The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1838-07-03 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

BARRINGTON. GENTLEMEN,—Our attention has been serious the report of an intended arrangement of the —'n to question, which has lately appeared in the public this town ; whereby, it seems that St. Paul's Church, all °f the voidance, &c. of either of the present clergy, priced of one of its ministers, without an allowance suicide; to enable the one, and only future minister to en,e°l curate, to assist him in the discharge of the various ingtV a Lions necessarily required at this church ; and in immediate with the ecclesiastical district and school proposed thereto Arrangeappertaining. Without wishing to arrogate to ourselves too great importance, or to magnify the office of wardens, or guardians of the interests of St. Paul's Church, and commissioners of it and St. John's Church; the interests of the former being most h without tphrooup especially in our care, the charge of the same being legally rennet ur entrusted st toe db et to prematurely t feeling ourselves publicly called. upon to declare our heeling but w e cannot enteredallow i into, earnest protest against such an arrangement; and respectfully beg permission to lay before von, and the publii: of Liverpool at large, our reasons for so doing. 1. Because, under the authorities of the two acts of par. liament, by virtue of which St. Paul's and St. John's churches were erected; it is therein legally provided, by the piety and munificence of our Protestant ancestors, that the services of two ministers should be continued at St. Pi tit's Church in perpetuity. 2. Because, it is also provided under the 2d Geo. 3, cap 68, sec. 25, that the ground floor of St. Paul's Church snail remain free for ever, and that therefore the congregation thereof, who merely occupy the pews in the gallery, cane" be expected of themselves, (besides paving half yearly the reserved, or tenants' rentals of such pews, the same gellek, e ws being the private property of individuals, and all , I, legally subjected to such reserved rent,) to be enabled to make a suitable provision for the respectable maintenance 1, ~-1 of two clergymen at that church. Neither can the poor who •-, occupy the free pews be expected, much less required, to_ . subscribe their pence, towards such maintenance, -the \ ..). clergy, eadorning ch ,: • 3. Because, at this church, (t e aracteriaric of -'s our municipal ward and neighbourhood,) t ere are now three full services performed every Lord'sday, and one full service 1 of a Thursday evening, during the winter months : cure of souls, an ecclesiastical district, and a day and Sunday school are also attached to this church. That A is situated in the midst of a very dense, and proverbially poor population; , built upon a spacious plan and design, requiring 1 great exertion of the officiating clergyman to be heard by the congregation ; and, therefore we are well convinced, from our intimate acquaintance with the localities of this church and , t neighbourhood, (for one of the undersigned has resided nearly 40, the,other 12 years in the immediate vicinity of this church; one of us, a member of this church upwards of 20, and the other six years; the second time also of both of us serving the honorary office of churchwarden of St Paul's) that the numerous pastoral duties required at this church when the same are faithfully performed, are too burthensora; for any one minister to undertake : the said duties heio now performed by three clergymen, (no legal provision being however made for any future Sunday Evening Lecturer), one minister only having cure of souls, and residence enjoined in his appointment : convinced that the coo_ scientious discharge of the said pastoral duties, requires the joint, and efficient labours of two district ministers, each having cure of souls, and residence within the parish of Liverpool enjoined them, and a suitable provision afforded also for their maintenance, becoming their high and import. ant calling, and their rank and station in respectable society, 4. Because, as members of a Trinitarian Protestant Church, as lovers of those institutions which the Providence of Almighty God has happily established in this land; "for the preservation, extension, and perpetuation of which the Protestants of past times contended so valiantly and so success. fully," we are not, therefore, ashamed to confess that we feel an anxiety that the blessings and privileges of our holy religion (which we believe to be, under God's blessing, the best sup. port an • d safeguard of our country) should be handed down unsullied to our latest posterity, and that therefore we cannot remain neutral spectators to the proposed measure passing into a law; a measure which appears to us, fraught with considerable mischief to the continuance of the Protestant religion, as the common Christianity of our beloved country. 5. Because the prescriptive Piotestant privileges ~)! joved at this church for three-quarters 4 a century, cannot be suffered to be compromised; the Ptotestaut poor deprived of one of its legally appointed ministers; nor the church at large consequently injured, by finally adopting the comm. plated measure. The bright page of history records, ,that at the period of the glorious reformation, when darkness and superstition bad almost overspread the land; that the pure light of the gospel was eagerly sought after by the people; doubtleste. because it "was precious in those days." But in these das, when churches are multiplied, and almost brought to our doors, when our worthy and esteemed Diocesan, ably supported by the Clergy and Laity, are using great exertions to increase the usefulnees of the established church; the Clergy and Laity of this Protestant nation almost everywhere exercising similar means, that the blessings of our leily religion may be extended throughout the length and breadth of the land; surely neither the commissioners of these two churches especially, nor the Protestant public generally, will ever deliberately consent to such legalized sacrilege as herein referred to. Otherwise our Protestant posterity may have just cause to reproach us for having wilfully neglected " in this our day the things that belong unto our peace," and their more dis. taut security and happiness ! As commissioners of St. Paul's and St. John's churches. and independent of our duties as churchwardens of St: Paul's, (both situations being honorary,) we are willing to entertain a cheering hope, that a special meeting of the corn. missiouers of these two churches will be speedily convened, to take into their most serious consideration the Proposed measure of the Trustees of the Endowment and Town Council, now laid before the public, and to adopt such proceedings as will best protect the interests of either, or butiLof them_ important branches of the spiritual Zion of our land, fry suffering in the general calamity by the Proposed arrange. meat. . . Under these circumstances, we beg respectfully to enter our protest against the contemplated measure herein referred to. We remain, Gentlemen, Your obedient Servants,