1.I ON DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE. glance at them in passing,- and does not dwell upon them Iong enough to explain them, that being not his present chief design. Some words are so ambiguous and of various meaning in the same chapter, that it is not easy to determine their precise sense in each verse ; and these words also transferred into our lan- guage may not have the same difréresst meanings as the original, and perhaps too, may be determined to the wrong sense by the translators ; but the vulgar can read only theirown language, and theirjudgments are determined by the translator's opinion. The various meanings put on the words yoµ the law, exxnne,x the church, x601o,u, to ordain, evnoxosí' a bishop or overseer, &e. sufficiently prove this. Besides, the sense of many a scripture depends not merely ón the literal constructionsof the words,. bit on the-knowledge of the context, andon theconsideration of the scope and design ofthe writer, and perhaps the deeper design of the Spirit of God that inspired him : It depends on the character and condi- tion of the persons to whom he writes, into what errors or evil practices they were fallen, at what times, and under what cir- cumstances these things fell out All which it is impossible every mechanic should know, and butfew scholars are well acquainted with These difficulties in scripture occasion different opinions among the readers ; and because each would impose his sense upon all the rest of christians; a thousand quarrelling-folios have sprung. There is another difficulty and shade of darkness which falls Upon many texts of scripture, and particularly in the New'I'esta- ment, from the extraordinary actions. and modes of action in the primitive and inspired times. It is certain that some things re- corded in the acts of the apostles, and occasionally spoken of in the epistles, refer only to the extraordinary and inspired- trans- actions of those miraculous times, and cannot be imitated by us : Such are the communcation of gifts by the imposition of hands, the healing the sick by anointing with oil, the multitudeof use- futspeakers in one assembly, the talking various languages in publie worship if an interpreter were present, &c. It is as certain also,, that somethings are recorded in some of those scriptures, as patterns and directions for our imitation in all ages. Such are the ordinancesof baptism and the Lord's -supper, the choice of deacons, the ordination of overseers-or bishops, the practice of occasional communion, &c. But there are soniccircumstances relating to these actions; concerningwhich it is hard to, determine how far they belong to the extraordinary affairs of that day, and how far they are rules for our conduct in ordinary cases. Now from all these differences have arisen many laborious and angry volumes of noise and wrangle abort the mint, the anise, and the cammin, about the dress and the fringes of religion, which have vexed the learned world, and disquieted and divided the ehurch of Christ.
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