The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-03 00:00:00

OPINIONS OF 111 PRESS.

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LAMM ON DEBILITY, NERVOUSNESS, ANN ALL
DISORDERS ARISING FROM EXCESS, &c,
" He who ih pleasure's downy arms
Ne'er lost his health or youthfu lcharrne,
A here lives, and justly can
Exclaim, in me behold a man!"
ust published (in A sealed envelope), Tenth Edition, price b. M.,
or sent by post, free, to any address, 3s. 6d.,
QELF-PRESERVATION : a Popular Essay on
those concealed disorders originating in youthful excesses,
and terminating in Nervous Debility, Local and Constitutional
Weakness, and all those Sinkings, Anxieties, and Tremors, which
afflict the Weak, the Sedentary, and the Delicate. With Practical
Observations on Marriage, and on the Anatomy, Physiology, and
Diseases of the Reproductive Organs, with plain Directions for
their perfect Restoration.
By SAMUEL LAMERT, Consulting Surgeon
9, REDFORD-STREET, REDFORD.SQUARE, LONDON,
Matriculated Member of the University •f Edinburgh, Honorary
Member of the London Hospita !Medical Society, Licentiate of
Apothecary's Hall, London,&c.
" The various positions of Lover, Husband, and Parent, the in-
herent privileges of mankind, are trequently marred and prevented
through the follies and frailties of early indiscretions. To such,
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Published by the Author, and sold in London by S. Gilbert, 51 and
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At home every day till Three, and from Five till Eight.

THE EPISCOPAL FItEE CHURCH
OF EXETER.
(From the Western Times.)
The Episcopal Free Church, of which so much
has been said of late, was opened on Friday morning
by the Rev. 11. B. Bulteel. The church met in the great
room built by our enterprising neighbour, Mr. N
cholas Tuckett, for public purposes. It is one of the
most elegant halls in the West of England, not equal
to the great Subscription-room in extent, but cer-
tainly not behind it in elegance of decoration and
proportion. Mr. Tuckett, we believe, was himself
the architect; he spared no expense in decorating it ;
and its general appearance is no mean compliment to
his taste and ability. A gallery has been erected at
one end, which rather mars the effect of a beautiful
stained glass window; and an excellent organ, sup-
plied by Mr. Vinnicombe, occupies the centre of the
gallery.
The chapel was filled long before the hour of ser-
vice in the morning; in the evening, the congregation
was even still more numerous. The service was
conducted with much order and decorum. Prayers
were read by the Rev. Mr. Shore, of Bridgetown,
who well understands how to read the beautiful
liturgy of the Church of England. Jackson's Te
Deum was chanted by a small but efficient choir ;
and the congregation joined in that beautiful service
with great taste.
The Rev. 11. Bulteel, who preached the opening
sermon, is a gentleman well known to this county,
being first cousin to the lamented .lohn Croker Bulteel,
Esq., M.P. for South Devon. Mr. Bulteel seceded from
the Church on grounds which will he sot forth in our
outline of his sermon, about 15 or 16 years since, on
which occasion we heard him preach in this city,
in the open air, his secession making at the time a
great sensation in the county. Since then he has con-
tinued steadfast in his views ; and he now appeared in
Exeter to show, not only that he has not seceded from the
ground which he then took, but that the principles on
which he left the Church have been steadily progressing.
He is a fine-looking, powerful man, about five feet
ten inches in height, with a frame which seems cal-
culated for any act of physical endurance which man
may be called on to undergo. We are not aware
that this fact is very essential to be noted in connexion
with an opening sermon ; but we mention it in con-
sequence of an article which appeared in Bentley's
Miscellany,: setting forth how the Rev. Gentleman,
since he has given himself up to the more diligent pro-
pagation of evangelical doctrines, had withered and
pined away in the flesh, and become almost a spec•
tacle to excite commiseration, instead of remaining a
man, as he was in form and substance, when the
writer of the paper first remembered him at college.
We believe the paper was entitled " Recollections of
Eton," it appeared in the number for August. The
writer having described the stalwart form of Mr.
