The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-22 00:00:00

manner, every producer

COURT AND FASHION.

Her Majesty has commanded a court mourning for the
late Queen of the Belgians, to change on Sunday the 3rd,
and to cease on Sunday the 10th. of November.

Earl Grosvenor, M.P., arrived at Eaton Hall on Tues-
day, previous to his departure for the East Indies, for the
benefit of his health. The noble Earl intends sta3ing
abroad until May next.

CORRESPONDENCE.

DR. M'NEILE ON THE 4iTISIBLE CHURCH AND

THE PRIVY COUNCIL,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR.—Not for the purpose of noticing in its intrinsic
import, that notion concerning the visible Church advanced
in Dr. M`Neile's late correspondence with Archdeacon
Wilberforce (which /consider an egregiously weak but no
less fatal error, the invariable beginning of Protestant
Rationalism and Infidelity—which indeed means in its
reality only this,—so that a man is spiritually minded it
matters not to what outward community he belongs, or
whether to any, or in what acts of outward communion
he participates, or whether in any—a principle of belief
which Mr. F. Newman pursuing to its ultimatum came
with sure steps to his present melancholy position, one of
whose notable axioms, before which the Church, the Bible,
and the Faith have subsided as superfluities, being that
religion is nothing but " a state of sentiment of the soul
towards God") do I venture to crave your indulgence for
a few lines, but to contrast certain dicta enunciated
therein, with a conflicting statement that emanated from
the Rev. Doctor some few months ago, upon the seeming
inconsistency involved wherein, I hope you will suffer me
briefly to comment, that if it be invalid, some of your
readers may take it upon themselves to free him from the
imputation.

Dr. M`Neile informs Archdeacon Wilberforce that it is
an abuse of terms to call the visible church a spiritual
body. Dr, M`Neile in a sermon delivered by him on the
24th March last concerning the Privy Council decision on
the "Gorham case" gave utterance to the following;—
" Salvation is promised to the Church of Christ and con-
sequently preservation from fatal error."
Now, sir, I write to be instructed how the Church can
be preserved from fatal error ; how she can be " saved ;"
but by the Spirit of God animating, and guiding, and
ruling within her ! Impeccability of any kind must be a
fruit of the overruling influence of the Spirit of God, over
the passions and prejudices of mankind. A body incapa-
ble of falling into fatal error must be animated by the
Spirit of Truth. The power which thus controls the ma-
lignancy of heresy and inhibits the mistakes of fallibility
must be Divine. What higher claim can be made for the
Spiritual endowment and Heavenly charter of the visible
Church than this, to assign to her the promise of preser-
vation from fatal error ? How better exemplified, our
belief that as Archdeacon Wilberforce says, she " is a
Spiritual body—a body which is in this world but not of
it," when we confess that she, among all the pomp of
human institutions, all the display of human talents, and
all the contrivances of human wisdom, is the only organi-
zation in this world kept free from cadence into fatal
error, possesses alone within her the talisman of God ?
How better that she is " Animated by that sacred spirit
which is the sole guide unto truth," when we confess that
she alone wields the Ithuriel spear that can detect dis-
simulation, and bears the oft-coveted stone of the magi-
cian, which turns pale at the approach of falsehood ?
Further, Dr. M'Neile, in the passage of his sermon
from which this quotation is made, is defending latitudi-
narianism on the doctrine of Baptism, from the considera-
tion of the uncertainty which, he says, Scripture and
anitqtuhiotyughhaovneeleoff the conflicting cuonnfliddthiengpoopininti;onas on
ndhtehecosnutberedets
that
must be an error, still its allowance does not interfere
with the Church's charter of " preservation from fatal
error," inasmuch as it is a non-essential point of Christian
.doctrine. Itnplyintr therefore; Oat Pim Mr. Gorham's

