tive Christianity revived, and all the persecutions that followed in the days of Queen Mary, could not force a submission to Popery. "It was wonderful," says i writer of English history, "to see with what joy this Book of God was received, not only among the more learned sort, and those that were noted for overs of the Reformation, but generally all England over, among all the common people; and with what greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was. Every body that could, bought the book, and busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose, and even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the holy Scriptures read. One William Maldon mentions, that when the king had allowed the Bible to be set forth to be read in the churches, immediately several poor men in the town of Chelmsford, in Essex, where his father lived and was born, bought the New Testament, and on Sundays sat reading it in the lower end of the church many would flock about them to hear their readings; and he, among the rest, being then but fifteen years old, came every Sunday to hear the glad tidings of the Gospel. O there is something in the Word of God, my brethren, that commends it at once as a Book of truth, to the conscience and the heart. The written Scriptures are so unlike the sayings of men, that nothing but the most shameless impiety could have led the church of Rome to put them on a level with mere human traditions. I am not surprised that the bishops and lay people who went to the flames, preferred the Bible to their lives. I am only surprised that a church calling itself the church of God, should have burned people for possessing it.

Here, then, you see, my hearers, how an appeal to the Scriptures was the cause of the Reformation. You ought to love these Scriptures, you ought to keep to these Scriptures, because you owe to their perusal liberty of conscience, together with all your civil and religious privileges. What a day do you now behold, contrasted with what your forefathers saw at the time of the Reformation! England now abounds with Bibles: there is no man so poor that he cannot obtain one; all may read it, from the highest to the lowest; and no power, civil or ecclesiastical, dare take the precious treasure from any one of the subjects of King William in this realm. At the time of the Reformation the English Bible stood alone, but now a society, established with the view of giving the Scriptures universal circulation, has translated it into as many as one hundred and fifty other languages, and many millions of Bibles and Testaments have been distributed by its means, during the last thirty-one years, in various parts of the earth. O, how thankful you ought to be for your release from Popery! It is to our religion that we owe, by the blessing of God, our present national prosperity. And what is our religion? Do the Papists ask us the question? We can answer, it is the religion of the Scriptures. This brings us to

Our fourth, and last point of consideration, which is, that THE REFORMED FAITH, BROUGHT TO THE TEST OF THE WORD OF GOD, EXHIBITS THE SOUNDNESS OF ITS PRINCIPLES.

The Church of Rome asks us, with an air of triumph, "Where was your religion before Luther?" We can easily tell them. We can say that, long before Popish usurpation came upon us, and Popish innovation corrupted us,

we held and maintained the truth in its purity. Our Church, formed, like that of Rome, after apostolic model, was marked for very many years by the soundness of its doctrines and the simplicity of its worship. The Reformation has not founded a new Church, it has corrected an old one: and the religion which we now profess is the religion of primitive Cinnuity. There are our Articles and Homilies, our Confessions of Faith, drawn up by martyred reformers. Let these be compared with the Scriptures of truth: we fear not the scrutiny. We honour God in them; we exalt the Saviour; we renounce human merit; we extol the riches of God's grace. See, in our sixth Article, how the Church of England places herself on the ground of the Scriptures. She says, against the Church of Rome, that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." She says to all her members, We have pointed you to the only standard of truth; go, then, and carry the doctrines we teach you "to the law and to the testimony;" and if you find that they cannot be proved out of God's own Word, then let them be no longer binding on the conscience-reject them for ever. What can be more tolerant, what more honest than this? If the Church of Rome had always acted so, instead of lying, as she now does, under the withering curse of a God whose name she has blasphemed and whose ordinances she has broken, she would have enjoyed his smile, and being blessed by God, she might have become the blessing of the universe. We can but pity, we can but weep for those that remain within her pale. The word of prophecy assures us that dreadful judgments await her, and the same word says to those who are for making common cause with her, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

Thus have I endeavoured to shew you, that a departure from the pure faith, from "the law and the testimony," is the religion of Roman Catholics, and that a return to the pure faith, "to the law and to the testimony," is the religion of Protestants. And now, my hearers, is this your religion? Then let it be seen, I pray you, that it is something more than a name. It is not simply your protest against Popery that will make you good Protestants You must have the principles of sound religion in your hearts, and you must carry out those principles into practice. I commend to you the Scriptures: keep them as your invaluable treasure. I commend to you "the faith once delivered to the saints," and I charge it upon you that you preserve it inviolate. Beware of self-righteousness; it is the spirit of Popery. Rely only on the merit of Jesus Christ-it is the spirit of Protestantism. Watch against error, and pray to be guided into all essential truth: and God grant that, keeping close to Him who is "the way, and the truth, and the life," you may at length be brought where you shall join "the noble army of martyrs," and where, with the Church triumphant, you shall ever ascribe unto your Almighty Saviour, the kingdom, and the power, and the glory!"

