doth not pardons Sins freely without requiring Faith Repentance and Obedience in them that are pardoned and it is certain that the prescribing of Faith and Repentance in and unto Sinners antecedently to their participation of it c. We are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love c. Thus far J.O. Observ. In all which observe that J. O. has confessed unto the Truth much more then some of his Brethren For first to the infinite Goodness of God and his Love the same in Father and Son which declares the freeness of both towards man kind and their union therein for mans deliverance from Sin Death and the Curse Secondly That God sending his Son was to save and deliver from Sin to redeem us from all Iniquity It s well if J. O. truly believes what he sayes herein for his Brethren T. V. and T. D. have pleaded the contrary in their contending for Sin and Imperfection in all Believers term of Life Thirdly Christ giving himself a ransom for all to be testified of in due time instead of For All Presbyterians and Independants were wont to say it was but for a few that he died only for a certain select number wherein they have denied the universal Love and Grace of God in Christ to mankind Fourthly His coming to finish Transgression to make an end of Sins and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness is both beyond and contradicts their sinfull Doctrine for sin and imperfection and their notion of imputation of Christ's Righteousness to sinfull persons whilst they are not at all really partakers of Christ's Righteousness Holiness or Purity in them no more then Christ was guilty of sin when he knew no sin according to T. D's instance and erroneous Argument for a proportion in that case Fifthly And seeing that without Faith Repentance and Obedience on the Creature 's part God doth not pardon sins freely it appears it is not peoples bare application and belief of what Christ hath done and suffered for them that will free and acquit them without the knowledge and sence of his Power which works living Faith and Repentance and makes willing to obey the pure Law of God in the heart and the new Covenant in the inward parts for as J. O. confesseth it would altogether unbecome the holy God to pardon Sinners that continue so to live and die in their sins pag. 179. this is a truth which he and his Brethren had need to look to that they be not found guilty both in Principle and in Practice as namely both contending and preaching up a continuance in sin and imperfection all their dayes as T. D. and T. V. hath done and as it s said by many some of the Presbyterian Teachers do more of late revile the Quakers for holding Perfection and Freedom from Sin attainable in this life and to perswade people against the belief of such a state more then they have done heretofore wherein they work as if they would hasten people to Hell and Destruction and do but strengthen the hands of the Evil-Doers that they may not forsake their sins by promising them life as the false Prophets did and promising them pardon and peace on the account of all being fully paid and satisfied for them they living and dying in sin or telling them that perfection is not attainable till after death as namely till the Resurrection as T. D. and others of them have affirmed but they had little need to preach up such Doctrine for their Hearers and Followers are prone and apt enough to run on in sin and transgression without their Leaders tutering them in it they had not need to drive them on to Hell and Destruction the Devil can lead them fast enough thither who continue Sinners to live and die in their sins wherein it does not become the holy God to pardon them as is confessed And now touching your Explication Declaration and Confession
Their own mouths will Condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Lawes upon Mankind Yet such is the unlimited Nature of Divine Goodness and the exceeding Riches of God's Grace that he makes a large and free offer of Assistance to all those who are so senseable of their own infirmity as to beg it of him And can men then say the Command is impossible when he hath promised an assistance sutable to the nature of the Duty and infirmities of men pag. 23. Hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade us to the Practice of what he requires by the infinite discovery of his own Love the Death of his Son and the Promise of his Spirit and what then is wanting but only setting our selves with a serious Obedience to them to make his Commands not only not impossible but easie to us pag. 24. Thus far E.S. Obs. Here observe That E.S. hath Asserted Truth contrary to the Presbyterians and Independants 1st On the behalf of the Freeness and Sufficiency of God's Grace to Mankind for the Fulfilling or Obeying of God's Commands 2dly In his Asserting the Possibility of man's Obeying them thereby which amounts to Perfection and Freedom from Sin as being attainable by those Divine Helps that God affords man for that end 3dly In Reproving them that being sharply rebuked in their Consciences for sin do charge God with laying impossible Lawes on men which is no less than to charge him with Cruelty or Tyranny The CONCLUSION The sum of the Controversie between us and our present Opposers consists in these following Heads 1st FIrst I Affirm That their distinguishing the Deity or God-head into Three separate or finite Personalities and to reckon the Father Son and Holy Ghost not Infinite is Anti-scriptural Erroneous and Blasphemous 2dly That their Affirming Christ not to be Innocent but Guilty of our sins when he Suffered is Blasphemous and so their deeming that the Suffering he underwent was the same Revenge or Vengeance from