Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	faith_n	work_n	2,131	5	5.9364	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42457	An antidote against errour concerning justification, or, The true notion of justification, and of justifying faith, cleared by the light of scripture, and solid reason, from several mistakes of the words, which misapprehensions prove the seeds of dangerous errours by ... Thomas Gataker ... ; to which is added, The way of truth and peace, or, A reconciliation of the holy apostles S. Paul and S. James, concerning justification by faith without works, Rom. 3.28, by works and not by faith only, Jam. 2, 21, 24, by Charles Gataker ...	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.; Gataker, Charles, 1614 or 15-1680. Way of truth and peace.	1679 (1679)	Wing G311; ESTC R6785	56,240	74

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST ERROUR Concerning JUSTIFICATION OR The True Notion of JUSTIFICATION and of JUSTIFYING FAITH CLEARED By the light of Scripture and solid Reason from several Mistakes of the words which Misapprehensions prove the seeds of Dangerous Errours By the late Reverend and Learned Divine THOMAS GATAKER of Pious Memory In a Discourse on Rom. 3. 28. too precious to be buried in Obscurity To which is added The Way of Truth and Peace OR A Reconciliation of the holy Apostles S. PAVL and S. JAMES CONCERNING Justification By Faith without works Rom. 3. 28. By Works and not by Faith only Jam. 2. 21 24. By Charles Gataker Rector of Hoggeston in the County of Bucks LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun neer the west-end of S. Pauls 1670. Imprimatur Dec. 6. 1669. Rob. Grove R. P. D no Episc. Lond. à Sacris Domest To the Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Carnarvon Lord Dormer Viscount Ascot Baron of Wing and Master of his Majesties Hawks My Lord THe whole Designe of this Dedication as to the Ground and End of it is so clearly transparent to those who know how Gods Providence hath set me a weak Labourer in the Lords Vineyard to work under the shadow of your Lordships protection that it is a superfluous waste of words and time to defend the presumption of this Address which without mine Apologie may be reasonably taken for a just expression of my duty It were moreover an unpardonable trespass against your Lordships quick Apprehension whose vigorous spirit is active and piercing in the observing of Occurrents if I should make a tedious Harangue to discover mine intentions in thus testifying the sense I have both of the common benefit which I enjoy together with other sons of the Prophets who dwell in safety under the sheltring and refreshing shade of your Lordships Patronage and also of those peculiar obligations laid upon me by your Lordships singular favour the repetition whereof in particular were impertinent but my publick acknowledgement in general is as decent as my private remembrance of them is perpetually and indispensably requisite I have onely a minde to wish that the product of my own Soyl which I pay as tribute unto your Lordship were as agreeable for the workmanship to the divine matter which I handle as the discourse it self is proper and as I humbly conceive suitable to your Lordships pious inclination For I cannot with silence pass by what I have seen with huge satisfaction that as your Lordship hath had a share in Timothy's happiness in knowing the holy Scriptures from a childe which are able to make Thee wise unto salvation so It hath grown in knowledge by the advantage of Gods special endowment a capacious and tenacious Memory It is also a blessed and pleasing Rarity that in an Age of men sadly degenerate into Atheism who endeavour to forget that they are Gods off-spring and would fain be taken for the Mushrooms of Chance and are not onely sunk below Beasts in enormous sensuality but also fallen beyond the apostasie of the Devils in absurd Incredulity with a perverse ingratitude denying the Lord that bought them and with a sottish insolencie denying the God that made them your Lordship in the midst of this corrupt and crooked generation hath continued stedfast and unmoveable in the belief and profession of the general Principles of Religion upon which as a sure Basis all Justice and Civility are founded and particularly of the Doctrine declared and established by the Church of England with an equal aversion from Atheistical profaneness and from new-fangled pretensions to Religion Some have observed of us Islanders that we are very apt to vary our Fashions and have ascribed our Inconstancie to the changeable temper of our Air and the unstable complexion of our Climate I wish our Country-men were not as vainly and that more dangerously fickle in altering the Opinions of their Religion as they are mutable in the habit and mode of their Apparel I am sure the fault of this flitting and shifting humour is not chargeable upon the Stars Skie Air or other Elements which are all the innocent creatures of a good God and uneffective upon the wills of men But the shame and misery will light heavie at last upon these unballasted mindes unstable souls unwary followers of cunning seducers or itching affecters of novelty who delight to wander but forsake their own mercy while they trust in lying vanities To prevent the going astray or being misled from the way of Truth and peace of conscience which depends thereon in one main point of Christian Religion I have published a Piece of my Father of pious memory which tho imperfect