The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-23 00:00:00

ly of t

went and even reviling from

ehalf, and for 0
r own, the

Our Protestant Associatiol
organisation in 'disgust ;It t

were insulted

d tram pl

were the most zeal

ere prepared to strug
falling away fro

ostration—

en they

upon by rampant libera:

.r profs

s of reverenc

and affection for the Protestant institutions of their coun-
try and of abhorence of the oaoal system. The members
have b'

met in th

Is for .id in the working of

h the rebuke—'

are embarrassing a- Conservative ministry, which is con-
ferring boons upon commerce since the power of Whig-
Radicalism is overthrown, by an agitation which is no
longer called for. We have nothing to fear from Popery,
since it has been placed in leading strings by a Conserva-
tive government. It is only an old bugbear now—a poor
effete .thing, which we can keep quiet with a sop now
and a sop then ; a college or two, a bit of patronage to
O'Connell, an endowment for its priesthood and the
recognition of the titles of its hierarchy. Be quiet we

_
are going on very well. Neither Church nor Skate is in
danger. '

The object of Mr. Gregg is to waken the great body of
the nation from this delusion—to shew that our legislation
is in a 'wrong direction— to hold up before its eyes the
real, the unchanged, and unchangeable nature of this
monster evil in our social fabric, Popery, which we are
treating as if its fangs were drawn, and it had become
harmless and imbecile. These "free thoughts," which are
only called such, we presume, because, the rev. gentleman
has thrown aside, the trammels of regular Thesis, and
grappled,with his important subject in whatever form, and
with whatever weapon, he has judged it, at the moment.
assailable, if attentively pondered upon and carried out to
their conclusions by the intelligent reader, are calculated
both to warn and instruct. Th-y recapitulate the evidence
against.Popery afforded by the history of its past waiver-
sations—they shew, as well, that the intolerant spirit,
which prompted its past inroads upon the liberties of man-
kind—is not dead—is not quenched—but has only changed
its modes of working out its objects—has only laid aside
the savage fury of the tiger to assume, for awhile, the
subtlety of the serpent.
Mr. Gregg complains that the English mind is misled
with respect to the position and the influence of papacy in
Ireland ; that we regard its existence and the virtual su-
premacy of its power there as an evil, against which there is
no contending. Most firmly we believe, with the rev.
gentleman, that this is a lamentab'e mistake, based upon
wilful blindness with respect to Gets and experience. Nay,
it is a blasphemous error to suppose that the power of Go
in spreading his truth should he restricted to any land or
to any portion of the globe. We admit that the supersti-
tions of Popery—its shows, its gaudy trappings, its pre-
tended miracles—have a peculiar hold upon the minds of
an imaginative people like the Irish. We know that its
ecclesiastical thunders and menaces have also a strong
hold upon the fears of such a people, exposed as they are
and debarred of adequate protection from the arm of the
law against outrage and persecution. The Word of God,
and his blessing with it, have, however, prevailed against
stronger barriers than these ; and they will prevail, when-
ever the effort is made in a right spirit, and with ade-
quate energy and assistance. _ _

We have not space now to enter fully into an analysis
of Mr. Gregg's views upon this portkn of it, or upon
the important subject of his " thoughts" generally. The
volume should be perused by Protestants, and weighed
especially by Protestant statesmen. In all probabiiity,
we are about to 1.-gislate upon the delusive idea that to
overthrow the fabric of popery in Ireland, or, in fact, to
do anything except to aggrandise and recognise it as a
national institution, is hopeless. Surely, we should pause

before doing this ; we should listen to a man intimately
acquainted with the working of popery in Ireland—who
has proved the innate weakness cf the system—who knows
the hopes, the aspirations, the fears of its clergy and its
laity ; and above all, is prepared with a correct estimate
of the amount of aid at our disposal in the effort to settle
the distractions of Ireland, without forfeiting for England
the character of a Protestant nation, by recognising and
endowing falsehood. We shall return to the subjct at
some future time, when we hope to do more justice to
Mr. Gregg's work, and to allow him to give expreseiou to
a few of his own views.

The Layman's Prayer Book. London : F. Baisler, 121,

Oxford-street,

The author of the work before us is impressed with a
feeling of serious objection to many portions of the Li-
turgy of •the Church of England, which. he considers,
offer stumbling-blocks to many pious and intelligent
Christians, and tend to turn some from its pale into the
arms of dissent. As a step to a proper remedy for this
alleged evil, he has published, under the above title, a
new version, in which such points of doctrine or of prac-
tice, upon which doubts may be raised, are withdrawn
from observation, by the expurgation of the passages
which suggest them, or expressed in language which it is
assumed will be more intelligible to the mass of lay
readers. Before, however, examining the manner in
which the author has performed his task, we shall quote
his own explanation of his views, given in a little tract
entitle:' "The Layman's Voice,"* prefixed to the book
and in the preface, addressed to the laity of England.
The author sacs :
I. The Oxford Tracts have led persons to examine their prin-
ciples and scrutinise their Prayer-took, which I find, with grief

of heart, to have many defects.
d. The oftener I examine them the more dangerous they ap
the more I seek to think them ripht. the more I mint

pear
them wr

has it been so with

ti. my Christian brother

" Do you think the Baptismal Service will hardly bear the
light that the argume, ts you have listened to do riot prove its
uth, and that learned explanations of it only puzzle you the