God which they term Vindictive Justice that 's due to Wicked men Reprobate Angels and Devils this is false also and that upon that ground their stating the matter of Satisfaction to Divine Justice as otherwise It being impossible 〈◊〉 God to Pardon c. All this is to charge God with Injustice and Cruelty against his Innocent Son and is in the first place Blasphemous against Christ and in the next its Impious to the dishonour of both Father and Son 3dly Their Affirming Christ but to have died but for a few and not for all men and that his being a Propitiation or Sacrifice is but for some of all sorts of Jewes and Gentiles and not for the sins of the whole World is contrary to plain Scripture and repugnant to the free Grace and gift of God to all 4thly Their Affirming That Christ doth not enlighten every man with a spiritual saving Light but with a natural insufficient Light is an Erroneous Doctrine of Darkness and Antichrist and repugnant both to Christ and God's free Grace and Love in him to Mankind 5thly Their Affirming Perfection or freedom from sin not to be attainable in this Life and so their arguing for sin term of Life is Antichristian and of the Devil being against the Commands and Promises of God and against the Power and Coming of Christ and frustrates the end of his Suffering Sacrifice and Manifestation 6thly Their Notion of Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to impure sinful rebellious Persons who are not partakers of it in themselves nor yet in that Faith which purifies the heart and thereupon their reckoning them Righteous in God's account is a false Notion and none of God's nor Christ's Imputation but as Gross Erroneous and Impious as their imputing sin to Christ as not being Innocent when he Suffer'd but Guilty c. 7thly And their Affirming men to be Justified or in a Justified state by an Imputed Righteousness whilst actually sinful and unjust is as false and as great abomination as he that Justifieth the Wicked and he that Condemneth the Just or as they are that Condemn Christ as not being Innocent and Justifie sinful men or Hypocrites as being Righteous whose Faith is but empty dead and feigned 8thly So their Affirming men to be Imputatively Righteous when inherently and actually sinful or Imputatively saved when actually damned And all their Doctrines that tend to dishonour God or Christ and to give People ease and liberty in sin are to be denied as Erroneous Antichristian and Devillish And here in opposition to our Ridgid Opposers both those of Presbyterians and Independants concerned in these Doctrines I further Affirm as followeth First That the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit or the Father Son and Holy Ghost are One and inseparable no where in Scripture called Three separate Persons nor finite in Personalities though three in manifestation and so testified of as Three Witnesses for the Confirmation of the Testimony of the Gospel Secondly That Christ was Innocent and not Guilty when he Suffered he was Just that Suffered for the Unjust seeing he freely in the Love of God to man gave and offered himself by the Eternal Spirit a Lamb without spot to God so that he was an Offering well pleasing a sweet smelling savour and so a most acceptable and satisfactory Sacrifice to God for all men It being also possible for God and he doth Pardon men upon Repentance for Christ's sake without either accounting Christ not Innocent or Guilty of men's sins and without either exercising the same Rigour of Punishment Eternal Death or Vengeance upon him that 's due to Reprobates and Devils For it was in one and the same Love mutual Condescention and a Spirit of Compassion and Forgiveness both in the Father and in the Son towards Mankind that Christ was given a Ransom or in which as it 's said God sent his Son and Christ gave himself c. Thirdly That Christ gave himself a Ransom for all men and by the Grace of God tasted Death for every man being a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World to shew forth and give Testimony of God's Love and Grace towards all Mankind Fourthly That Christ inlightens every man that cometh into the World with a spiritual saving Light which they that believe in and follow do receive Life in him the true Light however Darkness oppose or deny it and they that reject or hate his Light are condemned and left without excuse before the Lord by it Fifthly That Perfection and freedom from sin is attainable in this Life to all that believe in the Power of Christ for that end what ever the Devil and his Ministers say to the contrary Sixthly That while Persons are impure or sinful not experiencing the Work of God in them nor the Living Faith in it's Operation nor Sanctification in them God doth not impute Christ's Righteousness to them nor reckon it theirs they being out
of it in the Unregenerate state not come to know the Image of God renewed in them for men are not imputedly Righteous when actually sinners as impiously hath been Asserted nor imputedly saved when actually damned no more then imputatively Saints while actually Devils Seventhly Neither doth God account men Justified or reckon them Righteous whilst they are really unjust being reproved and judged as Unrighteous by his Light and Spirit in them for God's accompts and reckonings are true and Righteous and he Just and True in all his wayes and his Judgments are Right and he can no more therein Contradict his own Light in Man or it's Judgment and Testimony than he can oppose or deny himself Eighthly The Unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men they that are or continue actually sinful and polluted are neither acquitted nor Righteous in God's account but must