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A65863 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 ... cast upon the ... Quakers ... 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. ... ; as also, a short review of several passages of Edward Stillingfleet's ... in his discourse of the sufferings of Christ's and sermon preached before the King, wherein he flatly contradicts the said opposers. Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723. 1669 (1669) Wing W1925; ESTC R19836 166,703 202

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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 B●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
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
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 ●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
the benefit whereof they only receive who believe in and obey him in his Light within and to such only he is the Author of Eternal Salvation as do obey him though the free proffers of Gods Love in him towards all mankind God commended his Love to us in that whilst we were Sinners Christ died So that we do faithfully acknowledge the Love and Goodness of God in Christ and would not at all have it diminished or suspected nor yet have Christ's Offices Works or end of his coming brought into question however we do oppose mens confusions and misapprehensions concerning God Christ's Righteousness Faith c. which none rightly know or apprehend but they who are led by the Spirit of God And now touching Justification by Imputed Righteousness where it is known in reallity we never denied or opposed seeing that where God imputes or reckons righteousness as he did to Abraham and still doth to his Seed of Faith that hath a real sence and enjoyment of it as every one hath that is in the exercise of the true and living Faith But we do still oppose and deny the vain Conceits and Imaginations of the Presbyterians Independants and all of their affinity touching their false Imputation and Justification to sinful and wicked men whilst such which he that justifieth is abomination to the Lord as he is that condemneth the Just. Pag. 39. But whilst T. D. grants that the word Justifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew Hitzdik signifies Justum facere By this he hath contradicted himself and much of his Brethrens work for Persons being justified whilst the Subjects of Sin and disobedience for if 〈◊〉 Justifie be to make Just then t is a real work effected by the Spirit of God Sanctification and Justification being inseparable Companions as T. Vincent hath confessed which is not their imagined Justification nor pronouncing men righteous whilst they are really unrighteous for whilst such the Spirit of God doth both condemn and accuse and not justifie them in any thing contrary to its own nature neither is it truly said that men are made Just while they continue unjust and Sinners Secondly if the word Impute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifie to cast account and the Hebrew Chashab signifies to think imagine and reason c. as T. D. saith Then first if it hath relation to Gods imputing righteousness to the Believer the account he casts therein must needs be true for he doth not account wicked men righteous Secondly If Impute signifieth to think imagine and reason as to imagining it cannot have relation to God for his Account is beyond Imaginations and his thoughts above mans thoughts and then it is not safe nor true in man to depend upon his own thinking or imagining or imputation for where God accounts a man righteous his Spirit doth evidence it beyond thoughts or imaginations for many imagine and think themselves righteous when they are unrighteous as there is a Generation that is pure in their own eyes yet are not clensed from their filthiness and when Christ's Righteousness is esteemed any ones it is not without the works of her own as it is falsly asserted pag. 39. no more then Abraham's Faith was without its own works or obedience Pag. 40. T. D. Argues first from the proportion which our justification by Christ's Righteousness bears to our condemnation by Adam 's sin but our condemnation was by imputation of Adam 's sin therefore our Justification is by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness Rom. 5.19 Reply This Condemnation that is come upon all men is because all have sinned and partaken of the fall being in Adam in the Earthly state really bearing his Image and this is not a thinking or imagining a condemnation from or for an imputation of Adam's sin according to their notion of it but really a partaking of the disodience of one upon all every man shall die for his own iniquity the Soul that sinneth it shall die c. And if our Justification by Christ's Righteousness bears a proportion to our Condemnation then must we as really partake of Christ's Righteousness being converted as we have of sin being unconverted and this is not a thinking or imagining our selves righteous but a true enjoyment and bearing his Image and being conformable to it as really as we have born and been conformable to the Image of the Earthly 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. T. D. Argues secondly from the proportion of our being made righteous bears to Christ being made sin but Christ was made sin by imputation therefore so are we made righteous 2 Cor. 5. ult for he was made sin for us who knew no sin i. e. by an experimental knowledge of its operation in himself he did no sin 1 Pet. 2.21 that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Reply Here T. D. hath but brought over his old Arguments long since answered and confuted by that Servant of the Lord S. Fisher as may be seen at large in his Book Rusticus ad Acadaemicos which T. D. J. O. and their Brethren could never answer this I mention that people may perceive his matter to be neither new nor more profound then it was many years ago when it was confuted by Truth And if our being made the Righteousness of Christ bear●● proportion to his being made to be sin for us when he knew no sin by its operation in himself nor did sin then it follows by this proportion that we are made or rather thought or imagined to be the Righteousness of God in Christ whilst we neither knew his Righteousness nor experienced his work in our selves nor did righteousness which is altogether false and contrary to the Apostles Doctrine and intent seeing that it is Christ in whom is no sin that we are made Gods Righteousness having experienced the new Creatures state in Christ which in him is created unto good works which God hath ordained we should walk in them 2 Cor. 5.17 18. Ephes. 2.10 and this is more then thoughts or imaginations of being righteous or in Christ for it is in truth and reallity which admits not of your imagined applications or claiming an interest in that which you are out of and which is none of yours in the true enjoyment And if the word Impute hath relation to Justification and Justifie signifie Justum facere then W. P's definition thereof is true being that which expresseth what is personally enjoyed and not imagined and this was no Cavil as Tho. Danson falsly saith page 41. T. D. God admits of what Christ did on our behalf as if it were our Personal Act pag. 41. Reply This is his apprehension of the Sureties payment of the Debt as appears before which is a very easie put off to evade personal or real and perfect obedience on the Creatures part but it will not be so accepted of God as the end of Christ's Obedience seeing that it was to
