victory in His hands, ever since the world has stood; who finally shall put all enemies under His feet; at whose name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.'

Soon after, from Professor Wittman, the director of the ecclesiastical seminary at Ratisbon, came a similar appeal in a kindred spirit. Allow me, my lord, to copy this interesting document, with a view to shew the character of the Bible Society's much reprobated connexion with Roman Catholics—a connexion, be it remembered, confined to the single point of giving them the word of God in their own native tongues.

"To those who value the doctrine of Jesus. Dear brethren and sisters in Christ, -It is desirable that the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament might be put into the hands of many pious Christians at a low price. Thereby they would be comforted in their afflictions, strengthened in their trials, and more preserved from the temptations of the world. Many excellent persons do not find, in the public religious instruction, that for which they hunger; they are also often in the confessional only judged for their outward deeds, without being led to an acknowledgment of their inward corruption and to faith in the blood of Jesus their Redeemer: if these could read the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament in the quiet time of holidays, their faith in the simple doctrines from the mouth of Jesus Christ would by the mercy of their Saviour be thereby enlivened; and the Lord's gifts in the Holy Spirit be quickened in them. They would hear the voice of the Father in their inward part, drawing them to their Saviour, of which Christ saith, They shall be all taught of God; and whosoever hath learned of the Father, and receiveth it, cometh unto me.' John vi. 44. (German translation).

"Also, Christian brethren and sisters could meet together in small parties of two or three on Sunday and holiday afternoons, and read a chapter in the New Testament, and confer together on it, whereby a subject of short united prayer would impress itself on their minds, and what the Lord saith would be fulfilled: If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father in heaven.' (Matt. xviii. 19.) Christians! you are so unlike the world, you are regarded as nothing by it; it has no satisfaction in you, and you also can gain none from it; and when you are for having here and there a little fellowship with it, then it causes disquiet to your spirits, and you soon find yourselves in the like state with Peter, when he was among the people in the hall. Be ye separated then, and let it be as the Lord saith. There shall be five in one house divided; three against two, and two against three.' (Luke xii. 52.) But be ye so much the more united together in the Lord, in joint prayer, and in comfort of the words of Christ.

"From these considerations has arisen, in the minds of some clergymen, a wish to set on foot a cheap German edition of the New Testament, for the use of many pious Christians; the repository thereof to be at Ratisbon, in the Ecclesiastical Seminary, as a central place in Germany; and to wait for what the Lord may be pleased farther to work therein.

"I hereby give this intelligence to some known confessors of Christ, with a request that they will consider the matter before the Lord, recommend it to him in prayer; and if he is pleased to afford them an opportunity to contribute in any way toward it, they will not neglect it. Christian poverty and love have accomplished greater things in the world than the power and riches of the world could do.

“O Lord, Redeemer of our souls! Shepherd of the small despised flock! do with this work as may please thee. Thy kingdom proceeds an incessant pace in a still small way; and those who oppose it can do nothing against it, but become thy footstool, and contribute to the rest of thy feet in the peace of thy people. If it please thee, let thy holy history, the history of thy childhood, of thy ministry, of thy suffering, and of the victory in the Holy Spirit in the Apostles and firstlings of the Christian church, come into the hands of thy little ones for their comfort and confirmation. (Signed)

WITTMAN."

When I read such passages as the above, I think of the Pascals, and Fenelons, and Quesnels, of the Popish church; and I feel afflicted beyond expression, that the desire of such men after the word of God, should be repulsed with contempt, on the plea that they are not fit to be connected with a Bible Society; that they are not Trinitarians; that they are not members of a Christian church! Alas, if they are not, what are our Anglican orders and sacraments which were derived through them? But enough of such folly, which might well make an angel weep. How differently thought such a man as Milner, the pious Protestant historian of the Church of Christ, when he said of Anselm, Papist as he was :

"Thus did Anselm employ himself, in the defence of Divine truth and serious re

ligion. His knowledge of the Scriptures was, I am persuaded, so sound, and his love of them so sincere, that if he had met with direct opposition on these infinitely momentous subjects from the court of Rome, he would sooner have pronounced the pope to be antichrist, than have parted with his evangelical sentiments and profession." "This holy personage appears from his comments on the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters to the Romans, to have understood the right use of the law and the Gospel; the power and pollution of indwelling sin; its augmentation in the heart, from the irritation of the law which forbids evil; and the real and solid relief from guilt, by the grace of Jesus Christ." "So various, and so abundant was the knowledge of Anselm in the divine life, that he wrote with no less precision on practical than on mysterious subjects. Observe, for instance-" (then follow several extracts, after which Milner proceeds):

