The last sentence is an unequivocal proof that they considered Baptism not as imparting that regenerating grace by which they were to overcome their evil habits, for then they would have been inexcusable for neglecting it, but simply as a public profession of their faith in the Gospel.

At the close of this chapter, there is an excellent passage, on the necessity of watchfulness against the vanity of the world. We insert the closing sentence.

We have only to consider for a moment the injunctions which the Apostles enforce to charity of thought and word as well as of deed; to spiritual mindedness; to humility; to indifference towards the opinions of others in all cases where custom leads one way and duty another; to zeal in the practice and propagation of religion; to perseverance in prayer; to resignation under afflictions, to grati tude in temporal prosperity: we have only to consider these in order to be convinced of the perpetual necessity incumbent on the preacher to fix the attention of his hearers on the original draft of Christianity, instead of its imperfeet copy as represented in the mixed and tumultuous scene of human society.' p. 258.

We are truly grieved to find after this any thing that looks like laxity in the Author's views of a Christian intercourse with the world, which forms the subject of his eighth Chapter. We object to the pernicious, at least the perilous tendency of such sentiments as the following:

Nor is it just, or practically useful, to inveigh in general terms against public assemblies and amusements sanctioned by society, as if all toleration of them were positive evidence of a worldly spirit, and a heart alienated from God; and as if a practice necessarily became unchristian because it had public opinion in its favour.' p. 284.

6

Strongly as the Author's piety led him to censure worldlyconformity when he was treating of sanctification, he seems in this chapter actually to cut the very sinews of that holiness and separation from the world," without which no man shall see the "Lord." The secret seems to be this: the World and the Church are, as he says, so melted into one another by such impercep'tible shades,' (in the Church to which the Author is attached,) that he felt it necessary rather to soften the severity, and shade the prominence of Scriptural instruction upon this point, by calling up the idea of a whole nation of Christians, all regenerated at baptism, and consequently by no means to be contemplated as in the same state as those the Apostles had to address. This at all events shews the danger of constituting persons members of the Church of Christ, not upon the evidence of a renewed heart, but upon their facility of submission to the unscriptural ceremony of Confirmation; not upon "the putting off "the sins of the flesh," but the putting on of the hands of a bishop. Here indeed is 'a melting into one' of those discordant

elements, the World and the Church, which ought to make every Christian minister seriously consider the support and sanction he gives to a system so much the reverse of the Apostolical.With regard to the concluding chapter, in which the Author endeavours to display, rather fearfully, some of the supposed practical results of Calvinism, it is not necessary for us to say much, since it is far from our wish to defend all that goes under that name. He must be very partially acquainted with the style of preaching adopted by that class of ministers, who can suppose that the doctrine of the Divine decrees is ever allowed by them to interfere with the use of the ordained means It may be a charge applicable to a few antinomian fanatics both in and out of the Church of England; but it is by no means the error of the Calvinists in general, so far, at least, as our observation extends. If they say that Divine influence is necessary to faith and salvation, they no less uniformly and strenuously add, "Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find." Without attempting to justify in every particular any class of preachers, we have yet felt it our duty to vindicate those, whose whole system is attacked by this Author, from the greater part of his charges, and we now leave them and their censor at the bar of the public. Let candour and experience pronounce their sentence: and when the Calvinistic ministers, whether Episcopal or Dissenting, fall behind their fellow Christians in practical piety, in connecting the means with the end, or in making a free and unshackled offer of salvation to all men that they may be saved, let their system be hated and avoided as a more pestilent vapour than was ever emitted from the lake on whose borders the celebrated reformer first propagated his system.

Art. III. Armata: a Fragment. 8vo. pp. 210. London. Murray. 1817.

The Second Part of Armata. 8vo. pp. 209. London. Murray. 1817.

To O know how other men have thought, is a predominant desire of the human mind, and the gratification of this desire, appears to have been one of the objects of the eminent person to whom our readers have been taught to ascribe the production now before us. In this point of view alone, and independent of weightier reasons, we have no hesitation in saying, that "Armata" will retain its claim to interest, long after it shall have ceased to occupy a place among the topics of the day, even in the literary discussions of our tardy friends in the seclusion of the country. It is not precisely to the stageeffect of public life, or to the complicated influences of public occasion, that we look with confidence for the unshackled result of the workings of a great mind. There are certain minute pro

prieties and necessities of time and circumstance, which mix themselves up so unavoidably with the ostensible character and sentiments of every man who stands in the focus of public obser→ vation, that they who have well observed the world, as it is popularly termed, will be anxious for the occurrence of opportunities to hold communication with the minds of great men, in situations where the absence of worldly influence may extricate and set at large their genuine and unadulterated convictions.

It is but few to whom such opportunities are presented in the intercourse of private life: when, therefore, the object of curiosity voluntarily places himself before the eye of public observation, in such a situation as to afford ground for rational confidence, that he is not actuated by the insidious and complicated views of the politician, it is natural to expect that the public would discover considerable eagerness to become acquainted with his real sentiments. We were at first inclined to regret that the Author of "Armata" should have adopted a medium of eccentric fiction, the development of which, from the space it occupies, often excited our impatience; but we are more than reconciled to what at first appeared to us a needless incumbrance, by the peculiar terms of confidential intimacy on which we feel ourselves placed, when, for a time, the machinery of the allegory retires into the back-ground, and in the person of our Armatan Mentor, we find ourselves holding a philosophi cal discussion with a great statesman, on the most vital and important questions which concern our political existence and happiness, precisely in that strain of abstract and purified reflection in which the inhabitants of another planet might be supposed to discuss the affairs of ours. It is not all the Letters on the causes and consequences of the war with France,' nor all the Speeches on miscellaneous subjects,' which can inspire us with the deep, the solemn interest which we feel in perusing the greater portion of the fragment of "Armata." we are asked to explain the causes of this feeling, our answer is, that perhaps they are only to be explained by a contemplation of the peculiar character of the work itself. It is not the political controvertist, or the advocate of party, enlisting the powers of argument and eloquence in the defence of a particular system, or wholly intent upon the demonstration of a favourite position; but it is the statesman sitting down in the seclusion of his own closet, indulging in all the freedoms and innocencies of literary playfulness, escaping, as it were, from the trammels of real life, and in this tone of mind,-in this defiance of party spirit and worldly impulse, unfolding to us the cool philosophical view of great political effects and causes, which has been the result of his long and anxious devotion to the operations of the vast machine of organized society.

