PAUL AND JAMES RECONCILED. 385
is mentioned only occasionally with reference unto otlier things or ends, is, as unto that truth, to be taken from and accommodated unto those other places wherein it is the design and purpose of the holy j^enman to declare li for its own sake, and to guide the faith of the church therein. And there is not a more rational and natural rule of the interpretation of Scripture among all them which are by com- mon consent agreed upon.
3. According unto this rule, it is unquestionable that the doctrine of justification before God is to be learned from the writings of the apostle Paul, and from them is light to be taken into all other places of Scripture where it is occasionally mentioned. Especially it is so, considering how exactly this doctrine represents the whole scope of the Scripture, and is witnessed unto by particular testimonies occa- sionally given unto the same truth, without number: for it must be acknowledged that he wrote of this subject of our justification before God, on purpose to declare it for its own sake, and its use in the church; and that he doth it fully, largely, and frequently, in a con- stant harmony of expressions. And he owns those reasons that pressed him unto fulness and accuracy herein, — (1.) The importance of the doctrine itself This he declares to be such as that thereon our sal- vation doth immediately depend ; and that it was the hinge whereon the whole doctrine of the gospel did turn, — " Articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesise," Gal. ii. 16-21, v. 4, 5. (2.) The plausible and dangerous opposition that was then made unto it. This was so man- aged, and that with such specious pretences, as that very many were prevailed on and turned from the truth by it (as it was with the Ga- latians), and many detained from the faith of the gospel out of a dis- like unto it, Rom. x. 3, 4. What care and diligence this require th in the declaration of any truth, is sufficiently known unto them who are acquainted with these things ; what zeal, care, and circumspection it stirred up the apostle unto, is manifest in all his writings. (3.) The abuse which the corrupt natm'e of man is apt to put upon this doc- trine of grace, and which some did actually pervert it unto. This also himself takes notice of, and thoroughly vindicates it from giving the least countenance unto such wi'estings and impositions. Cer- tainly, never was there a greater necessity incumbent on any person fully and plainly to teach and declare a doctrine of truth, than was on him at that time in his circumstances, considering the place and duty that he was called unto. And no reason can be imagined why we should not principally, and in the first place, learn the truth herein from his declaration and vindication of it, if withal we do indeed be- lieve that he was divinely inspned, and divinely guided to reveal the truth for the information of the church.
As unto what is delivered by the apostle James, so far as our jus- VOL. V. 25
386 ON JUSTIFICATION.
tification is included therein, things are quite otherwise. He doth not undertake to declare the doctrine of our justification before God; but having another design in hand, as we shall see immediately, he vindicates it from the abuse that some in those days had put it unto, as other doctrines of the grace of God, which they turned into licen- tiousness. Wherefore, it is from the writings of the apostle Paul that we are principally to learn the truth in this matter; and unto what is by him plainly declared is the interpretation of other places to be accommodated.
4. Some of late are not of this mind ; they contend earnestly that Paul is to be interpreted by James, and not on the contrary. And unto this end they tell us that the writings of Paul are obscure, that sundry of the ancients take notice thereof, that many take occasion of errors from them, with sundry things of an alike nature, indeed scandalous to Christian religion ; and that James, writing after him, is presumed to give an interpretation unto his sayings ; which are therefore to be expounded and understood according unto that inter- pretation. Ans. Fhst, As to the vindication of the writings of St Paul, which begin now to be frequently reflected on with much severity (which is one effect of the secret prevalency of the Atheism of these days), as there is no need of it, so it is designed for a more proper place. Only I know not how any person that can pretend the least acquaintance with antiquity, can plead a passage out of Irenasus, wherein he was evidently himself mistaken, or a rash word of Origen, or the like, in derogation from the perspicuity of the writings of this apostle, when they cannot but know how easy it were to overwhelm them with testimonies unto the contrary from all the famous writers of the church in several ages. And as (for instance in one) Chrysostom in forty places gives an account why some men understood not his writings, which in themselves were so gloriously evident and perspicuous; so for their satisfaction, I shall refer them only unto the preface unto his exposition of his epistles : of which kind they will be directed unto more in due season. But he needs not the testimony of men, nor of the whole church together, whose safety and security it is to be built on that doctrine which he taught. In the meantime, it would not be unpleasant to consider (but that the perverseness of the minds of men is rather a real occasion of sorrow) how those who have the same design do agree in their con- ceptions about his writings : for some will have it, that if not all, yet the most of his epistles were "written against the Gnostics, and in the confutation of their error ; others, that the Gnostics took the occasion of their errors from his writings. So bold will men make with things divine to satisfy a present interest.