because a mortal disease cut off the thred of his meditation first and shortly after of his life drawn forth to fourscore years within a few weeks yet is as I suppose a very useful Foundation on which any Christian exercised in the study of Scripture may build the same superstructure which the Author would have raised if God had granted him a little longer use of light To this I have subjoyned a short Discourse of mine own composure tending to the explication of S. Paul and S. James their doctrine concerning Justification for the removal of a stone of offence the seeming contrariety between the blessed Apostles which some weak Christians have stumbled at and some scoffing enemies of Christianity have taken up to cast at the head and wound if it were possible the credit of the Gospel And I hope that the precious Relick premised will adde weight and value to mine Offering which I tender in all humility first as a Peace-offering to the Church of God and I present it to your Lordship as a cluster of that Vineyard whereof I am an unworthy Dresser devoutly praying that your Lordships benign influence on the Lords inheritance may be recompensed from on high with the plentiful distillation of all blessings upon your Lordship and your Lordships whole Family most worthy of Honour to which I am resolved as well as engaged to remain in all faithful observance My Lord Your Honours most devout Orator and most humble Servant CHARLES GATAKER THE PREFACE To the Christian Reader BEcause I stand accountble for the increase of Books when the world seems to be overcharged already with the number and bulk of them even to the wearying of the Readers flesh and spirit I desire thee with candour to receive this brief Account of my publication of these ensuing Treatises The God of truth and of peace which two Titles are the most resplendent Gems in the Crown of Gods glorious Attributes hath commanded us to embrace and maintain with equal love and zeal the Truth and Peace Since also both these are the Legacies of our blessed Saviour bequeathed to his Church by his Testament sealed with his bloud certainly every sincere Christian is concerned in both but the stevvards of the mysteries of God are yet more

in general whither ordinarie and that either Historical of matters as wel alreadie past the creation v. 3. as future the departure out of Egypt v. 22. or Dogmatical concerning God and his goodnes v. 6. or extraordinarie that of miracles v. 33 34. is apparent by the varietie of instances given by him as Bellarmine also himself grants and would hence proov that faith in all these instances yea that faith in general is but one and the same which if it were tru then everie one that hath justifying faith should have a power of working miracles also which is directlie contrarie both to our Saviors intimations Matth. 7. 22 23. and 17. 20. and the Apostles 1 Cor. 12. 9 10 29 30. tho it be not denied that some general notion of faith be found in each of them Lastlie albeit that Historical or Dogmatical faith or that act of faith whereby the truth of the Historie or Doctrine of the word in general or that of the Gospel in particular is beleived be of necessitie conjoyned with or antecedent unto that act of saith whereby a beleiver is justified it doth not thence follow that these two therefore ar one and the same no more then the slavish fear ariseing from a meer apprehension of wrath and greatness is the same with the filial fear ariseing from apprehension of Gods mercie and goodnes Psal. 130. 3. Jer. 31. 39 40. because the one is to the other tanqam a●us ad silum as the needle to the thred it goes before to make way for it and helps to introduce it or that faith and hope ar one and the same because the one is the foundation of the other nor ar they in time severed the one from the other I shal not need to examine anie of Bellarmines other arguments for this place of Scripture is not the principal onlie but the onlie one produced by him to proov that the assent to the word of God in general is that whereby we ar said to be justified and the rest proov no more then this that such a faith is reqisite to justification and salvation and that without it a man cannot be justified or saved whereas the qestion is not whither all that ar justified have such a beleif of Gods word in general or of the Gospel in particular which no man denies but wither such a beleif be that faith or that act of faith wherby we ar justified which is that alone that is here qestioned Yea the rest of his Scriptures as himself acknowledgeth ar intended onlie to disproov the particular application of the promise to be the justifyeng act of faith whereof more anon when we have done with some others of our own who of the Dogmatical Faith or beleif of the doctrine concerning Christ approov and affirm the same that of the beleif of the word in general Bellarmine doth THE PUBLISHER Of this Posthumous Peice of Work TO THE READER IT is a fruitless wish for me to utter Oh that I were not enforced to adjoyn this Epilogue Desiderantur caetera The rest is wanting and wil be wanted It wil be fitter for me to say Placeat homini qod placuit Deo Let not that discontent man which pleased God And it seemed good to the Lord of the Vineyard to interrupt this faithful Servants labour with an acute disease which supervening to age which is an incurable sickness put a period to his life which was his day or season of work He was not idle in the former part of the day but took this business in hand at his verie