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
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
an Ox and bringeth it not to the door of the Tabernacle to offer unto the Lord Blood shall be imputed unto that man or charg'd upon him as guilty thereof And Shâ—mei said unto the King Let not my Lord impute Iniquity unto me for thy servant doth know that I have sinned 6. But sin is not imputed where there is no Law From whence it is apparent that there could be no imputation or charging of guilt upon any but such as really were guilty Next it is used about Remission Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity or as the foregoing words have it Whose transgression is forgiven Where the non-imputation doth not argue a non-reality of sin but the reality of God's pardon for otherwise there would be nothing to forgive nor yet a real pardon but onely imputative which according to the sence of this Doctrine I call Imaginary Again God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Where also non-imputation being a real discharge for actual trespasses argues an imputation by the reason of contraries to be a real charging of actual guilt Lastly it 's used in relation to Righteousness Was not Abraham justified by works when he offered Isaac and by Works was Faith made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness By which we must not conceive as do the dark Imputarians of this age that Abraham's offering personally was not a justifying righteousness but that God was pleased to account it so since God never accounts a thing that which it is not nor was there an imputation of anothers righteouss to Abraham but on the contrary his personal obedience was the ground of that just imputation and therefore that any should be justified from the imputation of anothers righteousness not inherent or actually possessed by them is both ridiculous and dangerous Ridiculous since it is to say a man is rich to the value of a thousand pounds whilst he is not really or personally worth a groat from the imputation of another who has it all in his possession Dangerous because it begets a confident perswasion in many people of their being justified whilst in captivity to those lusts whose reward is condemnation whence came that usual saying amongst many Professors of Religion That God looks not on them as they are in themselves but as they are in Christ not considering that none can be in Christ who are not new Creatures which those can't be reputed who have not disrob'd themselves of their old Garments but are still inmantled with the corruptions of the old man Consequences Irreligious and Irrational 1. It makes God guilty of what the â—criptures say is an abomination to wit that he justifieth the wicked 2. It makes him look upon persons as they are not or with respect which is unworthy of his most equal Nature 3. He is hereby at peace with the wicked if justified whilst sinners who said There is no peace to the wicked 4. It does only imply communion with them here in an imperfect state but so to all eternity for whom he justified them he also glorified Therefore whom he justified whilst sinners them he also glorified whilst sinners 5. It only secures from the wages not the dominion of sin whereby something that is sinful becomes justified and that which defileth to enter God's Kingdom 6. It renders a man justified and condemned dead and alive redeemed and not redeemed at the same time the one by an imputative Righteousness the last by a personal unrighteousness 7. It flatters men whilst subject to the Worlds lusts with a state of Justification and thereby invallids the very â—â—d of Christs appearance which was to destroy the works of the Devil and take away the sins of the World a quite contrary purpose then what the Satisfastionists and Imputarians of our Times have imagined viz. to satisfie for their sins and by his Imputed Righteousness to represent them holy in him whilst unholy in themselves Therefore since it was to take away sin and destroy the Devils works which were not in himself for that Holy One saw no corruption consequently in man-kind what can therefore be concluded more evidently true then that such in whom sin is untaken away and the Devils works undestroyed are strangers notwithstanding their conceits to the very end and purpose of Christs manifestation Conclusion by way of Caution THus Reader have I lead thee through those three so generally applauded Doctrines whose confutation I hope though thou hast run thou hast read and now I call the Righteous God of Heaven to bear me Record that I have herein sought nothing below the defence of his Unity Mercy and Purity against the rude and impetuous assaults of Tradition Press and Pulpit from whence I daily hear what rationally induceth me to believe a conspiracy is hold by Counter-plots to obstruct the exaltation of Truth and to betray Evangelical Doctrines to Idle Traditions But God will rebuke the Winds and destruction shall attend the Enemies of his Anointed Mistake me not we never have disowned a Father Word and Spirit which are ONE but mens Inventions for 1. Their Trinity has not so much as a Foundation in the Scriptures 2. That its Original was three hundred years after Christianity was in the World 3. It having cost much blood in the Council of Sirmium Anno 355. it was Decreed That thenceforth the controversie should not once be remembred because the Scriptures of God made no mention thereof Why then should it be mentioned now with a Maranatha on all that will not bow to this abstruse Opinion 4. And it doubtless hath occasioned Idolatry witness the Popish Images of Father Son and Holy Ghost 5. It scandalizeth Turks Jews and Infidels and palpably obstructs their reception of the Christian Doctrine Nor is there more to be said on the behalf of the other two for I can boldly challenge any person to give me one Scripture Phrase which does approach the Doctrine of Satisfaction much less the Name considering to what degree it 's stretched not that we do deny but really confess that Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death fulfilled his Fathers Will and offered up a most satisfactory Sacrifice but not to pay God or help him as otherwise being unable to save men and for a Justification by an Imputative Righteousness whilst not real it 's meerly an imagination not a reality and therefore rejected otherwise confest and known to be justifying before God because there is no abiding in Christ's Love without keeping his Commandments I therefore caution thee in love of whatsoever Tribe or Family of Religion thou mayest be not longer to deceive thy self by the over-fond imbraces of humane apprehensions for Divine Mysteries but rather be informed that God hath bestowed a measure of his Grace on thee and me to shew us what is good that