DEW corresponds to truths which are received in a state of holy love— love to God. There is much warmth in the water of dew, much more than in the water of Snow or of Rain; and as heat corresponds to love (for love is spiritual heat), Dew therefore corresponds to those truths. which man receives when in a high state of holy affection.

There are several other very remarkable circumstances connected with dew, by which it is distinguished from snow and from rain.

Rain and snow fall at all the different times of the day and of the night, but the dew falls only when mankind are at rest. So it is with the dew of heaven. In all the different states through which man passes in the regenerate life he may receive natural and spiritual truths; but the dew—the truth from the heat of celestial love-descends only when he is in a state of rest. Evil and false passions and imaginations cause uneasiness and restlessness to the good man; but when the lusts of evil and the persuasions of falsity are resisted, then the Christian sleeps, so "He giveth His beloved sleep; (Psa. cxxvii. 2.) he takes his rest after the toil and labour of his spiritual day; and when he rises in the morning to another day of spiritual labour, the dew of heaven is found upon the tender herbs of his soul, which is "as a watered garden;" he is revived, and cheered, and blessed.

If the night be cloudy and windy no dew is formed; neither is the dew from heaven formed when the mental atmosphere is clouded with falsities, or blown about by the wind of infernal influences.

Dew falls at daybreak, early in the morning; small quantities may be formed between sunset and midnight; but dew is formed principally towards the morning, about sunrise. Just so with the dew of heaven. "From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." (Psa. cx. 3.) The true Christian is continually passing through successive states, answering to morning, noon, evening, and night. The morning, in respect to the day, is as the spring in reference to the year, a state of delight. Now early in the morning, in the language of Scripture, signifies the coming of the Lord into the soul-the coming of His peace-of His blessedness. He is "the Morning," "the East," "the Day Dawn," "the Light of the Morning, when the Sun arises." As the Lord arose from the grave "early in the morning," so He rises daily, "early in the morning" in the regenerating mind; He comes with His heavenly peace and delight, and the dew falls upon the ground-the truth of heavenly peace, and man is in a state of indescribable felicity; he realizes the divine promise, "I will be as the dew unto Israel."

While the Israelites were travelling through the wilderness, they were fed with manna; this manna fell only in the morning, and it fell with the dew; "the manna which came down from heaven was with the dew

which descended in the morning." Manna being bread, and coming from heaven, represents the celestial principle of love to God; and we have seen that dew denotes truth from this good of love; thus every regenerating mind-every Christian-every traveller to the heavenly Canaan, will every morning-in every state of quiet, find that the heavenly manna of love to God, has descended upon his soul-" the bread which cometh down from heaven," "angel's food," has descended with the dew.

Rain falls on every kind of ground; not so the Dew. No dew is formed or descends on barren rocks or sandy deserts. It is on the grass of the meadow, and on the herbs and the trees of the field that the dew is formed. The same is true of the heavenly dew; it does not fall on the unregenerate mind, on the barren rock, on the stony ground, on the sandy desert of the worldly carnal mind; but it falls richly, copiously, abundantly on the mind fruitful in herbs, plants, and trees of righteousness fruitful in holy thoughts, affections, and uses his soul, as a delightful garden, is watered with the dew of heaven.

The formation of dew upon the various kinds of grasses, herbs, and trees differs in degree according to the peculiar properties of each. Not a drop of dew is formed by chance. Every drop is adjusted by the balance of Infinite Wisdom to accomplish a definite and a benevolent end. Every shrub and herb, every leaf, and every blade of grass possesses, according to its kind, a different degree of radiation, so that each receives a different proportion of dew according to its own individual and peculiar exigences. In like manner, the influences of heavenly truth from heavenly good descend on regenerating minds, according to the different states of each. All heavenly consolation-" times of refreshing," are given by the Lord, adjusted by Infinite Wisdom and Benevolence, according to each Christian's need, and as he is able to bear it. How encouraging! how full of consolation!

HAIL corresponds to infernal falsities. Hail does not, as hail, descend from the higher regions of the atmosphere; it descends as fine small rain, but it is congealed into ice, as it, in its descent, passes through a cold region. Hail, spiritually considered, does not, in its first descent from heaven, descend as Hail-as falses, but as rain-Divine Truth. Heavenly truth is changed into falses, when it descends into an evil mind; "The truth of God is changed into a lie." (Rom. i. 25.) The rain of heaven is congealed into hail by the cold which exists in a wicked heart. All error is truth perverted-truth changed into falsity, by man's rejection of holy, heavenly love. This state of infernal cold changes rain into hail, truth into falsity. Thus as natural hail is formed by the descent of rain into a cold atmosphere, so mental hail is pro

duced by the descent of Divine Truth into the cold region of a wicked mind; and the "stones of hail" are more or less large, as men more or less resist the truth and destroy the holy things of love and faith. (To be continued.)

INCONSISTENCIES OF THE ADVOCATES OF A

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT.

No doubt it has always appeared very desirable, if it were possible, to get out of the way of the unanswerable objections to the vicarious atonement with which the orthodox have been from time to time assailed. Hence we find the advocates of that doctrine holding a very different language when addressing their hearers upon it, without thinking at the time of such objections, and when addressing them with a mental advertence to those objections.

Writing for the use of those who not only feel no objection to that doctrine, but make it their "only hope," Dr. Watts says concerning the pacification of the wrath of God the Father (!):—

"Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood

That calmed his frowning face;

That sprinkled o'er the burning throne,
And turned the wrath to grace."

