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son upon the nature of a Divine Will, abstracted from Christianity, and controling our eternal destiny, is to reason upon we know not what, to argue from a principle, of which we possess not the slightest experience, and to defy the terrific creation of our own distempered fancy." P. 21.

In the notes will be found much curious matter, tending to illustrate the regeneration of the proselyte, when admitted by baptism into the Jewish covenant.

ART. VIII. A popular Survey of the Reformation, and Fundamental Doctrines of the Church of England. By George Custance. Svo. 12s. pp. 571. Longman.

A very well meaning book, but rather too comprehensive in its contents, not more than one-fourth of it being dedicated to the subject implied in the title. The lawfulness, the expediency, of the established Church come into consideration; succeeding to these are two chapters on the Trinity and on original sin; then come three upon justification, and one upon sanctification; after which moderate parenthesis the Author returns again to "the spirit," and the "utility of the Church of England." And all this is entitled a History of the Reformation. Mr. Custance is doubtless a very worthy man, and a very worthy son of the Church; but such a heterogeneous mass of matter, equally rambling and confused, can be of very little use to the cause which he would defend. Mr. C. is clearly one of that party in the Church, who assume to themselves the exclusive privileges of the Gospel; the whole volume, indeed, is more like an extempore sermon, delivered from one of their pulpits, than a regularly composed treatise, being an incoherent mixture of truisms and absurdities. An idea of the Author's style may be taken from the following specimen:

"The seraphic Zechariah saw "Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment *"" Let no man then presume to stand before the Divine Majesty in the filthy rags of his own righteousness; he must be arrayed in the garments of

"Zechariah, iii. 1-4."

sal

salvation, which the Redeemer himself has wrought, before he can be fit to appear in the celestial court of the King of kings. " I counsel thee," saith our Lord, "to buy of me white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." The same elegant figure is employed by the Apostle when he exhorts the Romans to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Again, "for as many of you," saith he to the Galatians, as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." And all such are supremely blessed, "God now looking on them," says Mr. Locke, "there appears nothing but Christ; they are as it were covered all over with him, as a man is with the clothes that he hath put on." Thus adorned they sing:

"But lest the shadow of a spot

Should on our souls be found,

He took the robe the Saviour wrought

And cast it all around." P. 391.

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These gentlemen can do nothing without a little bit of a hymn, which is introduced in this place with peculiar felicity, after a citation from Mr. Locke.

As we have no doubt that Mr. Custance is a well-meaning, though a mistaken man, we shall conclude, with recommending him to remain contented with what is already done in the way of divinity, to think a little more, and to write a great deal less.

ART. IX. A New Covering to the Velvet Cushion. 12mo.' pp. 180. 58. 6d. Gale and Fenner. 1815.

Of the Velvet Cushion in its original state we spoke with much freedom, because the principles which it was designed to inculcate were such as we considered worthy of animadversion. We approved neither the slippery surface,nor the camelion colours of the original: of its new covering we shall say but little, excepting that it is coarse calimanco, ill-coloured, cross-grained, and full of old holes, which we have neither time nor inclination to rip up at present. All the old dissenting arguments are urged in the spirit of ancient bitterness, but moulded into the new shape of a religious novel. The whole system of ecclesiastical discipline is run down, because it is possible that the care of a parish may possibly be confided to a fox-hunter, or a debauchee. To such an extreme case as the following who can answer? We might as well argue against all government because a Nero reigned, and against all law because a Jeffreys was once judge.

* Revelation, iii. 18.”

But

"But allow me to ask, do no inconveniences result from the imposition of ministers upon parishes by ecclesiastical authority? What say you to a libertine appointed to the cure of souls? What say you to the condition of a parish doomed to attend, and to take their families to attend upon preaching, in which no single doctrine of the gospel is ever introduced, or in which they are all opposed? An attendance elsewhere would, you know, be schismatic, and remaining at home, you would I am sure deem impious. A réctor, for instance, I grant you is a very independent man, except so far as he is afraid of the Bishop; but is it reasonable that the rest should be all slaves? But after all, the conveniences or inconveniences of the two systems do not, properly speaking, belong to the question. What saith the scriptures?"

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"If,' said the stranger, they have indeed said any thing upon the subject, I admit they are the last and best appeal.'

