Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

XXXV
to awaken our memory, and to excite our gratitude.
These images are an abridgment of the gospel, both
for the learned and the ignorant ; and the history of
our blessed Saviour's passion, for those who cannot
read."
Such is the darkness, the gross darkness of this
holy man's mind in many important respects,—and
if these dreadful errors were dwelt upon, and occupied
any considerable space in the whole body of the Re-
flections, they would totally destroy its vital excel-
lency, and alter its whole character. But these traits
of his corrupt church appear but rarely; are quali6ed
by important concessions ; seem the mere effects of
education and habit, contrary to the prevailing tenor
of his sentiments—are the fragments and remaining
links of that chain of darkness in which the grace of
God found him, and from which it released his soul.
These false doctrines are gross, and some of them
idolatrous—but there are other slighter, though not
unimportant errors, which spring from the confusion
of truth in his mind, to which we have already ad-
verted, and which are less fundamental in their na-
ture. They may be chiefly traced to the sources
we have pointed out—the defects on justification,
baptism, and the church.
We bring out these things that the darkness may
be seen and felt. We hide nothing. We apolo-
gize for nothing. The full exhibition of the real
case is essential to our whole purpose. Let the extraordinary
phenomena be considered. Here is a man
full of the Holy Ghost, full of the deepest humility
of soul, full of the purest and most spiritual love to
the Saviour—born of God, and following God in a