THE ERRORS OF THE ROMISH GHUKOM.

REV. J. Rudge, d.d.

HAWKCHURCH, DORSET, OCTOBER 4, 1835.

"Search the Scriptures."-JOHN, v. 39.

It is naturally to have been expected, that, in the course of a long and not inactive professional life, I should have had frequent intercourse and communion with persons of various sects and denominations; and I trust and hope that on no occasion upon which I have holden conversation with them, either on their peculiar tenets, or on particular passages of the Scriptures, which at any time have formed the subjects of conversation, have the arguments which I employed to combat what appeared to me to be erroneous in doctrine, been advancei in an acrimonious spirit, or urged in an offensive manner in one word, that the mind of the Christian, and the courtesy of the gentleman-terms which should be, and which are synonymous, where the mild and gentle spirit of Christ prevails-have not been forgotten. And I latend that the rule of Christian charity shall not be violated, nor the language of intemperance and abuse which never does good to any cause, be introduced in the discussion into which eculiar associations have induced me to enter at the present moment.

It is the injunction of the Apostle Peter, "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and reverence." Now if this advice be necessary to be adopted as a general rule, as to the great and cardinal doctrines of the Scriptures, of which every man ought to possess a clear and enlightened understanding, by a daily and studious examination of their precious contents, I apprehend that it is no less necessary to be followed as an imperative rule by the members of the Protestant community in general, and by those of the Established Church in particular. And it is because I think that a vast proportion of those who profess themselves to be Protestants, are not "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh" them the reasons upon which their faith is founded, and their communion with the church of Rome has been broken, that I have selected Le present text, as one peculiarly appropriate at this particular moment: for, singular enough, this is the very day on which, three centuries since, namely, on the fourth day of October, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirtyfive, the people of England had an opportunity of fulfilling the text literally, or In other words, of searching the Scriptures fully in their own vernacular tongue. All accounts which have been transmitted, concur in representing that the blessed privilege, which was then conferred on the people, of being

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able to read the Scriptures, sanctioned by authority, was embraced and enjoyed "with all readiness of mind," and that they " searched the Scriptures daily whether the things" they had heretofore heard from the lips of their teachers were so." The result of their daily and continued "search" was, that many of them believed," and found that much of what they had hitherto been taught as "doctrines" of Scripture, were but the "commandments of men. 1." Hence the character of their service underwent a mighty and extraordinary change. From drawing nigh unto God with their mouths and their lips only, and in a language of which the ear heard indeed the sound, but the understanding embraced not the sense, they were led to honour him in their hearts, with all the affections of their souls, and with all the energies of their minds. At once simple and rational in their worship, they read in their homes, or they heard in their parish churches and from their pulpits, all the wonderful works of God, all that had been done by himself, and all that had been wrought by his Son, and all that yet can be accomplished by his Spirit, for the present good, and final blessedness of the people, from generation to generation. All this the people, from the highest to the lowest, came in time to understand; and the more they heard or read, the more they prized the blessed privilege of being able to search in their own tongue the things that so belonged to their permanent peace, and concerned their everlasting salvation.

