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the sudden transfer of every virtue to the sinner by the simple act of faith. Righteousness by faith considered in one meaning is very intelligible, and in the other it is downright nonsense.

No other instance is necessary to prove that Dr. H. has not weighed the meaning of the terms which he employs, than his sage remark that everlasting could not commence in time.' If this doctrine be true, how can he hope for everlasting life?

In order to shorten this controversy, we are anxious for the settlement of some previous questions, since otherwise it will be a mere strife of words. We wish these matters to be arranged previously to the examination and quotation of scripture, because no one will presume to quote the word of God to prove a position which he has allowed to be utterly impossible. We therefore invite the Evangelical Preachers and their advocates to define all their favourite terms. Art. 32. A Defence of the principal Doctrines of Evangelical Religion, in a Letter to "A Barrister;" occasioned by his "Hints on the Nature and Effects of Evangelical Preaching." By a Layman. 8vo. pp. 112. 38. Williams and Smith.

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When Layman meets Layman, even in theological warfare, we might reasonably expect less theological prejudice and rancour than from Divines by profession and habit: but this letter-writer is abund antly more enraged with the Barrister than even Dr. Hawker; not only suspecting him of guilty design and malignaut perversion,' but pronouncing his pamphlet to be a foul and atrocious libel.' The motive, however, of that author is with us less a matter of inquiry than the accuracy of his statements and the strength of his argu ments; and if these be overturned he must succumb, whether his object in presenting them to the public be good or bad. As the doctrines termed Evangelical are to be fairly put to the test, it is necessary that they should be clearly understood; and we think that nothing would facilitate this object so much as the substitution of some equivalent or equipollent expressions, in the room of those which are commonly employed in setting them forth; since thus we should perceive in what sense words are employed, and, as in an algebraical equation, we should obtain the precise value of each term in the proposition. It is begging the question to tell us, as this letter-writer does, that the doctrines of the Evangelical Preachers are as old as Paradise,' and to quote in proof of this position the passage which declares that "by faith Abel offered," &c.; for the Barrister and the present Layman have different notions of the term faith, which must be nicely defined before we can obtain any correct result from their debate. If it signifies a persuasion of the truth of the promises of God, the above quoted text will of necessity express no more than that Abel was instigated by this persuasion to the practice of righteousness; a principle which is, in truth, as old as Paradise, but which the Evangelical Divines cannot appropriate to themselves.

If

That Faith in the instances adduced in Heb. xi means a persuasion of the truth of revealed religion, and not any mysterious

feeling

If writers and preachers would endeavour accurately to conceive the nature of virtue and vice, they would never talk of the transfer of transgression,' nor of the pacifying efficacy of the blood of Jesus on the conscience in taking away a sense of guilt.' This is the Janguage of Evangelical Divines, but they have not borrowed it from the Evangelists, nor from any part of the O. or N. T.; passages from which the Layman liberally quotes, without endeavouring critically to understand them. This gentleman has therefore blotted many pages to little effect; for if by some texts it can be proved that the guilt of Christ's people was imputed to him,' by others it can be as satisfactorily shewn that the bodily diseases of which he healed multitudes were also imputed to him. When, however, it is once ascertained that moral imputation is utterly impossible in the very nature of things, we shall be led to the only true sense which can be affixed to the passages that represent the Saviour as bearing our sins, &c.

We were not prepared, after this Layman's philippic against works as not contributing to justification, to find it admitted that there is a sense, in which it may, with propriety, be said, that a Man is justified by his works and surely this admission is fatal to his whole hypothesis, for if in any sense works justify, the doctrine of the Evangelical Preachers falls to the ground. If justifying righteous ness can only be obtained by a kind of transfer, we cannot understand how in any case it can subsist in act or obedience.

In many other instances the Layman appears to us to reason weakly and superficially: but, as the Barrister will probably reply to his opponents, we leave to him the task of combating the heavy charges here preferred against him, and of shewing that the Evangelical Preachers have not sufficiently examined the nature and tendency of those doctrines, the truth of which they so vehemently assert.

P. S. Since we wrote the above, we have seen the second Part of the Barrister's Hints, but we have not had time for perusing it..

