The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-14 00:00:00

THIS LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE CHURCH-PARTY SPIRIT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—In the controversies that have distracted the
Church for some years past, and which now seem hushed
into a temporary lull, those who have taken the most
prominent parts, and have rushed, as it were, into the
front of the battle, are men holding extreme opinions,
' and wearing the badges of extreme parties. This indeed
accords with the strictest principles of nature, and corro-
borates the commonest maxim of philosophy ; for a man's
advocacy in some sort takes its complexion from the cause
which he advocates, and if his aim be to establish or to
vindicate a novel theory, the very opposition which he
expects to meet with from the world tends to make him
zealous without knowledge and heroic without discrimi-
nation. A man, too, entrusted with such an advocacy as
this, is rarely endowed with that spirit which is calculated
to throw fresh light upon the subject in dispute, and to
yield the way for the full glory of simple truth. Rather
than an impartial investigator and a sincere truth-seeker,
he appears in the character of a passionate defender of a
favourite theory against all attacks, whether of reason or
of prejudice; without busying himself to ineuire into the
truth or justice of his cause, he rushes into the field like a
hero who fights because it is for his party or his comrade,
and resolves to slay and conquer by any means, because
they are his reputed enemies whom he attacks. When
once, indeed, this dangerous spirit is imbibed, who shall
prescribe its influence ?—who limit its effects ? Actuated
by it, men are carried to such extremes, when they have
advanced a little upon their course, as they themselves,
on setting out, never wished nor never thought to reach ;
both antagonistic parties, contending for arbitrary and
personal opinions, lose sight of that which can alone jus-
tify controversy, make enthusiasm laudable, and give
honour to victory ; the " pearl of great price," for the
purchase or possession of which the good man gives up
' house and lands," fame and fortune. is mutually tram-
pled under foot, and the fatuous combatants may be al-
most literally said to fight upon the corpse of truth, till
it remains for subsequent times, when. men's passions are
cooled down and their selfish ferocity appeased, to rescue
its mangled remains and resuscitate them into life, to
seek out the gem from amongst the rubbish heaped upon
it, and to regenerate what was once perfect and unalloyed.
We see this exemplified in every age, and, on a smaller
scale, every moment of our lives. We see men com-
mencing with a dim, or perhaps a bright, perception of
an object of controversy ; presently the sparks of per-
sonal animosity kindle, or the note of factious and per-
sonal opposition is sounded, till finally they forget the
original cause of their disagreement, and the contest be-
comes not so much between opinions as between men—
not between truth and falsehood, but between white and
black ; all distinctions of doctrines or fundamentals va-
nish, and men are at last known not so much by their real
sentiments or professions, as by a colour or a motto.
Each partisan looks upon an adversary's opinions and
arguments, not on their intrinsic merits, but simply as
the opinion or arguments of an adversary ; and as the
beholder through a painted telescope sees everything that
falls upon his vision of the same colour as his glass, so it
is with him who looks at the actions of another through
the perverted and perverting medium of party. In fine,
I love is said to be blind, but party is blinder; for the par-
tisan esteems not only his friends infallible and their
sentiments perfection, but looks on all others as worth-
less and wicked, and does both without moderation and
without inquiry.
It is the raging of this spirit within the breasts of men
that has been in every age the fruitful spring of must of
the schisms and heresies which have distracted the Church,
and the factions by which states have been torn and di-
vided. For whilst this spirit is the most antagonistic to
truth, it is the best and most effectual support of all vain
theory and theoretical speculation. After a man has
constructed such a theory, it is this spirit which drives
him to that sacred fountain whence the waters of truth
flow in limpid purity, to extract a cordial for his vain and
puffed-up imagination, and sends him to the word of the
living God, not that by it he may model his practice and
his belief, but that he may, by twisting texts and per-
verting what seem to be partially-declared truths, drag it
forth as a champion of that which he has already formed,
going to it not that he may become " wise unto salva-
tion," and " thoroughly furnished unto all good works,"
but predisposed to his own created system, and fully
determined to cull from it favour and corroboration.
The evidence of that which is too clear to be easily dis-
guised he invalidates by incorrect analogy, and baseless
imputations of figurativeness or the like ; that which to
many appears doubtful he at once claims as his own, and
though at first ne might have wandered in a little uncer-
tainty, at last his feelings impel him to absolute convic-
tion ; and thus all heretics take their religious systems
from the Bible, and thus the madness of the original
Mystic and the delusion of the modern Quaker, the
vanity and disorder of the Puritan and the deceitful vaga-
ries of the Tractarian, the rationalism of Socinus and
the metaphysical subtilties of Swedenborg, profess to be
from thence derived. What, indeed, can we expect when
a man has built to himself a costly theory, the precious
offspring of his own brain, the result of much labour
though of vain imagination, but that he should entertain
for it the feelings of a parent ? When the costly edifice
has grown beautiful to the eye and flattering to the self-
esteem of the fabricator, what, I say, can we expect to
see but that which is invariably the case—that the be-
sotted author is ready to raise heaven and earth in its
defence; that no considerations of justice or propriety,
no demands of truth, nay, not even the condemnation of
a world, can induce him to abate one jot of his preten-
sions, to knock down one stone of his revered fabric ; and
when men have arrived at this desperate and dangerous
pitch, it is almost hopeless to look for or to wait for any
recantation on their part7—it is vain to attempt to induce
them to yield for the entrance of truth. But the time will
come when the force of opinion, matured by experience,
shall wither the frail and empty system ; when no coun-
tenance, however imposing—no influence, however potent
—no efforts, however vigorous-Lshall be able to preserve
or defend it. Then, what was begot by presumption,
nursed in darkness, and fostered by ignorance, shall be
scorched up in the: beams of meridiauday ; the blast of
truth shall at least sweep over it like a hurricane, and,
perishing like the " baseless fabric of a vision," its re-
mains shall exist as a warning to future ages, like the
crumbling remnants of some destroyed fortress, raised by
treason to facilitate rebellion, and as a monument of what
error did and truth overthrew.
That this spirit, sir, should be almost as common as it
is dangerous, and should rule more or less in the breast of
every man, is owing to the extreme subtilty with which it
enters and affects the human heart. The prosecution of
a cause in a party spirit, and the furious denunciations of
others in the same spirit, falls in with and gratifies the
feelings of resentment, which the contemplation of oppos-
ing actions and sentiments engenders in the mind ; and
as whatever falls in with the feelings is always esteemed
by a man infallibly correct, thus it is that men are so ac-
cessible to its approaches, and so enslaved when under its
influence. It leads them to substitute personal feelings,
which possibly have been led only into a certain course
by education and custom, for those sacred motives of duty
and those lofty sentiments of right and wrong, which
having God directly for their author have the welfare of
His religion wholly for their end, which burn as brightly
and as fervently whatever may be the particular character
of outward opposition, and which receive their continual
aliment not from the virulence of personal feeling, but
from the Source of all wisdom and all zeal ; whose life-
giving
animation has spurred the mightiest warriors of the
truth' to their transcendent triumphs, which led our glo-
rious reformers from victory to victory over idolatry and
superstition, and to the noblest achievements in the cause
of God's religion, and by which those who have been
placed in the hottest contentions, and harassed by the
most fiery opposition, have not only nobly shone as lights
of the everlasting Truth, but have stood forth as evidences
of the divine and gracious influence of their religion, who
are held up to a world's admiration not only as the zealous
defenders of the faith and as mighty warriors in the
Church, but as living examples of the holiness and purity
of their doctrine, and mirrors ti:r nigh which to behold
the gracious aspect of that peace
ledge "