Oct. 2/, ISsii

- -
errofirti
opinion on the subject of baptism a igila'L,„o,
Church, we must believe, would be preserVed I":.divg
into it. And here is an apt occasion for reur Nec.P",
M'Neile of the position he has assumed win', fatal It
the question, who ought to be judge oj tint cot
For ran he really be content to fix in the Prolontsig
as the representative of the Sovereign, that instra
whereby this deliverance is wrought ? WWI itd
think to be the mouthpiece and organ of this Srvtilitiii
is to preserve the Church from fatal error, an. ~a em
her indefectibility against the forces criheresY,
atr'Y
the encroachments of false doctrine ? Them in's, /1,00
that Spirit Himself hath appointed overseer2sghtehapti
flock, " to feed the Church of God," (Ants' ct
28th verse,) and to whom alone the commission °aiV
has been given by the Lord ; or secular Princetcs,lP,
their Councils composed of Catholics and here,' oleo;
lievers or infidels, just as the varying capacities ore boor
may be distributed among the candidates forconv, Pio tha
honours and emoluments—as may be concectedariiso
chicanery of office or willed by the caprice of P
ship. in in'
,bere
e
But again. In.this same correspondence,
M'Neile denies the spirituality of the visible Cbuttbotip
affirms Christ's headship over it. And is tha; 101'
then, over which Christ is head, not spiritual.,,,,ol
verily, the New Testament speaks of but one into
ii that spiritual, whereof Christ is head, and into 1,0
"by one spirit we are all baptized " Cer• tb
which he himself referred wen he called
vine, and spoke of rotten branches therein not und' of tbe
less the vine—which is 6' the pillar and grunt',. aro!
truth" (I Tim. iii. 15)—in which God bath se" refg°
ministries for its edifying, and which must be cos,
visible (Eph. iv. 12)—whereof the unity
bread, one body" (Eph. iv. 4.5, and is not 071
98hco
comitant with the oneness of the spirit, but', one
sacramental unit—" one body, one baptism 17)/
which he bath built upon a rock, and which w-°- 8/1.4
will not hear is to he unto us as " a heathen ‘,11;4'4 ,5
publican." This is the body, I hero! 110
say, W
head, and this surely is a spiritual body. Jur' a!v;tee.
idea, evidently, is of a company of men, °':. -owppos'
differing religious opinions, and of, it mg together
re!igious characters, arbitrarily choosing to bsnu 'lord°
and form a sort of religious club, for the sake ob,,tly
and convenience and jurisdiction. Of such -0111`
would be, without doubt, an abuse of terms to cal
11
spiritual, but of such a bodu 't is equally ensa t equaof)!
call Christ its head. Df. M'Neile's argument iiss`r.gr./
the visible Church contains unsiritual as ‘s;e;';gal,"l;
tual members, it ought not to be called sPir": ;ng
the same argument, the visible
Church
_co
u lipu
Cor.
h%ecer

as his real jiving members, Christ ought not to uV
its head. . voice .
But if indeed Christ be its head, if indeed Its,
Iosog
divi e, how sad that any should profess theroserpatict
fled with the present State oppression and 1156isbole"
For it is a bartering of her birthright—a reliaquit j 5
of her responsibility—a denial of her origin. .ng
insensibility in the ministers of God to that vort'lt ;
calling to them from heaven " Guard the depogii.!!
that which is committed too
thy trust." (I Ti°,..'ious
Yea, in my nearest convictions, it is an uncoos'_...(
rying of earnestness and piety into a fearful vort",•

,0
nd pnore,t.e,,rin-5V.°,::

ing to deep upon deep yet low(
travelling in the wake of that godles
on the theatre of Continental Protestan
up its strength for the last great battle with "/"0
to perish in the ruins over which the Church of
alone rise supreme !
I enclose my card, and am yours, &C.
Oct. 16, 1850.

IS WATER

SOLID

4,4
PO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST° „0
op(
SIR,---Ts water called a solid body ?Is it nothc'eall,
of innumerable globules ? And if so, can it 'en occ
porous body ? Sugar dissolved in water seem ,
iS b

no space, at least IticreasestheWaTe;no more D.
How can this be accounted for ? „rogefl
Is it not probable that if the water be c()"'irciel
small globules, that the space between each laced
globule, being vacant (when four circles are. P
gether, there must be a space in the middle), ei'oarg,
by the matter once composing the sugar ?—"J",,,,p C°'
ARGUMENT A'