some degree of jealousy;-suppose all these things to be objected against the Bible, the intelligent student of its contents would reply, I do not care a straw for what the church of Rome may say either for or against this book; it proves itself to be of divine origin by its incomparable purity, sublimity, and harmony. It is, in short, the very thing that such a corrupt and impure body as the church of Rome would wish to keep out of view, because it testified against her impurities: and the fact of her having concealed it until its publication was extorted from her, is an evidence that there is a divinity in it with which her carnality did not choose to come into visible contact.

After all, the knowledge of which I am speaking must be matter of individual consciousness. Every Christian must know experimentally that the Bible is the word of God, else he cannot enjoy the peace and comfort which it imparts to all who really know the truth. The sun in the heavens is known only by his own light; and He who made the sun is known only by his. The holy scriptures are that light by which alone God makes himself known as the Saviour of sinners; and by the illumination of his Spirit, he makes the light of his word as evident to the heart and conscience of them that believe, as the light of the sun is to them that see.

When a sinner becomes seriously concerned about his character, state, and prospects; and when, in such a state of mind, he reads the Bible, he finds, at first, that it is all against him: by the holy law of God he is convicted and condemned; and he is conscious of a power and divinity in the word of condemnation, that makes him feel that it is the word of God. But the Holy Ghost, who has thus convinced him of sin, may be graciously pleased to convince him also of righteousness; that is, by the gospel, show him the way of salvation, which is fully made known in the scriptures. The sinner so convinced will recognise this to be the word of God, for he perceives in it that which answers the demands of the law, which condemned him. There is a power also in this word that proves itself to be divine. It removes the sentence of condemnation: and he who was before under a fearful apprehension of suffering the punishment of his sins, sees now all his sins taken away by the sufferings of the divine Saviour, as related in the holy scriptures.

From this there arises a peace and joy in believing, of which no unbeliever can have any conception. It is a matter of individual consciousness. A Christian, under the broadest possible view of his own guilt, and with the fullest conviction that God hates sin with a perfect hatred, is yet enabled, under the influence of the gospel, to enjoy perfect peace even in the prospect of death, judgment, and eternity, because he knows that Christ hath made peace by the blood of his cross. This he enjoys as his own peace; he has a personal individual interest in it. This is conveyed to his mind by the word of the gospel; and this he knows to be the word of God, from the effect which it produces in him, and has upon him in the whole tenor of his life and conversation.

That must be of God, which is the instrument of making men like God; that is, which turns them from sin to holiness. Every sinner who has been so turned from his sins unto God, possesses a consciousness of the power of the word, which weighs more in his mind than a thousand arguments drawn from the external evidence of the truth of the

Bible. His consciousness will not be held as sufficient evidence to others that the Bible is the word of God; but if he was formerly a notoriously wicked person, and if he is now a sober and holy man, devoting his time and talents to the good of his fellow-creatures and the glory of God; and if it is manifest that the change was produced by the Bible, every candid person who shall know the fact will be constrained to acknowledge, that truly the Bible is the word of God. I have put this case hypothetically, but there are many Christians alive whose history would demonstrate the fact that I mean to establish; namely, that the Bible proves itself to be the word of God, by affording peace to the troubled conscience; by teaching and enabling men to forsake a life of sin, and to live a holy life, and to rest in the full assurance of a blessed immortality.

CHAPTER CXXXV.

EDITION OF THE BIBLE BY SIXTUS v. ERRORS IN IT CORRECTED BY CLEMENT VIII. LETTER FROM J. A. EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE OF POPERY IN IRELAND. CONFESSION STATIONS. REVELRY. OPPOSITION TO INSTRUCTION OF POOR CHILDREN. FRATERNITIES. CRUELTY. REMARKS ON THE ABOVE LETTER.

SATURDAY, February 10th, 1821.

In my last number but one, I gave a catalogue of what the "Catholic Vindicator" calls corruptions of the Bible by Protestant translators; which corruptions, however, do not appear to have been discovered by himself, as he gives them on the authority of Ward, who was just such a Catholic vindicator in the seventeenth century, as Andrews is in the nineteenth; with this difference, that the former seems to have had more learning than the latter. As a companion to this catalogue of Protestant corruptions, or mistranslations, I shall insert here some curious information relative to the popish mode of ascertaining the true meaning of passages of scripture which have been differently translated. For this, I am indebted to a reverend gentleman of the established church in the sister island, who refers to a book which I have not seen.