hich p,

Seeing that this is so, that this spirit not only is in the
highest degree dangerous and destructive, but also by
reason of its subtilty holds a large dominion over the
hearts of men, and that too as much in the political as in
the religious world, I will not for a moment think that
this subject or these remarks can be considered as too di-
dactic for the character of a newspaper. When we con-
template the nature of the warfare now waged by all sects
and parties in the Church and in the State, religiously and
politically, the magnitude and complication of theinte-
rests involved, and the still more terrible warfare which
this perhaps only incipient contest may portend and su-
perinduce ' • and also when we reflect upon the lesson
which the histories of England and of Europe, and which
the present state of many countries teach, viz. that our
civil and our political liberties, our national welfare and
happiness, are all contained and involved in our religious,
our Protestant, and our ecclesiastical existence ; any sub-
ject which may bear upon this important contest, and re-
late to these mighty interests, may well claim a place for
consideration on the platform where the struggle is prin-
cipally carried on.
To see heresy stalking through our revered Church like
a lion seeking whom it may devour, and ever and anon
fastening its malignant fangs upon those whom we were
accustomed to look upon as elevated lights of the Truth
and polished corners of the temple—to see its progress
unchecked, and its ravages practically unheeded—is well
calculated to make sluggishness and despair take posses-
sion of the most' vigorous and sanguine. But it is impos-
sible to conceive a position, however discouraging and
gloomy, in which there does not exist for the breast of man a
noble incentive to duty. Nay, seeing that without doubt
there is above a Providence to guide and a Power to pro-
tect, not only may we say that despair is sinful, but that
excess of lamentation itself is unauthorised and impro-
per. When, like the prophet of old. we may be tempted
to hang down our hands in helplessness, and to bury
our courage and resolution in hopeless grief, let us reflect
that Heaven itself is at our side, and that the still, small
voice is near to whisper encouragement and hope, if we
are but willing to open cur ears to its animating tones.
* *
[The conclusion of this letter, which is signed " Nigel,"
will be given next week.]