The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-09 00:00:00

GREAT MEETING
OF THE
LIVERPOOL PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

The annual meeting of the Liverpool Protestant As-
sociation was held yesterday, at the Amphitheatre. It

was announced that the proceedings were to commence
at eleven o'clock; but long before that period almost
every seat in the theatre was occupied. The plan of

opening the doors some hours before the time appoint-

ed for the business of the meeting, has proved to be
an excellent arrangement. It obviates the unpleasant-
ness of a general rush towards the doors, and especially
affords the ladies an opportunity of securing comfort-
able seats. Indeed, the whole of the arrangements for
the occasion were exceedingly judicious, and reflect the

highest credit on the committee

At a moderate estimate, we should say that there
were upwards of four thousand individuals present. The
appearance of the theatre from the platform was truly
magnificent. The circus, the pit, the boxes, the galle-
ries, were densely crowded in every part, the boxes be-

ing chiefly occupied by ladies, all of whom seemed to
take a deep interest in the proceedings. It has been
the fashion of our radical contemporaries to affect to

disparage the importance of the meetings of the Pro-

testant Association, on account of the great number of
ladies who are in the habit of attending them. We
think that their presence adds greatly to the
impor-
tance of the proceedings. The influence which females
exert over popular opinion is too great to be sneered

down by the jests and jeers of the radical press.
The following were among the clergy and gentry
upon the platform :

Revs. T. Tattershall, D.D., R. P. Buddicom, H. M`Neile,
Hugh Stowell, R. J. M.`Cvbee, W. Maynard, Furnival,
E. Lawrence, J. Jones, A. Knox, J. Lyon, R. Davies, Y.
Richards, (Montgomeryshire,) Purdon, Cheetham,
Smith, F. Ould, C. Postlethwaite, (Vicar of Hendon, Notts,)
Dover, (Leeds,) H. S. Joseph, Borroughs, (Cambridge,)
Chalmers, Banning, (Greenock,) —Meyler, (Prescot,)
Allen, (Tilston,) Birkett, (Nortbwich,) D. Seddon,
(Salford, Manchester,) Stone, (Rossett, Chester,) Fal-
loon, Hamilton, James Haworth, (Chester,) T. Barker,
(Farndon,) Mayne, (Manchester,) Swinton, Dodd,
A. 'W. Richards, J. M. O'Connor, De Vere Coney, (Mission-

ary from Achill,) D. James, H. Carpenter, LL 'Mathley,
(Manchester,) Lyons, A. M'Conkey, M. Allan, Ro-
berts, T. Bridges, (St. John's, Newfoundland,) Hassell,
Mainwaring, Driffield, (Prescot,) W. Coombes,
Henderson, G. Mansfield, M`Guire, G. T. Driffield,
(Oxford,) Witts, J. B. Ingham, S. P. Boutflower,
Furnival, J. E. Bates, Stokes, F. Barker, F. Parry, C.
S. Absolam, (Tilstone,) B. A. Marshall, J. Fearon, P.
Brown, Spencer, G. Mallony, T. Rawson, W. Fenton,
J. C. Hamilton, Barker, (Chester,) Long, (Davenham,)
J. N. Peill, W. Fisher, and Lindon ; Messrs. Rigby,
Howard, Rounthwaite, Vale, Leete, Rowett, Boutflower,
Sands, Roskell, Codner, Horsfall, Edwards, Brindley,
O'Neill, Anderson, Reed, Cotesworth, Preston, Hodgson,
Jones, &c.
At eleven o'clock the chair was taken by the Rev.
Thomas Tattershall, D.D., and the proceedings com-

