Page:A Beacon to the Society of Friends.djvu/27

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EXTRACTS FROM A DECLARATION
23

any right sense of justice or mercy, that would be willing to accept forgiveness of his sins on such terms!! Would he not rather go forward and offer himself wholly up to suffer all the penalties due to his crimes, rather than the innocent should suffer? Nay—was he so hardy as to acknowledge a willingness to be saved through such a medium, would it not prove that he stood in direct opposition to every principle of justice and honesty, of mercy and love, and show himself to be a poor selfish creature, and unworthy of notice."!!! Elias Hick's letter to N. Shoemaker.

"And there is nothing but a surrender of our own will, that can make atonement for our sins." Quaker, vol. I. p. 196.

"Nothing can atone for sin but that which induced us to sin." Vol. II. p. 271.

"And what are we to do? We are to give up this life [our will] to suffer and die upon the cross; for this is the atonement for all our sins." Ibid. p. 272.

"But, my friends, the inward suffering of the immortal soul is infinitely superior to all outward sufferings. And if sin is atoned for in our souls, it will require a sacrifice proportionable to that which is to be benefitted by it. So that I apprehend, under this spiritual dispensation and day of light, there must be a spiritual and inward sacrifice for our sins." Ibid. p. 163.

The Berean says: "Whatever redemption therefore was effected by the outward flesh and blood of Christ, it could not in the nature of things be any thing else than an outward redemption. Vol. II. p. 52.

"And have we not reason to hope that the day is not far distant when the absurd and pernicious idea, that the imputed righteousness of another, is the ground of