awe, wonder, and fear? and are these not moral impressions? He proceeds:
"In the Bible it assumes quite a different shape; it is there subservient to the manifestation of the moral character of God. The doctrine of God's combined justice and mercy, in the redemption of sinners, and of his continued spiritual watchfulness over the progress of truth through the world, and in each particular heart, could not have been communicated without it, so as to have been distinctly and vividly apprehended; but it is never mentioned, except in connection with these objects; nor is it ever taught as a separate subject of belief. There is a great and important difference between these two modes of statement. In the first, the doctrine stands as an isolated fact of a strange and unintelligible nature, and is apt even to suggest the idea, that Christianity holds out a premium for believing improbabilities. In the other, it stands indissolubly united with an act of Divine holiness and compassion, which radiates to the heart an appeal of tenderness most intelligible in its nature and object, and most constraining in its influence." p. 95, 96.
Here, at length, Rationalism stands confessed, and we hear openly the "mouth speaking great things," described in prophecy. Again:
"The hallowed purpose of restoring men to the lost image of their Creator, is in fact the very soul and spirit of the Bible; and whenever this object does not distinctly appear, the whole system becomes dead and useless."
If so, what judgment are we to pass upon such texts as the following? "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other, the savour of life unto life." "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory?" " He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained." "Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be[1]." The glory of God, according to Mr. Erskine, and the maintenance of truth and righteousness, are not objects sufficient, were there no other, to prevent "the whole system" of revealed truth from "becoming dead and useless. ' Does not this philo-
- ↑ 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. Rom. ix. 22, 23. Acts xvii. 31. Rev. xxii. 12.
