The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-11-25 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

TO THE EDITOR OF 7'HE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Sin,—There is an opinion abroad, and which is now every-
where very general, that the ltounish apostacy is never so much
assailed as by ministers of the established church; but, were
those individuals who labour under such impressions to enter
the precincts of many of our sectarian chapels, they would soon
be undeceived as to the fact, and find that the Popish dogmas
not unfrequentiv occupy the attention, and form the subjects of
severe animadrergion, by many of their respective pastors. Of
the truth of this I have of late been fully convinced, and never
so much as on Sunda, morning last, for, having been induced
to go and hear the fi.ev. Mr. Lister, of Lime-street, that gen-
tleman took for his text° a subject bearing expressly upon the
character of the Romish church, and, clearly enough, pointed
out some of the leading dogmas set forth iu her truly anti-
christian formularies.

That the Church of Rome is the great antichrist everywhere
spoken of in the scriptures, the reverend gentleman, I think,
sufficiently established, and with an eloquence peculiar to him-
self—simple and unaffected, yet dignified, inasmuch as truth
characterised his every remark—exhibited iu lively colouring
those traits which distinctly mark that apostate church as hav-
ing " denied, or departed from, the purity of the faith, once de-
livered to the saints."

Some of the characteristics dilated upon by the reverend gen-
tleman were the sacrifice of the mass, purgatury, image worship,
and the denial of the holy scriptures to the lay community;
which prohibition went to perpetuate and estatliih the great
apostacy.
Let but the word of God, continued the reverend gentleman,
be placed in the hands of those unhappily within the pale of that
church, and nothing more is required to prove how far she has
departed from the purity of the faith of primitive christianity,
and to declare herself to be that "mystery of iniquity" which,
for ages past, has been actively engaged in deceiving the na-
tions of the earth.

And do we wonder at this ? Great would be our surprise did
not Protestant ministers of every denomination loudly and in-
cessantly protest against all such gross abuse of sound doctrine.
But, what say the boasted liberalists of the present day to all
such ? Why, that to declaim against all or any religious error
is the height of fanaticism and intolerant bigotry. Surely they
mean it nut an aence so to speak, though it be the fashion of
the age.
The better fact is, that truth, set in opposition to error, is in
no instance to be tolerated ; the mild spirit of the would-be liberal
of the nineteenth century wishes that all differences in religious
matters should merge into the stillness of quiet and repose, and
would in kind charity bury all essentials in oblivious forgetfulness
—a species of conciliation this that would bring inevitable ruia
up,,n all.
To dress out error in the garb of truth is the business only of
those engaged to deceive; and were it possible, which it is not,
to suppress that wakeful spirit which now animates the breasts,
and nerves the arm of thousands, generously occupied in the de-
fence of correct principles of truth, then might the infatuated
votaries of the Diana of our modern Ephesus exult in the success
of their mischievous designs; but, until then, let them hide their
diminished heads, and soberly reflect, that however they may
assail the ramparts of truth and integrity, yet shall they but has-
ten with greater impetuosity their own final subversion and utter
extermination. J. L.
Liverpool, nvember, 1836.
• See Ist Timothy, 4th chap. Ist and 3d verses.