The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-06-17 00:00:00

teft-thestalremonies of popery, you have the poison of popery.
This must be put away ; we must preach as Luther preached,
oe'weywill never stand against popery. We must' declare the
poet of Jesus ; we must declare the 41-sufficiency of the one
sacrifice once offered for us—the free, unconditional, and ever-
lastitig pardon to the vilest sinner that ever stood on earth.
(Applause.) We must declare that while Jesus is high as God
that we'need none above him for us between hint and God, so
buis as low as man, touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
that we need none below him between us and him to be a me-
diator or mediatriz to bring us to Christ. This must boplainly
set forth, the all-sufficiency of Christ tor the salvation of sinners.
Look in your ancient books; look at Latimer and Bradford,
and see how they preached. Look at any.of the ,continental
reformers preaching, and compare it With the soft—excuse me,
I must be honest—the gentlemanlike half.and-half gospel that
passes for preaching now-a-days. (Loud cheering.) Let Sue
tell you our enemies are not of that soft character; that the gen-
tlemanlike tone will not touch them; the bide of the leviathan
will never be bruised with silk gloves. Unless pluralities, non-
residences, sinecures, and such offences, as ought never to have
been in her, are driven from the. church of England, she will
fall, and she must fall. And I say that 'honestly protesting
against abuses in her gives me more point whenever (and I will
continue to do it) .I protest against abuses out of.her. • Honesty
is the best poliey after all; it. will never do to attempt to bolster
np•ourselves. We must be faithful reformers, or else we. must
go before; the stream. (Loud cheering.) But, sir, there are
reasons especially why we should agitate this question; and
wish to show you one in particular, and that is, that the Roman
Catholics, as I have ahead), said, teach immorality ; that they
really teach immorality. I hold in my hand extracts from
their book taught in Maynooth College, a college supported,
you are aware, in Ireland, chiefly, by government money ;
a college which is supported for the exclusive instruction of
priests of the Roman catholic church, and. for the support of
which you who pay taxes all pay. In the books which were
given in to the commissioners of inquiry by the Rev. Dr:
Crotty, president of the college, we find these instructions com-
municated to the young priests, who are themselves to go forth
and communicate instruction to the Ronsish people. Upon the
commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," there is this question
in .Delahoe. ";How great must the quantity stolen be in order
to,constitute the theft a mortal sin? Answer. The quantity
cannot easily be determined, since nothing has been decided on
the point either in Indira', divine, or human law. (Laugh-
ter.) Some are of opinion that the quantity necessary
for the maintenance of an individual for one day." Here
sin is estimated by quantity ! and it is plainly taught, if the
quantity stolen be a small one, if from a rich man, something
less than would take him to live on for a day in his usual way
of life, it is not a sin to take it. The commandment of Go& is,
"Thou shalt not steal," not "Thou shalt not steal much." But
markwhat follows :—" Theologians are accustomed to, distin.
guish in four ranks, those who live in splendour, those who are
moderately rich, the third artificers, and the fourth the poor."
It is there laid down, that "in order to constitute a theft, fifty
or .sixtv pence must be taken from the first rank." So four
shillings and twopence must be taken to constitute it a theft,
provided he is a rich man. " Forty pence from the second
class, twentypence from the third rank, and, with respect to the
fourth rank, fourpence, or even one.pennv, if he have nothing
else to live upon." ( Great laughter and cheering.) Now, these
are extracts from the meral theology taught in the college of
Maynooth. to the popish-priests who are to teach the populaces
And these, according to our enlightened senator, are the friends
of the people, and we, the "orthodox agitators" ate the ene-
mies of the people., One quotation more, for I must not, I per-
ceive, dwell too long on this subject, but I cannot refrain to
bring you on the verge of a subject and then leave it, as almost
too much, for the subject is polluted. It is the instructions
which these young. priests have given to them in their college
regarding the sacrament of penance, as it is called. Six direc-
tions are given ; the second is this—" Since the confessor acts
the part both of the judge and a physician, he ought to become
acquainted with the diseases and the offences of the penitent, in
order that he may be able to apply suitable remedies, and im-
pose due penance; and lest a sin that is mortal should he ac-
counted venial, or the foul viper lurking in the deep recesses of
the heart should not venture to put itself forth to view, he ought
therefore sometimes to question the penitents on the subjects of
the 6th Ptlilcommandment, where he suspects that they are
not altogether pure, especially if they he rude,ignorant, bash-
ful, agitated. A prudent confessor will, as far as in his power,
by kindness of language increase the confidence of his peni-
tents, will advance from more general statements to more par-

ticular: from the less shameful to those which are more so;
nor will he take his commencement from the external acts, but
from the thoughts. Has not the Penitent revolved some im-
proper ones in his or her mind? Was this done advertently ?
