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ing a Mode which would afford them permanent Relief, and, at the same Time, greatly benefit the Nation at large. For the Consideration of the Bath and West of England Society. By Thomas Morgan. 2s.

POETRY.

The Siege of Corinth, a Poem; Parisina, a Poem. 5s. 6d.

The Political Works, in Verse, of the Rev. Charles Edward Stewart; consisting of the Regicide, the Foxiad, Charles's Small Clothes, and the Aliad. 8vo. 5s.

Redemption; in Twenty Books. By George Woodley, Author of "The Church-yard," and other Poems. 2 vols. 8vo. 16s.

The Appeal of Poland, an Ode, written on the Commencement of the late Campaign. By W. Walker, of Trinity College, Cambridge. 1s. 6d. The Story of Rimini. By Leigh Hunt. 6s 6d.

NOVELS.

Mehaled and Sedli; or the History of a Druse Family, with some Account of the Druses, an ancient People of Syria. By the Baron Dalberg, Brother of the Grand Duke of Frankfort. 2 vols. 12mo. 10s.

Gulzara, Princess of Persia; or The Virgin Queeu; collected from the Qriginal Persian. 8vo. 10%. 6d.

Memoirs of Myself. By Pill Garlick. 75.

Valentine's Eve, by Mrs. Opie. 3 vols. 12mo. 11. 1s.

Uncle Tweazy and his Quizzical Neighbours, a Comi-Satiric Novel. By the Author of the Observant Pedestrian. 3 vols. 12mo. 15s.

The Matron of Erin, a National Tale. 3 vols. 12mo. 18s.

MISCELLANIES.

A Postscript to the Earl of Elgin's Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, &c. containing Remarks on Mr. Tweddell's Appendix. 19. 6d.

Hints addressed to Proprietors of Orchards, and to Growers of Fruit in general, comprising Observations on the present State of the Apple Trees, in the Cyder Counties, made in a Tour during the last Summer, &c. By William Salisbury. 12mo. 6s.

A Letter to Robert Wissett, Esq. in Answer to Four Letters, addressed by Mr. Wissett to the Author, " on the Subject of Licensing, and Regulations for Public Houses, and Liquor Shops." By John Bowles, Esq. one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the Counties of Surrey and Middlesex. The Second Edition, with Additions. 3s. 6d..

Attempt at a new Mode of Metaphysical Enquiry, illustrated as here. emplayed upon Perception. By the Author of a Few Pages on the Book of Job.

1s. 6d.

Euripidis Alcestis. Ad fidem Manuscriptorum ac veterum Editionum emendavit et Annotationibus instruxit Jacobus Henricus Monk, A.M. Collegii SS. Trinitatis Socius, et Græcarum Literarum apud Cantabrigienses Professor Regius. Accedit Georgii Buchanani Versio metrica. 8vo. 6s. 6d. boards.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

The Lives of Dr. Pocock, Bishop Pearce, Bishop Newton, and Mr. Skelton, taken from the voluminous Editions of their Works, and reprinted in two Octavo Volumes.

A sixth and seventh Volume of the History of British Birds, with coloured Plates, by Mr. E. Donovan.

A Treatise on Criminal Law, by Mr. Chitty, with a copious Collection of Precedents, in three Octavo Volumes.

A Volume of Sermons, by the Rev. G. S. Faber.

A new

A new Edition, corrected and greatly enlarged, of Dr. Cove's Essay on the Revenues of the Church of England.

A Collection of Facts and Opinions relative to the burning of "Widows with the dead Bodies of their Husbands, and to other destructive Customs prevalent in British India, by Mr. William Jones, late acting Surgeon at Serampore.

A new Edition of Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Prayers, improved. in the arrangement by Mr. Clapham.

An Essay on the Being of God, and his Attributes of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, to which Burnett's first Prize of £1200 was adjudged August 4, 1815, with a Biographical Sketch of Mr. Burnett's Life, by Dr. Brown, Principal of the Marischal College, Aberdeen.

A new Edition of the New Devout Communicant.

A new Edition of Leslie's short and easy Method with the Jews, at the desire of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

A second Edition of the Life of Mrs. Trimmer.

A third Edition of Mr. Pennington's Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter.

The Christian's Manual, compiled from a translation of the Enchiridion Militis Christiani of Erasmus, by Philip Wyatt Crowther, Esq. with copious Scripture Notes.

A short account of the Campaigns in North Holland and Egypt, by Major Maule.

A splendidly illustrated Work on the Battle of Waterloo, in folio, by Mr. Bowyer, to correspond with the Campaigns in Russia and France in 1812 and 1814.

Memoirs of the Ionian Isles, and of their Relations with European Turkey, translated from the original Manuscript of M. de Vaudoncourt, late General in the Italian Service, with a very accurate and comprehensive Map.

M. Puigblanch, the Spanish Patriot, is about to publish The Inquisition Unmasked, or the Triumph of Humanity and Liberality in Spain; being a History of the Conduct and Objects of that Tribunal, and a Dissertation on the Necessity of its Suppression.

Alaston, or the Spirit of Solitude; with other Poems, by Percey Bysshe Shelley.

ERRATA.

In our No. for Dec. p. 675, 1. 8. for The Lay of Mario, by Matilda Beatham, read The Lay of Marie, by Matilda Betham.

In our No. for Jan. p. 112, 1, 21. for Pratt's Work, read Pradt's

Work.

THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR MARCH, 1816.

ART. I. An Enquiry into the Effect of Baptism, &c. in Answer to the Rev. Dr. Mant's two Tracts on Regeneration and Conversion. By the Rev. John Scott, M. A. Vicar of North Ferriby, &c, 1815.

