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it as eating and drinking and making merry." You look at the comparatively thin populations with which we have to do, and talk of "a pressure of the population on the food." All these serious and plain discrepancies are placed before you,-you take up your pen to treat of the Political Economy of the Bible; and yet, singularly enough, you entirely forget to allude to one of them!

I have dwelt much on this one point; because it is a leading one in the system you espouse. But there are many others to be found in the laws of Moses,-such as, the continual subdivision of land, the prohibition of accumulation, the unlawfulness of interest on loans, &c. &c.,-all of which are directly opposed to what is now called "Political Economy." Most of these were brought before you in the Remedies; but you silently evade them all.

However, I must now take my leave of you, and I do it, as I began, with the most sincere feelings of regard and respect for yourself personally; but with regret for your perseverance in a mischievous and unscriptural error. I may claim some right boldly to denominate it "unscriptural," from your failure in the present instance. You took up your pen, avowedly, to discuss "the Political Economy of the Bible." Have you done so? I do not now ask, whether you have treated the subject satisfactorily,—but whether you have discussed it at all? Can any man say, that to draw a strange inference from our Lord's miracles, and a still stranger from St. Paul's handicraft employment, is a just and fair discussion of this question? Surely not. But why, then, have you evaded the discussion? Can any other answer be given, than the obvious one,—that the task of reconciling Scripture and Malthus was too great even for you; and that, in utter hopelessness, you at last closed the question in haste, and without even the appearance of having properly handled it. Would that you could perceive, what will be apparent enough to most other persons, the untenability of Malthusianism together with a loyal and entire submission to God's word.

I remain,

Rev. and Dear Sir,

Yours, with sincere respect,

THE AUTHOR OF "REMEDIES," &c.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHURCHMAN'S MONTHLY REVIEW.

SIR,-In reading the very curious, and, in some respects, interesting, Letter of M. de Montalembert, as given at length in the Churchman's Monthly Review for October, 1844, I was not a little surprized to find my own name introduced, no fewer than three times, after a manner which I certainly could not have anticipated.

The Count describes me, as quoting, not very consistently, I must admit, a passage from Manzoni, with evident approbation; wherein the Infallibility of the Church, or rather of the Pope, is specified, as being that main point, from which the smallest deviation is damnable heresy.

I never quoted Manzoni in my life: and that for the very best possible reason; I never read him, nor in truth even heard of him.

The Count speaks of my profound ignorance on the feelings and duties of Churchmen out of England.

As I never, on any occasion, entered upon this subject, my ignorance of it, or my acquaintance with it, must, I should suppose, be alike unknown to M. de Montalembert.

The Count speaks of principles, laid down in common by myself and the British Critic.

I am not aware, that there either is, or ever was, the slightest community of sentiment between myself and that now defunct Review. How the Count, therefore, could talk even of PRINCIPLES laid down by Mr. Faber and the British Critic, when, all the while, Mr. Faber's principles may be best described as holding the position of antipodes to the principles of that Journal, it may require some ingenuity to explain. The most easy solution is, that the gentleman has never honoured my somewhat multifarious Works with a perusal.

I had hoped, Sir, that, in the course of your very satisfactory review of the Count's Letter, you would have noticed his singular conduct respecting me: but, as that is not the case, I venture to express a hope, that you will not refuse admission to this statement in the next Number of the Churchman's Monthly Review.

It is no small satisfaction to me to observe, that, in combating the groundless claims of the Papacy, as put forth by M. de Montalembert, you adopt the precise line of argument that I have myself

done: namely, an appeal to Primitive Antiquity under the aspect of historical testimony to facts. Real Antiquity is evidentially fatal to Popery: and, whenever a Papist boldly asserts a fact, he of course makes himself liable, as the ingenious Count has done, to the reasonable demand of the production of testimony. It was this demand, which called up such an ebullition of impotent wrath from my old antagonist Mr. Husenbeth.

