The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-05 00:00:00

ANNIVERSARY

OF TIM
LIVERPOOL PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION

The seventh anniversary meeting of the establishment of
the Liverpool Protestant Association was held yesterday
morning, in the Royal Amphitheatre. The stage, galleries,
and boxes of that splendid building were crowded to excess,
and hundreds were unable to obtain admission from the in-
ability of the place to accommodate them. The arrange-
ments were, however, owing to the active superintendence
of Mr. Crisp, admirable in every respect.
Amongst those present we observed—the Rev. Dr. Tat-
tershall, Rev. H. Stowell, Rev. H. M'Neile, Rev. F. Ould,
Rev. W. Ker (Norwich), Rev. W. Falloon, Rev. R. Davies,
Rev. M`Ginnes, Rev. J. R. Connor, Rev. W. Maynard,
Rev. T. Nolan, Rev. D. James, Rev. F. Parry, Rev. J. N.
Peill, Rev. F. Barker, Rev. J. Baylee, Rev. A. Knox, Rev.
J. L. Stone, Rev. W. Rawson, Rev. T. J. Dritlield, Rev.
A. Orm, Rev. G. Mansfield,
_Rev. T. Gardner, Rev. R. P.
Jones, Rev. P. Brown, Rev. G. Brown, Rev. Crockett
(St.
Rev. B. Powell (Wigan), Rev. J. H. Macguire
(St. Helens), Rev. J. M. Lynn (St. Helens), Rev. Nor-
man (Prescot), Rev. Jones (St. David's), Rev. C. Buller
(Rainford), Rev. Meredith (Hope), Rev.- Davies (St.
Asaph), C. S. Parker, Esq., J. Rigby, Esq.. J. Edwards,
Esq., Turner, Esq., C. ushell, Esq., Cotesworth,
Esq., M. Edwards, Esq., C. Boutflower, Esq., J. Howard,
Esq., E. Jones, Esq., W. Jones, Esq., J. Lord, Esq., Jas.
Rodin, Esq., T. A. Dale, Esq., &c., &c.
Upon the motion of Mr. EDWARDS, the Rev. Dr. Tat-
tershall was requested to take the chair. (Cheers.)
The Rev. Dr. TATTERSHALL, having taken the chair,
said,—My Christian friends, I am sure I do but anticipate
the wishes of you all in observing that it has been the prac-
tice of the Protestant Association, from the commencement,
to open the proceedings of all its meetings with prayer—
(hear, bear) •, and it will be your desire that the present oc-
casion should form no exception to the observance of so be-
neficial a practice. The beneficial results arising from an
observance of such a character are too many and too obvious,
that the practice itself shonid require anything to be said in
the way either of apology or of defence. I shall therefore at
once request my rev. brother. Mr. Nolan, to open the meet-
ing by offering up prayer to Almighty God upon our behalf.
(Hear, hear, hear.)

The Rev. T. NOLAN having offered up a beautiful and
appropriate prayer,

The Rev. CHAIRMAN again addressed the meeting nearly
as follows :—My Christian friends, we are now risen from
our knees, having been engaged in an act of devotion, in-
viting the presence and special notice and favour of our Fa-
ther which is in heaven. lam sure I shall not be thought to
say anything unsuitable to the position in which we now
stand, if I express the hope that the .solemn consideration
of that duty in which we have been engaged may continue
with us, and influence us during the whole course of this
day's proceedings ; if I express the hope that the minds both
of those who speak and of those who hear, will be influenced
by the consideration that we are in the presence of God, and
that it behoves us to speak and to hear as those who must
give an account of all their actions unto him. (Hear, hear.)
This is the fourth time, in consequence of your kindness and
confidence, that I have found myself placed in the. position
which I now hold. lam deeply sensible of the arduous na-
ture of the duty, and of the possible difficulty that might be-
long to its discharge, of the position of the chairman of a
meeting
.like this. I could not, however, refuse the
invitation of the committee to render what little assist-
ance I may be able on this present occasion ; and still
less could I refuse when I found that request of theirs se-
conded in the manner it has been since I came into
the room. (Hear, hear.) My desire is still to put my
trust and confidence in the gracious and merciful goodness of
that God who will not forsake the weakest of his servants in

