Mignet is to add two volumes to his work on the Rivalry of Francis I. ans Charles V.

A new work by M. Renan is announced-Philosophical Dialogues, divided int> three parts: 1. "Our Certainties," or, Scientific Knowledge; 2. "Our Probabilities;" or, the Existence of God and the Immateriality of the Soul; 3. “Our Dreams"-after immortality. M. Thiers, abandoning the completion of his history. has in hand a work on Nature and Spirit, defending spiritualism by the natural sciences.

In the Revue Chrétienne. Jan., the editor, M. de Pressensé, gives a deplorable picture of the state of things under the recent administration, in relation to the liberty of the press and the liberty of worship. He says, "the most innocent and beneficent publications, such as the Almanach des Bons Conseils, are submitted to the most minute supervision, and enormous expenses are imposed to replace the pages in which the most effete bigotism can scarcely find a distant allusion to its superstitions. It is true that the scissors of this unsparing censorship are in Protestant hands, which is a grand consolation for us! The liberty of worship is not better treated. Not only is the authorization which we have received for many years capriciously withdrawn, as was done in Yonne last spring in twelve instances, but the pastors of the established church (Protestant) are molested in their ministry when it is exercised outside of their own temples; for instance, the trial of Pastor Lacheret, of Maubeuge, condemned for having celebrated worship in a privatealmost domestic, manner. The letter of Pastor Marre, of Maligny (Yonne), reproduced by the whole liberal press, has aroused public indignation, as showing how an administration in the service of clericalism does not refrain from violence, even in the case of children of ten to twelve years, whom it withdraws from evangelical instructions on the most frivolous pretexts." If this goes on, "all free and cour ageous words will be impossible, public [Protestant] conferences will be limited to pure mathematics or mere trifles, while the Catholic universities will construct at their leisure the grand political philosophy, whose last word is the liberty of possessions to the profit of the syllabus.”

ENGLAND.

The British and Foreign Evangelical Review, Jan., 1876, has a new editor, the Rev. J. S. Candlish, D.D. In a paper, entitled Soundness and Freedom in Theology, he presents ably some just views upon the function of a Review in promoting and maintaining "a more profound, learned, and fresh theological literature." "Humaniy speaking," he says, "evangelical religion cannot be expected to keep its hold on the more educated and cultivated men of our days, in the face of so much ability and learning as is employed in certain questions against it, unless some, at least, of its defenders show themselves equal or superior in research and insight to their adver saries." He pleads for thorough discussion, for an allowance of differences on nonessential points: "The doctrines of the Reformation cannot be maintained without the recognition of the distinction between fundamental and non-fundamental articles." The tone of this number is in harmony with these avowals. The other articles are: 1. Church History: its Scope and Relations, an excellent introductory lecture in the Free Church College, Aberdeen, by Rev. Wm. Binnie, D.D. 2. 'The Temperance Bible Commentary," of Dr. Lees and Mr. Burns, is sharply set right by Rev. Robert Watts, D.D., of Belfast, 3. The Spirits in Prison, and the Sons of God, by Rev. C. H. H. Wright, B. D., of Belfast, ably contending that the "Preaching" in 1 Pet, iii: 18-20, was in the days of Noah. 4. The Science of Religion and

Christian Missions, by the Rev. John Robson, M.A., soundly argued, with special reference to the views of Max Müller in his noted lecture on missions, and to modern theories of the Philosophy of Religion. 5. The Protestant Doctrine of Evangelical Perfection, by Rev. John Rae, M.A. 6. Ultramontanism in France, by Rev. Clement de Faye, Brussels. 7. Tischendorf and Tregelles as editors of the Greek New Testament, by the Rev. William Milligan, D.D., Professor in Aberdeen, one of the British Committee on Revision, who is entirely competent to discuss the respective merits of the German and English critics above named. His article is every way good, and very instructive. He gives, on the whole, the preference to Tregelles, to whose life and labors full justice is done. "Tregelles," he writes, "stands between Lachmann and Tischendorf-not so limited in his aim as the one, and neither so wide in his range of materials, nor so subjective in his use of them, as the other. His position is thus a truer one than either." Dr. Milligan thinks that England is now taking the lead in just criticism of the New Testament text. Scrivener, Westcott, Hort and Lightfoot, are discussing the whole matter on the ground of settled “ principles.” "The prestige once enjoyed by us in the high field of sacred criticism, but long lost, becomes ours again."