evening which man that knows not his time could neither fore-see nor put off And now this unfinished Peice of his must stand as an imperfect Table begun to be wrought by Apelles or Titian famous in their Generations which no surviving or succeeding Artist wil adventure to accomplish with a less-skilful hand But yet we ar not at an irrecoverable loss since we have stil the living Oracles of Gods word which are the original truth whereof humane discourses are extract Copies and besides common Reason we may by humble and earnest pra●e● obtain the assistance of Gods holie Spirit for the improvement of Reason in the prosecution of what is not here exprest And tho this discourse be abruptly broken off before it fully explain what faith is yet we may from the Negative part which cuts off all Notions pretending to that Title conclude the affirmative that justifying faith is an affiance in Christ or in God through Christ and for Christs sake for absolution from our sinnes and so conseqentlie for eternal salvation and the justifying act of faith is to trust to on or in Christ commonly called beleiving in or on him by a speech somewhat improper yet not without example in Exotick Authors But if our Interpreters had ben so lucky as insteed of beleiving on God and on Christ to have rendred the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by trusting as e. g. John 14. 1. we read the words of our Savioor to his Disciples Ye beleiv in God beleiv also in me but we may very wel read thus Ye do trust or Do yee trust in God or on God trust also in me or on me use would have made the term familiar and the thing it self obvious to the understanding and it would have prevented many hot but impertinent contentions about words But mine infirmities wil not permit me to enlarge in the explication of the nature of faith which is a common Theam but deserves exact handling I entreat the Christian Reader to accept this final portion of heavenlie Treasure rescued from the dust since the earthen vessel by which it was conveyed to us is broken by death and crumbled into his primigenial Dust. Si qid novisti rectius hisce Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Hor. FINIS 2 Tim. 3. 15. zech 8. 19 2 Cor. 4. 1. Judg. 5. 15. ● Tim. 6. 20 2 Tim. 2 2. 1 Pet. 4. 11 A. D. 1654. Greg. Naz. Dan. 4. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. de civit I. 22. c. 7. Philo Jud. Just. Mart. Origen c. Jo. Picus Count of Mirandula Dr. Feild of the Church l. 5. c. 17. Guil. Rivet de justif part 1. c. 2. lect 3. De justificat l. 2. c. 7. Lib. e●d C. 10. See Peter Alliacenses ad Sent. lib. 4. qaest 1. art 3. conclus 1. See Ger. Vossius Defens Grot. de satisfact advers Ravensperg cap. 2. 8. Eccl 9. 12. Luk. 11. 1● Bud. in Comment Fides non modo credulitatem sed fiduciam significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro confidete sumitur Aeschin con● Cetesiph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. Sicul l. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Politic. Tyr●●●orum esse notat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latini pariter in eodem sensu usurpa●●●●●edere Val. Max. l. 6. Nemo debet nimium fortun● cr●dere Virg. celog 2. Nimium ●crede coloti i. e. confide Serv.

deeply engaged in the preservation or restauration of both to their utmost ability At present our amazing and distressing thoughts are great for the divisions of Reuben to use the words of Deborah and the spiritual flames of dissention which like the late dreadful Fire in the Citie devour the strength and beauty of our Church call for the assistance of all hands to quench them But as in a Conflagration while some labour to repress the violence or stop the course of the spreading Fire others are employed to guard the Goods and while they stand with aking hearts for the Calamity do good service in perserving their neighbours as well as their own Goods from perishing or plunder so while my Brethren the blessed sons of peace are hard at work in drawing water out of the ever-living spring the Scripture which plentifully affords the Word of truth and peace and applying the same for the allaying of these consuming flames whose endeavours for the peace of Jerusalem I pray God to prosper I have undertaken to preserve and reseue an important Truth concerning Justification from the attempts made by same to corrupt or obscure this heavenly doctrine That I might discharge my fidelity in securing the Apostolical doctrine avouched by the Church of England from a dangerous blow offered at it by raising an Objection out of S. James against S. Paul and then because Christians are concerned neither to set nor to leave the holy Apostles at oddes one with another going about to reconcile them in an unsound way to the prejudice of Religion it self I did lately on a just occasion frame a short Discourse for mine own satisfaction and for the instruction of others For I conceive my self tho by many degrees inferiour to Timothy yet in some measure to lie under S. Paul's double charge to him first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep the precious truth committed to my trust and then what I have been sufficiently taught and assured of to commit the same unto faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Thus far I allow Tradition of the faith once delivered to the Saints tho it be not infallible unchangeable and incorruptible either by the course of nature or by the promise of grace to any particular Race or Succession of men yet to