HENGSTENBERG AND THE

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS."

We have done what we could in this Review to set forth the real character of the famous "Essays and Reviews," whose subtle poison, in one form or another, has, we are persuaded, taken possession of the American mind, to an extent not generally known. Dr. Hengstenberg, in the Jan. No. of his Evangelische Kirchen Zeitung, (Evangelical Church Gazette,) has a paper on these "Essays and Reviews" which we should like to give entire. He accuses the writers of being conceited, cowardly, second or third rate imitations of an exploded German Infidelity. The following are extracts.

"The authors of the Essays have been trained in a German school. It is only the echo of German infidelity, which we hear from the midst of the English Church. This German infidelity is also the evil demon of North America. The people, from which once, at the time of the Reformation, the blessings of the fear and the love of God were widely poured out through the lands, has now become a spring of infidelity for the world, and those who drink from its waters are poisoned, and must die." "The authors of the Essays appear to us as parrots, with only this distinetion, common among parrots, that they imitate more or less perfectly." "The treatise of Temple is, in its scientific value, about equal to an essay written by the pu pils of the middle classes of our colleges." "The essay of Goodwin, on the Mosaic cosmogony, displays the naive assurance of one who receives the modern critical science from the second or tenth hand. The editor [Hengstenberg] asked the now deceased Andreas Wagner [a distinguished professor of natural sciences at the University of Munich] to subject this treatise to an examination from the standpoint of natural science. The offer was accepted, and the book sent to him. But, after some time, it was returned by him with the remark, that he must take back his promise, as the book was beneath all criticism." "All these Essays tend towards Atheism. Their subordinate value may be seen in this, that their authors have not the energy of mind to recognize their goal clearly, and not the courage to express this knowledge openly. Only Baden Powell forms, in this respect, an exception. He uses several expressions, in which the grinning spectre makes almost undisguisedly his appearance. He speaks not only sneeringly of the idea of a positive external revelation, which has hitherto formed the basis of all systems of the Christian faith; he even raises himself against the 'Architect of the world,' whom the old English Free Thinkers and Free-Masons had not dared to attack." In conclusion, Hengstenberg exhorts the Church of England, not to slight this matter, warning them that they have to do with the most dangerous enemy that threatens their Isle, and reminding them of the example of Germany, which has fallen under the power of this enemy, and still lies prostrate on the ground, unable to raise itself.

IMPORTANT MOVEMENT IN ITALY.

We have before us important papers, showing what the English Church is doing in guiding the spirit of enquiry in religious matters which is more or less pervading all Italy. The following facts will show the extent of the movement. A Society has been formed at Naples, called the Societa Clerico-Liberale Italiana. Their President is the Rev. Zaccaro, an Ecclesiastic distinguished for his piety and learning. The Secretary of the Society, Rev. Cassiano del Colle, a Venetian Priest, is also eminent for his piety and patriotism. A protest has already been issued, signed by 600 priests and 4,000 laity, the main points of which are as follows:

1. First of all, the Roman Church must renounce the burden of temporal power, and return to the humility and poverty of the crucified Master.

2. The Bishop of Rome must be content with the simple supremacy of honor and rank which Christian antiquity granted him, and respect the independence of national churches, as did the Apostles.

3. As a consequence of these principles, the Church must return to its old federal and representative constitution, which allows the people to take part in the election of their pastors, and in the direction of spiritual affairs.

4. Ecclesiastical Assemblies, provincial and national Dioceses, composed of members freely elected by the people from a list of three names presented by the Clergy, must be restored, with full liberty of discussion and vote.

5. National Assemblies will send Deputies, or Representatives, to Rome, the center of Catholicism.

6. The Bishop of Rome must conform, upon questions of general interest, to the deliberations of the Assembly of Representatives bearing the title of Supreme Apostolic Senate.

7. The impressive Catholic rites must be purified from all superstitious and idolatrous excesses, such as the worship of the Virgin and Saints.

8. Liturgies must be written in the common language, so that the people may understand the words of the priest, and God may be truly worshipped in spirit and in truth.

