The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-12-09 00:00:00

CORRftSPONDENCE.

•
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARThbe
SIR,—You will, I trust, permit a far-off strange'. t° at
tri
heard, for as short a space as possible, from ben, atb Y°o
STANDARD. In times of poltical and religious " s_f
and contention," a word, or phrase, becomes a sort u,
leader, or chieftain, for a troop of motives, interests,
0f their
results, that are held to be legitimate followers
king, or priest, or statesman or confederacy. Thus tell;
are
whig, radical, (to say nothing of clubs and leagues,)
terms that imply or carry " a tail." So Romanist, evan"
gelical, dissenter, are words that bear each " their own
burden." The secular, or sacred names and interel;
represented by these, may oppose, or coquet with, ea°
other, or amalgamate ;—and after all this course of
definite indefiniteness, the true and divine meaning be
I
selected, or, rather, revealed names and phrases,
11,0
to be recognised, and legitimatised, in the face of friendss
and foes. " CHRISTIAN UNITY" is one of these mottq
or terms of gathering. ECCLESIA—the Church—is 01351/;
ously anothr and firstborn. "Anti-Church and Sta"
Society" is another. To this latter I will not here au-

vert.
In your correspondence between Mr. Baylee and ilr.
Brown, we seethe present antagonism of mottos or worn!.
Both these gentlemen are doing, as I trust,—for tbetr
own sakes and for ours,—good service to our conira°
faith. I hope, vet, that the war of principles now W
I°eil
cially and happily begun, and so rapidly spreading/ 1
end—so my faith firmly anticipates—in " peace on earl
lltt
and GLORY IN THE HIGHEST." This. I trust,, Wit! 1.,t
least be its primary, if not perpetual result. " Stacie.
unto the day is the evil thereof." I see, or think resentee;
far off and enduring peacefulnesses, as well as
ap
and progressing quietudes. The " true church, s
wr,iitei,
Mr. Brown in his last letter, (quoting Mr. Baylee,)
made up of all really-converted persons." This is 11
ia-
„'"
the saying of Mr. Baylee only. It is that of ultra n
centers also, who deprecate and deny all centralisatioa
and visible concretion, except after their own expedienell
fashion.* So far, indeed, do some of these (BaPtists
known to me) carry this mania of individuality, sePate,i
tion, and false freedom, as to say—in plain black an'
white—that " Never I—perhaps not in heaven iiself",
will the church arrive " at that much-to-be-haled-u"n:4,
state when Christians shall in all respects be one. B
" these really-converted persons," Mr. Brown proceed'
to say for himself and Mr. Baylee, " shall live toileihtesr‘,
in heaven." That, too, I doubt not, is admitted u. 7
churchmen, and dissenters, and conciliators of all shades
and degrees. But, whilst we thus advance, we 5103°5
recede, and are no nearer definite unity. Mr. Brown
" infers"—he might, I think, with equal certainty ha!e
assumed as conceded this also, namely " that theY
ought to act together in promoting Christ's cause olcii
earth." Thus far, then, our standards approach/ far%
" though clouds and darkness" are yet upon us, "
well"! But, Mr. Brown adds, " they ought to thusad
together by" some such organisation, or through " SOO
Stich means," as the " EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE._
Here we stop, not because I oppose the saying, but It'
claim words of exposition and caution. Mr. Editor:
this " some such means" must, as a matter of cause all
effect, sooner or later result in justifying Mr. Baylee 5
statement, viz., that the present question of Christian,
unity ultimately resolves itself into the very praeliCaii
inquiry, " What is [or, may I insert, what ought to be ?..t
the visible constitution of the true church"—the true
Ecclesia—of God? Now, so far as the recorded resolu-
tions of the Liverpool Conference describe—or are to 11
taken even as temporarily describing—the principles and
limitations, the doctrines, or pretensions, or organiza-
tions, that ought to give visible locality (or, to use a
word of more extended yet more impalpable signification
—territorialise) to " the true church. ' Mr. Browns
definition on the part of the Conference, as well as his
former one. namely,—" That the true church is termed
the body of Christ. That body is made up of all be'
lievers—all really-converted persons, of all denowline,7
tions, now in heaven, or on earth, or who vet shall exist:,
—would, to use Mr. Baylee's words, " be sadly inappli-
cable."
There is some flowery and ambiguous language toward
the conclusion of Mr. Brown's last letter (that of the
17th instant), which I now pass, in common with a with
titude of other matters of ob/ervation associating
tO
this " Christian Unity " correspondence. It is doe
him, however, to observe, that Mr. Baylee's last letter
is not equal to his former one in its evidences of a disl'o
sition to " bury our differences," as is so distinctly su„Fi°,