be a duty required of Ministers and a means to propagate the Truth whether that delivery be transacted by word of mouth which is transient or by writing which is permanent as now I transmit what I have received For I count it a special instance of Gods gracious providence to me not onely that I was born of a Parent eminent for Learning and Piety the Honour I owe my Father will free me from the guilt of vanity in this modest celebration of his Memory but also in this that I was well acquainted with his Doctrine and particularly in this Head concerning Justification which he had discussed with a piercing reason and explicated with a happie perspicuity not leaning to his own understanding but after an examination of an innumerable variety of Writers on this Argument making the language of Scripture in the common sense of the words the Rule of his Judgment and speaking that he might speak as the oracles of God By this religious observing the form of vvholesome vvords he did disentangle to Truth from many thorny Controversies which have been raised impertinently but agitated with much heat to the injury of Truth and Peace In the year of our Lord 1640 April 19. he began in the course of his Ministery to unfold that portion of Scripture Rom. 3. 28. and in process of time by Gods assistance accomplished his intended explication of the entire Doctrine concerning Justification with that accurateness of Method solidity of Reason and elearness of expression which was usual to him in such a weighty Argument and very satisfactory to his judicious Auditors The rude draughts of his Meditations be kept by him and they are yet extant He was urged often to publish them but according to his modest declining appearance in publike he was averse from printing what he had preached with a chearful freedom of speech At last not so much the importunity of friends as the love of Truth which he pitied to see not onely opposed by Old Adversaries but also assaulted by upstart Enemies and in danger to be smothered in a crowd of new-fangled Errours qickned him to set upon a new Work to recollect his loose Papers to revise his Notes to new-model his Treatise and to fit it for the publick benefit of the Church to posterity But the Lord had measured his task and his time An Ague which turned shortly to a violent and mortal Fever was the messenger that summoned him and diverted him from communicating his conceptions to the Church to the resigning of his spirit to God This Piece tho unfinished I cannot well permit to perish in the dust And I publish it now while I have opportunity for I am also hasting to the land of forgetfulness because I conceive it hugely useful to the advancement and clearing of the Truth to the determining of many Controversies which would be easily resolved if the sense of words about which men are apt to wrangle were understood and agreed on and to the direction of the considering Reader in the way to a good understanding in this Cardinal Point of Christian Religion For such is igneus vigor the fiery temper as Virgil says of the heaven-born Soul that a small hint given to an active nimble minde is like a spark falling on sulphury matter which is sufficient to light a Candle or to kindle a Fire for the enlightning and warming the whole house So this spark of doctrine communicated to receptive understandings and cherished with Meditation may prove a happie introduction to a bright and lasting light of Truth And it may be accounted no small benefit that the Author who intended to do more service for the houshold of faith did what his time allowed him out of the hard flint strike fire for others to make use of and to improve But some will be ready to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mine affection blindes and transports me And tho my over-valuing kinddess for this Fragment may be justifiable by my Relation to the Author yet I am both too nearly interested to judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerely and impartially and too meanly qalified to sway other mens judgments by mine estimation I confess all this and am so far from presuming that I can any ways adde any lustre to my father of pious memory that I fear lest this very Work of his be sullied when it is offered to the world by mine hands I do therefore invite the Reader onely by the assurance that this was a Piece of his last undertaking and so having set up this Taper I let it shine by its own light So much for the former Treatise to which in good

considered two ways either as an act of God working in us or as a change thereby wrought upon us Conceiv we this by the like concerning conversion conversion may be taken two ways either as an act of God working in us or a change thereby wrought upon us and we shall find both together mentioned Jer. 31. 18. Convert me O Lord there is the act of God working in him and I shall be converted there is the change thereby wrought upon him In like manner may Regeneration be considered either as an act of God working in or on a man Jam. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 3. and so sanctification is an effect or fruit of it or as a change wrought thereby upon him 1 Pet. 1. 