they think of the following passages of scripture, as confirmatory of the doctrine they set up? “To whom will ye liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be like? "For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me.' * "There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else.' ↑ "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God. "Is there a God beside Me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.'‡ "Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour.' § "They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.' || "As the two last instances that I shall adduce," said the lady of Derwent Cottage," let me inquire of you, or of your Roman Catholic friend, Mr. Merton, what is meant by our blessed Lord's reply to Satan, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve?'¶ "Let me ask, also, what is meant by the angel in the Revelation refusing the slightest worship from St. John? 'I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. * Isaiah xlvi. 5, 9. + Isaiah xlv. 21, 22. Matt. iv. 10. "Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book :-WORSHIP God.'* 'If, then, my dear Mrs. Sandford, these irresistible scriptures can be satisfactorily answered, so as to make them conform to the Romish doctrine of idol worship, I must at once commence to unread my Bible from beginning to end ;-to form a new theory of religion ;—and shall be reduced to the necessity of asking, with Pilate,- What is truth?' And, now, let me say a few words in reference to the prohibition of the Bible by the Church of Rome. What can be expected from the ecclesiastics of that Church, even to the utmost extent imaginable of impiety, when we find the very pontiff himself setting the fearful example? What think you, my dear friend, of the two awful facts following? "In the year 1816 Pope Pius VII. declared the Bible Society to be a most crafty device by which the very foundations of religion are undermined.' Eight years afterwards, in 1824, Pope Leo XII. spoke of it as turning the Gospel of Christ into the Gospel of the devil. "Under the sanction of such documents, the Irish priests insisted on all copies of the Holy Scriptures, put into circulation by Bible Societies, as well as the various publications of the Religious Tract Society, found in the possession of their flocks, being given up to them for the purpose of being destroyed! "Does not your very heart shudder, my dear Mrs. Sandford, at such a contemplation? "But I proceed to the proof of this prohibition; and as it is always desirable, whenever practicable, to go to the fountainhead for your authority, whether it be of law, physic, or * Rev. xxii. 8, 9. divinity, I will, with your permission, read you the letter of the last pope, Gregory XVI., on this very subject. It is long, but quite relevant to our present discussion; and if you will not be wearied by listening to its extraordinary doctrine, I shall hasten at once to unfold this marvellous document of the supreme pontiff." "I cannot feel wearied, when so deeply interested,” replied the fair hostess," and beg you will kindly proceed.” Thus encouraged, Mrs. Gracelove commenced with the title of the epistle. "An Encyclical Letter* of our most Holy Lord Gregory XVI., by Divine Providence Pope, to all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops. "VENERABLE BRETHREN, Greeting and the Apostolic Benediction. Amongst the principal machinations by which in this our age the non-Catholics † of various names endeavour to ensnare the adherents of catholic truth, and to turn away their minds from the holiness of the faith, a prominent position is held by the Bible Societies. These societies, first instituted in England, and since extended far and wide, we now behold in one united phalanx, conspiring for this object, to translate the books of the Divine Scriptures into all the vulgar tongues-to issue immense numbers of copies-to disseminate them indiscriminately among Christians and infidels—and to entice every individual to peruse them without any guide. Consequently, "This Encyclical Letter was published on the 25th May, 1844, in the Diario di Roma, (the official gazette of the papal government,) in the Latin and Italian languages. It is translated from a copy purchased at the Roman Gazette Office, in June.' +"Acatholici.' as Jerome lamented in his time, they make common to the garrulous old woman, the doting old man, the wordy sophist, and to all men of every condition, provided only they can read, the art of understanding the Scriptures without an instructor; nay, which is absurdest of all, and almost unheard of, they do not even exclude unbelieving nations from participating in such instruction. "But, Venerable Brethren, you are not ignorant of the tendency of the proceedings of these societies. For For you know full well the exhortation of Peter, the chief of the apostles, recorded in the sacred writings themselves, who, after praising the epistles of Paul, says that there are in them some things difficult to be understood, which they who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction; and immediately adds, You, therefore, my brethren, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, lest, deceived by the error of the foolish, you fall from your own stedfastness. Hence, it is clear to you, that even from the first age of the christian name, this art has been peculiar to heretics; that repudiating the traditionary word of God, and rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church, they either interpolate the Scriptures by hand, or pervert them in the explanation of their meaning. Nor, lastly, are ye ignorant '[But Jerome says, "The Lord will speak in the Scriptures of the people, in the Holy Scriptures, which Scripture is read to all the people, with the intent that all may understand it."-Jerome, Com. in Psalm lxxxvii. tom. 7, p. 259. (Parisiis, 1602.) He also says, "But the word of God omits the other things which they spontaneously discover, and feign as it were by an apostolical authority, without the authority and testimony of the Scriptures."-Com. in Aggeum. c. 1, tom. 5, p. 506. These quotations are not given with any intention to refer to the fathers as authorities where the word of God is concerned, but to show that they do not justify papal assumptions.]' how great diligence and wisdom are needed in order to transfer faithfully into another language the words of the Lord: so that nothing is more likely to happen than that in the versions of them multiplied by the Bible Societies, the most grievous errors may be introduced, by the ignorance or fraud of so many interpreters ;* errors which the very multitude and variety of the translations long conceal to the ruin of many.+ To those societies, however, it matters liitle or nothing into what errors the persons who read the Bibles translated into the vulgar tongues, may fall, provided they be gradually accustomed to claim for themselves a free judgment of the sense of the Scriptures, to contemn the Divine traditions as taught by the fathers, and preserved in the Catholic church, and even to repudiate the church's direction. "To this end, these members of Bible Societies cease not to calumniate the church and this holy see of Peter, as if it had, for many ages, been endeavouring to keep the believing people from the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures; whilst there exist many and most perspicuous proofs of the earnest desire which, even in recent times, popes, and other Catholic dignitaries under their guidance, have felt, that nations of Catholics might be more carefully instructed in the written and traditionary words of God. To which head belong, in the first place, the decrees of the Council of Trent, in which not only is it enjoined on bishops, to provide for the more [It is hardly necessary to speak of the earnest endeavours of the Bible Society to procure faithful translations from the Hebrew and Greek originals."] "The perversions and interpolations introduced by the church of Rome into its translations are well known. See the accounts of the Bourdeaux version, 1686, in particular. See Cramp's Text Book of Popery, 1839, p. 57. One specimen may suffice-" As they offered to the Lord the sacrifice of the mass," is the reading of Acts xiii. 2.' |