Although the inward light be _the_ rule,[501] Holy Scripture is _a_ rule, and one authoritative and binding on those who possess it. Hence, whilst ever appealing to reason in his theological arguments, Penn habitually refers to Scripture as an inspired revelation from God, of great importance in determining religious controversy. The distinction which he makes, and the place which he assigns to the Bible had better be given in his own words:--“_A_ rule, and _the_ rule are two things. By _the_ rule of faith and practice I understand the living, spiritual, immediate, Omnipresent, discovering, ordering Spirit of God; and by _a_ rule I apprehend some instrument, by and through which, this great and universal rule may convey its directions. Such a subordinate, secondary, and declaratory rule, we never said several parts of Scripture were not, yet we confess the reason of our obedience is not merely because they are there written (for that were legal) but because they are the eternal precepts of the Spirit in men’s consciences, there repeated and declared.”[502] This is the key which unlocks Penn’s theological system; and it is remarkable, how the controversy between the old Quakers and their contemporaries, turned mainly upon a question, agitated in the present day by thinkers very unlike the Quakers in many respects. The two rules thus defined were regarded by this writer as requiring the rejection of the Anglican doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Puritan doctrines respecting Christ’s Atonement, as a satisfaction offered to God, and respecting the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.[503] In consequence of what he said touching the Trinity, Penn was charged with not believing in the Divinity of Christ, and indeed was sent to prison on that account; but he clearly avows in his apology, entitled, _Innocency with her Open Face_, that Christ is God; for, he observes, if none can save or be properly styled a Saviour, but God, and yet Christ is said to save, and is properly called a Saviour, it must needs follow that Christ the Saviour is God. The strongest passage I have noticed in the writings of Penn in relation to the atonement is the following:--“That as there was a necessity that ‘One should die for the people,’ so, whoever, then or since, believed in Him, had and have a seal or confirmation of the remission of their sins in His blood; and that blood--alluding to the custom of the Jewish sacrifices--shall be an utter blotting out of former iniquities, carrying them as into a land of forgetfulness.” The prominence which this Quaker Divine justly gave to the truth, that Christ saves _from_ sin, is not associated with such ideas of justification as accord with Puritan standards. According to his own view, holiness is an integral part of that justification, which he seems to identify with man’s entire salvation.[504]