The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-06 00:00:00

CELEBRATION OF THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER

IN LIVERPOOL

The thanksgiving servic,
held in the Church of Engla
happy escape of James the F.
plot formed by r^;' '
were celebrated yesterday in most of th

appointed by the rubric to be
ad, in commemoration of the
st and the Parliament from the
irators for their destruction,

urches of Liver-

pool. Both morning and evi
St. Jude's, Christ Church,
others, by the Rev. Hugh M
the Rev. M. Crotty, the R
Bailee, the Rev. T. D. Gre

!fling serrnons were delivered in
All Saints', St. Mary's, and
Neile, the Rev. Fielding Onld,
ev. W. Mansfield, the Rev. J.
gg, and others. The churches

attended by large cotig

__withstanding the
calls of business and the disadvantages of an unpromising day.
Last evening, the Rev. Hugh M'lsleile (who had been
preaching in Mr. Stowell's church, at Salford, Manchester,
in the forenoon) delivered a most argumentative and eloquent
discourse to au overflowing congregation, in St. Jude's. He
selected the subject of his discourse from the 78th Psalm,
from the 4th to the 7th verse. "\V will not hide them from
our children, shewing to the generation to come the praises
of the Lord and his strength, and his wonderful works that
he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and
appointed a law in Israel, which le commanded our fathers
that they should make them known to their children. That
the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born : who should announce and declare
them to their children : that they might set their hope in
God, and not forget the works of God but keep his coin-

mandment

The rev. gentleman

that contention had

existed frorit immediately after the commencement of the
world, and that God had done wonderful things for the chil-
dren of Israel. The present was a day of commemoration,
not of events in the history of Israel, but of events in the
history of England. The God of Israel was the God of
England. His dealings, and the principles of his govern-
ment, were the same ; and with the history of England in
our hands. we had much cause to thank God for the won-
derful works he had done. But here there was a difficulty.
We encountered an embarrassment at the outset, because
the history of England was not the word of Divine inspira-
tion. In tracing the history of our country, therefore, we
were liable to fall into mistakes. We had not the commis-
sion of Moses, of Samuel, and of Ezra, who were in-
spired by the infallible spirit of God ; but we were obliged
to take the pages of Hume, of Smollett, of Lingard,
of Spottiswoode—men fallible at the best, and who often
walked by prejudice or passion. But, notwithstanding
this embarrassment, facts were facts, and they were to
be distinguished from the comments of man. Facts
were the doings of Divine Providence ' • and, making all
allowance for the mistakes, wilful or untlesigned, of histo-
rians, and for the partisan comments made upon facts,
we had derived such a substantial knowledge of facts as
enabled us to give God thanks for his merciful dealings in our
country. The reverend gentleman, after some additional ob-
servations, traced the original introduction of Christianity in
these islands, glancing at its history from that period to the
time when the council of Nice was held. He shewed that
the creed called the Nicene creed, no* used in the services
of the Church of England, was framed at that council, but
that twelve articles were added to that creed by the church of
Rome, which was the foundation of the contention between
her and the Church of England. Contention arose,
which the reverend gentleman followed through a va-
riety of stages in English history, shewing, at each stage,
how popery systematically aimed at the ruin of this
country till the issue of the famous bull of Pope Pius the
Fifth. This bull, it will he known to those who are acquainted
with the leading points of the controversy, concludes with
an horrible anathema against heretics. Many attempts were
made on the Queen's (Elizabeth's) life in consequence of it,
and finally it produced the diabolical conspiracy, the happy
escape from which was the subject of the present thanks-
giving since. The sermon concluded by a most energetic
call on Protestants to come forward and defend their coun-
try from the encroachments of the papal system ; but this
brief sketch will utterly fail in giving any idea of its breadth
and general characteristic of vigorous e
occupied upwards of two hours in delive

loquence

The following is the solemn unrepealed act of parliament,
passed after the barbarous gunpowder plot, as an awful
warning to the nation, to the clergy especially, who are ex-
pressly commanded by this act, and by the special com-

mend of each successive Sovereign, printed in the Common
Prayer Book, that, after morning prayer, or preaching,
they shall always, on the fifth day of November, read pub-
licly, distinctly, and plainly, this act of par—
" Act 3, James 1., Chapter 1