" Do you feel that you would not like, in secu'ar affairs, to
need long explanations and skilful arguments to save your
words (rum being lalse, your statements trom being lies? It is
so with me, brother: is it so with you?" . _

He proceeds to give his objections to the service of
Baptism; and then continues:—
" I do not mean to tire you, brother, with endless reasonings,
but only to remind you, that as these detects are being noticed
by pious young men preparing for the ministry, they are abso-
lutely prevented from declaring (as they must do if they would
be ordained) that the Prayer-book containeth nothing contrary
to the Word of God. Such young men feel that they could not
say over the grave of a zn,n, whose 1 fe had been cane of forget-
fulness of God. It bath pleased Almighty God, of his great
mercy, to take unto himself the soul of our dear bro her': they
dare not affirm what they do not know to be true—dare I?
My brother layman, dare you ?

•• What then will become of us when all these young men
shall hay eb, en excluded from our pulpits? ‘N hen we can no
longer find a genuine Protestant divine to lead our devotions,
and to instruct us amt our families ? To whom Omit we then

confide those under our care ?'

With respect to the work itself,

he says in the preface

" This volume is presented to yon, not as a perfect work
which defies you- censure, nor as the best which can be writ-
ten, but, simply, as a Prayer-book differing so lithe from that by
authority as not to be rendered unfit for ordinary use in
churches, a d yet altered so as to avoid every passage which
plainly countenances popish error. More alterations might
well have been made, but it was jiOged inexpedient to derange
the order of the services. unless they appears d to be very much
!seeded. Some alterations may. doubtless, appear uncalled for
and unnecessary, but they will be found to exist chiefly in those
services where the va lation will not occasion much inconveni.
I also, it is hope-1, be found to tend to a more
emancipation from the remains of Popery."

ence; and they wi

An examination of the work, however, will shew that
the author has not only removed what may by some be
considered excrescences in the Liturgy, but has cut away,
or altered so as to pervert, vital principles, which are re-
cognised as such by all sound theologians. For the alte-

ration of -th
of the sick,

baptismal and funeral services, the visitation

the form of

alterations appear to t

weak consciences may be

lotion, unnecessary as these
he expediency of smisf)ing

jut it cannot

with resp,xt, for instailce, to theorMision in the creed of

the words. with respect to our Saviour, " he descended
into bell." The taking away of one shred from the truth
of the great scheme of man's redemption is not to be
permitted, for the satisfaction of those who hesitate at
the threshold of the church to make a conditional bargain
for their entrance. We should not have objected so
much here to a change of the mere words, originally
adopted, most probably, with that due regard for brevity
which characterises the whole of the context; but the
scriptural truth, which these words were intended, to
convey, and which, in the sense in which they are inter-
preted by all theologians, we are sure our author wou,d
be the last to deny, ought not to be withdrawn from the

♦few of even lay churehmen. The same remark applies
to the suppression of the Athanasiau Creed, and other

omissions.
We have said already that we cannot see the necessity
of this new version of a Liturgy of such acknowledged
beauty and accordance with Scripture as our own. A
few passages there doubless are which, taken apart from

the context, may

rtle superficial or timid I3ut

we are not satiAed whether these passages, involving as
they do, for their proper understanding, the patient exa-
mination of the thoughtful Christian, are not more ad-
vantageous to the spread of true religion. as leading men
to " mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the meaning and
doctrines of scriptural truth, than a version which avoids
everything that is not e,sy of comprehension. The ma-
thematical student, who goes round, ins'ead of over, the
pons asinorum, is not likely to get very well through
Euclid.

We give every credit to the author for the motives
which appear to have prompted his labours. They are
most worthy ; but we cannot think that they are calcu-
lated to be acceptable to any great body of churchmen.
The Layman's Prayer Book, we may add for the credit
of the publisher, is very neatly got up and cheap.
.

* This little tract is

d also separately

VARIETIES

EXPOSURE TO TUE SUN.—There are few points which
eem less generally understood, or more clearly proved,

than the fact, that exposure to the sun, without exercise
sufficient to create free perspiration, will produce illness;
and that the (same) exposure to the sun, with sufficient
exerc6e,
not produce illness. Let any man sleep in
the sun, he will awake perspiring and very ill—perhaps he
Will die. Let the same man dig in the sun for the same

length of time, and he will perspire ten times as much,
and be quite well. The fact is, that not only the direct
rays of the sun, but the heat of the atmosphere produce
abundance of bile, and powerful exercise alone will carry
off that bile.-7Poptclar Errors Explained.
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "Quiz."—Very few words
ever took such a run, or were saddled wit
ings, as this monosyllable ; and, however strange the

so many meal

word, it is still more Strange that not one of our lexico-

aphers, from Bayley to

hnson, ever attempte

tion of i

The reason is very