The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-24 00:00:00

BRITISH REFORMATION SOCIETY.

Two lectures on Popery were delivered on the evenings
of Tuesday and Friday last, in the Concert-hall, Lord
Nelson• street, by the Rev. Dr. Cumming of London, an
eminent minieter of the Established Church of Scotland,
whose able advocacy of the truths of Protestantism are
well known in the metropolis and elsewhere. The Rev.
Hugh M'Neile presided on both occasions; and the plat-
form was filled by a most respectable assemblage of clergy,
merchants, and others.
In his first lecture, Dr. CUMMING introduced a short
review of the conduct of the Roman Catholic Bishop,
Wareing, whose explanations in the Morris perversion have
been the theme for strong animadversion by the indepen-
dent press. Dr. Wareing, he observed, had acted a most
consistent part. If be had acted otherwise, he would not
have been doing his duty to his church. The principles
of his church and the practice of the Bishop were, in this
matter, in happy harmony ; for Rome held that when her
people were asked concerning their faith, they might either
conceal or confess it—that it was lawful to conceal their
faith, if a greater good could be accomplished thereby,
than by acknowledging it. And, therefore, if Dr. Ware-
ing bad given young Morris a dispensation to conceal his
faith from his parents, he acted only upon the precedents
set by St. Signori, who laid it down that it was lawful to
use equivocation when equivocation was necessary for the
interests of the church. Approaching the more immedi-
ate subject of the lecture, Dr. Cumming remarked that
he neither desired nor designed to cast any new light
upon it. Popery seemed to him a grand perversion of all
the distinguishing truths of the gospel ; and here was
" the mystery of iniquity." Infidelity was Satan acting
at least a honest part : Popery was Satan acting the part
of an angel of light. One system denied all truth ; the
other admitted all truth, but only to crucify, to vitiate,
and annihilate. The one, therefore, was properly called
the " mystery of iniquity", for it made God's truth the
caterer of men's lies, God's word the pioneer to man's
superstitions; it embraced the truth, not for the sake of
truth, but for the sake of establishing under its guise
those deadly superstitions which ruined souls and dis-
honoured God. He asked the audience to refer to any
one doctrine in the word of God, and then observe how
popery perverted and caricatured it. Take the Bible ;it

claimed the exclusive monopoly of the circulation of that
blessed book. It made baptism a mysterious exorcism;
the Lord's Supper, not the impressive and beautiful so-
lemnity of Sion, but an idol before which the people
must prostrate themselves and give worship ; it made
prayer—the privilege of Protestants—a penance to Roman
Catholics ; it made the minister of God, not the preacher
of " Glad tidings," but a sacrificing priest ; it denuded
God of his robes of beauty and of glory as a reconciled
Father in Christ, and arrayed him with the robes of
vengeance, telling the poor sinner, though he suffered,
and underwent sacrifices. that lie had penances yet to en-
dure after Christ had suffered that a guilty world might be
finally redeemed ; it regarded our blessed Lord as an im-
perfect mediator, requiring the intercession of the virgin
and saints to eke out his mediation ; it regarded the Holy
Spirit as inadequate to sanctify and make us fit for
heaven, and told us of a purgatory where souls are purified
which the spirit of God could not purify on earth. In

short, Popery, pretending to be exclusively apostolical, I the hour of death, in the day of judgment, and from the
wqs emphatically the great predicted apostacy of the New torments of the damned, good Mary deliver us." (Hear,
Testament. The system was extremely well calculated to hear.) If it were replied to him that he proved these
make progress. It was fitted for fallen humanity. It in- perversions from old documents which were extremely
sisted upon absolute, unquestioning outward obedience, scarce, he replied ,hat the Church was infallible; that if
-whilst it allowed bounds that covered the most congenial tb' '3BO-

internal licence ; it enacted a ceremonial most stringent

ais doctrine were big oemy in the thirteenth century, it
could not but be blasphemy now ; that the Church must
be consistent. But he was not left to prove those corrup-
tions from any old hooks, for they were regularly pub-
lished in the Catholic Psalter by Marini, the Pope's
bookseller at Rome, one of which he held in his hand.
The Doctor, having concluded his narration of his contest
with the Catholic barrister, proceeded to say that in his
various engagements he had been met with strong objec-
tions to the course that was being pursued. It had been
alleged by some eminent persons, distinguished members
of the Protestant Church, that such a course was cad and
mischievous; and he had himself heard Roman Catholic
priests say that nothing delighted them so much as meet-
ings like the present, for the result was an acce-ston to their
numbers. That statement bad invariably been made by the
priests of the Church of Rome. If the priests found that
these meetings were converting their people, was it likely
they would say so ? NV( uld they not conceal the fact ?
Tne very circumstance of their boasting demonstrated to
hint, that these meetings, instead of making converts to
Rome, were converting Roman Catholics to Protestan-
tism. (Hear.) He had heard it said that Roman Catho-
lics were most conscientious in their creed ; and that,
therefore, we had no right to pronounce it to be wrong.
He believed the Roman Catholic laity were most consci-
entious : they had perilled their everlasting all upon the
truth of their creed. But this did not prove that the
creed itself was right. A man might be conscientiously
wrong as well as conscientiously right. When we wished
to know what was truth and what error, we did not apply
to man's conscience, but " to the law and to the testi-
mony" ; and if one text in the Bible pronounced it wrong,
that text would be true, and all men's consciences wrong._
It had been urged that there were many good men in the
Church of Rome. He believed there were—many good
men. The Bible led bina to believe it to be so, for it
said, " Come out of her, my people, lest ye partake of
her sins." This text clearly taught him that God
had a people in that church. But did it prove that
church was tight ? Quite the reverse. It had been
urged—even in the House of Commons last year-11
attacking Re

