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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	divine_a	faith_n	reveal_v	2,785	5	8.8750	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63051	A vindication of the Protestant doctrine concerning justification, and of its preachers and professors, from the unjust charge of Antinomianism in a letter from a minister in the city, to a minister in the countrey.	Traill, Robert, 1642-1716.	1692 (1692)	Wing T2023; ESTC R938	36,348	46

A VINDICATION OF THE Protestant Doctrine Concerning JUSTIFICATION And of its Preachers and Professors From the unjust charge of ANTINOMIANISM In a LETTER from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Countrey LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's-Arms in the Poultrey in the Year 1692. A LETTER FROM A Minister in the City to a Minister in the Countrey about the present Difference concerning JVSTIFICATION YOUR Earnest Desire of Information about some Difference amongst Nonconformists in London whereof you hear so much by flying Reports and profess you know so little of the Truth thereof is the Cause of this Writing You know that not many Months ago there was a fair-like appearance of Vnity betwixt the two most considerable Parties on that Side and their Differences having been rather in practice than principle about Church-Order and Communion seemed easily reconciliable where a Spirit of Love and of a sound Mind was at work But how short was the Calm For quickly arose a greater Storm from another Quarter and a Quarrel began upon higher Points even on no less than the Doctrine of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ and the Justification of a Sinner by Faith alone Some think that the Reprinting of Dr. Crisp's Book gave the first Rise to it But we must look further back for its true Spring It is well known but little considered what a great Progress Arminianism had made in this Nation before the beginning of the Civil War And surely it hath lost little since it ended What can be the Reason why the very Parliaments in the Reign of James I. and Charles I. were so alarmed with Arminiamsm as may be read in History and is remembred by Old Men and that now for a long time there hath been no talk no fear of it as if Arminianism were dead and buried and no man knows where its Grave is Is not the true Reason to be found in its Universal prevailing in the Nation But that which concerneth our Case is That the Middle way betwixt the Arminians and the Orthodox had been espoused and strenuously defended and promoted by some Nonconformists of great Note for Piety and Parts and usually such Men that are for middle ways in points of Doctrine have a greater kindness for that Extream they go half way to than for that which they go half way from And the Notions thereof were imbibed by a great many Students who laboured through the Iniquity of the Times under the great Disadvantage of the want of grave and sound Divines to direct and assist their Studies at Universities and therefore contented themselves with studying such English Authors as had gone in a path untrod both by our Predecessors and by the Protestant Vniversities abroad These Notions have been preach'd and wrote against by several Divines amongst our selves and the different Opinions have been till of late managed with some Moderation to which our being all born down by Persecution did somewhat contribute It is a sad but true Observation That no Contentions are more easily kindled more fiercely pursued and more hardly composed than those of Divines sometimes from their Zeal for Truth and sometimes from worse Principles that may act in them as well as in other Men. The Subject of the Controversie is about the Justifying Grace of God in Jesus Christ Owned it is by both and both fear it be abused either by turning it into Wantonness hence the Noise of Antinomianism or by corrupting it with the mixture of Works hence the Fears on the other side of Arminianism Both Parties disown the Name cast upon them The one will not be called Arminians and the other hate both Name and Thing of Antinomianism truly so called Both sometimes say the same Thing and profess their Assent to the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England to the Confession of Faith and Catechisms composed at Westminster and to the Harmony of the Confessions of all the Reformed Churches in these Doctrines of Grace And if both be Candid in this Profession it is very strange that there should be any Controversie amongst them Let us therefore first take a View of the Parties and then of their Principles As to the Party suspected of Antinomianism and Libertinism in this City it is plain That the Churches wherein they are concerned are more strict and exact in trying of them that offer themselves unto their Communion as to their Faith and Holiness before their admitting them in the Engagements laid on them to a Gospel-walking at their Admission and in their Inspection over them afterwards As to their Conversations they are generally of the more Regular and Exact Frame and the Fruits of Holiness in their Lives to the Praise of God and Honour of the Gospel cannot with modesty be denied Is it not unaccountable to charge a People with Licentiousness when the Chargers cannot deny and some cannot well bear the Strictness of their Walk It is commonly said That it is only their Principles and the tendency of them to loose Walking that they blame But waying that at present it seems not fair to charge a People with Licentious Doctrines when the Professors thereof are approved of for their Godliness and when they do sincerely profess that their Godliness begun with and is promoted by the Faith of their Principles Let it not be mistaken if I here make a Comparison betwixt Papists and Protestants The latter did always profess the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone This was Blasphemy in the Papists Ears They still did and do cry out against it as a Licentious Doctrine and destructive of Good Works Many sufficient Answers have been given in to this unjust Charge But to my purpose the Wonder was that the Papists were not convinced by the splendid Holiness of the Old Believers and by the Visible Truth of their holy Practice and their professing that as long as they lived in the Blindness and Darkness of Popery they were profane and that as soon as God revealed the Gospel to them and had wrought in them the Faith thereof they were sanctified and led other Lives So witnessed the Noble Lord Cobham who suffered in K. Henry the 5th his Time above an 100 Years before Luther His Words at his Examination before the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Clergy were these As for that Vertuous Man Wickliff for with his Doctrine he was charged whose Judgment ye so highly disdain I shall say of my part both before God and Man that before I knew that Despised Doctrine of his I never abstained from sin but since I learned therein to fear my Lord God it hath otherwise I trust been with me So much Grace could I never find in all your glorious Instructions Fox's Book of Martyrs Vol. 1. p. 640. Col. 2. Edit 1664. And since I am on that excellent Book I intreat you to read Mr. Patrick Hamilton's little Treatise to which Frith doth Preface and Fox doth add some Explication Vol.