If

It is this that gives the charm to the pages of Armata in our estimation; but that their claims to attention do not stop here, will, if we mistake not, be sufficiently demonstrated by the insertion of a few unconnected extracts, which we are induced to lay before the reader by their own intrinsic importance and interest. He is previously to understand that in a new world, which the Author of the work under consideration has had the singular good fortune to discover, and which is, in some very incomprehensible manner, connected with our own planet, there is a very renowned island, called ARMATA, which has risen in process of time from a state of comparative insignificance, to command the deference, and to attract the attention of the whole globe; and which, after arriving at a degree of internal prosperity and wealth unparalleled in the history of nations, has very surprisingly and unexpectedly (except in the predictions of a few long headed and stubborn politicians, who were called hard names for their pains,) stumbled upon a state of internal embarrassment, and experienced a reflux of the tide of prosperity, of which the good people of England cannot possibly form any idea, never having been exposed to any thing of the kind.

The origin and formation of the political constitution of this singular country, are rapidly traced in the following extract, up to the period in its annals, which, as is alleged by historic records, laid it at the feet of a military despot of the barbarous ages. The relation is supposed to proceed from a certain denizen of the other world, named Morven, whose personal history is, at any rate, too copious for the space we could afford for it.

One of those invaders once swayed by force and terror the sceptre of Armata; but conquest and the tyrannical abuse of it may lay the foundation of a system of liberty which no courage could have conquered, nor human wisdom have contrived. Perhaps in this short sentence, you have a faithful, though, as yet, an obscure account of the origin of that singular constitution which has raised Armata to the highest pinnacle of fame and glory. Great and invulnerable as she now is, she was once subdued, and all the monuments of her ancient wisdom overthrown: but the dominion of one man, however gifted or fortunate, is sure to pass away when it tramples upon the principles that gave it birth. The successful invader confounding his free and fierce companions with the nation they had conquered, the oppressors soon became numbered with the oppressed, and after the reigns of but a few of his descendants, the successor to his arbitrary dominion was forced to submit to the establishment of freedom demanded in arms by the conquerors and the conquered, now forming an unanimous and indignant people.

The extraordinary feature of this singular revolution was, that a nation in arms against its sovereign and reducing him to terms of submission, had the discretion to know exactly what to demand, and, by demanding nothing more, to secure the privileges it had obtained. The ordinary insurrections of mankind against oppression have gene

rally been only convulsive paroxysms of tumult and disorder, more destructive than the tyranny overthrown, and often ending in worse; because civil societies cannot be suddenly new-modelled with safety. Their improvements, to be permanent, must be almost insensible, and growing out of the original systems, however imperfect they may

have been.

The rude forefathers of this people had fortunately not then ar rived at that state of political science which might perhaps have tempted them to a premature change of their government upon abstract principles. They looked only to their actual grievances. They did not seek to abrogate the system which was the root of their ancient laws and institutions, but only to beat down usurpations, and to remedy defects. They seem indeed to have discovered that there is a magnet in the civil, as in the natural world, to direct our course, though the latter was for ages afterwards unknown. The magnet of the civil world is a Representative Government, and at this auspicious period attracted like the natural one by iron, became fixed and immutable from the sword.

The consummate wisdom of those earliest reformers appears further in the public councils which they preserved. From the most ancient times the people might be said to have had a protecting coun cil in the government, but its jurisdiction was overborne. They had only therefore to guard against the recurrence of that abuse, and as the power over the public purse had been the most destructive engine of their arbitrary sovereigns, they retained in their own hands by the most positive charters that palladium of independence, re-enacting them upon every invasion, aiming at nothing new, but securing what they had acquired.

To have gone farther in improvement, at that period, would not only have been useless, but mischievous, even if the bulk of the people could have redeemed themselves by force from many intermediate oppressors; because, having most of all to fear from the power of their monarchs, the privileges of their superiors were indispensible supports; invested for many ages with the magistracies of the country, powerful in themselves from rank and property, having a common interest with the whole nation, and no temptations being then in existence to seduce them from the discharge of their duties, they were the most formidable opponents of the prerogatives that were to be balanced; and therefore it was the most unquestionable policy to enlarge and confirm their authority, instead of endeavouring to con troul a long established and too powerful a dominion by an untried force.

From this period the principles of civil freedom struck deep root in Armata, deeper perhaps from the weight by which they continued to be pressed, the prerogatives of their princes being still formidable and frequently abused. Perhaps the law which governs the system of the universe may be the grand type and example of human go. vernments-the immense power of the sun, though the fountain of light and life, would in its excess be fatal; the planets, therefore, though they yield to its fostering attraction in their unceasing and impetuous revolutions, are repelled from it by a kind of instinctive