9. Theology must be in harmony with and concur in supporting civil laws. 10. The State must resume its rights recognized by the Ancient Church, in regard to marriage, which is a civil contract, before it becomes a religious ordinance.

11. Points of Ecclesiastical discipline, which have caused so much sad dispute between the Church and State, must be modified so as to suit the lawful claims of a national government.

12. Priests must enjoy chaste domestic relations, and receive a more intelligent and a higher moral education.

13. All monastic orders will be suppressed, excepting those whose object is truly benevolent, and monks or nuns can only take upon themselves temporary vows, which they may renew from year to year, according to their pleasure.

14. All Ecclesiastical property will be placed in a national religious treasury, under the control of a Committee composed of priests and laymen.

CONVOCATION OF THE PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY.

ON Tuesday morning, Feb. 11, both Houses of the Province of Canterbury met at Westminster for the despatch of business, and both were well attended.

THE UPPER HOUSE. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided over the Upper House, which assembled in Queen Anne's Bounty-office, Dean's-yard. There were also present the Bishops of London, Winchester, St. David's, Chichester, Llandaff, Salisbury, Lincoln, St. Asaph, Oxford, and Bath and Wells. Dr. Traver Twiss, the Vicar-General of the province, and Mr. Felix Knyvett, the Secretary to the Archbishop, were likewise present.

The Bishop of Oxford presented a petition from an association consisting of past and present churchwardens of the diocese of London, who stated their opinion that the circumstances of the times demanded the resumption of synodal action throughout the Queen's dominions. They prayed their Lordships to appoint a joint committee to take this subject into consideration. He would move that the prayer of the petition be granted; that a committee be appointed to inquire into the true and statutable manner of enacting canons in provincial synods; the committee of the Upper House to consist of the Bishops of London, St. David's, Llandaff, Exeter, Salisbury and Oxford, and that the Prolocutor be requested to nominate six members of the Lower House to act with their Lordships in the inquiry. The motion was carried unanimously.

The Bishop of Oxford said he wished his Right Rev. brethren to join with him in requesting his Grace, the President, to address to the Archbishop of York an earnest desire that measures might be devised by which both provinces might act together harmoniously, and with concurrent deliberation, especially with regard to the action which had been taken in reference to the 29th Canon. The object of his motion was, if possible, through communication with the Archbishop of York, to secure what was so essential to the good of the Church, that there should be unity of action and harmony of deliberation between the two provinces. The motion was agreed to.

The Bishop of Lincoln presented a petition from a large number of Clergymen in his diocese, praying that measures might be adopted for a more extended lay agency in the Church. A motion to this effect was carried and a committee appointed.

THE LOWER HOUSE. The Deans, Archdeacons, Proctors and Clergy comprising the Lower House of the Convocation of the province of Canterbury, assembled on Tuesday morning in the Jerusalem Chamber. Archdeacon Bickersteth presided as Prolocutor. There was a large attendance of members, and among those present VOL. XIV. 63

were the Dean of Norwich, Archdeacon Randall, Archdeacon Denison, Dr. Jebb, Dr. Joyce, Canon Woodgate, Dr. M'Caul, Dr. Wordsworth, the Archdeacon of Totnes, Dr. Williams, the Rev. Sir G. Prevost, the Revs. F. Vincent, Harold Brown, H. Mackenzie, Sir H. Thompson, Fendall Kennaway, H. Seymour, Burton, Oxenford, Canon Pilkington, Canon Hervey. Archdeacon Bickersteth presiding as Prolocutor. A report was presented from the committee appointed to consider the best means for the increase of the Home Episcopate. The report was brought up by Canon Wordsworth, and it stated that the people of England were debarred from many spiritual privileges from the want of a due supply of Bishops, a great part of the population never being brought to a confirmation and to the Holy Communion, and that the energies of the parochial clergy are not stimulated, encouraged, concentrated, and guided as they would be, if the parishes were enabled to enjoy the blessings which the great Head of the Church designed to bestow by means of the episcopate. The committee, therefore, recommended that the Lower House of Convocation should address an earnest appeal to the Upper House, in order that measures might be adopted by the Convocation of the Province to procure the introduction into Parliament of a general permissive Bill, enabling her Majesty and her Majesty's successors to sub-divide dioceses under certain conditions of territory and population: no such sub-division to take effect without the consent of the bishop, wherever it is proposed to be made before the accordance of the seeCanon Wordsworth moved that the Report be received, and sent to the Upper House, asking their Lordship's assent thereto.-The motion was seconded by the Rev. J. Fendall, and was put, and unanimously agreed to.

