3.—Of Justification by Faith.

Here also the proposed alteration of the E.P. Article is unfavourable, as it leaves the remaining clauses which make up the New Zealand Article in a state which cannot be described as other than defective from a scriptural point of view. Without the words "solely on the ground of Christ's perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice" the New Zealand Article teaches nothing whatever about the objective ground or meritorious cause of a sinner's justification, but merely states "that everyone who through the quickening grace or the Holy Spirit repents and believes the Gospel, confessing and forsaking his sins, and humbly relying upon Christ alone for salvation, is freely pardoned and accepted as righteous in sight of God." Of course, if the omitted words are held to be included in those which remain—i.e., if "the Gospel signifies that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was made sin for us, though He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, that He was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood," etc, and if "relying upon Christ alone for salvation" signifies reiving not upon Christ's love, or Christ's promise merely, but upon Christ's finished work of propitiation, which is perhaps hinted at in the closing words of Article VIII., "through His obedience on our behalf," etc., then the truncated Article might fairly enough be accepted as an adequate presentation of Scripture truth; but if "the Gospel" means less or some-thing else than this, and if "relying on Christ alone for salvation" imports anything different from relying "solely on the perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice of Christ," then the shortened Article does not give an adequate representation of the truth, because these, as it seems to me, are the senses in which the words are understood in Scripture.