The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-25 00:00:00

[Stamped. id. Additional

[TWOPENCE

THE ST. BARTHOLOMEW BICENTENARY
CELEBRATION.

Yesterday the two hundredth anniversary of the
seceasiou of 2,000 ministers from the church of England
was couunemorated in most of the metropolitan dissenting

chapels. Mr. Bloomy had as overwhelming congregation at
the Weigh House Chapel, Fish-street-hill, the first pastor
of which wee one of the Bartholomew confessors ; indeed,
large numbers of persona, who were anxious to hear him
upon the subject, were unable to obtain standing room.
The rev. gentleman selected for his text the 14th chapter
of FM Paul's Epistle to the Romans, verse 5, "Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind." He mid that 200
years ago thatclay manypulpits in England wrong:sot, rase,
voices were hushed, and in many places there were cheep
without a shepherd. They might profitably consider the
•igaibsaocy of that act, which stood out in history as
part of a memorable crisis. There were, however, at the very
cateet, some very formidable difficulties which presented
themselves in dealing with the subject. Ist. It might be
said that its consideration was out of keeping with their
ordinary tiabbatli worship and medit►tion. 2od. It was
utterly impossible to do it justice M a single diaccurse, and
he certainly did not intend to devote another to it. ard. It
was very difficult to make it clear and intelligible to a
popular assembly. 4th. It was impossible to diacuss the
subject in any method or in any spirit without laying cue s
self open to misconception, for the right of demoting to
aesallign the smension of 10621• connexion with themselves
bed been denied. Of all those difficulties he was perfectly
eognieuot, sad he had no expectation that he should be able
satisfactorily to remove them. He proceeded to say that
the year 1662 took its character from the times which pre-
ceded it. It belonged to a period of inquiry, search,
questioning, and discussion, and it was a crisis at the
close of a very stormy period. In times behind the 14th
century there was in this country• oa religious matters a
unaaimity of ignorance, a state of mental stagnation being
encouraged ; the souls of men were dead, and dead people
it was well known were very quiet. That was the sort of
tranquillity enjoyed by our forefathers In those good old
times, when the church was above the state. But in this
condition of things • star appeared in the sky, sleepers
awoke, the dead grow, and inquiry was set on foot. By the
preaching of Wycliffe, " the morning star of the miasma-
tion," attention was excited, inquiry was quickened, and the
new doctrine, as his mesons was called, was everywhere
eagerly received. Of cause there could be no commotion
between light sod darkness, and violent fulminations there-
fore went oat against him. There was diesgreemeat, agita-
tion, controversy —it could not be helped, and it
was by no means to be lamented. Better, far bet-
' ter was it that there should have been life, action,
and progress, with confusion, and battle, and war,
than the stagnation of death and the peace of the gram.
This was the beginiog of healthy action, and was the pm-
lode and the prophesy of the coming day, for the people
then began to clamour for the truth, pure and simple.
Coincident with this very bat agitatioa, and this cry foe

truth, them were the utterances of secular ideas, which
came to be productive of controversy. Wycliffe had stated
that in the primitive church there were only two ordert in
the ministry, which were considered sufficient—namely'
presbyters and deacons, and that in the time of St. Paul,
presbyter and bishop meant the same thing. In the reign
al Beaty 1:111. came a cootest of another kind, • contest
foe netional independence. The king claimed for hiniseff
end his people entire freedom from foreign interference in
ecclesiastical matters, and be was right. But at this time
papists and protestants suffered alike, and frequently at the
same stake, the one as a heretic for denying the doctrine of
transubstantiation, and the other es a traitor for denying
the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Biog. Matters went on
under the reigns of Elisabeth, Jamas, aid Charles, until
they euhaioated in that state of things with which they
were all familiar under the Commonwealth. Theo there
came a battle for greater simplicity in church rites, for an
improvement in clerical habits, and a more clear and decisive
declaration of protestant creels. It mum curious fact in
reasection with this subject that in the move:atlas heist
is 1562, just 300 years ego, in the reign of Elisabeth,
the puritan element was sostioeg that many mesobers hold-
ing high ecclesiastical offices were anxious for ritual refor-
mation. A proposition was made to abrogate all saints days,
to omit the sign of the cross in baptism, to disoontieue the
use of organs, to provide that the priest should not turn his
back upon the people at any portion of the service, and to
leave the practice of kneeling at the sacrament of the
Lesd's supper a matter of discretion. This propo-
sition wee carried by a majority of eight of those
who were present at the discussion, but proxies being ad-
mitted, the decision was ravened by a majority of one, so
near was the church in the time of Elizabeth being reformed
by the puritan element. The puritans obtained the lead.
and many persons were admitted to the priesthood, if he
might use the term, who bad only been ordained by the
laying on of the hands of the presbytery. In the middle of
1662, when the death struggle was at its height, those who
had been undermost for • hundred years became supreme,
and so things continued until the turn of the tide brought
back to their old moorings the representatives of the past.
With the Restoration there might have been mutual con-
tagions, but such was not the temper of the times. On
the part of the bishops there was only one desire, namely, to
get rid of their adversaries, and on the part of those adver-
saries there was too great a drain, under the circumstances,
to introduce functional changes is the offices of the church.
The state, influenced by the church, then proposed terms
which the clergy could not accept without dishonour, and
the Act of Uniformity was the climax and the does of ooe
eventful period of our history. What was required was se
monstrous that to refuse could scarcely be considered ea
act of heroism. To have accepted a half or a quarter of
what was proposed would have been infamous. The Act of
Uniformity involved the denial of everything of moment
which had been struggled for; large numbers of the clergy,
therefrom, pee up everything they had, sod many of theme
ia addition to these privations, suffered severe penal oases-
qnsoces. A wrong principle was common to both par-
tite at that time, namely, a desire that the secular arm
should be called in to @afore, the provisisns Of a creed.
The lesson to be learnt from the nooconformista of three
days should out be lost sight of, especially at the present
day when the secret seemed to he possessed by some bow
subscription might be harmonised with a denial of almost
everything subscribed. The rev. gentleman concluded by
saying that there never could be unanimity of knowledge on
religious matters, that was in the *ease of scientific demon-
stration ; but there might be unanimity of love, and the
cultivation of that feeling be strongly sounselleS amongst
all denominations of Christians. In connection with this
bicentenary movement • sum of considerably more than
100,0001. has been raised. Macy of the high church clergy
dwelt upon the same subject yesterday, taking of course a
very different view of the matter to that urged by Mr.
Binary.