to give an appeirance of great unity

it made the lace-

amanism we were attacking Christianity it-
self. This objection proceeded from a total ignorance of
the distinction between the two. Should we be defacing a
beautiful tree by removing the catterpillars that preyed
upon its walls ? Should we be destroying the gigantic oak
by removing the parasite plant that clung to its trunk and
branches ? The very reverse. The removal of the plant
that fed upon its juices would strengthen the integrity of
the oak. So it was with Christianity ; remove popery.
from it and you removed an incubus that pressed upon and
encumbered it—you would allow it to expand free and un-
shackled in all its beauty and glory, until, by the blessing
Roman results.
a(tChho el
jeerss hoeigireitothmado
jobreiteyn
oufrgtehde
Cthhattisttihatte,
of God, it had accomplished its predicted and destined
wereT
world ; and it had been asked if it were right that a hand-
ful of men upon a little island in the midst of the ocean
should presume to say they were right and the rest of the
world totally wrong? Truth was not contingent upon
majorities or minorities. (Hear.) Our appeal was "to
the law and the testimony ;" and if we found our religion
sustained by scripture, that religion was true, though its
advocates should be confined in dungeons or burned at the
stake ; and if popery were found to be condemned by the
scriptures, that religion was false, and it must be opposed
though the gold of the universe were piled on her altars.
It was not the rules of numbers or the doctrines of
proportion that determined what was the truth ; but it
was this—" What say the set iptures ?" (Hear, hear.) It
had also been alleged by the champions of Romanism that
she had produced many distinguished men and illustrious
literati ; and it could not be supposed to be so corrupt a-
system, otherwise such accomaished men as the Arch-
bishop of Carnbray would not have belonged to it. He
(Dr. Cumming) replied that Greece and Rome, with the
most wretched theology, had the most accomplished scho-
lars. Infidelity itself enrolled among its ranks Voltaire,
Diderot, Gibbon, Hume and many other men of distin-
guished scholarship. This taught us, and a most import-
ant lesson it was, that knowledge might be, as Bacon pro-
claimed it to be—power ; hut that sanctified knowledge
alone was peace and holiness and happiness, as well as
power. (hear.) It was perfectly possible to obtain great
knowledge in science. literature, a..d art, yet with that
knowledge to have the most unsanctified and unholy
heart : it was possible to be the first among all the ency-
cloetcleists of the universe, and yet have less knowledge
of God than a Sabbath-school child. (Cheers. Some had
alleged they did not like controversy, and therefore they
dis ipproved of these meetings. If by controversy was
understood the calling of hard names, he utterly repudi-
ated it ; but by controversy he meant contending for the
truth in opposition to error, not in the spirit of bigotry,
but in the spirit of love and of sound mind. The real
question about controversy was—was it scriptdral? St.
Paul went into the synagogues and proved out of the
scriptures that Jesus was the Christ; St. Jude told us to
contend for "the faith once delivered to the saints."
The next question was—was controversy calculated to do
good ? His answer was, How were our missions in every
part of the globe carried on at this moment ? By contro-
versial discussion. All our precious things had been pur-
chased at this price, and they must be maintained at the
same price. The crown of our Queen and our glorious
constitution were sustained only by ceaseless conflict;.
and the integrity of the scripture, the safety of our com-
munion, access to God's word and the social privileges of
Protestantism, could only he maintained by controversial
conflict. Many sentimental persons exclaimed, " Let us
have peace at any sacrifice." Peace cannot be purchased at
too high a price. Better truth without peace, than peace
without truth. (Hear.) Again, he asked what had made
England what she was, and elevated her to her rank
among the nations ? How came it to pass that in Swit-
zerland you could tell that one canton was Roman Ca-
tholic because the people were dirty and idle, and in no
sense prosperous; and that another canton was Protes-
tant, because you saw the people industrious, prosperous,
clean, and happy? Why was it that Scotland presented
so complete a contrast to Ireland ? How was it that
Scotland, with all her faults, was able, with but a few re-
giments, and a very few police, to keep order? Because
it was a land of Bibles, of pure and Protestant Christi-
anity. How was it that Ireland was in so unhappy a
state ? He admitted that there might be political and
social faults in that country, but its great governing evil
was its prevailing Popery. If it were not so, how was it
that Ulster, which was Protestant, presented so marked a
contrast to the other three provinces of Connaught, Mun-
ster, and Leinster, which were Catholic. One was per-
fectly quiet and peaceful ; the others the scene of constant
oneutes. The one was Protestant, and Popery prevailed
in the others. He was indeed persuaded that the secret
spring of all atm prosperity as Britons was just our Pro-
testant and Bible Christianity. The secret of the stability
of that diadem which girds the Queen of England's brow
was the existence of the Protestant Church in the midst
of England's government. He believed, therefore, that
if that assembly loved their country as patriots, they
would identify themselves with this cause ; and if they
desired to glorify God and to win souls to Christ, they
would throw all their energies into this important and
holy cause. (Loud Cheers.)
At the close of each lecture, Dr. Cumming received the
warmest thanks for his eloquent and truly Christian ex-
position ; and the proceedings terminated by the Cbais-
man pronouncing a solemn benediction.