longing more properly to a fubfequent period which fhall embrace the hiftory of that pacification; the state and fentiments of the two countries, and of other nations during the peace; the rife and progrefs of the rupture, with the events which may enfue until hoftilities be brought to a permanent conclufion."

As it was one thing to rejoice at the termination of war, and another to approve of the treaty of Amiens, from the point at which the hiftory ceafes, we have no certain data for determining whether our author approves or does not approve of that convention. We think, however, that the probability is that he does not; the very reasoning which he applies to Lord Bute's peace, applies much more strongly to the peace in queftion. Our author is uniformly the admirer of British energy, and the tone which energy dictates, and as in that and other parts of his work he is diftinguished for confiftency, we cannot fee it poffible for him to reckon the late peace honourable to Britain. He who fo eloquently defcribes the magnanimous and fublime Secretary Pitt, propofing the moft decifive measures to the monarchs of France and Spain, certainly would feel indignant at the idea of his adored Britons crouching to Buonaparte. Thefe are confiderations which we fuggeft to Dr. Biffet when proceeding with his work, he shall difcufs the treaty of Amiens, and minifterial acquiefcence with confular infolence, during the hollow truce with the Corfican barbarian. It is evident our author does not reft the fecurity of Britain on the peace, but on the manifeftation of British ftrength, as will appear from the ftrong and glowing picture which clofes the work.

"The most important object which Britain afcertained at the termination of the late war, was her own fecurity: for this valuable bleffing under Providence, fhe was indebted to her own extraordinary efforts during the whole of the conteft, but especially fince the rupture of the firft negotiation at Paris. She had proved, even beyond her own exertions in former times, that fhe was fuperior to the whole naval world combined against her in war. Every attempt to difturb her rights, to invade her dominions, either directly or indirectly to impair the fources of her commercial profperity and political greatness, have recoiled on the authors: never had her commerce been fo flourishing, or her power fo refiftlefs, as during the most arduous war which her hiftory has to record. Threatened, and actual rebellion, only demonftrated paramount loyalty and patriotifm: attempts on her finances difplayed, beyond former conception, the extent of her refources; leaving their bounds far beyond calculation; refources exhauftlefs, because flowing from minds which afford perennial fupply; menaced invafion ferved only to fhew the number and force of her voluntary defenders. Every means that fertile genius could devife, or gigantic power execute, was effayed againft our country: if he could have been fubdued by any human effort, in the late arduous conteft fhe must have fallen: the ftupendous exertions that were employed against Britain, but employed in vain, demonstrate her invincible. HERE RESTS OUR SECURITY, IN THE MANIFESTATION Or RESOURCES NOT TO BE EXHAUSTED, A SPIRIT NOT TO BE BROKEN, AND A FORCE NOT TO BR SUBDUED; OUR SECURITY IS INVULNEKABLE WHILE WE CONTINUE WHAT WE HAVE BEEN, AND ARE TRUB TO OURSELVES.

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Remarks

Remarks on the Doctrine of Juftification by Faith: in a Letter to the Rev. John Overton, A. B. Author of a Work entitled "The True Churchmen afcertained." By Edward Pearfon, B. D., Rector of Rempftone, Nottinghamshire. 8vo. Pp. 38. Hatchard. 1802. F this valuable pamphlet had not accidentally efcaped our notice, we should long ago have teftified our high efteem of it, by laying an account of it before our readers. It is, indeed, deferving of very high efteem; for it gives a concife and moft masterly view of one of the most important doctrines of the Chriftian faith: a view at once fo fimple and fatisfactory that, did we not know with what pertinacity inveterate prejudices are cherished and defended, we fhould hope that there would no longer be any difpute on the fubject.

