The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-09-03 00:00:00

power in such ar

Lerman wound

neverance wort

y of a better

ficant to

gerate bey
•esent him

nd weighty." More recent
,t to decry even the Primate

and the onward steps of a stern determination

even of themselves, are too sig
Once it was the custom to exag
authority of the Bishop, to repr
over God's heritage," than as the "ensample to the f
Then, the " lightest word of a Bishop

nit the
' Lord

Was pronounced

accordingly, the Church and country were shocked at ti
defiance publicly flung at as meek a prelate as ever adorne
with his Christian graces, that highest office to which I
had been called by his Sovereign, and in which he is Sllf
ported by the confidence of the Church, as well as by th

same time a contumacious suffragan is covered with in-
discriminate praise ; ail of whose words and acts may pos-
sibly admit of explanation, but of which too many most
certainly stand in need. And, as if to crown all, and to
prove beyond doubt the mastery of this leading idea, both
loyalty and decorum were merged for the moment when
neither the sex nor the station of the higl

personage ir

the realm, secured for her name that deference which is
nvlivr Linv. vs's» 1, .

vasly altn tier iron) that tone ok
which ought never to have been uttered by a " Professor
of Morals," and certainly should never have passed with-

remark,

I might mention, also, the unseemly confusion and un-
happy divisions created in the National Society, and the
Church's usefulness fettered in a most important particu-
lar, in order, forsooth, as is alleged, to vindicate her inde-
pendence. _ _

These, and other similar acts, taken by themselve
might not be worth much notice. They only become fo
midable when viewed as the details of a concerted syster

You, Mr. Archdeacon, and your colleagues in this pre-
sent matter, may perhaps disclaim participation in all
these objects, or sympathy with all these proceedings.
But your weight is thrown into the same scale, and " nos-
cimur a sociis" is a tolerably correct rule. Plain-dealing
honesty is seldom a good casuist, and will hardly be refined
enough to pause upon the hair-splitting distinction be-
tween a Tractarian " secundum quid," and a Tractarian
" simpliciter."
A concluding word, and I have done.

The disciple of that philosophy that "teaches by exam-
ple," cannot fail to observe the close parallellism, if not
the accurate identity, between the principles urged forward
so precipitously now, and those that about two centuries
ago involved in such dread calamity, alike the Crown, the
Church, and the nation of England. Then, as now, the
attempt was made to substitute the Church and her ordi-
nances for the Saviour and his Spirit ; the traditions of
the fathers for the sure teaching of the Scriptures ; and,
in short, to elevate the outward form above the hidden
power of vital godliness. Happily and mercifully for us,
a different spirit prevails now over the Throne, its ad-
visers, anti the primacy, from that which ruled them then ;
the movement principles are discouraged now where they
were countenanced before. And however the duplicity
and indecision of the former Charles may be forgotten in
the earnestness of his repentance, and in the awful and
calamitous retribution that at last overtook him, still the
solemn lesson left to us must never be forgotten, nor the
tendency of the same principles, if not counterbalanced,
to reproduce the same disastrous results. " The thing
that bath been is that which shall be, and there is no new
thing under the sun." True, and most humbly do we
thank God for it, no revolution or convulsion is to be ap-
prehended now. But that is owing to the good sense and
to the good feeling of the nation, and to the confidence it
reposes in the quiescent body of the Church, more than
to the discretion or forbearance of the movement party in
the Church.

How exquisitely appropriate is that suffrage in our
matchless Liturgy ? `• Endue thy ministers with right-
eousness, and make thy chosen people joyful." How
fervently ought our hearts to echo it ? For, should it
ever be permitted, in an evil hour, that these Romish
principles should rise to ascendancy within our Church, we
shall not be far from that state of things so aptly described
by Bishop Warburton as the precursor of a nation's down-
fall, " when religion has lost its hold upon the respect and
affections of the people."
Your Circular and declaration are concerning a particu-
lar case. I have ventured in reply to touch upon the more
general problem under which they are included. My
apology for doing so is to be found in the paramount and
absorbing importance of the interests involved.
I have the honour to remain,
Your obedient servant,
THOMAS NOLAN, AM.,
Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row.
Vestry, St. John's, August 26, 1850.