"I spoke," says he, "of the Bellum Papale, by Dr. James, Bodleian librarian, a century back. If you can get the book, and his defence afterwards, they will give you much information on the state of the scriptures after the council of Trent. After the decree of that council, that the Vulgate edition was the only true, genuine, and canonical copy of the scriptures, and that none other should be read or acknowledged by the faithful, Sixtus V. wished to publish an edition; but he found all the copies in such a state of corruption, that he declared them to be any thing but the scriptures. He set at work with his learned men, cardinals, doctors, &c. &c.; revised and corrected every page, which was collated again and again, with all the most approved copies. He himself carefully examined every page, before it was printed; and afterwards, when the book was printed, he went over it, and, where there was an error, amended it by pasting words over words, and sentences over sentences. He then published it with a bull, declaring it, after a long preamble of all the pains and labours of doctors, &c., the

only true and genuine scriptures; and denouncing with the greater excommunication, any person who should dare to change the smallest particle, minimissima particula, not even to be absolved by the pope. There was infallibility enough here to make light darkness, and darkness light; and this infallibility remained during Gregory's, Urban's, and Innocent's reigns, for near three years, (short reigns they were,) until Clement VIII. was raised to the chair; but he being a pope himself, was not afraid to take the bull by the horns, and turn it over to the Index Expurgatorius, where it was quite harmless; for he boldly declared, in the face of the greater excommunication, that it was not minimissima particula (i. e. small matters) in which Sixtus' Bible was erroneous, but in two thousand principal errors, and innumerable smaller ones, which he would not mention, lest it should produce too much scandal; he condemned it, and published the present Clementine edition. So much for the infallibility of the popes; for the preservative care of the scriptures by the church that is the pillar and ground of truth; and the purity of the only genuine copy of the word of God.

I shall finish my miscellaneous matter for the present, with the following letter from a correspondent in Ireland:

"TO THE PROTESTANT.

"SIR-Having lately read in your paper, your just conclusions as to the effects which must follow the granting of promises of pardon and indulgences, by popes and priests, to men, on the mere private acknowledgment of past crime, and a promise of future amendment, without any idea of that inward change of heart, producing heartfelt grief for, and real detestation of sin, and those purifying influences of the Holy Spirit, inseparably connected with the scripture promises of pardon, upon the footing of what Christ has done and suffered ;—and, as facts are the best proofs of positions, I shall state, from my own knowledge, some of those effects which are the result of such pretended remittance of sins. Living some years ago in a small town in the south of Ireland, and being intimately acquainted with the parish priest, and with others, both priests and laity, of the Roman Catholic communion, I could not be unacquainted with many of their practices, and their system of worship. As some of your English readers are not acquainted with many circumstances relative to the system of popery in Ireland, it being more unfettered here than in England, I shall first give you some account of those things they call Stations for Confessing, and conclude with other miscellaneous matter.

"It was formerly the custom, at whatever house these stations were held, to require that a dinner be provided for the priest and as the host would not set the priest down by himself, it was always the practice to invite fifteen or twenty of the neighbouring farmers, and their wives, who were expected to attend at confession, and who would ask them in return. I have frequently seen purchased for these occasions, meat, several gallons of whiskey, &c., and always a bottle of wine for the priest's own drinking. This, you will say, was paying pretty well for the honour of his company: but this was not all; there was a tax of five shillings on the landlord for saying the mass, who was made to believe that a temporal and spiritual blessing would follow. Besides this, it was expected that each confessed person would pay something

for absolution. For causes best known to themselves, these dinner parties were, of late years, changed for breakfasts; which were more convenient for the priest, as he had to return home, when these stations were held in the country, perhaps some miles, and he might not so clearly see his way. Some simple people have said, that they were changed to do away those drunken revels which always followed these dinners; but this was not the case, as the following facts will show. I lived opposite to an industrious couple of the Romish religion, the man a cooper by trade, and his was one of those houses set down in the priest's book for a station, (for the priests like to follow industry, hoping to partake more largely of those temporal blessings which may rationally be expected from it.) I had, therefore, frequent opportunities of observing the effects of station confessions at this man's house. I have seen some of the company invited come out quite intoxicated; and on asking how they could get so beastly drunk, they stammered out that they were only at a station.