We should like to make, did our space permit, extracts from several of these articles. That on Evangelical Perfection, by Rev. John Rae, is clear and discriminating. He gives a fair statement of the Romanist and Methodist views, and also of those of the German Professor Ritschl, who insists too sharply on the distinction between legal and evangelical perfection. Mr. Rae, while differing from him, agrees on one important point, that “our perfection under the gospel consists in making of ourselves a whole after our kind;" this is "substantially identical with the doctrine of the old divines, that it consisted in a perfectio partium, in our being an organic unity, wasting nothing essential to our nature as Christians, though having, it may be, nothing in its fullest development." This perfectio partium is in distinction from the perfectio graduum. Mr. Rae sums up thus:

Love to God and love to man, then, are one and the same principle; and this principle of love, which is only possible for one reconciled through Christ, is the characteristic and the power of the new life. It is the single trunk from which all the branches and foliage of that life spread. By its means, too, we perceive the essential unity which exists between legal perfection and evangelical, which, in Ritschl's system, seem put too far out of all relation with one another. The law is the multifarious expression of love in all its many-sided applications. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and he is evangelically perfect whose life, amid many short-comings and failures, is still ruled by this principle of love, which is the spirit that dictates and transfuses the law. He may fall into many sins, and betray many imperfections, but if he understands this principle clearly, and strives earnestly to obey it, he is pursuing the end of his being, and exhibiting the essential character of Christian perfection. The Theological Review, edited by Charles Beard. January. 1. P. H. Wicksteed on Hilgenfeld's Introduction to the New Testament. 2. Dr. John Gordon, Review of Dale on the Atonement. 3. Wm. Binns, Methodism since Wesley. 4. C. Keegan Paul, Life of Bishop Gray. 5. Alexander Gordon, Hook's Life of Archbishop Laud. 6. F. R. Conder, The Central Ideas of Semitic and of Aryan Faith. Dickinson's Theological Quarterly, January, has thirteen articles from American Reviews, etc. Among them are President Woolsey on the Equilibrium between Physical and Moral Truth; Dr. Peabody, The Sovereignty of Law: Dr. T. M. Post, The Incarnation; Prof. T. Dwight on the Fourth Gospel; Hon. J. D. Baldwin, the Early British and Irish Churches; Rev. A. J. Lyman, Opportunities of Culture in the Christian Ministry; Rev. W. D. Wilton, The Origin of Man and his Civilization; a translation of Kurtz on the Nature of Angels, etc.

Journal of Mental Science, edited by Drs. Maudsley and Clouston. January, 1 Thos. Laycock, Reflex, Automatic, and Unconscious Cerebration. 2. H. C. Major the Brain of the Chackma Baboon. 3. W. L. Lindsay, Mind in Plants.

4.. Clouston on Skae's Classification of Mental Disease. 5. D. Yellowlees, Plea of Insanity in Cases of Murder-case of Tierney.

Mr. George Long's Decline of the Roman Republic is completed by the publication of the fifth volume. It is distinguished for thoroughness and impartiality, and a constant use of the original authorities.

A new and important work on Michael Angelo, by Mr. Heath Wilson, of Florence, is announced by Murray. It is based on the Italian work by Signor Gotti, but gives the results of elaborate studies by the author.

As showing the drift of speculation, Mr. Frederic Harrison's two essays on the Religious and Conservative Aspects of Positivism, in the Contemporary Review (Nov. and Dec. 1875), are worthy of note. Mr. Harrison is one of the editors and translators of the new English edition of Comte's Positive Philosophy. Positivism is to him the most religious and conservative of creeds and tendencies. It alone, he thinks, can preserve mankind from atheism and materialism. "Progress," he says: "is only the development of order." Religion, Philosophy, and Action are the three great "faculties" of humanity. These give us Comte's grand "hypothesis," of the Church, Education, and Society (Polity). All these are indispensable, and all work together. A"collective and organic power" presides over the whole development of mankind. "The spiritual conception" of such a being, he says, “is one of the grand conceptions in the progress of civilization, which mankind owes to Theology."