"He who in the following manner breathes out his soul in prayer, through the Intercessor and Mediator between God and man, and so seriously rejects the hope of any other advocate than the Son of God, could not really confide in the Virgin Mary, or any saint or angel, but must have rested in Christ alone, however difficult it may be to explain the consistency of his sentiments with the fashionable superstitions of the times, the infection of which he by no means escaped entirely."

"Thus, Father Almighty, I implore thee by the love of thy Almighty Son, bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to thy name. Free me from the bonds of sin; I ask this of thee by thy only co-eternal Son: and by the intercession of thy dearly beloved Son, who sitteth at thy right hand, graciously restore to life a wretch, over whom, through his own demerits, the sentence of death impends. To what other intercessor I can have recourse, I know not, except to Him, who is the propitiation for our sins. That the only begotten Son should undertake to intercede for me with the eternal Father, demonstrates him to be man; and that he should succeed in his intercession shews that the human nature is taken into union with the majesty of the Deity. He addresses the Son of God as 'the Redeemer of captives, the Saviour of the lost, the hope of exiles, the strength of the distressed, the enlarger of the enslaved spirit, the sweet solace and refreshment of the mournful soul, the crown of conquerors, the only reward and joy of all the citizens of heaven, the copious source of all grace.'

"Could the pious spirit," continues Milner, "who believes and longs for the rest which remains for the people of God, express its most ardent breathings in language more adapted to his frame, than the following? Hasten the time, my Saviour and my God, when, what I now believe, I may see with eyes uncovered; what I now hope for and reverence at a distance, I may apprehend; what I now desire, according to the measure of my strength, I may affectionately embrace in the arms of my soul and that I may be wholly absorbed in the abyss of thy love!' 'I have asked many good things, my Creator, though I have deserved many evils. Not only 1 have no claim on thee for these good things, but I have merited exquisite punishments. But the case of publicans, harlots, and robbers, in a moment snatched from the jaws of the enemy, and received in the bosom of the Shepherd, animates my soul with a cheering hope.

Such is Milner's description of Anselm. Yet he was a man with whom our naval and military officers now-a-days would think it scorn to sit down, even for an object so blessed, and not to be perverted, as giving the word of life to perishing sinners!

I am afraid to trespass too largely upon your lordship's patience by quotation; but I must add yet two or three additional extracts, as illustrating the want of the Scriptures among the Roman Catholics, the willingness of some of their priests to circulate them, the spirit in which they did it, and the benefits resulting from their diffusion. I will not allude to the testimony of Dr. Van Ess, or to a twentieth part of the interesting passages from other quarters, which I might adduce in proof of my position.

A Roman-Catholic professor of divinity in Bavaria, addressing the committee, in 1811, remarks:

"As it is your noble employment to spread the Book of Books, and more especially the New Testament, among all nations, without having any thing else in view than eternal life, which consists in the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent; and as you proclaim nothing but God in Christ, I salute you most cordially, wishing you complete success in all your undertakings, and recommending myself to your united intercessions."

Another priest writes from Bavaria,—

"United to Christ, we are united to each other: neither continents, nor seas;

neither various forms of government, nor different outward confessions of religion, can separate us all these things pass away, but love abideth."

Professor Wittman remarks in 1812,

"I discover (alluding to the people of his own communion), an increase of genuine Christianity.' The minds of many are changed for the better; they pray more earnestly; they renounce the world. O that the number of pious conscientious clergymen might increase among us! Indeed, I have the confident hope that the Lord of the harvest will send more faithful labourers into his harvest. He can never leave the flock of his sincere followers; he will provide it with good shepherds; then the reading of the Bible will become still more general."

Another Roman-Catholic clergyman in Munich, writes,—

"There remain thousands and tens of thousands, both in towns and in the country, who are entire strangers to this Holy Book; thousands and tens of thousands, who, having become sensible of its value, wish to possess it. Surely here is ample scope for noble benevolence, for Christian zeal. Every possible exertion ought to be used, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified; that it may fill all countries, all towns, all villages, all houses, all hands, and, what is still more,-all hearts."

