The Rev. BENJAMIN C. WEBB, Rector of Trinity Church, Abbeyville, S. C., died at Wilson's Springs, in the forty-fifth year of his age.

The Rev. JOSEPH LEE DARROW, M.D., Rector of Christ Church, Collinsville, Ill., died at his residence on the 28th of July, 1855.

The Rev. WILLIAM H. MARSH and the Rev. GEORGE H. TIMBOW, both of the Diocese of New-York, have been deposed from the ministry.

The Rev. EDWARD WAYLEN, of the Diocese of Maryland, has been displaced from the ministry by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Whittingham.

The following should have appeared before, but was crowded out by other matter:

THE REV. JOHN SYDNEY DAVENPORT.-On the 6th of August last the Rt. Rev. Bishop De Lancey deposed from the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church JOHN SYDNEY DAVENPORT, the same having joined a religious body known as Irvingites.

The Rev. WILLIAM MARKOE, of the Diocese of Wisconsin, but residing in NewBrunswick, N. J., has formally renounced his connection with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and joined the Romish Communion.

The Rev. A. L. CONVERSE has been deposed from the ministry by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Davis.

The Rev. GEORGE H. DOANE, Deacon, was deposed from the ministry by the Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane, D.D., on the 15th of September, 1855, he having united with the Romish Church.

DIOCESAN INTELLIGENCE.

MAINE.

In no one of our Dioceses perhaps is the Church making more satisfactory progress than in Maine. The great mass of the population has been hitherto almost wholly unacquainted with the Episcopal forms of worship, and in a measure committed against them. But under the wise administration of the present Bishop and Clergy this ignorance is being rapidly dispelled, and in nearly every place where the services of our Church have been introduced they have been most favorably received, and have resulted in the organization of a parish. Calais, Rockland, Lewiston, and Camden are remarkable instances of this. The flourishing and growing congregations in these and several other places are made up almost entirely of persons who were not educated as Episcopalians, and who, until quite lately, were unacquainted with our Church.

This prosperity we attribute under God to the harmony of the Bishop and the Clergy, and their earnest devotion to the one great work of preaching the Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel.

The effort to establish St. Paul's School at Concord, seems to have been successful. It has become an incorporated institution, and is to be opened for the reception of pupils some time in the month of April.

CONNECTICUT.

The Episcopal Institutions in this Diocese are represented to be in a flourishing condition. The Berkeley Divinity School, at Middletown, has some twenty students, and Trinity College at Hartford, seventy-two.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Since our last number, the Convention of this has had its annual session, and from the Bishop's Address we gather that the Diocese is in a state of general prosperity. Four new parishes were organized during the year. One Church was consecrated. Four Deacons and one Priest were ordained, and five hundred and one persons were confirmed. The Convention was well attended, and an unusual spirit of harmony prevailed. This may be attributed no doubt to the fact that the Convention has become more than formerly an occasion for devotional services. We are glad to find that the system of convocation prevails over a large portion of the Diocese, and is operating most beneficially for the extension and strengthening of the Church.

The project for establishing a Theological School seems to have been abandoned, at least for the present. The noble proposition of a gentleman in the Diocese to give $40,000 on condition that $40,000 more were raised, has not been responded to, and we understand that the proposition has been withdrawn.

VERMONT.

The object which seems to be claiming special interest among Churchmen at this time is the effort to establish a Theological School. The Bishop has devoted much of his time during the winter in collecting funds, and has met with very encouraging success. Within the Diocese alone some $22,000 have been raised. This is certainly very liberal. If the success out of the Diocese has been at all proportionate, there is reason to believe that the requisite amount for commencing the institution will be secured. We do not see, however, where the students are to come from to fill up such a school, even if it is established. The Diocese of Vermont can not furnish them; and from beyond that Diocese few can be expected. Would it not be more economical to send such as this school might gather to some of the institutions already established?

SOUTH CAROLINA.

The late Convention of this Diocese, which assembled in Charleston in the month of February, was one of great interest. The weather was favorable and the attendance large. From the report of the "Society for the Advancement of Christianity in South-Carolina," we learn that over six thousand dollars were appropriated to missions within the Diocese during the year. This speaks well for the liberality of Churchmen in that State.

The Bishop's Address shows a large amount of work and affords the most encouraging prospects for the Church. The whole number confirmed during the year has been-whites, 248; colored, 384; total, 632. Three churches have been consecrated. Two persons have been ordained Deacons, and three Priests.

The Bishop's Charge is a most able and faithful vindication of the great doctrines of the Gospel. It puts Christ in His true position as the foundation and life of the Church. As to the membership of the Church, we let the Bishop speak in his own clear and pointed language: "The next point I make is, to inquire, Who form the Church of Christ? The reply is, the body of believers, the whole body of disciples. In the New Testament the Apostles ever recognize the entire assembly of the faithful in any given place as the Church." **

Again he says:

*

"The Church of Christ did not originate on the day of Pentecost. This presents a point, I think, deserving much consideration. Assuming this as the origin of the Church, limiting its idea too much to the structure then erected, and giving to it an unelastic and absolute interpretation, I suppose to be the chief source of the opinion, that the Church rests in outward constitutions, and that they are the essence of its existence. But it was not then that her foundations were laid; or then that she received the breath of creation. Then, indeed, its risen Lord gave paramount power to those upon whom He had already bestowed paramount authority, to preach its doctrines, administer its sacraments, gather in disciples, and constitute its organization, in its ultimate and permanent form. And I respectfully submit, that the college of the Apostles was not the permanent form. That is ordinary, and to continue until the end of the world. The dispensation was special, temporary, extraordinary, and miraculous: they were to the Church what none have been since. The Bishops of the Church are not apostles, nor, strictly speaking, successors of the Apostles. They had no successors, and were not intended to have any. It was not the nature of their office to have successors. Prophets do not go in regular line, but are distinct, divine creations. And these were the greatest of prophets. A distinct office, or at least a distinct order, in the Church was the apostolate."