The doctrine of juftification by faith has been called the "fundamental doctrine of Proteftantifm." It might, with more propriety, be called the "fundamental doctrine of the gofpel;" for, when rightly underfood, fo it certainly is. It is lamentable, however, that, by many proteftants, this doctrine has been totally perverted, and made fubfervient to the groffeft licentioufnefs: To give proofs of this affer-.. tion would be wholly fuperfluous; for its truth neither is, nor can be, called in question. And, indeed, while the notion is ftrenuoufly inculcated, that nothing but faith is required from man in order to his being accepted of God, in other words, that "faith is the only condition of man's juftification;" accompanied, (as this notion uniformly is,) by the doctrine of the "final perfeverance of the faints," or that a man once juftified can never totally and finally fall from grace," it is, morally fpeaking, an abfolute impoffibility that the intereft of virtue fhould not be difregarded, and Chrift himfelf made the minifter of fin. We are far from thinking (God forbid !) that all who teach this dangerous theory of juftification are unfriendly to morality; though many who have taught it were avowedly fo. The mifcreants, who, under the name of Antinomians, are remembered only to excite abhorrence, fyftematically built on this foundation the defence of fuch profligacy as difgraces humanity, and it is to us aftonishing that there fhould be good men who yet do not fee that if the premises be true, the conclufion is unavoidable. No acuteness of intellect will ever prove that, if faith be the fole condition required to place and preferve men in a state of falvation, they run any rifque by neglecting good works, or even by wallowing in the most beattly wickednefs. And even if the proof of this were poffible, it would always, by men of corrupt minds, be evaded; fo that guard this notion of justification by what fences you please, it will ever be productive of thocking confequences. Its pernicious tendency is matter of inconteftible fact, demonftrated by every day's experience; and, furely, this fingle confideration should seriously determine all well-meaning men to inquire, at leaft, into the grounds on which it refts, and zealoufly to counteract its influence, if it is found to be erroneous. The

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very circumftance of its leading to fuch unchriftian conduct is a strong prefumption that it is not the doctrine meant to be inculcated either by fcripture or by the Church of England; and if it naturally leads to fuch conduct, as it undoubtedly does, the prefumption becomes equivalent to demonstration.

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This notion of juftification by faith is one of the most effential tenets of Calvinifm; a fyftem of divinity which, as Mr. Daubeny has well obferved, is "wholly made up of frightful extremes." The notion is, accordingly, among the most favourite of that party who have lately affumed, among us, the proud appellation of "the true churchmen," and whofe purpofe it evidently appears to be, to diffeminate, as the only evangelical" doctrines, a fpecies of methodism grafted on Calvinifm. Their champion, Mr. Overton, has dedicated a whole chapter of his book to its fupport. He maintains that "faith only, or faith without works, is the the conditional or inftrumental caufe of this blefing," meaning juftification; and that good works, are neither its meritorious caufe nor its appointed condition." He ftrongly cenfures those writers who affert that "good works are the condition of falvation; " and, fpeaking of the Church of England, he fays, "if her doctrine indeed is," as Bishop Bull, whofe opinion he had quoted, alleged," that we are thus juftified by faith and good works; or that faith and good works are thus the conditions of juftification, is it not very ftrange that in none of her exprefs writings on the subject fhe fhould have affirmed this? And is there a fingle expreffion that founds like it, either in her articles or homilics on the point? Let the advocates of the doctrine produce it." The object of Mr. Pearson's pamphlet is to fhew that this doctrine is equally that of the church and of the Bible; and, in our opinion, no object was ever more com pletely attained.

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"I will first," fays our author, to Mr. Overton, " premise that I do not object to your denying 'good works to be the meritorious cause of juftification,' but to your denying that they are the appointed condition of juftification,' and ftill more to your denying that they are the appointed condition of salvation. "Juftification is the being accounted righteous before God. All, who acknowledge the holiness of the Divine Nature, and the finfulness of the human race, as they are fet forth in the fcriptures, will readily the only meritorious caufe of our being accounted righteous before God, is Jefus Chrift. At least, there is no difference of opinion, on this point, between you and the writers whom you undertake to oppole. This cause of juftication, therefore, will be allowed to be always the fame. But, befides what is done in this matter on the part of God, fomething is to be done on the part of man. Hence arifes another caufe of juftification, which may properly enough be called the conditional caufe. This will vary according to the circumftances of the perfon who is fuppofed to be juftified, and the time at which juftification is fuppofed to take place. The ultimate end or object of juftification is, salvation. He, therefore, who continues in a state of juftification, till death, will be faved. Generally speaking, however, the immediate effect of juftification is, not that we are saved, but that we are placed in a state of salvation. But, as being placed in a state of salvation, and

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being saved, are different things, the condition of both may not be exactly the fame. At least, in confidering the quetion of conditions, regard muft always be had to which of these two is intended. Part of the difference between you and your opponents feems to arife from this, that what they fay concerning the condition of continuing in a juttified state, or a fiate of alvation, and of being finally saved, you underitand them as laying concerning the condition of being at first juftified, or of entering into a tate of falvation. If, indeed, on further confideration you perfift in maintaining that good works are not a condition of final salvation, I must despair of bringing you and them to be of one mind in this particular, but I hope to convince you that, in maintaining this, you are supported by the authority neither of fcripture nor of the church." (Pp. 7, 8, 9.)

