and therefore I shall draw this argument, that the condemnation or justification of persons, is not from the imputation of another's 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 own 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 justify the wicked to life, from the imputation of another's righteousness! A most unequal way indeed!" Ibid.

See Exod. xxiii. 7. John xv. 10-14. Rom. viii. 13, 14. Gal. vi. 4-7. James ii. 22-24. 1 John iii. 7, 8, quoted by William Penn. "By which," he continues, 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 any imputation of another's righteousness to Abraham; but on the contrary, his personal obedience was the ground of that just imputation. And therefore, that any should be justified by the imputation of another's righteousness, is both ridiculous and dangerous." Ibid, p. 88.

"God

The same author says, that this doctrine places at peace with the wicked,”-in "communion with them here," and "to all eternity,"-" secures from the wages, not the dominion of sin,"—"renders a man justified and condemned, dead and alive, redeemed and not redeemed, at the same time,"-" flatters men, while subject to the

world's lusts,"- -"invalidates the very end of Christ's appearance, which was to destroy the works of the devil, and take away the sins of the world." "I therefore caution thee," [reader] says he, "in love, of whatever tribe or family of religion thou mayst be, not longer to deceive thyself by the over fond embraces of human apprehensions, for Divine mysteries. But rather be informed, that God hath bestowed a measure of his grace on thee and me, to show us what is good, that we may OBEY AND DO IT; which, if thou diligently wilt observe, thou shalt be led out of all unrighteousness; and in thy obedience shalt thou receive power to become a son of God. In which happy estate, God only can be known by men, and they know themselves to be justified before him, whom experimentally to know by Jesus Christ, is life eternal." Ibid, p. 90.

Will God

No, verily :

ever let and

Job Scott, on this subject, asks, "What reconciliation does man stand in need of ? What has separated him from God? Has any thing but sin? then be reconciled to him again in sin? that which doth let and separate, will for separate, till it be removed out of the way. 'It is removed,' these imputarians may say, 'by Christ.' grant it is, where Christ destroys the works of the devil in the soul, and no where else. How is it removed, where it remains? This is as gross delusion, and as rank absurdity, as the old doctrine of transubstantiation.”

Vol. 2, p. 315.

I

The destruction of sin in the soul, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness into the soul, is the work of Christ, and not our own work: to him alone belongs

the praise. This imputation of the righteousness of Christ within us, we own; but the doctrine of imputation, as commonly held, we deny.

ARTICLE XLIV. The Declaration proceeds as follows: "Besides the palpable errors we have enumerated, Elias Hicks and his adherents deny that mankind sustain any loss through the fall of Adam; asserting that children come into the world precisely in the condition he did." Dec. p. 31.

In proof of the above assertions, we are referred to The Quaker, vol. 1, p. 183, and Philadelphia Sermon, p. 64, from which I quote as follows:

"Now let us pause for a moment, and see what an unrighteous and wicked act it was in our first parents; there never was a greater evil done. And we see now that we are his successors, and that we have every one done the same thing; and not only once, as Adam did, but we have done it many thousand times over." "The desire after knowledge was the thing that tempted them, by presuming to know good and evil without the Divine Light that had been given to instruct them, and to keep them from going counter to the Divine command. They were pushed on to decide for themselves, from an apprehension that by so doing, by exercising their own abilities, they would become as Gods, knowing good and evil without the aid of the Divine mind, and counter to the Divine command; but their reward followed the act."

Quaker, vol. 1, p. 182.

"Here, we don't find that Adam ever transgressed but

once; we have no reason to suppose from the history, that

he did. I consider this view of great moment, for this reason; because people are so weak as to imagine, (and where do they get the idea from, but from the same source as Adam, by seeking to gain knowledge through an improper medium?) they have started the notion, that we are to stand accountable for Adam's sin; and that we are losers by it. But now, if we reflect rationally, I think we must be gainers by it. For if we act as rational creatures, we gain something by seeing a man drunk; for if we have never seen a man drunk before, is it not an example,—a warning for us to avoid such an act ourselves? Here we see now, what the apostle says, and it is true, that The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God;' because, if we reasoned as we ought, this act of Adam would be a warning to all his offspring, and would certainly be a benefit to us, if we acted rightly. This is my view, and I give it to you to examine.” Quaker, p. 183.

"In his childhood, he [Jesus] was perfect in innocency, -free from all kinds of defilement,- —as man was created in the beginning: and so it might have been with all that God created, as the Scripture declaration proves. They [our first parents] were made innocent, undefiled, and unpolluted but without knowledge, and without any capacity to obtain knowledge through any other medium than their Creator. They were endowed with a capacity to receive it from him, as a Teacher; but no capacity to obtain true knowledge independently of their Creator. This I consider to be the state of man in the beginning, and of every child when born into the world,"

Philada. Sermon, p. 66.

In the above extracts, relating to the state of our first parents, there are some views peculiar to Elias Hicks; and therefore not chargeable on the Society.

!

The brevity of the scriptural account of the original state of our first parents, has opened a field for much speculation, and a diversity of opinions have been advanced by those who have written on the subject: and Elias Hicks has given his views for consideration. In alluding to them, the "Declaration" has used a form of expression which gives them an appearance of more weight, as a charge, than simply quoting the speaker's words would have done; whilst a part of the context which is highly important to be known, in order to do justice to his whole view of the subject, is withheld. The present condition of man, and what is needful for him, is what chiefly concerns us. Το this condition the Sermon speaks in the emphatic language of Scripture," All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God," and stand in need of being born again.

The Society holds to the clear testimony of Ezekiel the prophet, and in other parts of Scripture, That no man is answerable for the sins of another; and hence, that none of Adam's posterity are accountable for his transgression; or in other words, we deny the doctrine of original sin. Joseph Phipps, on this subject, says, "To account a child guilty or obnoxious to punishment, merely for an offence committed by its parents before it could have any consciousness of being, is inconsistent both with justice and mercy; therefore no infant can be born with guilt upon its head." Original and present state of Man, p. 12.

In continuation of the subject in the Sermons, and in the next page to that from which the Declaration quotes, and directly facing it, we find the following: "As man was made in the image of God, every act would be a righteous act. But from this happy state man fell; from this blessed condition, WE ALL FALL: for all have sinned, and fallen