and yet impossible for him unless the Debt be fully satisfied 2. That the finite and impotent Creature is more capable of extending Mercy and Forgiveness than the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator 3. That God so loved the World he gave his onely Son to save it and yet that God stood off in high displeasure and Christ gave himself to God as a compleat satisfaction to his offended Justice with many more such like gross Consequences that might be drawn Refuted from right Reason But if we should grant a Scripture-silence as to the necessity of Christ's satisfying his Fathers Justice yet so manifest would be the Contradictions and foul the Repugnances to right Reason that who had not vail'd his understanding with the dark suggestions of unwarrantable Tradition or contracted his Judgment to the implicit apprehensions of some over-valued acquaintance might with great facility discriminate to a full resolve in this point for admitting God to be a Creditor or he to whom the Debt should be paid and Christ he that satisfies or payes it on the behalf of man the Debtor this question will arise Whether he paid Debt as God Man or both to use their own tearms Not as God 1. In that it divides the Unity of the God-head by two distinct Acts of being Offended and not Offended of condemning Justice and redeeâ—â—â—â— Mercy of requiring a satisfaction and then paying of it 2. Because if Christ payes the Debt as God then the Father and the Spirit being God they also pay the Debt 3. Since God is to be satisfied and that Christ is God he consequently is to be satisfied and who shall satisfie his infinite Justice 4. But if Christ has satisfied God the Father Christ being also God 't will follow then that he has satisfied himself which can't be 5. But since God the Father was once to be satisfied and that it 's impossible he should do it himself nor yet the Son or Spirit because the same God it naturally follows that the Debt remains unpaid and these Satisfactionists thus far are still at a loss Not as Man 6. The Justice offended being infinite his satisfaction ought to bear a proportion therewith which Jesus Christ as Man could never pay he being finite and from a finite cause could not proceed an infinite effect for so man may be said to bring forth God since nothing below the Divinity it self can rightly be stiled Infinite Not as God and Man 7. For where two mediums or middle Propositions are singly inconsistent with the nature of the end for which they were at first propounded their conjunction rather does augment than lessen the difficulty of its accomplishment and this I am perswaded must be obvious to every unbyas'd understanding But admitting one of these three mediums possible for the payment of an infinite Debt yet pray observe the most unworthy and ridiculous consequences that unavoidably will attend the impossibility of Gods pardoning sinners without a satisfaction Consequences Irreligious and Irrational 1. That it 's unlawful and impossible for God Almighty to be Gracious and Merciful or to pardon Transgressors then which what 's more unworthy of God 2. That God was inevitably compel'd to this way of saving men the highest affront to his incontroleable Nature 3. That it was unworthy of God to pardon but not to inflict punishment on the Innocent or require a satisfaction where there was nothing due 4. It doth not onely disacknowledge the true Virtue and real Intent of Christ's life and death but intirely deprives God of that praise which is owing to his greatest love and goodness 5. It represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our Redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchas'd that Redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the Debt is not hereby absolv'd or forgiven but transfer'd only and by consequence we are no better provided for Salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father 8. It no way renders men beholding or in the least oblieg'd to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the last farthing so that the acknowledgments are peculiarly the Sons which destroys the whole current of Scripture-Testimony for his good will towards men O the infamous portraiture this Doctrine draws of the infinite Goodness Is this your retribution O injurious Satisfactionists 9. That God's Justice is satisfied for sins past present and to come whereby God and Christ have lost both their power of injoyning Godliness and prerogative of punishing Disobedience for what is once paid is not revokeable and if punishment should arrest any for their Debts it either argues a breach on God or Christs part or else that it has not been sufficiently solv'd and the penalty compleatly sustain'd by an other forgetting that every one must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the body Yea every one must give an account of himself to God But many more are the gross Absurdities and Blasphemies that are the genuine Fruits of this so confidently believed Doctrine of Satisfaction A Caution Let me advise nay warn thee Reader by no means to admit an entertainment of this Principle by whomsoever recommended since it does not only divest the glorious God of his sovereign Power both to pardon and punish but as certainly insinuates a licentiousness at least a liberty that unbecomes the nature of that antient Gospel once preached among the Primitive Saints and that from an apprehension of a satisfaction once paid for all Whereas I must tell thee That unless thou seriously repent and no more grieve God's Holy Spirit placed in thy inmost Parts but art thereby taught to deny all ungodliness and lead into all Righteousness At the Tribunal of the Great Judge thy Plea shall prove invalid and thou receive they reward without respect to any other thing than the Deeds done in the Body Be not deceived God will not be mocked such as thou sowest such shalt thou reap which leads me to the consideration of my third Head viz. Justification by an Imputative Righteousness The Justification of impure Persons by an imputative Righteousness refuted from Scripture THat there is no other way for sinners to be justified in the sight of God than by the imputation of that Righteousness Christ long since performed Personally and that Sanctification is consequential not antecedent 1. Keep thee far from a false matter and the Innocent and Righteous