But I must restrain my pen, though I might add scores of pages of similar extract, all shewing how great a blessing the Bible Society has been to the members of the Church of Rome. And what say the opposers of the Society to this? Will your lordship believe it? Some of them actually say, that the crafty priests humbugged "-the word is not mine the Society. I would not condescend to argue with any man, whose intellect or whose heart would apply such a term to such affecting effusions as those I have quoted, the tenor of which I could strengthen, if space allowed, by numerous proofs. Among others, Dr. Steinkopff, in his reply to one of Mr. Haldane's extraordinary pamphlets, remarks: "I am personally acquainted with a Catholic clergyman who became a sincere convert to pure Christianity by the reading of a copy of the New Testament, and was in the sequel the honoured instrument of enlightening hundreds of his own communion." Mr. Haldane, or his friends, may lightly esteem such testimonies; but they are not sneered at in heaven; for "there is joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth." And however the opposers of the Bible Society may despise the depositions of those whose honour it has been to be connected with it, their countrymen and the whole Christian world will better appreciate their value.

And shall the members of the Church of Rome be cut off from this privilege of Bible-Society connexion, if they are willing to embrace it? No, say our friends; you mistake us; we are quite willing to give them the Bible. Yes, as beggars, but not as persons worthy to sit down in Sackville Street; as fit companions for Socinians, but not as Trinitarians. Can it be expected that any Roman Catholic will submit to this humiliation? Consider, above all, how grievously the exclusion will work in Ireland, where every true Protestant is intensely anxious to see the word of God have free course and be glorified. The priests will justly say to their poor deluded followers, "Look how these Protestants treat us! They do not even allow that we are true believers in the holy Trinity: they pretend that they are anxious for the circulation of the word of God among us; but even if we offered to unite with them in effecting it, they would scorn to receive us." I have not words to express how ill-judged, how suicidal is this supercilious exclusion; especially under the present circumstances of Ireland ;—supercilious I call it, and I may say vexatious also, because utterly uncalled for, a piece of superfluous party-spirited legislation; for no man can say that the Papists ever intruded themselves either into Earl Street or Sackville Street: so that their rejection was a gratuitous affront, merely calculated to excite irritation to no purpose, except, I fear, to

exhibit the Trinitarian Society in a spirit more pharisaic than commendable.

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If, however, the opposers of the Bible Society will not accept of Protestant testimony, I will afford them a testimony of quite another kind, the testimony of the pope himself. An incontrovertible proof that Bible Societies have not been the inert machines which the opposers represent them, is the constant alarm exhibited by the papal hierarchy respecting them, and the fulminations against all priests and members of the Church of Rome, who enrol themselves among their abettors. The new opposers of the Bible Society could scarcely be more displeased than was the Roman pontiff. Horruimus," said he, tin one of his bulls, sane vaferrimum inventum, quo vel ipsa religion fundamenta labefactantur." "Quænam pontificiæ nostræ auctoritatis remedia ad eam pestem, quoad fieri potest, curandam delendamque opportuniora futura sint." This and other papal rescripts at length greatly impeded the cause of Bible Societies, and, with the exception of a few individuals scattered in various countries, nearly dissolved the Roman-Catholic associations which were beginning to be formed for the diffusion of the word of God; and thus commenced by papistical anticipation, that severance which the Sackville-street committee have desired to complete by Protestant intolerance. The pope's bull being now well-nigh forgotten, it was hardly necessary to revenge the affron so long after, by a poor second-hand plagiarism. There was indeed no fear that the Papists would fraternise too closely with us in Bible Societies; for, in addition to the sovereign pontiff himself, not a few of his priests and prelates expressed themselves in the strongest terms against our operations, as well they might, seeing what a blessing from on high had attended them, to the no small consternation of all bigotted Papists. I will just copy, in proof of this, a few lines from a charge delivered by Bishop Milner to his clergy in 1813; more especially as he indirectly reads an excellent lesson to Protestants with regard to their duty respecting Bible Societies.