Bulteel, and his muscular strength and personal ac-
tivity, attributes the decline of his physical powers to
his adoption of a more rigid walk and conversation in
accordance with the convictions of evangelical truth.
We admit that whatever a man's convictions may be,
twenty years take a great deal of elasticity out of his
frame, and reduce his bodily activity; but Mr. Bul-
teel bears evidence, by his clean-built frame, the
healthy hue of his cheek, the brightness of his eye,
and the health-bearing tone of his whole exterior,
that neither the abstractions of study, nor the quiet
habits of his calling, have had any visible effect upon
his physique. You will seldom see more unequivocal
evidence of health, calm vigour, and temperance, in
the visage and bearing of a man.
His text was from Galatians 4, chap. iv., verse 31
—" So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free."
He commenced in a low tone and rather hurried
manner ; but as he proceeded with his subject he
warmed upon it, and became excited and animated,
although fettered by a written composition, and re-
strained by the necessity of reading it.
He said they had sent for him on the present occa-
sion, to open a place of worship for the use of such
persons as saw fit, from motives of conscience, to free
themselves from the communion of the Church by law
established, and as a reason for so important a step
might justly be demanded of them, it could not be
deemed amiss if they took the present opportunity of
stating at least one momentous objection to a longer
continuance within her pale—the complete state of
bondage to which her members, and especially her
ministers, were reduced, a state so much unlike that
of the primitive Church, as to render it impossible that
both Churches could derive their constitution from
the same original. He would solicit their attention to
two great points, which afforded a just and reasonable
defence of their conduct. The first was—the Freedom
of the Church of Christ ; the second, the Bondage of
the Church of England. By the term " Head of the
Church," it was implied that the Church allowed the
King supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, the Church
resigning her independence, and making the
magistrate her supreme head, without whose appro-
bation and allowance she could administer, transact,
or decree nothing. No ecclesiastic of the Estab-
lished Church could exercise his functions without the
sit without his express magistrate'shad a
apprrigobhattitoen ; no Synod or Church As-
sembly
per-
mission, or impose their acts as authoritative, till
they had received his confirmation ; neither could
any member be excommunicated, or expelled, the
society, without the consent of the magistrate. To
this account of the supremacy given by the Bishop,
it might not be amiss to add that by the 37th article
the same power, in matters ecclesiastical, was allowed
the Christian princes, as was allowed all godly kings,
in Holy Scripture, by God himself; and it is added,
that to them the chief government of all estate of this
realm, whether ecclesiastical or civil, in all cases, doth
appertain. The second canon spoke precisely the
same language, pronouncing that " whosoever shall
hereafter affirm that the King's Majesty bath not the
same authority in causes ecclesiastical that the godly
kings had among the Jews, &c., let him be excom-
municated ipso fac!o, and not restored but after
public revocation of his wicked errors." And, more-
over, by the Act 26th of Henry V 111., chap. 1, they
found that " the King, his heirs and successors, shall
be taken and reputed the only Supreme Head on
earth of the Church of England, and shall have full
power, from time to time, to visit, reform, correct and
amend, all errors, heresies, and enormities, whatever
they be, which, by any manner of spiritual authority
or jurisdiction, are, or lawfully may be, reformed,
ordered, corrected, or amended." So then, according
to this doctrine, the independence and liberty of the
Church of England was but a name, or a shadow—the
Church could do nothing—the King could do every-
thing—to him belonged the supremacy in all matters
whatever ; doctrine, discipline, and what not, were all
subject to him—from the moment of the alliance no-
thing could be safe from his touch, except the preach-
ing of the Word and the administration of the Sacra-
ments. It might seem strange to say that the King

might interfere with the Church's doctrine, seeing it
was contained in her Thirty-nine Articles. But ne-
vertheless it was true ; for though he might have no
right to alter them, yet if the meaning of any one of
them be disputed, he might put his own interpreta-
tion on it, and act accordingly. The Reverend
Preacher then supposed a case where the Bishops
might come (as they had in respect of Mr. Wills-
ton's book) to a clear decision that a minister had
committed heresy, and yet the Crown coul I pre-
vent them from removing him ; and thus vir-
tually decide that the heresy in question was not in-
consistent with the Church doctrine. The preacher
then showed the position of the Church with respect
to discipline. To say that she had none would be
incorrect; to say that she had just as much as the
State allowed her would he wide of the mark. Even
when convocations were used, she had but this show
of liberty. The clergy met, and the Bishops con-
sulted, but, when they came to an act of needful dis-
cipline, they might find their hands effectually tied
But, now, even the shadow of freedom had departed,
the convocation met no longer. The Church, like
Esther of old, waited without, knowing that it is
death to enter the Royal presence unbidden. She
has not been called into the Royal presence these
127 years. Alas, for the freedom of the Church !
