The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-12 00:00:00

LECTURES AT THE MUSIC-HALL

On Friday evening week the fourth of the series of lectures now
delivering at the Music-hall, on the novelties of the creed of Pope
Pius, was given by the Rev. W. Falloon, We were unable our-
selves to be present, and therefore are compelled to give the follow
log abridgement of the lecture, which we take from the Protestant
Sentinel, an admirable and cheap monthly periodical, which we
take this opportunity of recommending strongly to the notice of
our Protestant friends. The address of the reverend gentleman

was listened to with the greatest attention, and it was replete
throughout with powerful argument and kindly Christian feeling
Mr. Falloon, from all we hear, has produced, by this lecture,
stron impression upon the public in his favour as an orator and
contrgoversialist. The subject of the address was the fourth no-

velty, as follows .
" I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which
have been (Wined and declared in the holy Council of Trent, con-
cerning Original Sin and Justification." The reverend lecturer,
although suffering from indisposition, performed his task in a very
eloquent and elaborate manner. In the course of his observations
on the subject of original sin, he very ably exposed the fallacy of
the Romish Church with regard to the sacrament of baptism. In
order to lay before the audience the exact value the Romish Church
put upon this sacrament, he read two passages from the Rhenish
Testament, which set forth that the sacrament of baptism gave
salvation ex opere operato, which meant that the mere performance
of the ordinance took away sin; and that the remission of sins in
this life, and sanctification, were given by baptism. The subject of
baptism was a grave one; and it was painful to find so close an
accordance upon it between the Romig) Fathers and their sons and
admirers the Tractarians of Oxford. It was grievous to hear the
eulogiums passed by men sitting in the seat of the Reformers, on
those who would ennoble the ordinance itself—the mere external
ceremony—into the internal thing meant ; forcing into undue pro-
minence things good and beautiful in themselves, by elevating the
ordinance of Jesus to equal value with Jesus Christ himself. It was
unscriptural and irreligious to make men dispensers of salvation ;
yet this impression must be made on any impartial reader on a
perusal of the Oxford Tracts. Far be it from him to say they did it
intentionally : their learning was undoubted, and their zeal could
not be concealed; but learning or zeal, however great, was not a
perfect test of truth. In proceeding with the subject, the reverend
lecturer quoted from Bishop Burnet, who said baptism was a pre-
cept, not a means to salvation. Rome said, the very performance
of the act did of necessity bestow regeneration. Bishop Burnet
also said " an internal beuefit may be conferred at the time the
external ordinance is performed ; but the external ordinance is not
of necessity a charm to give salvation." To maintain that baptism
of necessity gave salvation, was to maintain that salvation was by
baptism, and not by the sovereign grace of God: and instead of
faith, substituting the mere performance of the sacrament, which
he believed our , Lord and Say our Jesus Christ never intended.—
The Council of Trent decreed that " Whoever shall say that sin is
not wholly removed by baptism, let him be accursed." But the
Council acknowledged that concupiscence remained after baptism;
but that it was not of the nature of sin. Now St. Paul said, "If I
do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelled'
in me;" St. John—" If we say we have no sin, we deceive our-
selves, and the truth is not in us."
The Council perceived it had committed a monstrous error, in
maiutaiuing the doctrine of universal corruption, without remem-
bering that they had involved the Virgin Mary ; for, if universal,
sure enough the Virgin Mary was born in sin ; and the belief in the
immaculate conception was at once destroyed. Upon the disco-
very of this error, the Council further decreed, " that it was not
their design to include in this decree, which treated of original sin,
the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary." Thus did they tamper
with God's eternal truth, and their last error was worse than the
first.
The reverend gentleman then proceeded to the consideration of
the decree of the Council, passed iu the sixth session, on Justifica-
ticn by Faith. There were sixteen chapters in this decree, and
thirty.thrce canons, each winding lip with the anathema, " let him
be accursed." His object was to discover the grand feature of
Rome's mistake in the doctrine of Justification by Faith; and in
doing so he could not produce any thing new or universally ex-
citing. The glorious doctrine of the atonement—the precious gem
of Christianity in the English Church—being under ban and inter-
dict; the current coin of apostolic truth—the pure gospel—hin-
dered from free circulation amongst the counterfeits of the Romish
Church, and the base mixture of man's works substituted in its
stead—there was enough remaining still to detect the imposition,
to detect the illegality of the tender, even though it bear upon it
the stamp of Oxford. A great deal depended upon the meaning of
the word justification ; and this .could only be determined by its
use in the original languages. The reverend lecturer Alien quoted
from Isaiah, Ahe Psalms, and St. Paul's Epistles, to- prove that
justification was a law term, and signified to acquit—to pronounce
righteous on trial; and in this manner it was plainly put in con-
trast with condemnation. He would treat the subject as if there
were two parties—the judge on the bench, the criminal at the bar,
and a fixed standard of law to adhere to ; God the Judge, man the
condemned criminal, God's word the law. He would then call three
witnesses, and ask them how the criminal should be made righteous
before God ?—the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the apostolical Church
of England, and the apostate Church of Rome. The verdict of the
apostles was justification by the free mercy of God, through the
merits of Jesus Christ, made ours by faith—not of works, but by
faith, that it might be of grace : the prisoner is pardoned—Christ
hath pardoned him. The, second witness, the Church of England,
said, in the 11th article, they were accounted righteous before God
only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith,
and not for our own works. Here was a re-issuing of the apostolic
coin, under the auspices of the Church of England, whose image
bore the Redeemer's own name. The third witness, the Council of
Trent, said—" Whoever shall say man is saved solely by the
righteousness of Christ, let him be accursed. " How utterly
was
this at variance with the tuneful chord struck by the apostles
so faithfully re-echoed by the Church of England ! The lecturerand
read several clauses from the decree of the Council of Trent, of
similar tendency. He then quoted from the early fathers showing
their belief in justification by faith, and not by works, and cited St.
Augustine, St. Chrysostom, and St. Ambrose ; he would also quote
from a father of the 16th century—the noble, the judicious Hooker,
in opposition to Trent, which maintained justification by prepara-
tion, by works, by our merits, and not by the merits of Jesus
Christ. There was great importance in defining justifleation, and
in keeping it distinct from sanctification. In the 7th canon, it was
said, that justification was not justification alone, but also sancti-
fication. The whole of Rome's errors sprang from this con.
founding that which was done for a man with that which was
doingiß him; blending justification and the righteousness which was
complete, with the sanctification of the Holy Spirit; blending that
which was perfect and done, with that which was imperfect and
progressive. This was the great point—the gravest error on the
part of Rome.
The rev. lecturer continued at great length to dilate on the
minutiae of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, with regard. to
justification by faith ; and after likening the penances of the itomolosi!
Church to a rotten plank, said to his audience, that the atoningtblwaas
of Christ was their plank—it was fixed, and it was eternal, i
endurable for ever.

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