The new philosophical quarterly, Mind, Jan., 1876, contains the following articles: Prefatory Words, by the Editor, Prof. G. C. Robertson; Herbert Spencer, the Comparative Psychology of Man; James Sully, Physiological Psychology in Germany; John Venn, Consistency and Real Inference; Henry Sidgwick, the Theory of Evolu tion in its Application to Practice; Shadworth H. Hodgson, Philosophy and Science; Philosophy at Oxford, by the Rector of Lincoln College; Early Life of James, Mill, by Prof. Bain; Critical Notices, Reports, Notes, by G. H. Lewes, Prof. Flint, J. G. McKendrick, Prof. T. M. Lindsay, C. Coupland, Prof. Bain, and the Editor.

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has in preparation a series of popular manuals on the various non-Christian systems of religion: Prof. Monier, Williams on Hinduism; Rhys Davids on Buddhism; Mr. J. W. H. Stobart, of Lucknow, on Islamism; Rev. H. Rowley on the Fetish Systems.

The Canon of Canterbury, under the direction of the Master of Rolls, is to edit a series of volumes, containing all the extant materials for the Life of Thomas à Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dean Howson and Canon Spence are preparing a Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.

Some of the best works of Albericus Gentilis are to be republished at Oxford; he is buried in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. A monument is also to be erected to him in Italy, and a prize scholarship founded at Oxford in commemoration of his services.

THE.

PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY

AND

PRINCETON REVIEW.

NEW SERIES, No. 19.-JULY, 1876.

Art. I.-THE FORMATION OF OUR STANDARDS.* By J. B. BITTINGER, D.D., Sewickley, Pa.

"ON Saturday last, the Assembly of Divines began at Westminster, according to the ordinance of both the Houses of Parliament, where Dr. Twist of Newbery, in the County of Berks, their Prolocutor, preached on John xiv: 18-I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you,' a text pertinent to these times of sorrow and anguish and misery, to raise up the drooping spirits of the people of God who lie under the pressure of popish wars and combustions." In these simple and somewhat sad words, the parliamentarian newspaper of the time records

*Minutes of the Sessions of the WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES while engaged in preparing their Directory for Church Government, Confession of Faith, and Catechisms (Nov. 1644 to March, 1649), from transcripts of the originals, procured by a Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Edited by PROF. MITCHELL and REV. JOHN Struthers. William Blackwood & Sons, London. [A noteworthy volume, and which, by its notes, preface, introduction, and index of names (there should be by all means, also, an index of topics), is made doubly valuable. I wish it might be reprinted, and so brought within the reach of every member of Pan-Presbyterianism.]

the beginning of an Assembly, whose name and fame have since passed round the world. Very different is the tone of the royalist paper, as witness: "It was advertised this day that the Synod, which, by the pretended ordinance of the two Houses, was to begin on the 1st of July, was put off till Thursday fol lowing--it being not yet revealed to my Lord Say, Master Pym, and others of their associates in the Committee of Religion. what gospel 'tis that must be preached and settled by these new evangelists, only it is reported that certain of the godly ministers did meet that day in the Abbey church to a sermon, and had some doctrines and uses, but what else done, and to what purpose that was done, we may hear hereafter." Such were the gibes and word-play with which the Cavaliers were entertained by the Mercurius Aulicus, under that day and date of July 7, 1643. But he laughs best who laughs last. The roy

alist reporter was a little out as to the details of the meeting. This may have been carelessness on his part, or indifference, or it may be that that day, which, in its maturity proved to be an epoch in history, was dies non in the court of human judg

ment.

According to the ordinance of Parliament, the Assembly met Saturday, July 1, 1643, but did not sit for business till the following Thursday. Their task was set them, and began with their first session. Of the four things mentioned in the Covenant, to which, by order of Parliament, under date of July 5, they were first to direct their attention, was the consideration of the first ten articles of the Church of England, "to free and vindicate the doctrine of them from all aspersions and false interpretations." To this work they at once commended themselves a work full of difficulties, if not dangers. Mending would not suffice, and altering was not allowed. While employed on these ten, another order came for the next nine following. They had only got through repairing and amending fifteen, when a third order, that of Oct. 12, 1643, "required them to lay aside the remainder, and enter upon the work of Church Government," and afterward, by another order-for orders in those days were frequent and peremptory-" we were to employ us in framing a Confession of Faith for the three kingdoms, according to our solemn league and covenant."

The general order in which "the four things mentioned in the