3—Of Justification by Faith.

Concerning this important Article as it stands in the Westminster Confession and in the New Zealand Creed nothing more need be said then that while the former carefully excludes everything that might be supposed to constitute a ground of pardon and acceptance before God for the sinner, emphasising Christ's "obedience and satisfaction" as the only ground, and explaining how this, the righteousness of Christ, is imputed or reckoned to the sinner who receives Christ and rests on Him and His righteousness by faith, the latter contents itself by simply asserting that "everyone who through the quickening grace of 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 the sight of God," omitting the words which appear in the E.P. Articles, and are substantially expressed in the Westminster Confession: "Solely on the ground of Christ's perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice"—which omission certainly weakens the Article, if it does not expose the Article to suspicion. If the omitted words are understood not to be contained in those which are retained, then the Article is a whole diameter apart from the theology of the Westminster Confession; if they are supposed to be contained in these, why should they have been dropped—more especially as their inclusion would have placed the Article beyond the reach of misunderstanding?