Speaking of the testimony of the Fathers, he says:

*

"But after all, they never did make the Church's organization of the essence of her being, or found her sacraments upon her orders. They regulated the administration of the sacraments by orders, so as to preserve the authority and unity of the Church, and the dignity of the sacraments. But they did not affect to create them by the quality of the administrator. The idea of priests making sacraments is Romish. It is not Catholic faith, but Popery." *

We have room for only one more extract:

*

"I will now refer to another point, not as necessary to my subject, but as carrying with it serious practical consequences, and a right understanding of which is valuable to the comfort of our own minds. They who maintain that the order of the Church is of its essence, and that Episcopacy is its ministerial order, necessarily hold that they who are not in union with Episcopacy are not members of the Church. The charge is brought against them that they are uncharitable. They declare it unjust. Yet still, probably, they feel it, and feel more the painfulness and estrangement that is sometimes created. They say in reply that they acknowledge all the obligations of charity and seek to cultivate it, and that they do not deny the Christian character to others--that they are partakers of salvation-if you please, better Christians than themselves, and to shine, hereafter, more in the kingdom of heaven. They say, also, in their turn, that their brethren, holding with them the Episcopal order, are guilty of a weakness of charity, or of error, in not firmly upholding the truth and its consequences. Now let us consider. Charity falls within the sphere of logic. Her demands are not contravened by the deduc

* * *

tions of the understanding. And every truth is exclusive of every thing but truth. The question, then, is one of evangelic verity. And, standing, as I sup pose, on this ground only, I oppose myself to this doctrine and its conclusions. My reasons, for the most part, I have given already. But I wish to present one view. It is said that those possessing pious character, but not belonging to the Episcopacy, are not of the Church, but they are Christians, single Christians each one, accepted in the sight of God, and secure of salvation. Now I maintain that a single separated Christian is an anomalous conception. * * No. there is but one Catholic dispensation to men in Christ Jesus. Redemption is common, founded upon common sin, bringing to common deliverance. The notion of the Church is community. Believers are the company of believers. No man liveth to himself. The benefits of redemption are through administrations of community. What is the meaning of the ministry, the sacraments, the Lord's day, the House of God, and all else, if this is not the idea? No, you may break Christianity to pieces, as much as you please, but this is the radical truth that will come back upon you. You may break it to pieces, and still you shall find the power of its associated law. Men do not separate themselves into individualities, but into associations, societies, and each stills calls itself a Church. If there are Christians among them, it is as belonging to the Church. For, rightly received, the maxim is true. Out of the Church there is no salvation. * * * * Are they members of the Church? Yes! they must be so to be Christians. The difficulties may be very great in adjusting the proportions of doctrine in every case, but we can not surrender fundamental truth, or the idea of fellowship and community, in the Church of Christ. The truth is, brethren, our fathers had a much truer and wider grasp upon this subject than we have. From the days of Cranmer to those of Charles the First, no other doctrine was taught but that which I have set forth. And, even after opposite views were published, it seemed more for the purpose of upholding the Church in her visible existence against her opposers, than of denying these principles of her foundation. Certain it is, that nowhere are these principles more clearly upheld and ably advocated, than in Archbishop Laud's controversy with the Jesuit, and in Bishop Stillingfleet's extension of that controversy. * * And we, too, are placed in circumstances not favorable to real Catholic views. Protestants are divided into parties; and there is a strong disposition to make the limits of a party the limits of Christianity. But God seeth not as we see. And the great and universal verities of faith are not to be overturned by external relations."

**

*

串

We are glad to see such views put forth by a man of Bishop Davis' known moderation and sound Churchmanship. We believe they are in perfect accordance with the Scriptures and with the doctrines of our own Church.

The subject of the greatest interest before the Convention was the proposition to inquire into the expediency of establishing a Diocesan Theological Seminary. This movement is important, not only in its bearings upon that particular Diocese, but in its ultimate effects upon the General Seminary in New-York. We believe there is a growing dislike to general institutions in the Church. Certainly our experience has not been in their favor; and should the principal Dioceses establish seminaries of their own, we see not how it can lead to any other result than a virtual disbanding of the General Seminary. Whether the General Convention will feel called upon to take any formal action, we know not; but the time has already come when the Seminary at New-York is no more a general one than the Seminary at Alexandria or at Gambier.

ERRATUM.-On page 7 of the January number, in line 10th from the top, between the words "did" and "for" insert not.

THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL

QUARTERLY REVIEW,

AND

CHURCH REGISTER.

JULY 18 5 6.

No. III.

ARTICLE I.

The History of England from the Accession of James II. By THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. Vols. III. and IV. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. 1856.*

Of this work, we have already, in our last number, given a notice. Its great name and importance call for a more particular review.

The armistice is at an end: after seven years of quiet but diligent preparation, Mr. Macaulay is again in the field with serried and formidable ranks, presenting as bold a front, and sounding as imperious a challenge to the world-political, reli

*We desire to place on record with this article the statement of a great typographical feat which gives American publishers just cause of pride. When the London edition of these volumes was already stereotyped, and 20,000 copies ready for delivery, 36,000 subscribers presented themselves. The publishers asked a delay of one month to prepare the 16,000 additional copies. In fine contrast with this is the feat performed through the enterprise of Messrs. E. H. Butler & Co. The work-1600 octavo pages of the London edition-was set up, stereotyped, and printed, and 10,000 copies of a first edition in the publishers' hands, bound, within fifty working hours from the commencement of the work,

VOL. III.-26