ßà20 DN DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE. the less neCessaryarticles of our religion, viz. that they are some- what obscurely expressed in scripture ; the same may be applied also to the circumstantial topics, tó the appendices, and the lavi.- -cal relations even of the greatest and most neéessary points of christianity, as I hinted before. Though the practice of repen- tance, and the promises of pardon ; though justification by faith, and the deathof Christ as a ransom for sinners, are so often and So plainly affirmed, yet it is not affirmed so often, nor so plain in Scripture, what logical relation faith bears to our justification; whether it is a condition, as some make it ; or a receiving instru- ment, as others suppose : Nor is it so indisputably and so evi- dently written in the word of God, whether Christ died as a conditional atonement for all sin, anda purchaser of salvation in general for all that are willing to accept it, or whether as a strict representative only of the elect, and to procure neither absolute" nor conditional pardon for any sinsbut theirs. It is evident beyond all doubt, that where the gospel comes he that believes shall be saved; Mark ivi. 13. But whether faith saves us as it is á meré dependence on divine grace, or on thepriesthood of Christ, or whetherit saves us rather as a hearty belief of the gospel and, the grace of it, even such a belief as comes to be the spring of our repentance and our holiness, this is not so exceeding evident as to leave no room for controversy. Ìt is abundantly revealed in holy scripture, that without repen- tance of our sins we can never be saved, nor shall any- of our iniquities be forgiven without a sincere conversion to God; but tó declare with the utmost exactness and full assurance what logical relation our repentance bears to our pardon, scripture bath not taught us quite so fully, nor so clearly described it. It is sufficiently plain to every reader of the bible, that holi- ness of heart and life isof absolute necessity to our entrance into heaven, for without holiness no Haan can see God; Reb. xii. 14. But how far, and in what precise sense this holiness and obedi- ence to the commands of God ran give a right to enter into the gates of the city, is something harder tò determine; Rev. xxii. 14. or what is that sort of right or title which our own sincere obe- dience gives usto the immediate possession of blessedness, though we are fully assured from several places in the word of God, it ' is very different from the right whieli we obtain by the obedience and sufferings of Christ. In some places the sacred writer seems to mention one doc- trine, whilehe is pursuingsome one subject withwarmth and zeal; in other placesof scripture, the contrary seems to be signified or hinted; now both these. in the literal sense, and without limita- tion, cannot be true : And which of these two texts must be re- duced to the other, by certain distinctions and limitations in order to a reconciliation, is not so easy always to determine : for in
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