What kind of desire was it? Has he or -she felt unlawful pas-
sion ? But if the penitent shall declare that he, or she, has not
felt them, the confessor ought usually to stop there, unless the
penitent be very ignorant and dull. But if the penitent shall
answer that he, or she, has had improper thoughts or irregular
desires, the confessor shall ask whether any improper actions
followed ? But if the penitent shall confess this, the confessor
shall ask again, what were those actions.? If the penitent be' a
gill, she should be asked whether she has adorned herself
in order to please the- men? Whether for this purpose
she:-has used paint, or stript her arms, shoulders, or neck?
• Whether"—Now I dare not proceed. These are the instrudt
given to the priests. Do you wonder then that Mr.
M•Ghee—the originator of the association in this town—do
you wonder that his challenge was not accepted. He challenged •
the Roman catholic hierachy, that he would meet the priests of
the Roman catholic church before twelve men chosen from the
Roman catholic, body—any priests to come before these twelve
men of their own persuasion and translate such passages as he'
would point out in their own confessional. His challenge was-
not-accepted, and yet such is the stupifying effect of popery,
such is-the manner in which it muffles and manacles the human
mind and affections that, in the face of such a challenge, Irish
noblemen and gentlemen, and English noblemen and gentle-
men, will allow their wives and daughters still .to enter the
precincts of the unhallowed confession box. (Great cheering.)
With regard to this confession I have another observation to
make to which I will call your attention, for it connects itself
with another reason why we agitate. I said that the Roman
catholics had a divided allegiance, and that it was a stretch of
my charity to suppose that the hon. member was ignorant of
this. Now. I call your attention to the evidence of Dr. Doyle in
the-House of Lords. He was asked, "If crimes of murder or
treason are revealed in the confession, is the priest bound not to
disclose it ?" His answer was, "He is bound not to disclose it
in any case whatever." Question—" It has been sometimes
proposed by those who have had apprehensions of danger from
conceding the Roman Catholic claims, that Roman Catholics
should be called upon when they take the oath of allegiance to'
the King, at the same time to swear that they will make known
to his Majesty any treason or treasonable designs which they may
know to be meditated against him : from what you have now in-
formed the committee, you could not take such an oath ? Answer :
The secrets communicated in confession are such as we are sup-
posed to become aaquainted with as ministers of the sacrament
of penance, and in that capacity we do not consider ourselves
bound by the oath of allegiance, which we take, to reveal se-
crets committed to us in that way; and as nur_rite of confession
is known to the laws, and our doctrines with regard to it
universally acknowledged to exist in our church, the state of
his Majesty does not oblige us to reveal anything with which
we might become acquainted in sacrame dal confession."
So that although murder, and treason, although an attempt to
take away the life of our gracious monarch abould be revealed to
these men, and he take an oath of allegiance in certain terms,
yet if it were revealed in the confessional that the life of their
sovereign was to be attempted, they are not bound to keep their
oath of allegiance and make it known ; their allegiance to their
church, in penance, takes precedence to their allegiance to their
King, and they consider themselves exempted from the oath by
the previously undergone allegiance to the church. And what
is their excuse ? 1 quote now from Dr. Murray, archbishop of
Dublin He said, when this question was put to him, The
act of 1793 recognised our religion; and the secrecy of the con-
fessional being a part of our religion, it cannot be supposed that
the oath of allegiance infringes on that." According to their own
showing, their religion being recognised by an act of the state,
they swear subject to the mental reservation of their prior allegi-
ance; so that you have no guarantee from their oath of allegi-
ance. We are taunted with bigotry because they say, for a reli-
gious opinion, we would exclude men from civil privileges. We
would do no such thing; but for divided allegiance; we would do
so for a previous compact with a foreign potentate, or with an
understanding which• goes to' nullify an oath to the. King
of England. It is for this that we hold them unfit for
the civil privileges of the protestant community. It is fit-
ting that this should be understood. We repeat that it is
not for a •religions. opinion, but for a divided allegiance,
and this you observe rests on the secresy of. the confes-
sional. Ihe resolution which I was intrusted with, and
which it is my duty on this occasion to second, calls our atten-
tion- to, united efforts—efforts not made by Roman catholics
only, but efforts made by others who are united with them to
sever theiexisting connexion between church and state. The
persons here-alluded to are nominally protestants; and I re-
gret to be obliged to add that some of them are found in the'
ranks of those who profess to hold the doctrinal articles of the
established church. I say, I regret this, because it should be
our' hearts desire that all who hold its fundamental doctrines
should-unite as one man against the common enemy (cheers).