And very meet and right, and our bounden duty it is, that we should sympathize with their feelings, and appreciate this inestimable blessing; and, merging all our minor differences, on unessential points of discipline and doctrine, unite all hands, and concentrate all hearts in the one undivided effort of transmitting the Bible whole, and uncorrupt, and unimpaired, to the latest generation, and not by our untimely and senseless divisions, and strifes, and emulations, abandon to a wakeful and vigilant foe, an edifice which it has cost such a profusion of human toil and suffering to rear, and such a sacrifice of human blood to cement. If, in our almanacks, there are what are termed certain red-letter days registered, on which we are directed to commemorate some historical event, and some national deliverance, that, methinks, should stand prominently forth as the greatest of commemorative days-that on which the Bible, out of a tongue known but to few, was translated into a language known unto all among the people. It should be a day of national rejoicing—a day of national thanksgiving in the domestic circle, and in the public courts of the Lord's house—a day greatly to be remembered by all the people, as one in which they emerged out of darkness into a marvellous light, by the clear and steady brightness of which their capacities have been sufficiently illuminated to see, and their feet have happily been directed to choose, that good path wherein is to be found, without the brambles and thistles of human error, the truth which gives to man all his worth, by giving him all his knowledge, to be wise unto salvation!

On this ever memorable day, then, were the whole of the Scriptures, which we are enjoined in the text to search, translated into the English tongue, and printed and published: and it is curious to record the title affixed to this mighty effort of the translator's genius and industry. It runs thus: "The BIBLIA-the Bible, i. e. the Holy Scriptures of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and newly translated out of Doutche and Latyn into English, by Miles Coverdale, folio." This version was complete, and it was directed by authority, that copies of

it should be distributed and placed in the choirs of every parish church, to which the people resorted with the utmost avidity, and read or heard the Scriptures with the utmost pleasure and improvement. Tindal had previously translated the New, and some parts of the Old Testament; but these were ordered to be burnt, as pestilential and scandalous publications; and, as many were committed to the flames for dispersing them, the circulation was far from being general. But the torch of inquiry had been lighted by such as had been circulated, and nothing could quench the spirit which had been aroused. Neither the flames of persecution, nor the writings even of the accomplished More against Tindal's translations, could check the ardour with which they were sought and studied; and they had the effect of paving the way for the reception of the mightier and more successful enterprise of his brother labourer in this holy vineyard-Coverdale. In the same celestial course, or hemisphere, indeed, there had appeared about a century and a half antecedently-(for the visits of these spiritual luminaries have been and are like those of angels, "few and far between;" or those of comets, occasionally, but once or twice in centuries)—there appeared a star of extraordinary magnitude and splendour, not inappropriately termed, the Morning-star of the Reformation, John Wiclif. I have no difficulty in admitting the correctness of this designation; but while I think that Wiclif was the Morning-star, I regard Coverdale in no other light than as the Day-star of the Reformation; since the copies of the Scriptures translated by the latter were sanctioned by authority; and by means of the press, their circulation was immense, and their readers numerous. Whereas the translation of Wiclif was made before the art of printing had been discovered; and the labour necessarily attendant upon transcription, rendered the number of copies dispersed comparatively small and limited. His translation was read with uncommon avidity by those who were so fortunate as to be able to procure copies of it; but the numbers were few, and its circulation among the people must have been confined, more especially as every effort was made to arrest its dispersion, and an act of parliament even was subsequently passed, by which the laity were prohibited from reading any translation of the Bible in English.

Whatever repugnance or opposition an enactment of this sort might occasion, still, when we regard the general ignorance*, and the abject mental slavery in which the minds of the great mass of the people were then held, we shall

* Nothing could be more deplorably low than the ebb of classical literature, and the general ignorance of the priests, about the period at which Coverdale's translation was made; of which I can give no greater proof than that the Greek language was scarcely known at either of the two Universities, and that an Italian, of the name of Caius Auberinus, was employed by the University of Cambridge, to compose its ordinary Latin epistles, for each of which he received a fee of twenty-pence. About this period also, no principle was more strongly maintained and acted upon, than that the decrees of Bishops were to be held of greater authority than the Scriptures, of which the translation of a single text was interdicted, and any person or persons so offending, were excommunicated. One Richard Butler, merely for having read certain chapters of the Evangelists, in English, which were represented as erroneous and damnable books, was cited before the Bishop of London, and this a few years only before Coverdale's translation, viz., in 1512; and the illustrious Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's school, was subjected by the same Bishop (Fitzjames), to ecclesiastical censure, for having merely translated the pater-noster into English! Erasmus, in a letter in which he alluded to the general ignorance of that period, remarked, that to understand Greek is heresy in short every thing to which they (priests) are not accustomed, is heresy. See Frasmi Epist. Lab. 12, Ep. 10; also, the Constitutions of Arundel and Fox, Henry VIII., p. 10.