This able divine then proceeds to enquire what are the conditions of being first juftified, or of entering into a ftate of talvation. He obferves that the Chriftian difpenfation is a covenant, of which the very exiftence is entirely owing to our Saviour Chrift, to whom, by confe quence, all the benefits refulting from it to man are to be ascribed. But a covenant, from its nature, implies conditions; conditions of entering into it, and conditions of continuing in it. Without obferving these we are not to look for its promiled rewards. The ordinary means appointed for our entering into this covenant is the facrament of baptifm; for "they that receive baptifm rightly are grafted into the Church: the promises of forgiveness of fin, and of our adoption to be the fons of God by the Holy Ghoft, are vifibly figned and fealed." (Art. xxvii.) Now what are the conditions of being baptized? For the fame must be thofe of being justified, or placed in a ftate of falvation. In the catechifm they are declared to be "Repentance, whereby they" the candidates, "forfake fin; and faith, whereby they stedfaftly believe the promifes of God, made to them in that facrament." But repentance must confift of two parts at least; contrition for fins paft and a refolution to live well for the future. That this refolution is indifpenfibly required in order to baptifm, is evident from the baptifmal vow itfelf, in which the candidate engages to renounce what God has forbidden, to believe what he has revealed and to perform what he has commanded. (See queftions in the Off. for baptifm.) Whether Mr. Overton will allow repentance, thus understood, to be a good work, our author fays that he does not know; but he fhews, from Mofheim, that, in the primitive church, good works, or, fatisfactory proofs of pious difpofitions and upright intentions" were required of the catechumens, for a confiderable time previously to baptifm. And our own chu ch, in the cafe of adult perfons, direct that fuch candidates be exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and fafting for the receiving of this holy facrament." (Rub.) If, in the catechism, no actual good works are required, the reafon is, that no opportunity of performing them is fuppofed: the greater number of perfons being baptized in infancy. Thefe perfons, when they come to the years of difcretion, are fuppofed to take the baptifmal vow upon themselves; and it would evidently be abfurd to require the performance

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performance of good works before they understand the nature of the obligation. (Pp. 10-15.)

"Such," fays Mr. Pearfon," are the conditions of being at first juftified, or of being admitted into a state of falvation." His reafoning can be evaded in no other way but by denying that by baptifm, we are juftified or admitted into a state of falvation. It is, accordingly, moft strenuously denied by Mr. Overton, for the purpose, undoubtedly, of avoiding the confequence; but how widely in this, as in many other inftances, Mr. Overton has departed from the Church of England, we formerly had occafion to fhew. To allow, however, that juftification was used by our church as fynonymous with baptifm would have been at once to abandon his caufe. He, therefore, chooses rather to call in question the meaning of one of the pla neft paffages of the Homily on falvation, where these terms are so used: "Our office is not to pafs the time of this prefent life unfruitfully and idly, after that we are baptized or juftified." And, in order that the doubts which he wished to fuggeft with regard to this paffage might take fafter hold of the minds of his readers, he, with his ufual good faith, represents Dr. Hey as affording thefe doubts the fanction of his authority. "In respect to the notion," he says, that "juftification is fynonimous to baptifm," Dr. Key allows that the word' is feldom, if ever used' in this fenfe, except, in our article and Homily. And does not this circumftance render it highly improbable that it is fo used there? Does it not far more than outweigh the fingle expreffion baptized or juftified,' in the Homily?" (Ov. p. 180.) Would not any one, from Mr. Overton's account, fuppofe that Dr. Hey meant to fay that our reformers feldom, if ever, spoke of juftification as equivalent to baptifm? But Dr. Hey's meaning is directly the contrary, The very paragraph immediately preceding that to which Mr, Overton refers is exprefsly employed in proving that this was the common "language ufed at the time of the reformation." The learned profeffor then adds as follows: "There is the more need of this account of juftification, as fome of our Chriftian brethren feem to conceive it as giving them a title to eternal happiness which cannot be forfeited." And, after adverting to the process by which this conception might, as he imagines, come to be first entertained, he fays, "I imagine that all this is a good deal owing to our feldom, if ever, ufing the word juftification as it is ufed in our article and Homily, as fynonymous to baptifm." (Lect. iii. 335, 336.) Dr. Hey, therefore, fays that, in his opinion, a grofs doctrinal error may have taken its rife from our hav ing deferted the language of the reformers. Mr. Overton makes him fay, that the reformers feldom, if ever, ufed fuch language, and hints that they never used it but in the foregoing fingle paffage of the Homily. And this is Mr. Overton's ufual way of guarding against "the iniquity of quotation."

But to proceed with Mr. Pearson. What are the conditions upon which, according to the doctrine of our church, thofe who have fallen

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