"In acting thus, Protestants act conformably to the fundamental principles of their religion, which teach, The Bible contains all things necessary for salvation, and that it is easy to be understood by every person of common sense.' But who could have imagined that Catholics, grounded upon quite opposite principles, should nevertheless shew a disposition to follow the example of Protestants in this particular, by forming themselves into Bible Societies, and contributing their money for putting the mysterious letter of God's word into the hands of the illiterate poor, instead of educating clergymen, even in the present distressing scarcity of clergy, to expound the sense of that word to them! Yet such has been the influence either of public opinion or politics, upon several Catholics of both islands at the beginning of the nineteenth century." "In the next place, the Bible is a book which, though inspired, is more or less obscure in most parts of it, and full of things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction,' 2 Pet. iii. 16. Some texts seem to contradict others; several appear to inculcate the very vices which God condemns. Hence the worst of crimes may be perpetrated and defended, as they very frequently have been, on the supposed authority of Scripture." "The Tridentine Fathers make no distinction between Bibles in the vulgar tongue with notes, and those without notes, since it is evidently impossible to add any notes whatever to the sacred text, which will make it a safe and proper elementary book of instruction for the illiterate poor."

This is honest Popery; would that Protestant Popery were always as honest!

I have avoided troubling your lordship with long lists of names and columns of figures, as I wished to confine myself chiefly to the spirit and general result; but that it was not because a tabular view would not have been equally favourable to my argument, the following statement will prove.—

The number of German Testaments, of Van Ess's, and Gosner's CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 363.

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versions, which have been circulated at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the Catholic States of Germany, chiefly in the Rhenish provinces, Bavaria, Silesia, &c. cannot be less than 700,000 copies. At least 20,000 Polish Scriptures of the Catholic version have also been distributed. In France, the number of copies of the Scriptures of De Sacy's version, which have been issued at the cost of the Society, cannot be estimated at less than 400,000. The Scriptures in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, which have at different times been furnished by the Society for the use of Catholics, greatly exceeds 100,000 copies. The number of Scriptures issued by the Russian Bible-Society in various languages, exceeds 900,000 copies. I cannot easily estimate the very large number of copies which have been circulated chiefly through the Hibernian Society, from the depository in Earl Street, among the Roman Catholics of Ireland; among whom, at the time when the Bible Society was formed, not one family in five hundred is supposed to have had a copy. From the Giant's Causeway to Bantry Bay, it was stated, not three hundred perfect Bibles probably were to be found among three millions of people. But I need not pursue the detail. I can only repeat, "What hath God wrought!"

My impression then, my lord, from the whole, is this, that notwithstanding all the machinations of the pope and his emissaries, the Bible Society has been an instrument of inestimable benefit to the Church of Rome, which in spite of all its prejudices has received by its means innumerable copies of the word of God in the vernacular tongues, in its very bosom; and in various places there have been remarkable conversions and revivals of religion closely connected with these operations. In Ireland, the Society's Bibles have penetrated the schools and cottages to an extent which the most sanguine Protestant could never have anticipated: the demand for them has been insatiable; and the blessings attending their diffusion, great and manifold. Those members of the Church of Rome in all countries who have aided in the work, have both received good and communicated good by the connexion; and I never heard of a single instance of their thereby either doing or receiving harm. Why then intolerantly shut the door upon them, instead of opening it more widely? Why to the high privilege of being Protestants, add the false claim to exclusive Trinitarianism, and stigmatise a church, sufficiently corrupt, in that in which she is as pure as ourselves? But the whole proceeding is anomalous, and will not bear the test of judicious reflexion; and my only object at present in adverting to it, was to shew that there has been no such evil working in the British and Foreign Bible Society, by means of Popery, as to render any such measure necessary.

(Continued in the Number for April.)

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

CHURCH OF GENEVA. THE pressure of papers has prevented our noticing of late the proceedings in the Church of Geneva. The company of pastors proceeded last October to interdict M. Gaussen, and also M. Merle d'Aubigné and M. Galland from officiating in any of the churches of the Canton. The only charge against the two latter was their being members of "the Evangelical Society," which, besides other alleged offences against the established

church, was endeavouring to found a new theological seminary. Yet while such men as Gaussen are cut off, M. Cheneviere is allowed to declaim and write against the Divinity of Christ, the fall and corruption of man, and all the essentials of Divine truth, with perfect impunity and increasing applause. Alas for the once pure and honoured Church of Geneva!

The questions between M. Gaussen and the company of pastors were referred to the council of state, which, we