IN ItELLGION. 161 Many do not virtually adopt its first simple declaration, " I believe in God ;" for to believe in God on the Christian, scheme, is not merely to believe in a first cause, is not merely to believe in His existence, we must also believe in His attributes, His promises, His threat, enings, His Son, His word, His Spirit ; to believe in those attributes especially which harmoniously meet in the glorious union of truth and mercy, the - blessed combination of righteousness and peace in the person of his Divine Son ; those promises which are eternal life to as many as keep his commandments ; those threatenings which say to the ungodly, " Depart from me, I never knew you ;7 that holiness without which no man shall ever see his face. A bad principle is of much more ex- tensive mischief than a bad example; the latter, it is true, like a conflagration, has a tendency to destroy whatever comes within its reach ; but a pernicious prin- ciple, like the variolous matter, may be
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