she is impotent ! and as for discipline, the insulting
law tells her that she must not exercise it for herself,
but receive the whole from the State. You that eat
State bread 'shall and must be governed by State
rule—the bread I give you is mine; and I will see
to it that none is deprived thereof, except upon such
conditions as I impose! Such was the language
of the civil magistrate, the Church itself tamely,
bows to it, and meekly suffers the usurpa-
tion of Cxsar in things which are God's !
The Church might see her doctrines denied,
her precepts despised—she might number among her
incumbents characters the most profligate and aban-
doned, but having received the civil magistrate as
her head upon earth, the removal of such plague-
spots became mostly difficult, often impossible. Be-
hold next the miserable bondage of the Church's
ministers, in respect to the Book of Common Prayer !
Not one word had the Church or any minister a
right to alter of this book, and as excommunication
in most cases was impossible, all that died within the
limits of the parish, with a few_ exceptions, must have
the service of the Church performed over them. The
minister had frequently to declare with his lips what
in his heart he disbelieved—the beautiful service,
fitted only for those who die in the Lord, was prosti-
tuted day by day, to the ungodly and profane. The
Rev. Preacher pointed out the dilemma in which a
clergyman was placed, in consigning to Heaven one
whom the language of Scripture would assign to a
very different destination—or he must pacify his con-
science by leaving out a portion of the service, for
doing which neither the State nor the Church gave him
authority. They placed him where be was to perform
the work for which they paid him; he was bound to
fulfil his task, and must look to a fresh Act of
Parliament for relief to his conscience. The clergy
of this diocese knew that this was no imaginary as-
sumption. Let them refuse to thank God, according
to the prescribed form, for taking the soul of the de••
parted drunkard—let them fail to express a hope of
his blessed resurrection—and they would soon find a
power which abated nothing of its demands, and a
party which insisted upon the fulfilment of the bond ;
and the most lenient treatment they could expect
would be fourteen days' suspension, and publication
of their offence before the whole congregation ! As
the Church was in bondage to the State, so the
Church's inferior offices were in bondage to the supe-
rior. The State having tied up the right hands of
the Bishops to prevent any outbreak against itself,
left the ends of the cord in the hand of the Prelate,
that he might use it as a lash for the backs of
the inferior clergy, a bond for the complete sub-
jection of the incumbents, and a halter for the
necks of the curates. Of all the people in the kingdom,
the curates were contented with the least liberty.
Whether in deacon's or priest's orders, young or old,
it made no difference ; he could not be exempt from
the arbitrary will of his superior. The incumbent
might escape from the Bishop's indignation with a
mere scolding; but the curate, sold as he was into the
hands of the Bishop, was liable to be dispossessed in a
moment of his means of subsistence; his license might
be removed at the sovereign pleasure of some cruel
lord—either with or without reason ; and straightway
he might find his mouth stopped, and his occupation
gone. The same bondage was manifested in raising
the ecclesiastic to the Episcopal Bench. There was a
time when the Presbyters of the Church had a large
share in the election of Bishops. The testimony of
antiquity proved that the appointment to that office
required the sanction of the people in confirmation.