Anil if there. are any such in this room at, this moment, pro=
testantalissenters professing to be orthodox christians, holding,
as-the non-Conformist dissenters avow, the doctrinal articles of
the church of England as their doctrine, I would affectionately
expostulate- with such men and say, what are we of the esta-
blished etrurch, because of being established, so much worse
than popery; so mach worse than socinianism, so much worse
than those who deny the glorious revelation of God, deists,
and unitarians of all classes—are we so much worse than they
that you are brought to a delemma whether you shall join them
to pull down the established church against us. Are we ao muds
worse than they ? Is the truth of the bible which we hold
injured in such a manner by the state supporting our religion
that you find it a christian duty to join them against us instead_
of helping us to defend it against them ? • I would -have a pro-
tenant dissenter that believes in the- doctrine of. the trinity—
that believes in the doctrine of the atonement, and professes to
be a follower of Matthew Henry, or Dr. Dodridge, I would
have him lay his hand on his heart and say, whether is worse,
to betaken under the protection of the state and hold essential
truth, or to be without that protection, and hold essential false-
hood-(hear, hear). And are we come to this? Is the envy of
our brother against a paltry temporal advantage—is our bro-
ther's envy come to such a height that in order to pluck the
envied advantage out of .his sight he will join with our enemies
and his enemies—will he link arm in arm with the socinian on
one side. and the papist on the other to pull us down ? lam
grieved to be obliged to ask the question, but, sir, what is the
fact? 'The. melancholly fact is that multitudes of those with
whom we have delighted to make common cause against a com-
mon enemy—multitudes—l do assure you and this meeting, I
speak-with most unaffected concern—that multitudes of the
persons svhose cry for years at home anti abroad, in public and
private, in their chapels and on the platforms of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, was the bible, the whole bible, and no-
thing-but the' bible—l say that these persons have now - lent
thelnielves to a party who are taking away the bible not only
from the Roman catholics but from protestant children'in Ire-
land; and substituting something that is not only not the whole
bible but is something more than the bible, constituted of dis-
cordant elements. Here is a motley board of Romish divines
and. Church of Engiavtd, and church of Scotland divines, of
English bishops and a lay man or two. Something is to be
done with the bible that shall meet with the approbation of this
b°2ltd. Whed a passage'eccurs that offends, the Romish arch-
bishop. will have a note appended. The protestantarchbishop
perhaps will say " it is a true translation, a is good, let it pass.'
answers the other, " the object of this board is con,
c tien,, it is a tenet of our church. that the church is the in-
terpreter of the bible, therefore this mustart go without a note."
Afrittenttisotmo!mleitdtilaotedffi'cu.ty, after referring to their presbyterian
betweenel them—lie who never represents the
stern'defender ot hedfrorn which he is descended,. or he
never would have sanctioned
ghall•the-note go,
and Dr.
Murrayle notes in this book—he is asked,
be pleased, or not go and
Dr. Wakeley be pleased?'.' And Mr. Carlisle gives his vote,
4, that whereas protestantism is very well known, and protes-
tants don't 'run any -risk of being carri
notes, it is better+) trllo* it to be inserteT,latow•Lal
captive by the
the Roman
Roman
Catholics; it. will* 'no. harm'', Btavo
~i,,cialatet;ns,Lertdedis.
; oiled 'the note fulL
irW riCite camie'litif;(inrcl-wisirptierea, a",
reatrWthe chfhlfdifiwthe schools—k n
given tcrb,e.
popish i atesprernrow fi 11l 1 t -.promises. of
serpent's
the hook of God respecting the Redeemer the
head is changed in the gender, and the honour of the victory is