Sherburn House,

Nov. 6, 1844.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,

G. S. FABER.

[We apprehend that Mr. Faber's complaint arises solely from Count Montalembert having neglected to specify that it was Mr. Frederick Faber to whom he was alluding.]

SHORT NOTICES.

HINTS TO PROMOTE A LIFE OF FAITH; or, the Ratification of the Baptismal Covenant. 12mo. London. 1844.

THESE are meditations on the following subjects:-To glorify God the design of creation; the worldling admonished; the practical call to self-examination; the two sacraments; the Christian's answer to the hope that is in him; the end of faith. They are devotional and evangelical, and may be specially useful in time of retirement and sickness.

CHILDREN'S MISSIONARY MAP OF THE WORLD. London: Nisbet. 1844.

We have not seen, in so small a compass and at so low a price (1d.), such an extent of missionary and geographical information. It is well adapted to stick up in cottages, and will tend to open and enlarge the minds of the poor of the flock of Christ.

OCEAN THOUGHTS HOMEWARD BOUND FROM INDIA. By a YOUNG OFFICER of the East India Service. 12mo. London: Hatchards. 1844.

WRITTEN in a lively and Christian spirit, with some valuable thoughts, and likely to be useful to young officers at sea, even from its peculiarities, and with its sometimes strained metaphors. There are some beautiful remarks, pages 61-64, on the grandeur of creation, and the superior excellence of an intelligent, moral, and immortal being like man, well brought to illustrate the atonement made by his Creator. These remarks are thus closed.

"How then can the smallness of our earth be an argument against the truth of man's redemption, or deteriorate its glory; or how could it form an objection with God, willing to descend and save? Is the diamond estimated by the size of the casket? Is God likely to honour materiality more than immateriality-Himself a Spirit? Shall that which is to endure for ever and ever be compared to that which shall presently pass away as a scroll, and vanish into nonenity? Were it even revealed to us that the stars are inhabited, we might be sure, unless inhabited by angels, they could not be inhabited by a much grander being than man-man being made a little lower, and only a little lower than the angels themselves."

FAITH AND PRACTICE ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED, in Twenty-four Sermons, preached in the Parish Church of Clerkenwell. By the Rev. THOMAS SHEPPARD. With Morning and Evening Family Prayers, and a Memoir of the Author. By the Rev. S. PIGGOTT. 8vo. London: Masters. 1844.

THIS is a useful volume of practical and evangelical divinity for families, the materials for which were furnished by one who has entered on his rest, but whose memory is revered by many who received spiritual profit from his ministry. The sermons are exceedingly plain and straightforward, preaching the truth dogmatically rather than argumentatively. They dwell chiefly on the miracles of the Scriptures, and there are sermons on the seasons of Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Day, Ascension, Whit Sunday, and Trinity. We have here a convenient compendium for family instruction, and suitable devotions drawn from the sermons for family worship.

THESES OF ERASTUS TOUCHING EXCOMMUNICATION. Translated from the Latin, with a Preface, by the Rev. ROBERT LEE. 12mo. Edinburgh. 1844.

WE have here "An examination of that most grave question, whether excommunication, or the debarring from the sacraments of professing Christians, because of their sins, be a divine ordinance or a human invention, by the renowned Thomas Erastus, Doctor of Medicine." Such is the original title to the work which opened the door to what are called Erastian sentiments in the Church of Christ.

The work is an elaborate attempt to show " that excommunication is not a divine ordinance, but a device of man; in other words, that the sins of professing Christian people should be punished by the Christian magistrate with civil penalties, not by pastors and elders denying them access to the sacraments."

It is singular, that when there have been abuses of the power of excommunication, there should come forth such an attempt to set it aside altogether as a divine ordinance, argued with a good deal of skill and ingenuity. We cannot come to the conclusions of Erastus on 1 Cor. v. We cannot believe that our Lord left his Church without the means of government, order, and disci pline. It is contrary to the character of his dispensations to leave a system of unmingled grace, without righteousness, even in that which is specially the dispensation of grace. But it is well that those who have rashly charged others with Erastianism should here learn what Erastus really held.

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