He began by showing
that Christian doctrine has taken various shapes, some more and some
less in accordance with the deposit of truth given by Christ and the
holy Apostles, and especially that the doctrine of Grace had been
differently conceived by two eminent theologians, Calvin and Arminius,
and his exposition was so lucid that the clerk gave it as his opinion
afterwards, that the two systems were understood by certain members of
the court for the first time that day. Afterwards the Rabbi vindicated
and glorified Calvinism from the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament, from the Fathers, from the Reformation Divines, from the
later creeds, till the brain of the Presbytery reeled through the
wealth of allusion and quotation, all in the tongues of the learned.
Then he dealt with the theology of Mr. Erskine of Linlathen, and showed
how it was undermining the very foundations of Calvinism; yet the Rabbi
spake so tenderly of our Scottish Maurice that the Presbytery knew not
whether it ought to condemn Erskine as a heretic or love him as a
saint. Having thus brought the court face to face with the issues
involved, the Rabbi gave a sketch of a certain sermon he had heard
while assisting "a learned and much-beloved brother at the Sacrament,"
and Carmichael was amazed at the transfiguration of this very youthful
performance, which now figured as a profound and edifying discourse,
for whose excellent qualities the speaker had not adequate words. This
fine discourse was, however, to a certain degree marred, the Rabbi
suggested, by an unfortunate, although no doubt temporary, leaning to
the teaching of Mr. Erskine, whose beautiful piety, which was even to
himself in his worldliness and unprofitableness a salutary rebuke, had
exercised its just fascination upon his much more spiritual brother.
Finally the Rabbi left the matter in the hands of the Presbytery,
declaring that he had cleared his conscience, and that the minister was
one--here he was painfully overcome--dear to him as a son, and to whose
many labours and singular graces he could bear full testimony, the Rev.
John Carmichael, of Drumtochty. The Presbytery was slow and pedantic,
but was not insensible to a spiritual situation, and there was a murmur
of sympathy when the Rabbi sat down--much exhausted, and never having
allowed himself to look once at Carmichael.

Then arose a self-made man, who considered orthodoxy and capital to be
bound up together, and especially