the hour of necessity. (Hear. hear.) And I may also add
that I rejoice in the confidence I am enabled to place in
yourselves who constitute this meeting, having experienced so
much kindness and sympathy from you in times past, so that
that which might have been an onerous duty has upon every
occasion proved, and I have no doubt will upon the present,
prove to be a delightful and gratifying privilege. (Hear.)
I have more reasons than one for offering but a very few
remarks with regard to that which is generally considered to
be the proper business of an address from the chair at the
commencement of a meeting ; that is, to explain the nature
of the proceedings in which we are about to be engaged. At
this time of the day it is not necessary to explain the objects
and designs of the Protestant Association ; and if the influ-
ence also of this Protestant Association were required to be
demonstrated, I would say, look to the position in which we
now stand with reference to the parliamentary representation
of the country, which it is my cordial belief has been in rio
small degree owing to its influence. (Cheers.) And look to
the position in which we now stand with respect to those who
are placed at the head of the national affairs. (Renewed
cheers.) But I love rather to look at the Protestant Asso-
ciations in a different relation. I love chiefly to keep my re-
gard fixed upon its influence in a religious point of view, as
an efficient instrument for the promotion of true Protestant
principles. (Hear, hear.) I wish ever to bear in remem-
brance, that the purity of Christian doctrines is not more
really but more immediately related to the position in which
men stand before God, than to any other matter of inferior
moment ; and on this therefore I would desire prominently to
fix my regards. (Hear, hear.) With regard to Protestant-
ism itself, I would observe that it is nothing else than another
name for primitive, for undefiled Christianity. (Hear, hear.)
Protestantism, so far as its name is concerned, or rather the

name of Protestantism, is but an accident of Christianity

(Hear.) We are indebted for the name of Protestant to
Popery. (Hear, hear.) There would have been no such
__ _

thing as Protestantism if there had been no such thing as
Popish error. (Hear.) Christianity, as it came out of the
hands of, as it came from, its author, was pure and uncor-
rupt ; it was worthy of God ; it was suited to the necessities