22 23. and so it is a principal branch of regeneration whereof one main arm is illumination respecting the minde and understanding and sanctification respecting the wil and affections an other shooting out and dividing it self into many sprigs as sincere repentance the filial fear the tru love of God and the like all which and among the rest this faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. being branches of sanctification ar all holie dispositions and the acts issuing from them of no other nature or qalitie then the disposition or first act as the School termes it from which they proceed Seeing then that the habit of this faith whereby anie ar justified is an holie disposition such as makes the soul and person possest with it holie that purifies and sanctifies him that hath it and the acts of it conseqentlie such as proceed from an holie heart and a sanctified disposition it must needs follow that no wicked man no unregenerated and unsanctified person while he so continues can have the faith by the Apostle here intended And thus much shall suffice for the proof of the proposition I shal now proceed to the proof of the assumption That a man may beleiv the doctrine of the Gospel that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God and the Saviour of mankind and yet be never a whit the holier but remain stil irregenerate and unsanctified is apparent For first the Devils as hath ben said and shewed before know and beleiv all this and that now doubtles as undoubtedlie as anie man living doth or can do and yet are no whit at all the holier for all that but remain stil as evil as ever they were yea manie wicked men limmes of the Devil have done the same And here why should I not name Balaam for one for did not Balaam know Christ yes undoubtedlie how could he els have Prophesied of him he had an heavenlie revelation a revelation from God concerning Christ that might be said of him that Christ himself said of Peter Mat. 16. 17. Flesh and bloud did not reveil this mysterie unto him but God himself that is in heaven tho he were not blessed as Peter nor sanctified therefore as he was But hear we Balaams own words Num. 24. 15-17 Balaam the son of Beor the man whose eyes were opened who heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the most High and saw the visions of the Almightie he saith I shal see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh as if he had said The time shal come when I shal see the Messias the Savior of Israel I shall one day behold him but afar off so as I shal not be the better for my sight of him it will be little to my comfort There shal come a Star out of Jacob and a Rod or a Scepter shal arise or stand up out of Israel c. a plain Prophecie of Christ as all confes and is generallie acknowledged Yea mark we how far he proceeds Chap. 23. 10. Let me dye or Oh that I might dye saith he the death of the righteous and that my last end might be like unto his Balaam would never have thus spoken had he not beleived that if he did take the same cours that Gods people did who trusted in the Messias and yeilded themselvs up to be ruled whollie by him he might be saved by him as they were but for all that his beleif he would not nor did condescend so to do But leave we him and proceed to some other instances What is the sin against the Holie Ghost of which our Saviour Christ saith Matth. 11. 31 32. All manner of sinne and blasphemie shal be forgiven unto men but the blasphemie against the Holie Ghost shal not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Is it not almost generallie by most Divines acknowledged that this irremissible sin is a sin always joyned with knowledge and what knowledge not a bare speculative or notional knowledg but a beleif of the truth of the Gospel accompanied with a malicious opposition thereuuto No man therefore can commit that sin but such an one as knows and beleives the doctrine of the Gospel which yet he malitiouslie opposeth and conseqentlie must needs have that Faith which these men would have to be justifying faith It was somtime the speech of a Reverend Divine that if Paul had had Peters knowledge when he opposed the Faith of Christ or Peter Pauls malice when he abjured his Master they had both them committed that unpardonable sin But Paul did what he did in ignorance and Peter what he did out of weaknes and both repented of what they had done which none of those that have committed that sin ever do Heb. 6. 6. In which place further the Apostle plainly intimates vers 4. 6. that men that have ben illightned with what think we means he but with the knowledge of Evangelical truths and have partaked of the Holie Ghost of the common graces of the Spirit and tasted of the heavenlie gift and the good word of God as those compared to the seed sowen on stonie ground that receiv the word with joy and beleiv for a time Matth. 13. 20. Luk. 8. 13. and the powers of the world to come may yet not fal onlie but fall utterlie away as those also in the Gospel Luk. 8. 13. yea not fall whollie off onlie but sin in despite of Gods Spirit Chap. 10. 26 29. and so sin that it 's a thing impossible for them to be restored again by repentance Chap. 6. 6. and what sin it is that is there so deciphered is no great difficultie to determine which albeit I dare not say that Judas committed for it seems avarice not malice that run him hedlong into that guilt of impietie little imagining it may be but that his Master would rid himself wel enough out of their hands unto whom he had betraied him as he had sometime before done the like Luk. 4. 29 30. John 8. 59. and 10. 39. and himself go away with their money the whiles yet it is verie likely that he beleived that concerning his Master to be tru that he preached unto others Howsoever the former instances shewing that wicked ones so continuing