menced
The Rev. CHAIRMAN opened the meeting as follows—My
Christian friends,—We have an apostolical injunction that
men should pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without
wrath and without doubting. And we cannot be otherwise
than fully persuaded,
,that the most likely way to obtain any
blessing from God is to supplicate the footstool of his mercy,
for it is the spirit of humble faith. It has been the uniform
practice of the Asssociation of which we form a part, from
the commencement of its institution, to open all its meetings
with an act of devotion. And as I am sure I speak your
feelings as well as my own, in the desire that this meeting
should form no exception to the general rule, I shall beg
leave to call upon the Rev. Mr. M'Conkey to open this meet-
ing with prayer.
The Rev. ANDREW 111‘CONKEY offered up an impressive
prayer appropriate to the occasion.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN then addressed the meeting. He
said—Rising now from prayer, and standing in the position
in which you have placed me, I think I cannot better
open the proceedings of this day, than by expressing a
hope and trust that an answer to ie prayer which has been
already offered up will be vouchsafed from on high, and that
it will produce a softening and hallowing influence on the
entire of the remaining part of our proceedings, so that those
proceedings may be both carried on and completed in a man-
ner suitable to that in which they have been commenced. if
I say that it is with regret that I find myself placed in my
present position, it is not that I would wish to express the
slightest unwillingness or reluctance to obey either your call,
or the call of the committee of the Protestant Association, on
this or any other occasion, and to render any trifling service
which I may be able in the best manner that I can ; for I
would not distrust the grace of that God which was ever
made conspicuous in human weakness; and, moreover, I have
good cause to exercise a strong confidence in your own
kindness and indulgence, which, having been so liberally
shewn to me on former occasions, will, I am persuaded, be
repeated on the present occasion, and which causes me to
entertain a full assurance that no deficiencies of mine will
have the effect of deteriorating from the harmony and from
the value of the proceedings of this day. My regret arises
from another cause. I find myself standing in a position
which would, with so much more advantage, have been
occupied by one of three others—two of them ennobled
individuals, for whom this place was destined on this occa-
sion : I refer to the Most Noble the Marquis of Downshire,
the Right Hon. the Earl of Winchelsea, and Mr. Plumptre,
M.P. for East Kent. (Hear, hear.) Any one of these,
had he been present, would not only have more efficiently filled
the situation of chairman presiding over this meeting, but
have given much additional weight to the proceedings of this
day. However, as the very humble substitute of one or
other of those able and exalted individuals, it will become
me to say a few words with respect to the objects on behalf
of which we are called ,together. We are, then, let it first of
all be remembered, professedly a meeting of protestants ; we
are professors of protestantism, and by protestantism we
mean primitive Christianity—(cheers)—the Christianity of
the Bible, the Christianity of the word of inspiration, ante-
cedent to and set free from all extraneous additions, all cor-
ruptions, and defilements, which during the lapse of ages have
been crowded upon the true Christian scheme, either during
the Nicene age, or subsequently, during the ages of papal
darkness and superstition, (Applause.) We protest against
all and every doctrine, professing to be part of Christianity,
which is not found in its enunciation, and in its proof
and developement, in the Holy Scriptures: (Cheers.)
The Bible alone is the religion of the protestant. (Hear.)
Whatever professes to be Christianity, if it is not contained
in the Bible, against that we protest. (Cheers.) More-
over, we are assembled here, not merely as protestants, but
as members of a Protestant Association—that is, of an asso-
ciation formed for the diffusion and defence of protestantism.
Having thus met together, it is to be hoped—indeed, I am
fully persuaded—that all the proceedings of this meeting
will be of a character suitable to the nature of this profession.
We are of opinion that doctrinal truth is not a matter of mere
naked speculation—that according to scripture language,
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The doc-
trines which lie receives us true have an influence on his
whole character and on his conduct, in all the relations in
which he is placed, whether domestic, social, civil, or reli-
gious. (Applause.) We are of opinion, that true doctrine
will have its proper influence in the production of true and
honest and beneficial practice. We believe that this is true
in man's public relations, as well as in his private relations ;
and we feel persuaded of the converse of this fact, namely,
that whosoever entertains false opinions, is, so far as those
false opinions have influence, likely to be carried to an im-
proper and injurious course of action. (Hear, hear.)
Hence, therefore, we think it a matter of importance