A message from the Upper House was read, inviting the Lower House to join with it in bringing about a closer union between the northern province of Convoca. tion and the province of Canterbury. The motion was put and agreed to.

The House then proceeded to consider the following motion of the Rev. Richard Seymour : "That this House do agree to present to his Grace the Archbishop, and to the Upper House, a respectful address, praying their Lordships to deliberate and agree on certain rules by which women, whose hearts God had moved to devote themselves exclusively to works of piety and charity, may be associated together on terms and conditions distinctly known as those which the Church of England has sanctioned and prescribed.

PARLIAMENTARY.

INDELIBILITY OF HOLY ORDERS.-One of the most significant Bills before Parliament, is that brought in by Mr. Bouverie, "for the relief of persons in Holy Orders, of the United Church of England and Ireland, declaring their dissent therefrom." We see also, that "a petition was presented by Mr. Bouverie, from the Revs. H. Wilberforce, Baptist Noel, Richard Congreve, Edward Walford, George Ryder, John Macnaught, William Maskell, and others in Holy Orders of the Church of England, stating that they had abandoned their benefices and curacies from conscientious objections to the formularies of the Church, and praying to be relieved from all disqualifications and disabilities as clergymen, and from the Rev. Mr. Gibson to the same effect. The seventy-sixth Canon of the Church of England declares in express terms, "No man, being admitted a Deacon or Minister, shall from thenceforth voluntarily relinquish the same, nor afterwards use himself in the course of his life as a layman, upon pain of excommunication."

The Canon (5th Sec. 1st Title II) of the American Church, is based upon a different principle; or if not, it was framed to afford the very relief which is petitioned for in Parliament.

DEFECTION IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

The Rev. J. Macnaught, of Liverpool, whose Infidel work on Inspiration was republished in this country a few years since, has seceded from the Church; and on the professed plea that he "cannot conform any longer to the Prayer Book." Poor fellow! His conscience however was very accommodating, until he saw what steps the Church is about to take to vindicate her honor and defend the Faith in respect to the Essayists.

EDITORIAL.

As intimated in our last No., the publication of the present No., due in April last, has been deferred for a few weeks. As soon as the condition of our National Affairs becomes more settled, we shall enter at once upon the quarterly issues of the Review, and prosecute the work with renewed energy, and, we can safely say, with increased and more varied ability in its different departments. Had our collections, even in the Northern States, been as prompt as usual, we would have allowed no interruption in the publication. But, with many thousands of dollars due us, mostly in small sums, scattered in all the North and West and the Canadas, we have not ventured to risk the permanence of the Review, by incurring, at the present time, heavy liabilities. As the Review is published by Volumes, nothing is lost to subscribers. We again ask those who are still in arrears, to respond to our necessities, and that the amount due us, for the current and previous volumes, may be for. warded immediately.-There are still many delinquents, who owe us for a number of volumes, and whose bills have been forwarded again and again; these will not be surprised to receive their accounts from a Collector, in whose hands they have been placed. The next No. of the Review may, and may not, be delayed a few weeks beyond the regular day of publication. So much on matters of business.