bear their Iniquity which will be their ruine unless they Return and be reconciled in their minds to the Light of Christ within which reproves them of sin and evil and so except men Repent and forsake their sins they shall surely perish they that neglect the great Salvation cannot escape Condemnation If I sin against thee then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine Iniquity Job 10.14 Psal. 32. God imputes sin to none but them in whom it is in being so he imputes nor Righteousness to any but them in whom it is as the blessed man to whom God imputeth not sin c. in his Spirit there is no guile Finally All that profess to be Ministers of the Gospel and Teachers of others ought to Preach or Teach nothing but what may make or tend to the Glory of God and Honour of Christ Jesus in the Exaltation of Truth and Righteousness in the Earth and all the Contrary as all sin and sinful Doctrines with all sin-pleasing and sinners-soothing Principles to be abhorred rejected and opposed by all professing Christianity that tender the Honour of Christ and desire the Exaltation of his Kingdom which stands in Righteousness T.V. his Contradictions W. Madox * Christ's Divinity owned * The Vnity of the Deity and Divinity of Christ Asserted * A poor Tryal * The Father the Word and the Spirit truly confessed by us according to the Scriptures but these Priests mis-calling them denyed * See our Opposers blasphemous Distinctions and Contradictions * W. M's Rayling * Presbyters vain prophane babling confusion and blaspphemous work * Contradictions * The Pit they have digged for others they are fallen into themselves Here you may see T.V. his invented un-scriptural riddle * Yet in Contradiction they other whiles state it as an Act of Law and Contract between Creditor and Surety depending on Christ as a second Person but in Contradiction again 't is as God-Man as their words are * Where then is his absolute Power and soveraignity so much profest Confusion and Distractions * For a life in sin is not God's terms * But J. Owen confesseth otherwise That God requireth Faith and Repentance in Sinners antecedently to their Participation of Pardon * This being God's Pleasure in both where do the Scripture call it his Vindicative Justice upon him as T. V 's words are which J. O. and T. D. call Vindictive Justice but by what Scripture we know not for the Scripture calls it the Chastizement of our Peace that was on him * The Souls that he hath made his Justice doth not with-hold pity from them to gain upon them Heb. 12.9 10 11. * It was Christ's Persecutors that charged or imputed Sin Guilt and Blasphemy to him and so such they are that impute Righteousness to wicked or sinful Persons T.V. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three Witnesses Page 14. Page 16. ‖ Here they deny the full satisfaction or plenary as they call it ‖ Here T. D. hath shot at us in the Devil's Bow as formerly he confessed he did ‖ But man in the faln state is worse then meerly a Debtor for he is a Malefactor guilty of high Offences and Crimes against the pure Law of God for which he must feel Justice in the Ministration of the Law and Sentence of death inwardly upon the Transgressor before he receive and enjoy the attonement ransom and peace with God ‖ Though God was alwayes well pleased and satisfied in Christ in his doing and Suffering and as he was a Sacrifice for Sin yet this is not enough for us to profess and believe without knowing the Work of Christ and Effect of his Sufferings and Righteousness within and his Spirit to make intercession c. Rom. 8. Phil. 3.9.10 Of Justication To Justifie what it is Of Perfection Of the Light within Of the Scriptures Of Baptism and the Lords Supper ‖ Rather Hireling at Sandwich Galat. 3.4 Chapters Of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.35 36 37 38. Pag. 156 157 and 160. Pag. 163. and 176. Pag. 178. and 180. ‖ But what a strange instance is that of J. O. that God cannot lye he cannot deny himself c. to prove that he cannot freely pardon sin c. pag. 178. as if the one were as much contrary to his nature as the other and yet upon Faith and Repentance which are his gifts he doth pardon his Creature man Note also that J. O. to the Reader saith of his Authors that many of them do expressly blame some of the School-men as Aquinus Durandus Biel Tartaretus for granting a possibility of pardon without satisfaction as opening a way to the Socinian error See here J. O's Authors great able learned defenders how they censure and contradict one another yet he would have men be wary how they censure them notwithstanding ‖ Who with his Brethren were fully manifested and confuted by Sam. Fisher in his Book stiled Rusticus c. never yet answered by them nor like to be ‖ For it was committed into the hands of the Father and was that day in Paradice ‖ Whether his Soul's travel and suffering under the burthen of Mans Transgression also even till he was in an Agony or his Body suffering under the violence of the wicked hands to death and the shedding of his Blood c. And why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27.46 implies a deep suffering for Sinners under a cloud of Affliction yet not the Infinite Wrath or Eternal Death that 's due to the Wicked who reject God's Love and good will that 's tendred in Chirst we desire all may have as good an esteem of Christ in his Sufferings as may be but methinks you Professors do ascribe very mean honor to Christ and his Sufferings who therein reckon him not innocent but guilty of your sins and therefore that he suffered the same Vengeance or Vindictive Justice due to Reprobate Angels and Devils is this the Dignity you confer upon Christ Oh Miserable ‖ For if but a