Baptism a Seal of the Christian Covenant; or Remarks on Dr. Mant's Tract on Regeneration. By Thomas T. Bide dulph, A.M. Minister of St. James's, Bristol, &c. 1816.

THE subject of these treatises is of the utmost impor tance, and is rendered peculiarly interesting, at the present moment, by the zeal and exertions of a party to give currency to their own conceits and authority to their peculiar notions, by a confident appeal to Scripture and to the established doctrine of the Church of England. Their zeal, though not always according to knowledge, nor generally very consistent with candour or charity, is full of art and activity. Their exertions are very various, very extensive, and altogether unremitting. They seem frequently, indeed, in the haste and in the multiplicity of. their labours, to "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" but it is evident, at the same time, that their confidence is daily assuming a higher note of accusation and defiance, and is gra dually acquiring a firmer tone of assertion and assurance. They appear indeed to be well, and they have probably been long, practised in the common arts of controversy; in the art ad cap tandum vulgus particularly.

On no questions in the wide field of theological enquiry da we find more inaccurate thinking, more incoherent speaking, and more incorrect and various writing, even from the same pen, than on those which respect the nature, the means, and the marks of regeneration and conversion. Language, the medium of all our knowledge, is so inadequate, and the powers of man Q

VOL. V. MARCH; 1816.

are so imperfect, as to render it perhaps impossible, (in matters so much beyond our ordinary experience, and our social relations, and naturally involving very various views, very difficult and mysterious circumstances,) so to express the truth, or our conception of the truth, as not to give occasion to misapprehension, and consequently, with men so artful and so zealous, to controversy. When we view such subjects in one light, (and their very nature, as well as the imperfection of our powers, renders it necessary that we should so view them,) when we are arguing the consequences and enforcing the duties which result from this view, and when we are guarding against the errors which have been attached to the part of the subject before us, we are apt to give occasion to prejudice, to mistake, and to artifice, to mistate our meaning. We may even seem to approach, or we may give a colour to the suspicion that we approve other errors equally great, which a full view of the subject and a candid estimate of our whole opinion, would at once shew that we not only reject but abhor. The force of the controversy at present consists, we think, entirely, in the advantage which has been taken by our assailants, (for they are originally unprovoked assailants,) of the difficulty which naturally belongs to the subject, increased as that difficulty greatly is by the inadequacy of language and the imperfection of man. They have largely declaimed on such inaccurate expresgions, as they have found, or feigned, in the writings of their opponents, and they have collected with assiduous artifice, many insulated passages from approved authors, which thus detached, aided by their comments, seem to speak their sentiments, but which, in their proper place and connection, have no such meaning as they maintain.

The controversy thus conducted is idle, and it is endless. Within the last month we have reperused with high gratification the writings of various of our great divines, whose opinions on the subject before us Dr. Mant chiefly follows, and on the whole, in our judgment, very satisfactorily maintains. We have had special reference at the same time to the numerous authorities which they have adduced and elucidated, nor have we neglected the various efforts, apologies, illustrations and assertions of the various tribes of enthusiasts, within and without the Church. But what avail the labours, the learning, and the sagacity of our most illustrious divines against the noisy and incessant clamour of a restless party? We find the same prejudices, pertiuaciously urged, and the same errors zealously maintained, with a bundle of opposite authorities, hastily collected and artfully enforced, with scarce a reference to those confutations which have been before the public for a long series of years, and which have never yet met with a patient and a pertinent reply.

Dr.

Dr. Waterland's admirable Sermon on Regeneration is yet unanswered, and we believe unanswerable; nor do we deem the general positions of Dr. Mant in any danger from the rude attacks of Mr. Scott, who displays much readiness, some ability, and great artifice. Still less danger is to be apprehended from the Remarks of Mr. Biddulph, who is feeble and flimsy, and not by any means, we think, master of the merits of the subject. These gentlemen, however, fancy themselves invincible; the latter quite as much so as the former; and they both deal their blows and utter their complaints with becoming confidence and with great self-complacency. So far for the present are they safe in their fancied security; for it is not in the hasty pages of a Review that a formal answer can be furnished to two such collections of subtlety and declamation. Something useful, however, may even here perhaps be attained, by removing irrelevant matter, by lopping off redundancies, and by reducing the subject of dispute within its proper limits. In attempting this, we would avoid repetition as much as possible, and therefore we venture to refer the reader to the British Critic for July, 1814, Art. IV. and to recommend a serious perusal of the work therein considered, and of the authorities with which it so remarkably abounds. The question between Dr. Mant and his opponents is in effect the same, in many essential particulars, as Mr. Nolan has discussed with so much ability and elucidated with so much learning. The cause or ground of the whole dispute consists in the low estimation (see the Art. referred to, p. 55,) in which the Christian sacraments are held, and in the positive conviction entertained by Messrs. Scott, Biddulph, and Co. that they are not the necessary, nor even the common means of grace.

To remove at once one great source of declamation and controversy, let it be particularly noted that we speak only, and that we are entitled only to speak, of the Christian Church, and of those to whom the terms of Christian salvation are offered and are possible. We make this remark, because these gentlemen (Scott, p. 127, &c. and Biddulph, p. 110, &c.) rather rudely run riot in their declamations against their opponents, as if forsooth they consigned, without mercy, to eternal damnation, all those unfortunate persons, infants and adults, who are born, live, and die, WHERE BAPTISM MAY NOT BE HAD. The accusation is very grave, and wherever and to whomsoever these charitable declaimers shall be able with justice to affix the gross guilt of so horrible a judgment, the criminals merit their severest reprobation. But really, gentlemen, to the best of our knowledge and belief, the men whom you so rashly accuse are not guilty, nor do their real principles admit of the abominable inference.

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