gested by Mr. Brown. Mr. Baylee, in his letter of aw
October, seemed desirous to draw near to the Conference'
on their admitting, or avowing, as the present basis,°,
progressive unity first, " Unconditional Election '
second, " The Baptism of Infants"; third, The en;
dowment of the Church by the State." Thesethr,,e
points of possible union—infinitely important po!ntS
(for such they are when considered in their admitted re;
lations)—are extended by Mr. Baylee's last letter (the,
of the Ist November) ,to fourteen heads of practical e;
aration,—two, or at most three of which—viz., the fi rs snd fourth of doctrines, and the first in discipline,
would have embraced every truth of doctrine, and of 11'2
now in agitation amongst men, or ever to be legitimateY.
agitated amongst them, to the consummation of all things',
Here, therefore, I venture to remind the friends of lii°l`;,
conciliation, wherever found, that they, and the'
once," must proceed much further in the way of sinnYrd
reliance upon GOD'S revealed and written word, hef°ot
we laymen (unordained, unministering men) can copse
„.
to bury ourselves, or our unsurrendering conviction l
The true place " to bury strangers in"—i.e., our severe,
evil imaginations and pretensions—is not yet, as
opened, or consecrated, by the repentances, and defit°
acknowledgments, of reforming, and " gathered togeto
ther," and redeemed men. We trust, however, 5° iv
speak, " the dry land" of the " new creation" is divine/s
ordered " to appear," and that it waits not for n' d.
disabediences of any kind for permission to be manifesteof
This hope is best expressed in the beautiful langnage,,„it
the prophet Micah :—" And the remnant of Jacub
be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lai].
as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for o'4
nor waiteth for the sons of men." Amen, and Acne nog
I find that I have already gone beyond the limit of
own intentions, and more possibly also of your conve:i,
believ.tee
ence. I bad designed especially to urge " forward"oes
ling movements, on the ground of common delingnE of
before God, of all legal forms and conventional waY,s_iog
men. With reference, particularly, to the succurnueo
of dissenting pretensions, (for churchmen, not towith ET the
of dissenters, seem to deal faithfully enough ea
Apostolic claims of their own brethren,) I had desiehe
'o aver, that, if obnoxious terms, however true, are to,rar
used by dissenters, they must not be surprised if siidmlthe
terms are applied to themselves, by those who 110-- way
true CHURCH and STATE " idea,' however these of
admit, in conference with faithful and forgiving reenent
every name, that that idea, in its practical developeretioo
hitherto, has been fearfully productive of prestos! tate
and suffering. But, Mr. Editor, if high church an.".,„5
doctrines and courses are presumptuous absolutiss'es
e°
Crosby-hall anti-church and state doctrines and Ime
are presumptuous atheism. If the " adulterer al' state
whore" are terms that apply to unholy church anu d, of
legalities, the lewd promiscuousness of the drunkar,, 301
Ephraim are terms not less applicable to anti-chores that
state conventionalisms. This is the sort of languagetiam
events may force into use. Mr. Brown's suggesoual
and that of the Conference perhaps, to bury the tttiliogs/
manifestations of a fallen nature with forgotten tivcoaid
is. surely, not more necessary than wise, if we Jesus
spend the rest of our days " as those that are alive jesos
the dead," waiting for the coming of our I.orun
Christ in the " manifestation of the SONS or LIO'"
II Thess. 2.st
butte°
I much desired to edd some extract!, short, and
appropriate, from Mr. Gladstone's work on eburctor Of
state relations. One extract from Mr. Yorke (it'd pro-
Shenfield, Essex) I must transcribe. He bails th., the
posed alliance. He thinks that the times require,‘ (ears.
part of faithful Chri,tians. a step in advance—ti °
ides of
tion to 'the effect, that, " although the prinaP„ietion
Christianity, direct and indirect, enjoin the constr.,' „ro-
of a suitable organisation,
nisation has the authority of prescription"-7-be str
too
to my mind, adds—" nor is it an ii.tegral part
sa-fi3O iibe"
yet no svEtclPic mode 'll
tianity itself." This may be expedient. It i
rat. It is not the " idea," or hope, of a true
rrt.
tr i
29th Nov., 1845. ISRAFIJ"

--
--- d Stele
* This was significantly set out at the Anti-Church an_ ,los,
Soiree, lately held in London, (see Nonconformist, 26tly-cop,
inst.,) where all the ultra dissenting D.D.s appear to
our „fest•
our own : who is Lord over us ?"—but where, it was Fis"enting
the practical difficulty felt was that of bringing the d;inscipleui,,,s
liberals into " ORGAN ISATILN." All the absolute pr.-thin O'
almost in all instances overthrown by treachery wi its
ovo
Icamp. So will or does the popular principle find, in
unrestrained professors, its own discomfiture.