Art. 33. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland; together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David. To which is prefixed an Introduction, comprising a history of the English Liturgy, a sketch of the Reformation of Religion in England; and a view of the English Translations of the Holy Scriptures. The Calendar, Rubrics, Services, and Book of Psalms, are accompanied with Notes, historical, explanatory, and illustrative. By the Rev. Richard Warner. 8vo. 138. Boards. Wilkie and Robinson.

We chearfully bear testimony to the utility of this publication, which is calculated to assist the members of the Established Church in understanding our National Liturgy. Mr. Warner has brought together and exhibited with much brevity a great variety of curious

feeling or impulse, is clear from the definition of it in verse 1. and the explanation in verse 6. In the latter place, its connection with obes dience is regarded as a principle in which the outward act originates, information

information respecting the Tables, Rules, and Calendar; and he has given an account of the occasions on which the different Rubrics were established, as well as notices of the sources whence the various Services of the Church have been compiled, with the time of their introduction into the places which they now respectively occupy. With these notes are incorporated familiar explanations of the obscure and difficult passages in the Epistles, Gospels, and Psalms. Such appendages to the Book of Common Prayer must be highly acceptable to those who wish to pray with the spirit and the understanding also."

The history of the Liturgy, and of the alterations which it underwent till it assumed its present form, constitutes a valuable and amusing Introduction. Mr. Warner distinctly specifies the originals whence the different prayers, collects, &c. were taken; and he states, on the authority of Dr. Bennet, who made a curious calculation to ascertain the point, that not more than a fourteenth part of our present offices has been borrowed from the Popish Liturgies. The reader will find that, previously to the reign of Elizabeth, the following harsh deprecation made a part of the Litany: " From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord deliver us.

Though this annotator is a warm admirer of the Establishment, he speaks with great candour of the Puritans, as having obtained, from the prejudice which ran strong against them, a character which they by no means deserved. He brings down the history of the Liturgy to 1662, the period of its final adjustment, and then adds: From this time, the Liturgy of the Church of England has not been al tered*. It then received the form in every respect in which it is now found in our Book of Common Prayer: a model of simplicity and majesty ; of loveliness and sublimity; claiming the prayers of all those who enjoy its use, that the Divine blessing would ever con tinue to watch over and preserve it; nor suffer even "the gates of hell to prevail against it."

We shall glance at some of the notes, though we cannot be expected to advert to the merit of all that occur in this volume. They are very properly inserted at the bottom of the page. In those on the Lord's Prayer, Mr. W. has not informed us why which is there preserved, while who occurs in every other address to our heavenly Father, from the 3d Collect for Grace to the end of the Service.-On the Apostle's Creed, he observes that, in its most antient and original form, it wanted the following articles, viz. "He descended into Hell;" "the Communion of Saints ;" and "the Life Everlasting "-The Creed of St. Athanasius is acribed by Mr. W. and others to Vigi lius Tapsensis; and an apology (said to be ingenious) is inserted in the note, for those of the Clergy who omit the recitation of it in their churches. To the ingenuity of this apology, however, we cannot subscribe, and we think that a much better justification of

Excepting, he should have said, in a word or two, as (perhaps) Fab for the disgraceful Tea in Ps. lxviii. 4. and, recently, dominions for kingdoms, in the prayer for the High Court of Parliament.

its omission might have been assigned. Of the most beautiful prayer in the whole Liturgy, viz. the General Thanksgiving," Bishop Sanderson is known to be the author.-The Sacramentarium of Gregory is reported to contain most of our Collects.-in a long note subjoined to "the Order for the Burial of the Dead," we are reminded of the sage regulation of the Roman law, that no corpse should be buried or burnt within the city; (in urbe ne sepelito, neve arito ;) a regulation which we have not only disregarded by admitting burial grounds within towns and cities, but even by making our churches the repositories of the dead. The words in this service, ashes to ashes," Mr. W. supposes to refer to the custom of burn. ing the dead, to which the early Christians were often compelled by the Romans.