But how stood the matter. now ? 'Were the people
consulted in the appointment of Bishops ? Were the
Presbyters consulted ? Oh, no ! It was by no means
necessary, according to the State Church doctrine,
though that Church declared that the Bishops were
an order entirely distinct from that of Presbyters, the
highest of all orders ; and though it was obvious, that
being so, they were set up either for the greatest good
or the greatest mischief in the Church, yet so little
had the Church been careful of her liberty in this
most important of her concerns, that she allowed the
head of the Church to take up any one of her Presby-
ters and of him to make a Bishop. Though the ac-
tual ceremony of ordination was done by the laying
on of the hands of the other Bishops, yet the actual
creation was the work of the Monarch; and no one
could be chosen to be a Bishop by any other power
in the realm ; and if any portion of the Established
Church were to set about it for themselves, they would
incur most rigorous penalties for their presumption.
It was confessed also, that when the conge d'elire had
been granted, if the parties to whom it was issued re-
fused to appoint the person named by the Sovereign,
the person so refusing would incur the consequence&
of a prremunire; so that the leave to elect, 'which
sounded as if there were liberty in the matter,
amounted to the liberty of electing whom the Sove-
reign bade them to elect, and also of suffer-
ing the loss of goods and chattels, and en-
during what other hardships he knew not, if they
refused to obey the mandate of the Crown,
so that throughout the Established Church, from the
lowest of her people to the highest order of her
officers, their reigned one continuous system of bond-
age, which would make them, if they quoted his
text, read it by the rule of contrary—we are not the
children of the freewoman, but of the bond. The
Bishop must say, I was made by the State and am in
bondage to it. The Presbyter must say, I am in
bondage to the Bishop, and the Prayer-Book ; and
each of the people must say, I too am in bondage, for
I have no liberty to vote on the appointmeut of a
minister, nor have I liberty to reject one sent by the
higher powers. I am as a nonentity despised, and
deprived of my Christian rights. The Reverend
Preacher then referred to the evidence that this bond-
age was felt by the ministers of all parties—by the
evangelical minister, who scrupled to prostitute
Christian services over the grave of the ungodly; and
by the Tractarian clergy, who desired to set the
Church above the State, and rule it according
to the laws of antichrist. It was felt also by the
despotic Prelate, who, though content for his own
convenience, to act under the State, yet fretted
under a restraint which prevented him from
annihilating those who offended him. The leader of
the Tractarians complained that he and his brethren
were as so many galley slaves, condemned to work in
chains; and the Bishop of Exeter, in the same
charge which rebuked him for using the comparison,
declared that they were as much without the means
of synodical action, as a maniac in a straight waistcoat
was deprived of freedom of action. The Bishop re-
buked his brother for a fault which he himself com-
mitted almost in the same breath. But these compa-
risons were exceedingly unhappy. Galley slaves were
fettered on account of their former misdeeds, and ma-
niacs were bound down and restrained to prevent the
outbreak of their insane ferocity. What the galley
slaves did before they were chained, history would
tell—they robbed and plundered on the King's high-
way. What the maniacs had done when their arms
were unrestrained by the straight waistcoat, of which
they now complained, would be learned from the his-
tory of the Non-Conformists, from the reign of Eliza-
beth down to 16$8. Years upon years of tyranny,
oppression, imprisonments, confiscations, and execu-
tions, had taught the State at length, that the rule of
churchmen was maniacal, and that the only remedy
was the straight waistcoat and confinement.
Having shown the Church of England to be in a
state of bondage, the Rev. Preaches-next asked what
was to be done in such a case ? The words connected
with the text furnished a reply—" Stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be
b Taking
onda ge Thisth
point
case of a Presbyter of the Chpreh, this latter might
say that, at his ordination, he laid himself under vows
idthwith muchthe eloquence. yoke of
from which he could not possibly recede, for God had
not again
aregnutaendg with
said, "It is better that thou shouldest not vow, than
that thou shouldest vow and not pay. This certainly
held good in the case of 4 14WAII VAW but suppose