As the priest is seldom ready before twelve o'clock, these breakfasts usually commence about that time. The bill of fare is as follows: tea, a hot griddle-cake, butter, eggs, &c. &c., with decanters of whiskey, placed on the breakfast-table: and as the Irish have a great affection for the native, as they call whiskey, these decanters are frequently replenished, and the feast prolonged for the remainder of the day. It may be said that this is an unfair construction put upon the society of fifteen or twenty persons, invited to meet the priest at a station breakfast; that although some may outstep the limits of sobriety, the rest should not be charged with it; that these poor souls, for ought I knew, were, after pardon received from the priest, making pious resolutions of future amendment-laying down plans for moralizing their relatives and acquaintances or devising how they may promote the moral and religious education of the rising generation, by the introduction of the Bible into schools, as the great and only fountain of divine revelation to man; showing him his lost estate both by nature and practice, and the necessity of coming to God for real pardon, peace, and holiness;—and that, at all events, surely their drinking bouts could not be fairly charged upon the priest. Whoever agues thus, does not know what popery is. How sure its doctrines lead to licentiousness; how cruel and intolerant are its principles; and how much opposed to every effort to promote the moral and religious education of the poor children in its communion, I shall hereafter show. Indeed, with them the proverb, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion," is held as true, and more current, than any of the proverbs of Solomon.

"But to return to the subject of the stations-the writer was present at the settlement of an account with the spirit-dealer, for the whiskey drank at but one breakfast station for confession, at his opposite neighbour's house, where the whole company, men, women, and children, could not have exceeded twenty-four persons; when the bill, admitted to be correct and paid for, was seven half gallons of whiskey, at 16s. per gallon; a liquor considerably stronger than either brandy or rum. It may be objected, that this was too particular a case to be taken for a general rule; and that the master of the house might be a very dissipated character himself, and have been too pressing with his guests. With regard to this man's general character, he passed among his neighbours

for an industrious, sober man, in general: and as to his character with the priest, I assure you that both he and his wife were in several holy orders, as they are called in Ireland. So that, taking this man's character, I am convinced that I take a standard much too high as an example of the good effects following confession stations; for were I to select those stations which are held at publicans' houses, it would far exceed what I have detailed.

"It is the practice for the priest to publish from the altar, at certain periods of the year-I believe before Christmas, and before Lent-that he will hold stations for confession at certain houses, then and there named. These houses are selected without previous liberty obtained from the owners, perhaps lest they may make objections, which many of them would most certainly do, if not thus publicly given out from the altar. The individuals thus selected make the necessary preparations, (a general bill of the fare I have already presented to your readers:) and as it has been a prevailing opinion from the time of the Jews, that the publicans (formerly tax-gatherers) were the greatest sinners, and consequently required most mending, I have observed that they are more frequently selected: nay, I have observed that those who have most business are particularly selected by the priest; it being reasonable to suppose, that the chief amongst the publicans must be chief amongst the sinners. As the liquor on these occasions is drawn from the cock, it is not so easy to calculate the expenditure; but as they ask their best customers, it would be natural to believe that the landlord is not backward in recommending his liquor, nor his guests in trying its strength, not having the usual reckoning to pay, and having previously quit scores with the priest.-As it may be alleged that the priest does not countenance these practices, I shall mention a fact. A female, invited to one of these confessional coteries, mentioned to some others how very polite the priest was at breakfast to the women, pressing the bashful ones to take whiskey in their tea. Faith,' says her husband, it was very easy to prevail on them to take it, and for him to offer what was not out of his own pocket.' The wife replied, 'You dare not tell him so at your next confession.'

Thus you may see, sir, how much the moral principle is degraded by such a system, and even by the priests; a system which holds out to its deluded followers a yearly, or half-yearly, acquittal for sin. Well may that truth, applied by our Saviour to the scribes and Pharisees, he applied to them: Ye encompass sea and land to gain one proselyte; and when ye have gained him, ye make him twofold more a child of

the devil.'

"That this system is equally opposed to every attempt to promote the moral and religious education of the poor children, I shall show by the following fact. A country gentleman of my acquaintance, of landed property, often deplored the wretched state of ignorance and wickedness in which his tenants' children were brought up; and more especially the profanation of the Lord's day, by every species of mischief, plundering orchards, breaking down young trees, gambling, dancing, drinking, &c.-conceived that some good might be done if these children could be brought into a Sunday school, and kept from idleness. Accordingly, he sent and received from the Hibernian Schools Society, sets of Moral Lessons for Children; he provided a house with two VOL. II.-26