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To Mr. W. as a commentator we do not generally object but we must affix our veto to his explanation of St. Paul's "coals of fire," in the Epistle for the 3d Sunday after Epiphany, ou Rom. xii. 20. viz. If he be not affected and softened by this unexpected and unmerited behaviour, God will punish him hereafter in proportion to his obstinacy and implacable temper.' We know that Dr. Whitby gives nearly the same gloss: but it is strange that it never occurred to Dr. W. and Mr. Warner that such a reason for being apparently generous to an enemy is the most malignant and unchristian that can be supposed. The Devil could be charitable on this ground. It is evident that the expression is figurative; and the meaning of the Apostle must be, that by such acts towards an enemy as he prescribes we shall melt the most obdurate heart, as metals are fused by coals of fire.

110

It is, however, more surprising that a man of Mr. Warner's learn. ing and taste should assert in a note on the Psalter, that the transla tion of the Psalms in James the First's reign (which we have in our present Bible) is by no means so accurate or beautiful as that which is retained in our prayer-book.' On the other hand, we assert, with out fear of being contradicted by the biblical critic, that it is infinitely more accurate and more beautiful. The Psalter psalms are often bald, low, unrythmical, and not in close accordance with the original Hebrew; whereas the Bible Psalms not only closely follow the literal sense but even the rythm of the Hebrew. "Tush," "Most Highest," "runnegates," &c. do not occur in the Bible Psalms. It were easy to shew, in a multitude of instances, the superiority of the Bible version of the Psalms, and which the late Bishop of London allows: but we shall satisfy ourselves with quoting a single example. Psalm xix. 2. stands thus in the Psalter Psalms. "One day telleth another; and one night certifieth another," which is a passage almost without meaning, and is no translation of the Hebrew, nor of the Septuagint, nor of the Vulgate; whereas Ps. xix. 2. in the Bible literally follows the Hebrew and is perfectly intel. ligible; viz. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowlege."

We have often noticed the high and extravagant praises which clergymen confer on the language and phraseology of the Common Prayer; but we never observe them making any attempts to imitate

it in their own style; though we should not remark this dissonance between their commendation and their practice, if the former did not help to uphold a version in common use, which ought to be supplanted by a superior translation that has obtained the sanction of the Church.

POLITICS.

Art. 34. Remarks on the Froposals made to Great Britain, for opening
Negociations for Peace in the Year 1807. By William Roscoe, Esq.
zd Edition. 8vo. pp. 88.. 3s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1808.
The talents and accomplishments of Mr. Roscoe are scarcely dis-
puted by any, though his judgment as a politician is with some a prob-
lem, and by others is altogether denied. With us it has been matter
of great surprize, to witness the animosity which has been testified
against him, on account of the sentiments professed by him in a former
tract, and which he manfully avows and ably defends in the present. Be
it that he errs, why must his understanding be called in question, and
his motives be impeached? Why is discussion to be shut out only
on the topic of peace and war; why may not wise men consc
entiously differ on this as on other political matters; and why may
not each party state and vindicate their opinions, and truth be in that
way elicited?
The intolerance manifested on this subject appears to
us to be absolutely incomprehensible. We intended to have given
a summary of the arguments contained in this tract, with some
specimens of them: but we have forborne doing this, because
we apprehend that the highly interesting events, which are now
passing in Spain, will for a time at least indispose to peace the most
sanguine of its friends, without excepting even the amiable author
before us; and we shall only farther observe that the ingenuity and
candour, which are habitual to Mr. Roscoe, are conspicuous in the
discussion contained in these pages.

Art. 35. An Address to the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and
Ireland; occasioned by the present awful Appearance of Public
Affairs. By the Rev. W. Cockburn, A. M., Christian Advocate
in the University of Cambridge, and late Professor of St. John's
College. 8vo.
Hatchard. 1807.
IS.

Mr. Cockburn endeavours to justify the imposition and continuance of a Test, on the principle of maintaining the peace and security of the prevailing party :' but this argument labours under the misfortune of proving too much, since on this ground the exclusion of separatists from the House of Commons, and from every civil privilege, might be vindicated. Indeed, if the largest religious sect has a right, on the plea of security, to engross to itself all civil honours and emoluments, the Catholics of Ireland, since they come under this description, may claim, in that country, all the offices of the state. To counteract this obvious inference, Mr. C. adverts to the history of Ireland, where, he tells us, the religion of victory was established;' and he avails himself of the Union, to abet his first position of reserving political power in the hands of the dominant sect of the Empire In conclusion, he thinks that, before the claim of the Catholics be admitted, they ought to be able to persuade the majority of the people to

espouse

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