Although the present No. does not come up, in its variety, to that fullness which the proposed plan and scope of the work contemplate, still we offer it, confidently, as an earnest of what we design the work shall be. As will be seen, we are attempting to grapple with the real wants of a living Church. Our contributors, (and an abler and truer band of men is enlisted in behalf of no periodical in this country,) have clear conceptions of the age and times in which we are living, and of the duties and responsibilities of the Church pertaining thereto. The first and special object of the Review, is, to bring back the minds and hearts of Churchmen to an appreciation of the Church, in Faith and Order, in Doctrine and Discipline, in Worship and Work, as she was in Apostolic times-it is to break the chains which now hamper her, whether of worldly policy, or of Mediæval traditionalism, or of metaphysical dogmatism, or of a dead inertia-it is to infuse into the hearts of Churchmen free, fresh, vigorous life, even the life of Christ, and to set them forward for new conquests on the virgin soil of this Western Continent,-where Society is undergoing new and untried experiments, where the die is to be cast, as if for the first, and it may be for the last time, for the weal or woe of redeemed humanity. While the Review will be positive in its teaching, it will not condemn, but will sympa. thize with those earnest, loyal men, who, in their freedom of action, do not overstep the bounds of that liberty which a Church, truly Catholic, must always be able and willing to give. As the readers of the Review know, we are not radicals, nor disorganizers, nor empirics, nor yet, mere dogmatists, nor controversialists. While we fight under the banner of the Old Faith against the assaults of a specious Infidel Philosophy-the Old Foe with a New Face,—yet the great work of the Church, we believe, is to carry forth the Gospel to the world, as the only remedy for its sinfulness, and wretchedness; to conquer, not by Truth only, but by Love.

We bespeak in behalf of the Review, the warm interest and the hearty cooperation of earnest thinking Churchmen, Clergy and Laity, men and women, who crave stronger and healthier nutriment than the sentimental trash and infidel Humanitarianism with which the issues of the popular press are filled. It is constantly designed, that the Review shall not only have present, but permanent value. We intend to make it, what the times demand, and what cannot be found elsewhere, a work of authority and reference for American Churchmen, on the subjects discussed in its pages. In this regard, we point with pride to the discussions in its pages for the last fourteen years; e. g., to the papers of the late Rev. Dr. Jarvis, on the Romish Controversy; to the series of Historical Articles, by the Rev. Dr. Hawks; to the series of Articles on the Church, Religion, and the Republic, by the Rev. Dr. Adams, and the Rev. Dr. Coxe; to the series of Articles, not yet completed, on Small Dioceses; to the Articles on Modern Rationalism, by the Rev Dr. Wilson; to the Articles on Free Churches and Pews, by several writers; on the New Version, and now suppressed edition, of the Holy Scriptures, by the American Bible Society; and to numerous Articles, of great power, by the Rt. Rev. Bishops Burgess, Clark, and Williams, and the Rev. Drs. Coit, Dod, Hallam, Henry, Littlejohn, Mahan, the Rev. Messrs. Buel, and Lowell, President Eliot, Dr. DuBois, and many others, Clergymen and Laymen.

On the great National struggle which is still convulsing the land, and challenging the attention of the civilized world, and which is filling all hearts among us with sadness and trembling, we have, in this No., said not a word. Up to the beginning of the War, with a distinct perception and clear prediction of the evils now visited upon the country, our opinions were expressed, frankly, and openly; and we see nothing to retract of what was then written. When our National troubles were committed to the arbitrament of the sword, nothing remained but for the War to do its terrible work. Silent leges inter arma; nor only so, but reason, judgment, argument, are held in abeyance. But the time is near at hand, when certain great questions, which underlie, and are, to a large extent, the causes of our present calamities, must be met, boldly, and in a spirit of the sternest, loftiest Christian patriotism; and then there will be work for the Review to do. Truth, duty, shall not, as we trust, suffer at our hands; nor will we fail, according to our opportunity, to rebuke a mad, infidel fanaticism, to pour oil upon the troubled waters, and to diffuse, as far as we may, a spirit of forgiveness, forbearance, charity, and mutual confidence and fidelity, among those who are still brethren in Christ.

We have thus written freely of the Review, its design and plan, its present position, and its future prospects, because we wish to have, and to maintain the fullest understanding with the friends of the work, to enlist their sympathies, so far as we may deserve them, and to secure, if we may, many new friends to aid us in the enterprise.

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