ofman as an immortal being, as a creature fallen from God,

as a creature whose main interest it was to obtain reconcilia-
tion with an offended Creator, that they might be eternally
happy with him. But Christianity became in the lapse of
time, through the craft of Satan, and through the craft of
man, corrupted and defiled ; its efficacy was destroyed by the
traditions of men. (Hear.) The very grand point of doc-
trine, that which must be considered the cardinal doctrine of
Christianity, the doctrine of free justification through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, based upon his merits and righteous-
ness—tbat doctrine had been obscured, or rather taken away,
and another gospel substituted in its place which was not
another. (Cheers.) It was the business of the Reformation
to clear away (and in this consists its Protestant character)
the encrustation of error which had defiled the fair face of
primitive Christianity, to restore the doctrine of our Lord
Jesus Christ back to its primitive purity, and to open and
present clear and unobstructed before the perishing sinner the
way of everlasting life, the way of access to the Father, the
new and living way, consecrated by the blood of his Son, who
died and gave himself for us. (Cheers.) 1 have already
observed that I had many reasons for avoiding to protract,
or rather to defer, the proceedings of this day. 1 cannot,
however, consent to sit down without observing that I con-
ceive it to be a matter of essential importance that the evils
of popery, its spiritual evils, and the political evils which
follow in its train, should be exposed, and made to be properly
understood; and this is the object and design which we have
-in view on occasions like the present. (Hear.) Popery is
to be regarded, first, as a soul-destroying error. (Hear,
hear.) Keeping, as I have already observed, the Lord Jesus
Christ from the view, and causing men to rfht their trust not
in his righteousness, but in a righteousness of their own.
(Hear.) Popery is to be regarded also as a political usurpa-
tion—(hear)—assuming for its clergy a province which was
never designed by God to be attached to man in any position
which he can be placed. (Hear.) The carious errors con-
nected with popery, in this view, have been exposed at va-
rious times in this place, and I think it more than probable
they will be further exposed to-day ; but it may be desirable
I should just observe, in a word, that only let popery have
its own way, and then the channels of justice, the impar-
tial administration of the law, upon which the security and
good order of society depends--(cheers)--the channels of
justice themselves will be obstructed. Who does not know
that the oath for confirmation was meant for an end of all
strife ? But pow can we obtain an end of strife through an
oath for confirmation if there is admitted to exist a power
which can absolve from the obligation of that oath, provided
only that oath is supposed, from its nature and substance, to
be unfavourable to the Church of Rome? (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) Who does not know that the power which has been
claimed upon the part of Popery—upon the part of the
supreme Pontiff—has extended to the fearful height of assum-
ing to arbitrate upon the reciprocal obligations of sovereign
and subject? (Hear.) Let Popery prevail as it exists in its true
character, and not as it is exhibited in a moderate and
modified form among ourselves in consequence of the pressure
from without ; let Popery prevail as it exists according to its
own claims and prerogatives and the crown of our beloved
Queen is not safe upon her head. (Cheers.) And Popery
is further to be regarded as the enemy of all improvement.
(Hear, hear, hear.) Science itslif, and it is a name which I
love to pronounce, science itself, the thing most deserving
the attention of man next to religion, even that is no favourite
of Popery. (Hear, hear.) There may be a fictitous, a pre-
tended zeal for education among those who profess the system
of Popery ; but we may depend upon it that this also is due
to the pressure from without. (Hear.) Let Popery but
have its own course even in this respect, and it has shewn
what it would do even with regard to science. In the early
part of the 17th century there was one—a man of exalted
intellect—who, because he maintained the Copernican system
to have the preference of the Ptolomaie, was shut up in the
Inquisition, and was warned, after having been detained in
confinement for a few months, to renounce his errors, and
not to repeat them either in word or writing. Galileo, for
that was the name of the celebrated son of science of whom
I speak, continued still to maintain the same scientific
doctrine, and he was again brought before the Inquisition ;
he was shut up for, I believe, two years in its cells ; he was,
as a matter in which the salvation of his soul was concerned,
-required to abjure his scientific errors, and I rather think he
had to repeat the 7th Penitential Psalms every day during the
course of the whole two years he was confined. (Hear.) To
come to more recent times. A most learned commentary
upon the great scientific treatise to which the whole world may
be said to be indebted for the present advanced state of
astronomical knowledge, an admirable commentary upon the
works of Newton was the production of two Jesuits ; and in
course of the explanation of the propositions of their author
they had entered into the most learned and the most profound
scientific investigation. But at the commencement of the
third part of their work, after having gone through the ma-
thematical principles upon which physical astronomy depends
—when they commenced the application of those mathemati-
cal principles to the explanation of the phenomena of nature,
they prefixed to this part of their work a certain advertise-
ment, or declaration.and what do you suppose that declaration
was? (Hear.) It was to the effect that Newton, in explain-
ing his principles, makes a supposition that the earth moves
round the sun, and without making the same supposition they
could not explain the words of their author; upon this ac-
count they were obliged, they say, to appear under a disguise,
but that they nevertheless submitted to the decrees which
had been published by the Popes, declaring that the sun
moved round the earth and not the earth round the sun.
(Hear, hear.) This is a declaration which stands at the head
of the third volume of the Jesuits' Comments on Newton's
Principia, and there any one may see it, for I never saw a
copy without it. (Hear.) I may be permitted to observe,
before I sit down, that I think it more than probable that
there may be a few, or perhaps not a few, members of the
Roman Catholic Church, or persons holding the Roman Ca-
tholic persuasion, now in the present meeting. To such I
beg permission to say, that so far from any feeling of hostility
to themselves in any the slightest degree, I am sure that I
have no other feeling in my own heart, and I fully believe
may answer with all sincerity for my rev. brethren around
me, and all who shall be engaged in this meeting, that we
have no feeling towards them but that of pure and ardent
affection, With all our hearts we welcome them to their
places in the present meeting. But it is but right that they
should be reminded that this meeting properly consists of the
members of a Protestant Association, and that all who are
not members of the Protestant Association are not here pro-
perly upon business but by permission, and as a matter of
courtesy, I think it right, therefore, to admonish them
that they are not called upon to take any part in the pro-
ceedings of this day: There are no questions proposed, or to
be proyosed, to their acceptance or refusal: The Protestant
Association is met for the performauce of its own proper and
necessary
business, We have, indeed, no' secrets to keep,
and
we desire that these proceedings should beas open and
as clear to be understood as the noon day but, I repeat, we '
propose for approbation one way or the
other except the members of the Protestant Associa-
have t
i.OO questions to
lion and in return, therefore, for the courtesy of their ad-
mission
re, I am sure I shall not be thought to make an
unreasonable request if I express my hope that they will hear
these proceedings in silence. (Hear.) I shall now, with ,