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
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
slay thou not for I will not justifie the wicked Whereon I ground this Argument That since God has prescribed an inoffensive life as that which only can give acceptance with him and on the contrary hath determined never to justifie the wicked then will it necessarily follow that unless this so much believ'd imputative Righteousness had that effectual influence as to regenerate and redeem the Soul from sin on which the malidiction lies he is as far to seek for justification as before for whilst a person is really guilty of a false matter I positively assert from the authority and force of this Scripture they cannot be in a state of Justification and as God will not justifie the Wicked so by the acknowledg'd reason of contraries the Just he will never condemn but they and they onely are the justified of God 2. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. It would very opportunely be observ'd that if its so great an abomination in men to justifie the Wicked and condemn the Just how much greater would it be in God which this Doctrine of Imputative Righteousnes necessarily does imply that so far disengages God from the person justified as that his guilt shall not condemn him nor his innocency justifie him but will not the abomination appear greatest of all when God shall be found condemning of the Just on purpose to justifie the Wicked and that he is there to compel or else no Salvation which is the tendency of their Doctrine Who imagine the Righteous and Merciful God to condemn and punish his Innocent Son that he having satisfied for our sins we might be justified whilst unsanctified by the imputation of his perfect Righteousness O why should this horrible thing be contended for by Christians 3. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of his Father the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die again when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive yet saith the House of Israel The Ways of the Lord are not equal Are not my Wayes equal If this was once equal it 's so still for Gods unchangeable and therefore I shall draw this Argument That the condemnation or justification of persons is not from the imputation of an others Righteousness but the actual performance and keeping of God's Righteous Statutes or Commandments otherwise God should forget to be equal Therefore how wickedly unequal are those who not from Scripture evidences but their dark conjectures and interpretations of obscure passages would frame a Doctrine so manifestly inconsistent with God's most pure and equal Nature making him to condemn the Righteous to death and justifie the wicked to life from the imputation of an others Righteousness a most unequal way indeed 4. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a Rock c. How very fruitful are the Scriptures of Truth in Testimonies against this absurd and dangerous Doctrine these words seem to import a two-fold Righteousness the first consists in Sacrifice the last in Obedience the one makes a talking the other a doing Christian I in short argue thus If none can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but they that do the Fathers Will then none are justified but they who do the Fathers Will because none can enter into the Kingdom but such as are justified since therefore there can be no admittance had without performing that Righteous Will and doing those Holy and perfect Sayings Alas to what value will an Imputative Righteousness amount when a poor Soul shall awake polluted in his sin by the hasty calls of death to make its appearance before the Judgment Seat where 't is impossible to justifie the wicked or that any should escape uncondemned but such as do the Will of God 5. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love From whence this Argument doth naturally arise If none are truly justified that abide not in Christ's love and that none abide in his love who keep not his Commandments then consequently none are justified but such as keep his Commandments Besides here is the most palpable opposition to an Imputative Righteousness that may be for Christ is so far from telling them of such a way of being justified as that he informs them the reason why he abode in his Fathers love was his obedience and is so far from telling them of their being justified whilst not abiding in his love by virtue of his obedience imputed unto them that unless they keep his Commands and obey for themselves they shall be so remote from an acceptance as wholly to be cast out in all which Christ is but our Example 6. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you We have almost here the very words but altogether the same matter which affords us thus much without being Christ's Friend there 's no being justified but unless we keep his Commandments it 's impossible we should be his Friends it therefore necessarily follows that except we keep his Commandments there is no being justified or in short thus If the way to be a Friend is to keep the Commandments then the way to be justified is to keep the Commandments because none can obtain the quality of a Friend and remain unjustified or be truly justified whilst an Enemy which he certainly is that keeps not his Commandments 7. For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified From whence how unanswerably may I observe Unless we become doers of that Law which Christ came not to destroy but as our Example to fulfil we can never be justified before God wherefore obedience is so absolutely necessary that short of it there can be no acceptance nor let any fancy that Christ hath so fulfill'd it for them as to exclude their obedience from being requisite to their acceptance but only as their Pattern For unless ye follow me saith Christ ye cannot be my Disciples and it is not only repugnant to Reason but in this place particularly refuted for if Christ had fulfil'd it on our behalf and we not enabled to follow his Example there would not be doers but one doer only of the Law justified before God In short if without obedience to the Righteous Law none can be justified then all the hearing of the Law with but the meer imputation of anothers Righteousness whilst