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My opinion is,' returned Mr. R that they have. Christians are admonished to take heed what they hear,' and to 'beware of false prophets.' When an apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas, the disciples were applied to for the purpose, and when the seven officers of the first Christian community at Jerusalem were elected, a similar method was adopted. • Look ye out amongst you seven men of honest report.' The practice of Christian antiquity supports the same sentiment. All the bishops of the first ages were chosen by popular vote, and they were not secular, but spiritual bishops, overseers' of the churches of Christ. Cyprian frequently speaks of his being made bishop of Carthage, by the favor, and vote of the people; and expressly says "the chief power of choosing worthy ministers, and of rejecting the unworthy, belongs to the people." "

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It is true that the first officers of the Christian community were elected; but the author has not been pleased to inform us how else they could then have been chosen; did he expect to find a conge delire from either Herod, or the high priest?

NOVEL.

ART. X. Duty, a Novel. By the late Mrs. Roberts. S vols. 12mo. 12s Longman. 1814.

We cannot pass over these volumes without giving them the credit which they deserve. They do much credit both to the feelings and to the discernment of their authoress, nor will they be read without both amusement and instruction. The style is good, the incidents are pretty, and the story not without interest. Prefixed to the whole is a short life of the authoress, by Mrs. Opie, and we regret to find that this is a posthumous work.

ART.

MEDICINE.

ART. XI. Letters addressed to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent upon Consumptions. By Thomas Sutton, M.D. &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 59. Underwood. 1814.

The inutility of using a regulated, equable temperature, as a general remedy in cases of consumption, is canvassed with much ingenuity in this painphlet, and we think that Dr. Sutton has in some measure proved, that no favourable result can in general bé expected from such a remedy, as consumption is equally frequent in those climates which this temperature is designed to imitate. A humid atmosphere is considered as most favourable to those afflicted by the disease, and this remark is confirmed by the beneficial effects generally received by consumptive patients from the climate of Devonshire. Dr. Sutton's observations respecting the island of Madeira are well worthy of attention.

ART. XII. Observations on the Nature and Treatment Consumption. By Charles Pears, M. D., F.L.S., &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 63. Highley. 1814.

Galen, Hippocrates, Asclepiades, Alexander, Psycrestus, and other names of equal toughness, will most assuredly stick in the teeth of him who attempts to masticate the contents of this vo lume. We have seldom read, in the course of the same number of pages, more pompous inanity, interspersed with hard words, than is presented us in the volume before us. A more happy specimen of fervent inanity cannot be given than in the following sentences, which conclude these "observations," as the author is pleased to denominate them.

"It is supposed that an apology is hardly necessary for amplify ing thus on a disease which has been said to "DESTROY TWOTHIRDS of our population*;" and which, as Mr. Abernethy has observed, "has not met with sufficient attention, or its PRINCIPLES been sufficiently EXPLAINED." Observation," as Le Dran says, "is the mother of arts and sciences; from whence most discoveries

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* Besides the human subject, other animals also suffer much from CONSUMPTION, especially horses, dogs, cats, monkeys, squirrels, birds, &c."

are

are derived. To this we are indebted for their progress, and by this alone they are brought to perfection,"

"By this, therefore, we may hope to succeed; and to this natural foundation we must apply-with Hippocrates, and every other attentive and persevering observer of nature in her various, yet uniform, operations; if we hope to lessen the number of those CONSUMPTIVE SACRIFICES, So well described by the Latin poct, where

"HECTIC, and void of strength, CONSUMPTION pale
Prey'd on their vitals.

Good's Lucretius, b. 6."

"In conclusion, therefore, REMEMBER the advice of Hippocrates, that "the patient, the attendants, and-the PHYSICIAN! should each DO THEIR DUTY!" must be studiously followed, as the only probable means of SECURING an effect, so devoutly to be wished-by ALL!" P. 61.

The writers on political economy have neglected hitherto to take horses, dogs, cats, monkeys, squirrels, birds, &c, into the calculation of the English population. Mr. Malthus may derive an useful hint from this publication, and we doubt not, but that in a future edition of his work on population, we shall find a proposition to extend the prizes of celibacy to bachelor monkeys, spinster cats, &c. The hint to be thus derived from the essay before we consider as the most valuable effect of the work.

us,

LAW,

ART. XIII. A Treatise on the Abuse of Laws, particularly in Actions of Arrest, &c. By James Pearce, Gent., Attorney at Law. 184 pp. Svo. 6s. Sherwood.

1814.

The author informs us that he is an attorney at law of nearly twenty years' practice, in London, which certainly gives him a full title to write upon the abuses of the laws. Whether he speaks from his own experience or from that of others we know not, but he certainly has drawn up an account of actions, arrests, bailbonds, &c. sufficiently entertaining to all those who are strangers to all this dreadful smithery. Many useful hints might doubtless be derived from Mr. Pearce's suggestions; but we fear that practice in the main must stand where it was. Abuses never can be avoided in a free-country, where so many rogues must necessarily be concerned. The remedy would be worse than the disease.

ART.

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