Person are three Persons or Gods and from three they will increase to nine and so ad infinitum 4. But if they shall deny the three Persons or Subsistencies to be infinite for so there would unavoidably be three Gods it will follow that they must be finite and so the absurdity is not abated from what it was for that of one substance having three subsistences is not greater then that an infinite Being should have three finite modes of subsisting But though that mode which is finite can't answer to a substance that 's infinit yet to try if we can make their Principle to approach common sense Let 's conceive that three persons which may be finite separately make up an infinite conjunctly however this will follow that they are no more incommunicable or separate nor properly subsistences but a subsistance for the infinite Substance can't find a bottom or substance in any one or two therefore joyntly And here I am also willing to over-look finiteness in the Father Son and Spirit which this Doctrine must suppose 5. Again if these three distinct Persons are one with some one thing as they say they are with the God-head then are not they incommunicable among themselves but so much the contrary as to be one in the place of another for if that the only God is the Father and Christ be that only God then is Christ the Father So if that one God be the Son and the Spirit that one God then is the Spirit the Son and so round Nor is it possible to stop or that it should be other wise since if the Divine Nature be inseparable from the three Persons or communicated to each and each Person have the whole Divine Nature then is the Son in the Father and the Spirit in the Son unless that the God-head be as incommunicable to the Persons as they are reported to be amongst themselves or that the three Persons have distinctly allotted them such a proportion of the Divine Nature as is not communicable to each other which is a like ridiculous and shameful Much more might be said to manifest the gross contradiction of this Trinitarian Doctrine as vulgarly receiv'd but I must be brief Information and Caution Before I shall conclude this Head it 's requisite I should inform the Reader concerning it's Original thou may'st assure thy self it 's not from the Scriptures nor Reason since so expresly repugnant although all Broachers of their own Inventions strongly endeavour to reconcile them with their Holy Record Know then my Friend 't was born above three hundred years after the Antient Gospel was declared and that through the nice distinctions and too daring curiosity of the Bishop of Alexandria who being opposed by Arius their Zeal so reciprocally blew the fire of Contention Animosity and Persecution till at last they sacrific'd each other to their mutual revenge Thus it was conceiv'd in ignorance brought forth and maintain'd by cruelty for though he that was strongest impos'd his Opinion persecuting the contrary yet the Scale turning on the Trinitarian side it has there continued through all the Romish Generations and notwithstanding it hath obtain'd the name of Athanatian from Athanatius an opiniated man witness his carriage towards Constantine the Emperor because suppos'd to have been most concern'd in the framing that Creed in which this Doctrine is asserted yet have I never seen one Copy void of a suspition rather to have been the results of Popish School-men which I could render more perspicuous did not brevity necessitate me to an omission Be therefore caution'd Reader not to imbrace the determinations of prejudic'd Councils for Evangelical Doctrine to whom the Scriptures bear no certain testimony neither was believ'd by the Primitive Saints or thus stated by any I have read in the first second or third Centuries particularly Ireneus Justin Martyr Tertullian Origen Theophilact with many others who appear wholly forreign to the matter in controversie But seeing that private Spirits and those none of the most ingenious have been the Parents and Guardians of this so generally receiv'd Doctrine let the time pass suffice and be admonish'd to apply thy mind unto that Light and Grace which brings Salvation that by obedience thereunto those mists Tradition hath cast before thy eyes may be expel'd and thou receive a certain knowledge of that God whom to know is Life Eternal not to be a divided but ONE pure intire and eternal Being who in the fulness of time sent forth his Son as the true Light which enlightneth every man that whosoever follow'd him the Light might be translated from the dark Notions and vain Conversations of men to this Holy Light in which onely sound Judgment and eternal Life are obtainable who so many hundred years since in Person testified the virtue of it and has communicated unto all such a proportion as may enable them to follow his Example The Vulgar Doctrine of Satisfaction being dependent on the Second Person of the imagin'd Trinity refuted from Scripture THat man having transgress'd the Righteous Law of God and so expos'd to the penalty of eternal Wrath it 's altogether impossible for God to remit or forgive without a Plenary satisfaction and that there was no other way by which God could obtain satisfaction or save men than by inflicting the penalty of infinite wrath and vengeance on Jesus Christ the Second Person of the Trinity who for sins past present and to come hath wholly born and paid it whether for all or but some to the offended infinite justice of his Father 1. And the Lord passed by before him Moses and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin From whence I shall draw this Position that since God has proclaim'd himself a Gracious Merciful and forgiving God it 's not inconsistent with his Nature to remit without any other consideration than his own Love otherwise he could not justly come under the imputation of so many gracious Attributes with whom it is impossible to pardon and necessary to exact the payment of the utmost farthing 2. For if ye turn again to the Lord the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you Where how natural is it to observe that God's remission is grounded on their repentance and not that it 's impossible for God to pardon without a Plenary satisfaction since the possibility nay certainty of the contrary viz. his Grace and Mercy is the great Motive or Reason of that loving invitation to return 3. They hardened their Necks and hearkned not to thy Commandments but thou art a God ready to pardon gracious and merciful Can the honest hearted Reader conceive that God should be thus mercifully quallified whilst executing the rigor of the Law transgrest or not acquitting without the Debt be paid him by another I suppose not 4. Let the wicked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Come let the unprejudiced judge if this Scripture-Doctrine is not very remote from saying his Nature cannot forgive sin therefore let Christ pay him full satisfaction or he will certainly be avenged which is the substance of that strange Opinion 5. