The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-04 00:00:00

i';4V era3rtoo.

To CORRESPONDENTS•
Tote toed foe "The twos; Lemke Eeeßlng piper,
wale be et the Ittflee, 10, Sceaverte-efzeit. by Two o'clock oa the
pabilmt.o.
DIGIT WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tao I).e - Mot ning. 216 110........-AhliMan. 21, Md.
SO. 10m.
To-posauo -Mucking, ft. 12s. Alterroe,

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Tilt trap whith Dr. PIAZY imagined and gave his I,
name to, and which wu framed and bailed by his
disciples, le now so very moll known for what It
that u a trap at lend it can no longer serve. The
veriest Mt of ets establishment mut be perfectly
aware what he is about in venturing in. And we
doubt that any more, save those who are already
irrevocably witt:m the bete, will put themselves in
the power of the It-rnanising rat-catchers.
The delight of these ecclesiastical sparmmen M pre-
sent is to hold up their cage to the world, and *ow
the great people they have caught. Although they are
not able to boas' complete and bodily capture of such
porteitous animals, for example, as the PREMIER and
the Bishop of LONDON, they can at least show how
one left the fur of his coaling, whilst the other left
his very tail in the closing trap, so narrow was his
escape.
As to Lord Jottt, he evidently did but smell the
bait, and thought it savouring with devout unction •
but scenting the Port, his lordship made off in good'
time. His denunciation of the roguery of the bait
hap much an.;ered that ingenious rat-catcher, Mr.
Beane T. The Bishop of LONDON, however, walked
all fours into tiit trap, and not only smelled the bait
bet swallowed it; nay,recommended it yrongly to all
his tribe, until he great discovery was made, and
the inmate.. of use cage threatened to be let loose
amocgst the opt., who arc very terriers na such
an necmco. Ilis GRACE m •de off more in fear than
dignity, le.oMg, as we steed, his consistency behind

hge.
And now tl e Rev. Mr. BENNETT has come
forwcrd at J pu'lished at leng'h the history and suc-
cess of his stet y cf S'. Barnabas. And we mast
say, that or. a careful perusal, we see no difference
worth mentioning between the church of Mr. BEN-
NETT and tho church of Father NEWNAN. Both, in
the first plar,•, are infallible. Tee church of England,
according to Mr. BENNETT, is fallible, because it is a
national church. But his own church, being not
national, bat Ili. it cruel, is infallible. On this infallibility
is feundeat, according to Mr. BENNETT, the certainty
of the Holy Scriptures. Our defections from records,
from history, the internal profs in the Bible itself
of its own authenticity, are nothing. We can only
believe in the hiole because we believe the church to
be infallible ; and we must believe the church to be
infallible in order to give certainty to the Bible. Such
is the absurd, rli • vicious circles upon which Mr. Ben-
rim build. his church. This is cot to be converted to
PT' but to surpass and 'o trensoud it. Toe creed
of Lewin catioilics is reason scd common sense com-
pared with this.
Infallibility craws after it omnipotence. If know-
ledge be rower, the perfectior. and irretragebility of
knowledge itoply supreme power. Since the church
puma. e the's,. where is its organ, its chief ? Shall
a ("I'l b°'-'2.-:-‘1 ih"• In:venial church ? Mr. BEN-
NErr ki:ows that it woad be a bear-garden. In des-
pair of any .ult from a council, shall all deci-
sion and uuteerity be referred to a supreme head,
foni•-ttl ss.d esoitgonistie to all lay and domestic
rule ? Mr. limsserr dent not say this, but he
points to it, all his argum-nts lead to that great
conclusion-I'u, cry. But for the present this is not
prueent to arviouLee. For him the time of
absolutist restoration in matters of religion has
not tome, aed thew fore Mr. IlellteErT recommends
anarchy. Hie deduce is that every priest shall
do what he iikee, preach what tenets, and practise
what ceremoriee, he fancies. He will not admit the
Qv EEN's suprt macy, because it is the Prime Minister's
—nor the Prime Minister's, because it is after all the
people's sup.tmsey. (It FEN, parliament, govern-
seem, and peopt.• shall have nothing to do with their
religioe. Laymen shall not meddle with it. It is •
sacerdotal sflair altogether, infallibility being confined
to the prieethood. And as the people must not flat
their priests, nor the state be- allowed to appoint
them either, it falcon/ that religion is to beaker/um
a Levitical institution, handed down in a tribe or
corporation, self-electing and self-rearing, sacred in
their persons and infallible in their judgments. If we
maple this scheme of religious faith,and church govern-
ment, with the worship of the saints, the adoration of
the cross, the auricular confession, penance and abso-
lutioe, all insisted on by the theologian of Brompton,
it makes up something considerably more than
popery. It is rank Ilindooisre, with its castes, its
rite- its Brahmin., and its pagodas. It is bringing
back society, not to the middle ages, as catholicism
would do, but to the remotest ages of barbarism.
We an conceive no gre.ter outrage to common
sense than the attempt to place a ant, which has
such aims and princ;ples as these, by the side of the
great dissenting denominations of this country, in order
to claim kindred and support. Every single charac-
teristic that dissent objects to in the church, sacer-
dotal supremacy with repudiation of lay. influence,
and all the consequences of these opinions and
pretensions, are exaggerated by the Puseyites.
The Qreents supremacy, which the laymen of the
established church prize as their safeguard against
sacerdotal tyranny and extravagance is objected to I
by the dissenters u insufficient. Dissent worships no
Pore. and believes in no infallible church : for the
Rev. Mr.BEMS err, therefore, to creep under the gaber-
dine of the Rev. BAPTIST NoeL, is but a piece of
Jesuitry worthy of his school.
lato the great and important question of whether
them shall be a state church or no state church we
need not enter. But of this we are confident, that
in any country where churches are divorced from and
eterecogaised by. the state, those churches with in-
fallible and dominant pretensions, with a hierarchy.
with corporate property, advancing their inflames
as much by the augmentation of wealth and power
as by argument, most be subjected to rigid reetrio-
tiers if not successfully combated by education and by
great worldly and industrial activity.
The idea of allowing such a church as the Anglican
in England to separate from the state, and constitute
itself with all its property and privileges into a
separate corporation, re-electing itself, disciplin-
ing and rearing its sons in the creed and
qualities requisite for domination,—this would be
the establishing of a yoke so much more intolerable
than that of any state church, that it would infellibly
lead at no distant day to an insurrection of the laity
for the sure and set purpose of getting rid of it;
unless indeed the encase of the Indian jugglers of the
church had succeeded in proetrating the people indite-
deicing them to the state cf the low castes of India,
condemned to labour end prohibited to think, and
bidden topes their souls with the mummery of unin-
telligible orisons and (matted asseticiem.

No Porn.—A semspaidat of the Brighte's
Herald toys : MI NO of the mat y millions who are
theakfal for tke letter of Lmd Join lamill to the Bishop
of Durham, and I hope the tossed that letter will be acted
up to. Bet I trust oar goverment will to farther, and
tam op by the root the tesopts'ion whisk has given rise to
t►e Pops for his intrusion. The Traimarisas are the proxi-
mate cause, induced by our Thirty-nine Articles and our
Liturgy, which favour Roma catholkiins, sad were framed
with s view of 0411441i1liag the catholic, 1. Abolish at tests
for wiraissint to our univenitire. 2. Parts the Thirty-nine
Aftidt II sod the Warr of their Roman WllOllO errors.
3. Contract the liming Service of our church in like man-
ner es we have dose the Afternoon Berra. 4. Withdraw
the &baud Atheaasleu Creed. 6. Abolish Saints' days."