M 228 ON DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE. ship are all equally acceptable to God, that there are more true religions than one : This savours so much of the deist and the libertine, and the disciples of the leviathan, that I could never admit it intomÿ assent. Yet it must be granted that his wisdom had some very va- luable ends to attain in the way of providence, by permitting so many differences among christians ; and if we had been secre- taries to the King of heaven when he formed his decrees, we might have known perhaps some of these awful G0 arcana" of his government; but who has been his counsellor, or to whom has he givenan account of these matters ? His paths are in the great deep, and his providences are trackless through the mighty waters; how unsearchable are his ways, and his judgments are past finding out! Rom. xi. 35. I dare not pretend to write a complete a rationale" on all his infinite and impenetrable de- signs ; yet my faith assures me that they have all the highest and divine reason in them. And I will take the freedom here to mention some of those considerationsthat have silenced my cla- morous thoughts, pleasedmy inquiry, satisfied my conscience, s nd vanquished the dark temptation. First, By these doubtful disputables among the aacidentál things of religion, God tries our sincerity, whether we will hold fast the substantials. The constancy and courage of a soul de- voted toGod is exercised and proved amidst the clamours and noisy contests of the men of party and angry zeal ; and when it persevereth in ácourse of christianity, notwithstanding all these stumbling-blocks, it approves itself to God, its Judge and Re- warder. The differences of truechristians in someparts of their faith and worship, have frighted and scandalized the hypocrite and the giddy professor ; their heads have been turned round with every wind of doctrine, because their hearts have not been Establishëd in the way of holiness ; they have cast off all the articles and practices of religion, because they find so many sects divided by their little particularities, and cannot precisely deter- mine every circumstance of truth and duty. There were divi- sions and parties, schisms and sects in the Corinthian church, and theymust be, saith the apostle, that they are approved may, be made manifest among you; 1 Cor. xi. 19. Our Lord Jesus forewarns his disciples, that offences will come, and it is not pos- sible that it should be otherwise ; there shall be variance and strife in a man's own household : But blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me; he that persevereth to the end, the same shall be saved ; Luke xvii. 1. Mat. xi. 6. There are many things in the christian religion that become stones of stumbling, and rocks of ofence ; blessed arc the upright that hold on their cóurse and resolution for heaven, and, whose feet stumble not upon these darkmountains,. because of their neglect to search out the truth, or their wilful obstinacy in dangerous errors.
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