concerningFaitbranctWorks. 5'61 Church in feveral ages. And ( as for inflance in one )Chrlf. °flow in forty places gives an account why Come men under- flood not his Writings which in thetufelves were fo glori- oufly evident and perfpicuous fo for their fatisfaEtion I fhall refer them only unto the Preface unto his Expopion of his EpYles, of which kind they will be dire&ed unto more in due feafon. But he needs not the Teftimony of men, nor of the whole Church together, whofe fàfety and fecurity it is to be built on that Do6trine -which he taught \ In the mean time it would not be unpleafant to confider (butthat the perverknefs of the minds öf men is rather a real occafion of forrow ) how thofe who have the fame defign do agree in their conceptions about his Writings, for fome -will have it, that if not all, yet the moft of his Epiftles were Written againft the Gnoflicks and in the confutation 'of their errour; others, that the Gneicks took the occafion of their errours from his Writings. So bold will men make with things Di- vine to fatisfie a prefent intereft. Secondi3r;This was not the judgment of the ancient Church for three or four hundred years. For whereas the Epiftles of Paul were always efteemed, the principal treafure of the Church, the great guide and rule of the Chriftian Faith, this of. lames was fcarce received as Canonical/ by many, and doubted of by the moft, as both Eufebius and Hierotne do teftifie. Thirdly, The defign of the Apoffie Yams is not at all to explain the meaning of Paul in his Epiftles as is pretended, but only to vindicate the DoElrine of the Goffiel from the abufe of fuch as ufed their liberty for a cloak of Malictoufncle, and turning the Grace of God into lafcivioufnefs, continued in fin under a pretence that Grace had abounded unto that end. Fourthly, The Apofile Paul doth himfelf as we have de- clared, vindicate his own Do6trine from Inch exceptions and Cccc abufes
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