Antidote Against Error Concerning Justification, Preface
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. zech. 8. 19Since 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;2 Cor. 4. 1. but the stevvards of the mysteries of God are yet more 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, Judg. 5. 15.(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,… Tim. 6. 20▪ first foreign, to keep the precious truth committed to my trust, and then what I have been sufficiently taught and assured of,2 Tim. 2▪ 2. 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 onelyonly 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, 1 Pet. 4. 11▪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 onelyonly opposed by Old Adversaries, but also assaulted by upstart Enemies, and in danger to be smothered in a crowd of newfangled 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,A. D. 1654. 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,Greg. Naz. some will be ready to say, foreign 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 foreign, 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 onelyonly 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 manners I have given the precedence before mine own.
And of the latter I shall say little besides what I have already intimated. It was a proud Fancie and Motto of one, who being raised from an obscure original, took himself to be the sole Engineer and Artificer of his own Fortune,Dan. 4. 30. like Nebuchadnezzar ascribing his estate to his own Wit and Power for the erecting it, and therefore gave for his Devise in a Shield, a Spider in the center of a curious Web spun out of his own bowels, with this word, Mihi soli debeo, insinuating that he was indebted to none but himself. I am very far from the arrogancie and ambition of being deemed foreign, or to have drawn out my little knowledge by my mine own sole industry. Tho I acknowledge God to be the fountain of wisdom, as he is the Father of lights, and therefore I desire to be taught of God; foreign.yet it will not misbecome me to acknowledge that my fathers instruction, in this point especially of Justification, was the Conduit-pipe whereby I have derived what I now profess from the holy Scripture. For upon the Word of God in Scripture, and not upon the Tradition of my Father, (how learned soever, yet not infallible) do I ground my Faith. But as it is a piece of ingenuity to acknowledge by whom we profit in knowledge, so it is in me a duty of filial respect to confess, that I am indebted to my Father alone for that excellent Observation, which was to me Indictum ore alio, unheard-of from any other mouth, concerning the different Questions or Cases in S. Paul and S. James, which after him I have now propounded as a fair way to reconcile the holy Apostles. And because this hath not been so fully and generally observed, it may now also appear new to others, and on that score suffer contradiction, as Christianity it self at the first appearance was rejected for novelty, tho (as St. Augustine says of it,Aug. de civit. I. 22. c. 7. and I may say the same of this particular) it was Veritas nova consuetudini, non contraria rationi; it was a Truth new indeed to custom, but not contrary to reason. I desire therefore the Christian Reader to be so just, as to examine the Discourse with sobriety, before he cast it awaey with scorn; and to be so civil, as to give me leave in an Age too ambitious of latitude and liberty, to enjoy my desired freedom of adhering to the Doctrine of the Church of England, and choosing such a way of Reconciliation as preserves the Truth as well as Peace.
But if any being sensible of some reflexion in my Discourse upon his own Opinion, and impatient of controul, grow so froward, as when he is unwilling to be convinced, and unable to convince me of Errour, (I mean at least in the main matter of my Discourse) he shall go about to raise dark and groundless suspicious against the Author, and in stead of Reasons to disprove his Opinion, cast forth Reproaches to disparage his person; I shall onelyonly say of my Writings; as Ovid did of his Verses, Judicio poterant candidiore Legi; they might have been read with a more candid judgement. One Caution more I hope will be taken in good part, That the Reader will not be so dis-ingenuous, as to endeavour to weaken the credit of an Orthodox Doctrine of our Church, which hath no affinity with Secular interests, because it hath been asserted by some, that have sowed the seeds of Sedition and Schism among us; or to blast the reputation of his brother who maintains both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, Philo Jud. Just. Mart. Origen, &c.foreign, as the Greek Writers speak, with might and main, as occasion requires, because the Schismaticks (some, not all) are of the same opinion in this point. It were unjustly done, and would be unkindly taken, if any one that holds some disputable point of Divinity in common with the Jesuites, should for that accidental concurrence in an Opinion, which is out of distance from things of State and Government, be therefore charged as teinted with the poysonous principles of Rebellion and Regicide, wherewith the Schools of the Jesuites are deeply infected. And it is yet more unreasonable, that the defence of an important point of Christianity common to men of different Perswasions, be wrested by a Dissenter to breed an ill opinion of the defendant; as if he that defends the Justification of a sinner by Faith onelyonly, must needs be confederate with Rebels and Schismaticks, in denying obedience and submission to the Powers sacred in Church and State, which are Gods immediate Ordinances.
But why do I (will some say) surmise that any man can or will be so absurd?
I wish heartily that none were, or be so. But I see too much of this indirect dealing and foul play in the practice of Gladiatory. It is enough, that I would (if possible) prevent the like collateral strokes, when the contending for the Faith exposes me to danger. I will detain my Reader no longer; whom I desire to receive with the right hand, that which is offered with the right hand, and a hearty prayer withal, that God give thee a right understanding in all things.
Thine in the Lord, CHARLES GATAKER.