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel I will put my Law in their inward Parts I will forgive their iniquity I will remember their sin no more Here is God's meer Grace asserted against the pretended necessity of a satisfaction to procure his Remission And this Paul acknowledgeth to be the dispensation of the Gospel in his eight Chapter to the Hebrews So that this New Doctrine doth not only contradict the Nature and Design of the second Covenant but seems in short to discharge God both from his Mercy and Omnipotence 6. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Can there be a more express passage to clear not only the possibility but real inclinations in God to pardon sin and not retain his anger for ever since the Prophet seems to challenge all other Gods to try their excellency by his God herein describing the supremacy of his Power and superexcellency of his Nature that he pardoneth iniquity and retaineth not his anger for ever so that if the Satisfactionists should ask the Question Who is a God like unto ours that cannot pardon iniquity nor pass by transgression but retain his anger until some-body make him satisfaction I answer Many amongst the harsh and severe Rulers of the Nations but as for my God he is exalted above them all upon the Throne of his Mercy who pardoneth iniquity and retaineth not his anger for ever but will have compassion upon us 7. And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Where nothing can be more obvious than that which is forgiven is not paid And if it is our duty to forgive without a satisfaction received and that God is to forgive us as we forgive them then is a satisfaction totally excluded Christ further paraphrases upon that part of his Prayer v. 14. For if ye forgive their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you Where he as well argues the equity of Gods forgiving them from their forgiving others as he encourages them to forgive others from the example of God's Mercy in forgiving them which is more amply exprest in chap. 18. where the Kingdom of Heaven that consists in Righteousness is represented by a King Who upon his Debtors Petition had compassion and forgave him but the same treating his fellow Servant without the least forbearance the King condemned his unrighteousness and delivered him over to the Tormentors But how had this been a fault in the Servant if his Kings Mercy had not been proposed for his Example How most unworthy therefore is it of God and blasphemous may I justly tearm it to be in any's daring to assert that forgiveness impossible to God which is not only possible but enjoyn'd to men 8. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life By which it appears that God's Love is not the effect of Christ's satisfaction but Christ is the proper Gift and Effect of Gods Love 9. To him gave all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins So that Remission came by believing his Testimony and obeying his Precepts and not by a pretended satisfaction 10. If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all Which evidently declares it to be God's Act of free Love otherwise if he must be paid he should be at the charge of his own satisfaction for he delivered up the Son 11. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministry of Reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them How undeniably apparent is it that God is so far from standing off in high displeasure and upon his tearms contracting with his Son for a satisfaction as being otherwise uncapable to be reconciled that he became himself the Reconciler by Christ and afterwards by the Apostles his Ambassadors to whom was committed the Ministry of Reconciliation 12. In whom we have redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Now what relation satisfaction has to forgiveness of sins or how any can construe Grace to be Justice the meanest understanding may determine 13. But the God of all Grace who hath called us unto his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus He does not say that God's Justice in consideration of Christ's Satisfaction acquitted us from sins past present and to come and therefore hath called us to his eternal Glory but from his Grace 14. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Which plainly attributes Christ in his Doctrine Life Miracles Death and Sufferings to God as the Gift and Expression of his Eternal 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 2. In promulgating his message of a most free and universal tender of Life and Salvation unto all that believed and followed him the Light in all his Righteousness the very end of his appearance being to destroy the works of the Devil and which every man only comes to experiment as he walks in a holy subjection to that measure of Light and Grace wherewith the fulness hath enlightned him 3. In seconding his Doctrines with Signs Miracles and a most innocent-self-denying-life 4. 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 Heavens and is thereby become a most compleat Captain and perfect Example So that I can by no means conclude but openly declare that the Scriptures of Truth are not onely silent in reference to this Doctrine of Satisfaction but that it 's altogether inconsistent with the Dignity of God and very repugnant to the Conditions Nature and Tendency of the second Covenant concerning which their Testimony is so clear The Absurdities that unavoidably follow the Comparison of this Doctrine with the sence of Scripture 1. THat God is gracious to forgive