objects of a limited and those of a universal import; much humility and sobriety of mind in explaining the more mysterious points of doctrine; and especially a freedom from all prepossession."

These few concessions, as well as the reasons appended to them, ought, I conceive, to appear sufficient to convince any sober-minded individual, that the alleged privilege of allowing all men to interpret the divine volume,-although the very basis of Protestantism,-is, after all, an absolute absurdity. Even the very reformers themselves,-Luther, Calvin, and many of their learned coadjutors, acknowledge frequently even their inability to understand the sacred text; and on account of its obscurity, rejected from their new canon several books, which had hitherto been regarded as inspired. However, it was the circumstance of laying open the Bible to all, and of bidding all to interpret it,-it was this circumstance, which, by flattering the public, and creating confusion, -contributed, perhaps beyond any other cause, to the progress and establishment of the Reformation.

The errors, indeed, and the confusion, which at once resulted from the "glorious privilege," although thus beneficial to that great revolution,-were at the same time such as ought to have induced piety to believe, that it could not well be considered as the gift, and dictate, of the eternal wisdom. Its effects were early foreseen, and lamented, by its very authors. Hence that emphatic exclamation, already cited, of Melancthon: "Good God! what a tragedy have we not prepared for posterity!" Speaking of some of those effects, the learned Walton, in the preface to his Polyglot, observes: "Aristarchus once could hardly find seven wise men in Greece. But, amongst Protestants, with difficulty could you find as many fools. All Protestants are doctors; all divinely learned. The veriest idiot, or mechanic, preaches up dreams, as the pure word of God. The abysses of hell seem to have been opened; and emitting a smoke, have darkened the heavens, and taken from the stars their light. The locusts, armed with stings, swarm every where;—an immense multitude of sects, and heretics, reviving old errors, and inventing monstrous ones of their own. These have filled

his

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our cities, villages, camps, houses; nay, our churches too, and our pulpits: and they lead the poor deluded people after then to the pit of perdition."

In like manner, speaking of the earlier periods of the Reformation, Southey remarks, "The Bible gave occasion for evil. Presumptuous and ignorant people no sooner read, than they took upon themselves to expound it. They interrupted the church-service by thus holding forth; discussed points of Scripture in ale-houses, and taverns; quarrelled over them, &c. Those insane opinions were also abroad, which struck at the root of all authority, civil and ecclesiastical; and of all social order. Because the Bible was in English, they believed it was now on a level with their capacities, and that in all parts and points they understood it." Such as these were the fruits which, at the earlier periods of the Protestant revolution, grew out of the presumed right which men, all, possess of interpreting the sacred volume.

At present, if the mischiefs arising from this alleged prerogative be less gross, and disorderly,-less hostile to the peace and order of social life, than they were formerly,-still they are even now, in the eyes of Christian piety, truly awful, and deplorable;-alike, as at the times just alluded to, opposed to the dictates of truth, and repugnant to the maxims of wise religion. We see, every where around us, as I have said so often, even amongst the better-instructed readers of the Bible, a scene of errors and confusion, of folly and fanaticism ;-errors in as many forms almost, as there are varieties in the human character. Indeed, as many of the Protestant writers themselves attest and lament, the divine book is so perverted, as to be rendered the very instrument, not only of error and dissension, but of irreligion and impiety. "Instead of searching the Scriptures," say the writers of the British Critic, as a rule of faith and conduct, the fashion of the present day is, to make them a pretence for dissension. In those dissensions, every heresy will have its advocate. And with whatever rapidity one false doctrine spreads, with the same rapidity, when the tide turns, will its opposite error run in." "To such an extent," says Archdeacon Cambridge, has the diabolical practice of spreading irreligion been

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carried, that it is well known, evening schools are established, in which both children and adults are instructed in reading: and the Bible is put into their hands for the express purpose of perverting the divine truths it unfolds; and training them to treat its contents with ridicule, and contempt." (Charge.)

