The new command renewed, or, Love one another being an endeavour after the unity…The new command renew'd, or, Love one another being an endeavour after the unity…

Now here seems to be a contradiction; but the scope of the Scripture will untie this knot (as I understand) thus. By Faith alone we are justified, but the Faith by which we are justified is not alone; 'Tis not (as I conceive) the work Faith, nor the works of Faith, but a working Faith whereby we are justified.

Now here seems to be a contradiction; but the scope of the Scripture will unty this knot (as I understand) thus. By Faith alone we are justified, but the Faith by which we are justified is not alone; 'Tis not (as I conceive) the work Faith, nor the works of Faith, but a working Faith whereby we are justified.

By Faith the Person is justified, and by works the Faith is justified; and thus beloved (I hope) you see clearly, that there is not concordia discors, a disagreeing agreement, but discordia ⟨p. 35⟩concors, an agreeing disagreement between these two Scriptures.

One saith (to this our purpose) that to hang on any word or phrase in a Text and neglect the scope, savours of an Heretical disposition. And Luther hath a sweet saying to this purpose, Grammaticam decet Theologiae cedar, quùm subjecta sunt verba rebus, non res verbis: vox meritò sensum sequatur & litera spiritum. The sense in short is this, Words must give place to the matter and sense; His reason is this, because the matter is not for the words, but the words for the matter. And again Divinely, Iste modus intelligendi aut interpretandi Scripturas, diversa scil. ex diversis locis decerpere, est fallacissimus; habenda igitur est tota Scriptura ante oculos, & contraria contrariis conferenda. That way of understanding or interpreting Scriptures, viz to gather diverse things from diverse places, is most deceitful: the whole Scripture therefore is to be had before our eyes, and contraries to be compared with contraries.