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Old 03-11-2008, 10:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by py3ak View Post
I just noticed that there seems to be a variant in WCF XX.2. A couple editions read like this:
[taking up after the justly renowned semicolon] "or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship."

So it says in the version on CRTA, and in my 1997 printing of the Great Commission Publications version of the Standards.

But, the BPC website reads in for if.

Which is, in fact, the authorized rendition?
The word should be "if". Here is Carruthers comment from my notes:
“word, or” and “in matters” (DNLP): DNLP–J&H; ARP; BOCF; BP; PCUS; PCUSA-UP. “This double error is the most important in the whole Confession. It has obscured a distinction of great significance … The divines’ argument is this: men are free in all things directly contrary to God’s word; but, in addition, if the question is one of faith or worship, they are free in matters not stated in the word. The distinction between matters civil and religious, and the great doctrine concerning things indifferent in the ecclesiastical world, are completely obscured by the change of a single letter and an alteration of punctuation. It was Dunlop who introduced both of these changes, and his influence seems to have been strong enough to secure the adoption of this corrupt text by the Reformed Presbyterian editor, usually so accurate. The persistence of the error shews how easy it is to accept a well-known and official form of words without critical mental analysis.” Carruthers, The Westminster Confession of Faith: Being an account of the Preparation and Printing of its seven leading editions, to which is appended a critical text of the Confession with notes thereon [1937].
p. 127-128.
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The Regulative Principle: Samuel Miller gives a succinct statement of this principle when he writes that since the Scriptures are the “only infallible rule of faith and practice, no rite or ceremony ought to have a place in the public worship of God, which is not warranted in Scripture, either by direct precept or example, or by good and sufficient inference.”

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