Wherefore, very forcibly impressed with a sense of the many evils, which flow from the unlimited circulation of the sacred volume, and from the "glorious" right, which every Protestant enjoys, of interpreting it by the dictates of his own understanding,-impressed with these inconveniences, there have always been,-and there are still,-many Protestant writers, who,-with more prudence and good sense, than consistency,-have severely condemned the twofold privilege. "The unrestricted liberty of Protestants," says Archbishop Bramhall, "of reading the Bible, is more injurious to religion than the restraints of the Catholics." Selden even declares, that "the two words, 'Search the Scriptures,' have undone the world." The language at present of several of the members of the established church is hardly less impressive. They own, that the general and indiscriminate reading of the Bible has proved, not only ruinous to faith, but destructive to public morals. Dr. Maltby contends, that out of the sixtysix sacred books, which form the canon of the national church,-only seven of the Old, and eleven of the New, Testament are fit for general circulation. In reality, why should it be supposed, that men understand the Bible,-the most obscure of all books,-better than they do any other work? And if they do not understand,-why then invite,-nay, even command them to explain it? Error, doubt, and incredulity, must be the necessary results of so wide and strange a privilege. "The Socinians," says the British Critic, "are so convinced, that the tendency of the Bible Society is hostile to the church, that they are willing, even though it circulates the authorised version of the Scriptures, to give it their support. This they consider a temporary sacrifice, made to obtain the greater object,-the ruin of the establishment, by the dividing processes of the Bible Society." Such too as these are the sentiments expressed by Dr. Norris, in his letter to Lord Liverpool: "We conscientiously believe the Bible

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Society to be an institution fraught with danger, not only to our own church, but to the best interests of Christian truth, and unity, throughout the world." Thus, it is admitted, that the principle, which alone constitutes the religion of the Protestant, (for " the Bible, and the Bible only," it is triumphantly urged, "is the religion of the Protestant,") constitutes, at the same time, the irreligion of every sect of heresy, and the basis of the impiety of the schools of incredulity.

(F.) Page 28.

The Bible Society.

Speaking of the conduct, &c. of this Society, Dr. Doyle makes the following reflections on it:-"The types sweat, the press teems, vessels are freighted, for it. And all to no purpose. It drives an immense trade; profitable, no doubt, to many, in Bibles, and missionaries. It squanders hundreds of thousands upon expeditions more senseless than the most foolish of Sir Walter Raleigh's; and, like that pirate, it repays its dupes with reports of what never had any existence. It would be endless to recount the delusions which are practised by the missionaries in this regard...Thus it is, that the English people are gulled out of their money. Thus it is, that fortunes are made for the printers, and booksellers, and itinerant charlatans. As to the notable scheme of the Irish Bible, that is too absurd to need exposure. But, it answers the purpose of cheats and hypocrites.

--

"We, never yet, have been furnished with a proof, that these societies have converted a single tribe, or a people, or a nation, to the faith:-no, not one. And what is more,it is impossible they should. They may make many, hypocrites, and cause thousands, who are already tossed about by every wind of doctrine, to exchange one error for another. They may count many converts, such as a certain distinguished nobleman, on their lists; and induce many old maids to exchange their monkeys, or lapdogs, for the Bible; but, it is quite impossible, they should ever propagate the kingdom of God upon the earth.

"I recollect, that, when the Charter of the East-India Company was last renewed, Warren Hastings gave in evidence

before a committee of the House of Commons, that, during his government in the East, Catholic missionaries alone made converts... I have conversed with several respectable and disinterested persons who had spent many years in India'; and from all the information, I have been able to collect from these various sources, I am convinced, that the state of the missions in that country is substantially the same as it was in the time of Warren Hastings. The only converts made by the Missionary Societies, (for, the Bibles have made none at all,) are some few Hindoos who had lost their caste, and who listen for hire to the preaching of those, who pay them.

"Then, as to their labours in Christian countries, they tell us of Russia, and of their immense manufactory in that country; and yet, I doubt whether they have converted a single Cossack, or boor. And if they did, they would only take them from a schismatical church, to no church at all. In Germany, and Switzerland, amongst the Protestant churches, they are quite at home. Yes, in these countries, where that infidelity, which Toland, Tyndal, and Bolingbroke, first introduced from England to the continent, and which was propagated with such malignant perseverance by their disciple Bayle, competes with a frightful fanaticism, so that one knows not, which of them will gain the ascendency.

"In France, these Societies are abetted only by the Calvinists, and the infidels. And it is a fact, of which I have been informed by a gentleman, of whose veracity and knowledge of the matter I can have no doubt, that the Bible has been circulated in that country by the very men, who lately published cheap editions of Rousseau's Emile, and of the Pucelle D'Orleans, for the purpose of corrupting youth.

"Wherever the reading of the Bible is not regulated by a salutary discipline such as ours, it leads a great portion of the people necessarily to fanaticism, or to infidelity. The French infidels know this well; and hence their alliance with the Bible Societies.

"But, as to the progress of these societies amongst Catholics, whether in France, or in any other country on the continent, it is precisely the same as on the banks of the Shannon, or