The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-20 00:00:00

pies of the Reformed Church that Holy Scripture contains
all things necessary for salvation, and that it is the one

immutable, infallible

truth ; but such, we knew, was the imp€

human mind, that men
from the same written Word

had deduced different doctrines
To enard at►ainaf

ua
not as presumptuously substituting acreed of ri's7wn'''''in- I
stead of the written Word of God, but as a foundation in
fixing the sense in which the Scripture was interpreted by
those within its pale. Now, the manner in which that
delicate task had been executed bore indications of great
wisdom, and, what always accompanied it, great modera-
tion. The framers of their articles had drawn a broad
line of demarcation between their own church and that of
Rome. It was a line so plainly and broadly marked that
no disingenuous sophistry could ever obliterate or disguise
it. But while the reformers firmly disapproved of those
parts of the Church of Rome in which human inventions
and traditions had been allowed to supersede and eclipse
the Word of God, they knew at the same time that
the work in which they were engaged was a work
not of innovation but of restoration ; and they,
therefore, as firmly retained whatever else in the
doctrine and discipline of antecedent times was ac-
cording to the tenor of Scripture and the simplicity of
evangelical truth. His lordship then spoke of the liturgy
as a popular body of doctrine. There were in this country
great numbers of good men who dissented from their
church. Some of those differed from them on grounds so
broad as to preclude the hope of a unity; but there were;
others who were separated from them by lighter shades of 1
opinion, and did not so much object to any of the doctrines
of their church, as to the particular form of language in'
which they were in some few places expressed. It might
be said, and he admitted it might be said with truth, that ,
the severance of those persons from their communion by
their own act might be regretted as an indication of un-
willingness on their part to allow to the formularies of the
church that "favourable construction" which the preface
to the liturgy spoke of; but, on the other hand, they must
remember that it might also be said, that if it were possible
to bring such persons back to the communion of the church
without any compromise of its doctrinal truths, and merely
by the substitution in some places of terms less liable to
misconception, the result would be a matter of great joy to
all who were animated by the spirit of true Christian
charity, at least let charity be an excuse for the
expression of that passing sentiment. His lordship, in
eloquent terms, acknowledged the zeal of the clergy,
and said that the laity had responded by unequivocal
proofs of increasing attachment to the church, which
they had shown an equal readiness to defend, both against
encroachments from without and betrayal from within.
New churches had been erected, additional ministers had
been employed, new schools • had been built for the edu-
cation of the poor, a superior class of instructors had been
introduced into those schools ; there was a vast improve-
ment, he would venture to say, in the character of the
rising generation, and even in the religious impressions
of those of riper years. Now, these were signs of vitality,
of energy, and of progress. His lordship then observed,
that the church had been gradually and unceasingly
enlarging its operations ; and he looked for a continuance
to a reconstruction of its forms, or the of its
of its well-doing, not so much to a revival of convocation,
resumption
long disused and • seldom exercised functions, as to the