"
The ideas of the Quakers, as to justification itself, cannot be better
explained than in the words of Henry Tuke before quoted: So far as
remissions of sins, and a capacity to receive salvation, are parts of
justification, we attribute it to the sacrifice of Christ; "In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to
the riches of his grace." But when we consider justification as a state
of divine favour and acceptance, we ascribe it, not simply either to
faith or works, but to the sanctifying operation of the spirit of
Christ, from which living faith and acceptable works alone proceed; and
by which we may come to know, that "the spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirits, that we are the children of God."
In attributing our justification, through the grace of God in Christ
Jesus, to the operation of the Holy Spirit, which sanctifies the heart
and produces the work of regeneration, we are supported by the testimony
of the Apostle Paul, who says, "Not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but of his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Again--"But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the spirit of our God."
"By this view of the doctrine of justification, we conceive the
apparently different sentiments of the Apostles Paul and James are
reconciled.
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