to warn our fellow-creatures, of every degree, against the
influence of what we consider to be anti-scriptural doctrines,
believing that the true interest of every community is bound
up in the cordial reception of the truth as it is in Christ
Jesus. Having made these very few simple remarks, I might
now—indeed, it would by many perhaps be thought better
that I should—immediately sit down, and allow the busi-
ness of the meeting to go on; but I must beg permission
to make one or two allusions to some circumstances which
have been of a character sufficiently notorious, and which
have occurred during the past year, since we last assembled
in this place, and which are not without their reference to
some of our friends present, who will take a prominent part
in the proceedings of this day. I dare say I shall be very well
understood at once to refer, in the first place, to an attempt
which has been made to fix a foul stigma, no less than that
of disloyalty, on one of my reverend brethren here present.
(Applause.) If any one wishes to be satisfied respecting the
opinion held upon this subject by the parties to whom that
rev. brother of mine is known, let them come here, and we
will tell them. Let it not, however, be supposed, either by
my rev. friend or by this meeting, that I am about to enter
on an unnecessary work ; for I am not a Roman Catholic,
and therefore do not estimate the value, and never wish to
put in practice, anything of the works of supererogation. I
am not about to vindicate that which does not require to be
vindicated, nor to defend that which does not require to be
defended, or, if it did, would find more able defenders than
myself. But I wish, nevertheless, to make one or two
remarks respecting the attempt itself. Calumnious indeed,
as I have already remarked, has been the nature of the stigma
on our friend, and the' occasion on which it was made is
well known to every one that hears me. (Hear, hear.)
Every body is aware that our friend, at a meeting like
the present, in a county not far distant, in discoursing,
as he is used to do on these occasions, respecting the
Church of Rome, and giving his opinion of her qualities,
applied the apocalyptic term of Jezebel to that apostacy.
Now, attempts have been made to turn aside that term from
the application in which it was used by my rev. friend, to
another very different and very otherwise deserving quarter.
But this is what I will remark, that the author of this ca-
lumny, be he who he may, and I neither ask who he was nor
care who he was, either did understand my friend's speech at
Whitchurch, or he did not. If he did not understand it, there
may be some excuse for his attempt ; but he must have been
most incorrigibly stupid. I will venture to affirm that the re-
marks of my rev. friend were easy to be understood, and that
there was no occasion that they should be misunderstood. If,
on the other hand, hedid really understand them, and the ap-
plication in which the term was used, I am willing to say
that the author deserves credit for his ingenuity ; but the less
we say of his moral principle the better. It may be said
that that calumny did not proceed from one, but from a great
number of quarters, and that the origination of the remarks
might be traced to different sources. I do not believe that
there was any general misunderstanding of the term, and we
can easily understand how, when the cry was once set
agoing in the form of a newspaper paragraph, it should be
joined in by many, without knowing in what it originated.
I therefore think that the credit of that calumny should be
considered as belonging to some ingenious individual. But
what, after all, is to be said in the way of excuse, even of a
person misunderstanding a case of this kind ? Was it any-
thing new, do you suppose, that our rev, friend had been
giving utterance to on that occasion ? Was the application
of the term Jezebel to the modern Babylon anything new or
unheard of? Why, I hold in my hand a volume on the in-
terpretation of prophecy, in which the author gives his
interpretation of the epistle to the apocalyptic churches, and in
so doing he quotes, or rather, more properly to speak, alludes
to the opinions of preceding apocalyptic interpreters. He
alludes to them in the present instance, in the volume I hold
in my hand, for the purpose of expressing his dissent from
them. This book is entitled " The Accomplishment of
Scripture Prophecy, or the Approaching Deliverance of the
Church," which was written in French by one of the minis-
ters of the French church at Rotterdam. This is said to be
a translation from the second edition of the work published in
French some time before, in which the author alludes to the
opinions of three other authors. Why, this very volume was
printed in 1687 ; so that, I think, we might even here trace
the interpretation for a couple of centuries, for every one of
the three writers, to whom the author alludes, applies the
term Jezebel to the Church of Rome. In one respect, and
that no doubt a felicitous one, the modern Jezebel resem-
bles her ancient prototype, and that is in the number of her
ready and faithful friends. There have been found not a
few ready to come forward at Jezebel's bidding, to bring
accusations against an innocent individual ; and what crime