Justification Vindicated (Robert Traill)

Justification Vindicated

A spirited defense of the doctrine and truth of Justification by Faith Alone from a Puritan writing during “The Killing Times”, when Scottish Protestants were being slaughtered. Traill demonstrates how false the charges of Antinomianism and lawlessness are against this truth and showing that faith alone is the only door by which sinners may enter the presence of the holy God.

Can sinners really be justified before God by faith alone? If so, can they go on to live as they please? Robert Traill suffered persecution, exile and prison for faithfulness to the gospel. He shows here, in Justification Vindicated, with rare clarity and grace, that only justification by faith alone, shows sinners the way to a holy God, makes them a holy and obedient people, gives them joyful assurance of acceptance with God.

Table of Contents

1. The Rise of the Controversy
2. Justification by Faith Alone not Lawlessness
3. Real Differences on Justification
4. Advantages of the True Doctrine of Justification
5. Disadvantages of the True Doctrine of Justification
6. The Charge of Antinomianism Misapplied
7. “The Good Old Way of the Protestant Doctrine”
8. Postscript: The Vital Importance of the Doctrine of Justification

About the Author

Robert Traill (1642-1716) lived during the ripest period of the Puritan age. He was born at Elie in Fife where his father, Robert was serving as minister. Distinguished at Edinburgh University, he early felt the inner constraint to preach Christ. Too intimate an association with the younger John Welsh drew the swift displeasure of the civil arm upon him. Denounced as a rebel after the Pentland Rising of 1666, he fled to join the bright galaxy of British divines (including his father) weathering the storm of Stuart absolutism in the Low Countries (1667). Traill’s writing began there. As assistant to Nethenus, professor at Utrecht, he prepared Samuel Rutherford’s Examination of Arminianism for the press.

Ordained in the Presbyterian Church

By 1669 he was in England, where in 1670 he was ordained by Presbyterian ministers in London. He then was called to a church at Cranbrook in Kent. During a visit to Edinburgh in 1677 he preached in a private house and was arrested.  Refusing to forbid field meetings, he was imprisoned on Bass Rock for several months. On his release, which required him to obey the law concerning outdoor meetings, he returned to Cranbrook.

Subsequently he moved to London, where after the Revolution he was called as colleague to Nathaniel Mather in the Independent congregation meeting in Paved Alley, Lime Street. After Mather’s death he gathered and pastored a separate congregation. In 1692 he look up his pen to defend the doctrine of Justification against the new Legalism.  Traill died at the age of 74.