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view of their being rationally convinced of his Messiahship / Jt may well be deemed singular , yet is strictly true , that the word conversion occurs but once through the whole New Testament . Nor are
the passages numerous in which we meet with nearly the same or with any similar expression . One text in which to be converted represents some moral change , is Luke xxii . 32 : it predicts Peter ' s repentance after his denial of his Master . And the word
has not a different meaning in Matt , xviii . 3 : ' * Except ye be converted , arid become as little children /* in which clause there is evidently a reference to certain qualities of the understanding and the heart .
As a specimen of Mr . W . ' s judicious criticism and reasonings in the former part of his discourse , we lay before our readers the following passage ( p . 11 ) : " We may be certain , says he , speaking " of the Jews whom Peter addressed in his
second sermon , ( Acts iii . 12 — , ) " that they had not all become false witnesses against Jesus , or concurred in the subornation of such testimony . It is highly probable that they had not all assented to his condemnation or preferred to him a
murderer- And if they had , this surely is not the only sin of which the apostle would exhort them to repent ; it is not on their repentance of this that he would teach them to build the hope of pardon for all their other sins . These considerations
may induce us to believe , that the repentance and conversion here urged , are no other than a change of opinion or of faith , which might lead indeed to the reformation of the heart and life /*
The remaining division of this discourse , principally consists of ethical reasonings and illustrations of the most admirable kind , characterized by pertinency , clearness and force . How accurate and how seasonable are the
remarks in p . & 7 ! " It is an incautious definition which is often given of repentance , or conversion , that it is a total change of heart and life . Even to many , to whom that change is necessary in a certain degree , a tQtal
change of heart and life would be a change greatly for the worse , because the number of their evil habits may be surpassed by the number of those that are good : virtuous dispositions may prevail to a much greater degree than such . as are vicious ;
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so that not being very far from what they ought to tye , a total reverse of character would remove them further . " This preacher well observes that the parable of the labourers m the vineyard ** has no reference to moral 1
repentance' ( p . 37 ) . He is of opinion that it regards the Jews of our Saviour ' s age exclusively : we think , however , though at present we have not time to shew , that its subject is the call ing of the Gentiles . On either supposition , it can have nothing to do with the doctrine of late individual conversion .
The attention we have bestowed on Mr . W . ' s sermon , proves our sense of its superior merits : and we hope that it will be widely circulated and seriously perused , —With great satisfaction we perceive that the first part of this gentleman ' s edition of the Holy Bible is announced as being in the press N .
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Review *—~ FavelVs Speech on the Criminal Laws . Ity
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Art . 111 . —A Speech on the Propriety of Revising the Criminal " Laws , delivered Dec . 10 , 1818 , before the ; Corporation of the City of London . By Samuel Favell . 8 vo . pp . 80 . Hunter . 1819 .
npHE Common Couucil of the City JL of London have acted up to their character , as the representatives of the metropolis of the most enlightened kingdom in the world , by a petition to the legislature for the revisal of our criminal code , now generally
acknowledged to be sanguinary and cruel . The petition and the resolutions introducing it are pertinent as to their matter , judicious in their arrangement and temperate in their language . They were brought forward by Mr . Favell , who has been
long known in the city of London as the steady advocate of peace and humanity and reform . He has given his Speech , on this occasion , to the public , and a more able exposition of the argument for a revision of our criminal law , or a more maulv and
at the same time prudent assertion of the principles of humanity , as far as they affect this question , has been rarely seen . He entrenches himself deep in great authorities , and his selection of names and facts , arid of written
or spoken passages , makes his Speech as interesting as it is convincing * ^ Subjoined to the Speech ar ^ lip-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1819, page 187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1770/page/51/
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