Or was his mind as much

But did Dr. Watts really believe this? unsettled upon the doctrine of vicarious atonement, as it unquestionably was on the Doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, even after he had appeared before the public as the unflinching advocate of the latter doctrine ? Let the following extract from his "Redeemer and Sanctifier," page 27, determine :—

"By atonement for sin, I do not mean any such thing as shall in a proper or literal sense appease the wrath of God which is supposed to be kindled against his sinful creatures, and shall incline his heart to mercy which was before determined upon vengeance; for though this doctrine may be represented sometimes after the manner of men, yet this is a supposition in many respects inconsistent with the attributes and actions of the blessed God, and with the doctrine of the New Testament."

Was it in sober sincerity, or merely speaking after the manner of men, that the cotemporary of Dr. Watts, Dr. David Jennings, in his learned work on the "Jewish Antiquities," page 474, says:—

"The paschal lamb was to be roasted with fire, as representing its antitype Jesus Christ enduring, on our account, the fierceness of God's anger, which is said to burn like fire (Psalm lxxxix. 46; Jer. iv. 4.) Hence that complaint of our suffering

Saviour in the prophecy concerning him in the 22nd Psalm: 'My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels; my strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.'"

It seems a question worthy the consideration of the adherents to the doctrine of a vicarious atonement, whether, if such a man as Dr. Watts, when setting forth the atonement as in the stanza quoted above, was only speaking "after the manner of men," the teachers whom they are accustomed to follow are really more sincere in setting forth their doctrine upon the subject, or whether they are only "speaking after the manner of men." For my own part, I am of opinion, that very extensively what is said on this subject, is said because it furnishes a ready means of captivating the feelings or passions of the hearer; while it has no firm hold on the reason of the speaker in his private capacity. He speaks in the terms he does, because he is expected so to speak by his hearers, of whom he is rather the mouthpiece than the instructor! A clergyman was once asked by a friend of mine, whether he really believed what he had been preaching, to which he replied, by an inversion of the words of an apostle, (1 Cor. ix. 14.) "Those who live by the gospel, must preach the gospel." Resemblances to this case, more or less remote, abound, there can be no doubt.

If the supposition just hazarded, namely, that very extensively the doctrine taught is not the calm, rational, individual conviction of the Preacher, (imagined by himself, no doubt, to be perfectly sincere, such being the ease with which men practise self-deception,) it may be expected, that, notwithstanding, all the burning zeal exhibited for the maintenance of this doctrine as the real gospel, there is little solid ground-work for it in the individuality of its advocates, and therefore, in a very few generations, it will die away of itself, for fear of the cool, intellectual reasoners who, with increasing and irresistible force, will continue to assail it. These natural reasoners are signified by the enemies of Zion from the North country, in the following passage in Jeremiah, (vi. 22.) "Behold, a people cometh from the North country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth [the Church]. They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion," meaning the professing Church, which so calls herself. The effect produced on the fallen Church is then described in the language put into her mouth in the next verse: "We have heard the fame thereof! our hands are feeble! Anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way;

for the sword of the enemy, and fear, is on every side." (See also Jer. x. 22, 1. 9, 41, li. 48.) The verification of these fears in the professing Church, in all its sections, is seen in the anxiety felt equally by all, that their members shall read no books but those which contain their own doctrine. "Go not forth," say they, "for the sword of the enemy is on every side!"

I cannot conclude this article without adding an extract from Dr. Watts's "Improvement of the Mind," which shews to what shifts really logical minds are driven, in their endeavours to defend the prevalent irrational views on the atonement.

Dr. Watts says,

"Watch narrowly in every dispute, that your opponent does not lead you unwarily to grant some principle or proposition which will bring with it a fatal consequence. Polonides, in free conversation, led Incauto to agree with him in this plain proposition, that the blessed God has too much justice in any case to punish the innocent. A little after, Polonides came to commend the innocence of our blessed Saviour, and thence inferred, that it was impossible that God should punish so holy a person, who was never guilty of any crime: THEN Incauto espied the snare, and found himself robbed and defrauded of the great doctrine of the atonement by the death of Christ, upon which he had placed his immortal hopes. This taught him to bethink himself what a dangerous concession he had made, and he saw it needful to add this restriction,-unless this innocent being stood as a voluntary surety for the guilty. By this limitation he secured the blessed doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of men, and learned to be more cautious for the future."

It is needless to point out the unreasonableness of this limitation. The wonder is, that such a caution as that inculcated in the above extract, should be found in the same work with the following caution: "take heed lest some darling notion, some beloved doctrine, be made a test of the truth or falsehood of other propositions about the same subject." What but "a darling notion," a fond prejudice, could prevent the Doctor from seeing, that the "limitation" by which he would secure the vicarious atonement means nothing more nor less than this, that it is lawful for God to commit injustice whenever he can find a being who is willing to become his accomplice, by submitting to be the subject of it in his own person? Upon this principle, it would be lawful for a man to put another to death, provided only that it be done with the consent of the latter, supposing, for instance, that he felt his life had become a burden to his family. But it is enough to urge against this "limitation," that no man can imitate the supposed conduct of God in this alleged particular, without offending against the divine law, and forfeiting the divine favour, and becoming amenable to the offended laws of his country!

A THINKER.

N.S. NO. 53.-VOL. v.

Y