Justification is within and the Mystery of Faith is held in a pure Conscience and the Conscience must be within must it not Reader And so here thou mayst see how these Presbyterians and Independants have erred from the Apostles Doctrine And in Rom. 5. and being Justified by Faith by whom we have access to God by Faith and Justified by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 2. And the Apostle saith I live by the Faith of the Son of God and the Just lives by Faith by grace you are saved through Faith Eph. 2.8 Luk. 2.5 thy Faith hath saved thee And do not the Presbyterians and Independants deny Christ's Doctrine who deny Perfection both the Doctrine of God and the Command of Jesus Christ and the Ministry of Christ Jesus and makes void all the Apostles Exhortation For God said to Abraham Walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17. And do they not deny the way of God which is perfect Psal. 18.30 And the Law of the Lord is perfect and Christ saith Every one that is perfect shall be as he is And be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5. And Noah was a perfect man Gen. 6. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord He hath made my way perfect 2 Sam. 20. Job was a perfect man and one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 God will not cast away the perfect man Now do you not say there is no Perfection Do you not give the Scripture the lye God made my way perfect Psal. 18. Mark the perfect man Psal. 37. And the Wicked may shoot at the perfect Psal. 64. And are not you them that shoot at the perfect with your dirty Arrows And Christ prayed That they may be perfect in one Joh. 17. Is not Christ's Prayer to be fulfilled or did he pray in vain Will you deny his Prayer you vain men Is not Christ's Prayers available The Apostle said He spoke wisdom among them that were perfect ye false Ministers say there are none perfect God comforts his People and Ministers and sayes His strength is made perfect in their weakness Herein is encouragement to Perfection by God's Ministers Be perfect be of good comfort but you say none can be perfect and so you are miserable Comforters And the Work of the Ministry Eph. 4. was to bring People to the knowledge of God to a perfect man and to the measure and stature of the fulness of Christ And are not you false Ministers and evil workers who say there is no Perfection you cannot bring them it seems to a perfect man you cannot bring them to the measure of the stature of Christ but runs up and down and fetches all the weaknesses of the Saints and applies them to People to hold up Imperfection to them as Paul Peter John and some others 2 Cor. 13. We wish your Perfection and Heb. 6. let us go on to Perfection And Col. 2. the bond of Perfectness So is it not clear here whose Ministers you are neither according to God nor Christ nor according to the Scriptures nor according to the Prophets nor Apostles By one Offering he hath Perfected for ever them that are Sanctified And what Hee is this but Christ Jesus And now it 's clear That you deny this Faith that Sanctifies and that you deny this one Offering mark for ever them that are Sanctified And so it 's clear That you deny the one Offering of Christ Jesus without the Gates of Jerusalem and sayes That none are perfect and no Perfection here You may as well say there is no Faith here And you that say also there is no Overcoming here you may as well deny Belief here for he that believes is born of God and he that is born of God overcomes the World and greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World So it is manifest That you have not this greater Birth in you to overcome the World and here you stand against all the Believers and all the houshold of Faith which Faith gives Victory And you say there is no Victory here And so what can you cry up but sin and Bawdy-houses And you would rather have your People go into Bawdy-houses then to go to the houshold of Faith which preaches down Sin and Imperfection For God is perfect his Way is perfect and he bids be perfect And the Ministers was to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus see Col. And you Preach up Imperfection for term of Life so Ministers of Satan for the Devil made man imperfect Christ makes them perfect and God made them perfect and said Be perfect So are you not all the blind Guides that leads into the ditch which is a corrupted place that People are corrupted not perfect but the true Ministers presented them perfect in Christ Jesus And so is it not clear That you deny the Blood of Christ and trample it under your feet For Christ Sanctifies his People with his own Blood Heb. 10. The Blood of Christ Jesus cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. Rev. And he hath washed us from our sins in his Blood And they overcame by the Blood of the Lamb And whose Garments were made white by the Blood of Jesus And do you not give the Apostle and the Scriptures the Lye and makes Christ's Blood of none Effect And sayes They are not made white they are not cleansed from all sin and that they must have a body of sin and death as long as they live and that they are not Redeemed to God Do you not make the Blood of Christ of none effect here which is to wash and to cleanse away that which is brought into Adam by the Serpent and deny Christ's Purchase who purchased his People and Justifies by his Blood and Redeemed through his Blood And what Redemption is this and Purchase is this and Justification is this if they be not Redeemed out of sin and evil and old Adam Christ hath Redeemed us to God through his Blood Rev. 5. Eph. 1. Are not you them that have counted the Blood of the new Covenant of none effect Heb. 10. and troden it under foot wherewith he Sanctifies and so are they that have done despite against the Spirit of Grace for do you not say the Spirit of God is not given to every man to profit withal only some have the Spirit say you Who are they then that vexes it and quenches it and grieves it And were not they wicked People whom the Lord gave his good Spirit to to instruct them Nehem. 9. they were such as rebelled against Nehemiah And here it is clear That you make Sects and denies the Prophets and Apostles Doctrine And you say That Christ doth not enlighten every man that cometh into the World Do you not here deny John's Doctrine and Scriptures and Christ himself who saith He is the Light of the World And deny that which People should believe in believe in the Light that you may become
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 bu● 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
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