improved to a severe height by some on purpose to shelter Arminianism in its growth and to advance it further amongst us which we pray and hope the Lord will prevent Yours N. N. POSTSCRIPT THis Paper presented to thee was in its first design intended as a private Letter to a particular Brother as the Title bears How it comes to be published I shall not trouble the World with an account of I think that Dr. Owen's Excellent Book of Justification and Mr. Marshal's Book of the Mystery of Sanctification by Faith in Jesus Christ are such Vindications and Confirmations of the Protestant Doctrine against which I fear no effectual Opposition Dr. Owen's Name is so savoury and famous his soundness in the Faith and ability in Learning for its defence so justly reputed that no sober man will attempt him Mr. Marshal was a holy retired Person and is only known to the most of us by his Book published lately The Book is a deep practical well-jointed Discourse and requires a more than ordinary attention in the reading of it with profit And if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many years Its excellency is that it leads the serious Reader directly to Jesus Christ and cuts the sinews and overturns the foundation of the New Divinity by the same argument of Gospel-Holiness by which many attempt to overturn the Old And as it hath already the seal of high approbation by many judicious Ministers and Christians that have read it so I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter All my design in publishing this is plainly and briefly to give some Information to ordinary plain people who either want Time or Judgement to peruse large and learned Tractates about this point of Justification wherein every one is equally concerned The Theme of Justification hath suffered greatly by this That many have imployed their Heads and Pens who never had their Hearts and Consciences exercised about it And they must be frigid and dreaming speculations that all such are taken up with whose Consciences are not enlivened with their personal concern in it These things are undoubted 1. That as it is a point of highest concern to every man so it is to the whole-Doctrine of Christianity All the great Fundamentals of Christian Truth center in this of Justification The Trinity of persons in the Godhead The Incarnation of the only Begotten of the Father The Satisfaction paid to the Law and Justice of God for the sins of the World by his Obedience and Sacrifice of Himself in that flesh he assumed and the Divine Authority of the Scriptures which reveal all this Are all straight lines of Truth that center in this Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner by the Imputation and Application of that Satisfaction No Justification without a Righteousness No Righteousness can be but what answers fully and perfectly the Holy Law of God No such Righteousness can be performed but by a Divine Person No benefit can accrue to a Sinner by it unless it be someway his and applied to him No application can be made of this but by Faith in Jesus Christ And as the connexion with and dependance of this Truth upon the other great Mysteries of Divine Truth is evident in the plain proposal of it So the same hath sadly been manifest in this that the forsaking of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in Christ's Righteousness hath been the first step of Apostasie in many who have not stop'd till they revolted from Christianity it self Hence so many Arminians and their chief Leaders too turned Socinians from denying Justification by Christs Righteousness they proceeded to the denying of his Satisfaction from the denial of his proper Satisfaction they went on to the denying of the Divinity of his Person And that man's Charity is excessive that will allow to such Blasphemers of the Son of God the Name of Christians Let not then the Zeal of any for so fundamental a point of Truth as that is of the Justification of a Sinner by Faith in Christ be charged with folly It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing and this is the best of things 2. It is undoubted That there is a Mystery in this Matter of Justification As it is God's act it is an act of Free-Grace and Deep Wisdom Herein Justice and Mercy kiss one another in saving the Sinner Here appears God Man with the Righteousness of God and this applied and imputed to sinful men Here mans Sin and Misery are the field in which the Riches of God's Grace in Christ are display'd Here the Sinner is made Righteous by the Righteousness of another and obtains Justification through this Righteousness though he pays and gives nothing for it God declares him righteous or justifies him freely and yet he is well paid for it by the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 25 26. It is an act of Justice and Mercy both when God justifies a Believer on Jesus Christ And must there not then be a great Mystery in it Is not every Believer daily admiring the depth of this way of God This Mystery is usually rather darkned than illustrated by Logical Terms used in the handling of it The only defence that good and learned men have for the use of them is and it hath great weight that the craft of Adversaries doth constrain them to use such Terms to find them out or hedge them in It 's certain that this Mystery is as plainly revealed in the Word as the Holy Ghost thought fit to do in teaching the Heirs of this Grace and it were well if men did contain themselves within these bounds 3. It is certain That this Doctrine of Justification proposed in the Word hath been very differently understood and expressed by men that profess that God's Word is the only Rule of their thoughts and words about the things of the Spirit of God It hath been and will be still a Stone of Stumbling as our Lord Jesus Christ himself was and is Rom. 9.32 33. 1 Pet. 2.7 8. 4. That whatever Variety and Differences there be in Men's Notions and Opinions and there is a great deal about Justification They are all certainly reducible to two one of which is every mans opinion And they are That the Justification of a sinner before God is either on the account of a Righteousness in and of our selves or on the account of a Righteousness in another even Jesus Christ who is Jehovah our Righteousness Law and Gospel Faith and Works Christs Righteousness and our own Grace and Debt do equally divide all in this matter Crafty Men may endeavour to bend and mix these things together in Justification but it is a vain attempt Is it not only most expresly rejected in the Gospel which peremptorily determines the