Prelate, to whom we already are indebted for many excel lent controversial writings, and who differs materially from Mr. Wix, in his view of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

This lover of UNION has so little regard to the feelings and judgment of about TWENTY BISHOPS in our Church, who patronize or have subscribed to the Bible Society, that he indecently calls it " delusive and mischievous, organized on a wild plan of comprehension, regardless of the purity of Christianity, and injurious to the unity of faith so earnestly desired by Christ and his Apostles." He might almost as well have said, Christ and his Apostles did not teach or desire the diffusion of the Gospel; for that Society disseminates no other doctrines of FAITH, and no other principles of UNITY, than are contained in the Book of Truth itself, which it circulates! During the reign of Robespierre and the system of terror in France, a set of wretches wanted to guillotine a Wesleyan Methodist Preacher; but, not knowing how to lay hold of his peculiar notions, which they did not understand, and taking it for granted that he must be an heterodox rebel, they thus questioned him in a court of justice concerning his politics: "Who are you?"—“ A preacher of the Gospel."-" What doctrines do you preach?”

"Only what are found in this book," (holding up a pocket Bible.)-" But tell us what you think of our system of Government?"-"I think of it as I am taught by this book."-"Do you respect the rulers of our Glorious Republic?"-" I obey the powers that be, as I am required by this book."-" Dismiss the fellow he is a good subject."

You, Sir, who are a Church-going man, and also a VicePresident of the Bible Society, can make a proper application of this anecdote.

An anonymous writer, whose assumed name of Luther has often appeared in the Times newspaper, makes the fol lowing judicious remarks on the state of Popery, at the present period:

"We have three remarkable examples, in our own day, of the continued and implacable hostility of the Romish church (as expressed through the medium of its accredited heads); to the Protestant religion, to political liberty, and to the circulation of the Bible. The Order of Jesuits has been revived in direct opposition to that reformation of Romish corruption which has proved the greatest blessing to the world at large, and which has been the glory of Great Britain in particular. The Inquisition, that monstrous engine of terror and cruelty, has been erected in our own enlightened age, for the obvious purpose of again usurping its ancient dominion over the mind, of enslaving the person, and giving full scope and effect to arbitrary power and ecclesiastical tyranny, at the expense of civil liberty and the inalienable rights of human nature. The Bible published by Protestants, without note or comment, is stigmatized as the work of heretics, who are out of the pale of salvation. It is declared by the first authority in the Romish church (the Pope and his Cardinals), that such a work is fit only for the Romish Index of prohibited books; in other words, for the flames.

"We are assured, on the same authority, that the Bible in the proper language of the different nations of the world (without which those nations cannot read or understand it),

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is productive of more harm than good,' and the heaviest denunciations are levelled against those Protestants who engage in such a manifest duty as the circulation of the Holy Scriptures through the earth—a design which is characterized by these ministers of error and ignorance as an abominable device for undermining religion'-' a pestilence to be detected and rooted out'-an event threatening to Christianity-a' defilement of the faith,' and an imminent peril to souls.' Can any man in his senses doubt what would be the fate both of readers and distributors of the Bible in this Protestant land, if the professors of such intolerant opinions as these were once to obtain a share in the

legislative and executive administration of our Protestant empire?

"What are such things as have been enumerated, but the worst features of Popery in action under our eyes? and with such evidence before us of the spirit and genius of papal Rome, continuing to be what they have ever been in all periods of her history, are Englishmen deliberately to permit the foes of the Reformation, the patrons of the Inquisition, the opponents of the Bible, and the enemies of all religious toleration, to recommence a course of experiments upon a constitution which has ever been the admiration, and recently the protection of the world? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' Let Englishmen be wise in time, Let those of them especially who value their own religious and civil privileges, as enjoyed under a tolerant and free government, examine a little more minutely into the political theories of those Statesmen, who, because they have a favourite scheme to carry, have resolved to make the experience of ages bend to their own particular system; and would expose to innovation and ruin the fair fabric of our religious and political code, with all the unfeeling coolness of modern experiment!

"If Popery be what these reasoners would now represent it-a system no longer hostile (as it once was) to the religion of Protestants, nor unfriendly to their civil rights; if it can for the first time consent to use power in a Protestant state, without abusing it; if it has re-established the Jesuits, with no intention of employing them; if is has erected the theological prisons of the Inquisition, with no design of filling them; if it has prohibited the use of the Bible, without a wish to enforce the prohibition: if such propositions can be fairly established, then will the advocates of the Catholic question possess some better claim to attention than we have hitherto discovered. At all events, it is not too much to ask, that (while such manifest evidences of the character of Popery in our own times are thus before us) we should not

be compelled to act upon general professions of increased light and liberality; which, as they are known to mean nothing by those who employ them, ought not perhaps to make a very deep impression upon those to whom they are addressed.

"The main distinction between the Romish and Protestant churches, as a political question affecting ourselves, is, that Protestants can, upon principle, tolerate Catholics, and do tolerate them in practice; while Catholics are into lerant upon principle, and show themselves to be actuated at the present moment by the same implacable spirit of bigotry which has ever formed an integral part of their theological system. Thus the present Pope, in his celebrated letter missive to his Cardinals, dated the 5th of February 1808, observes, in allusion to the freedom of religious worship which had been required by the French government, "It has been demanded that all religious persuasions should be free, and their worship publicly exercised; but we have rejected this article, as contrary to the canons, and to the councils, TO THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, to the public peace, and to the interests of the state, on account of the unhappy consequences which it would produce. See this document at length in the Relation de ce qui s'est passé à Rome dans l'Envahissement des Etats du Saint Siège,' published by Keating and Brown, in 1812,-vol. i. p. 43."

Sir, to the passage cited above, as proving the Pope's inlerance, I will add another from his Pastoral Instruction, dated at Rome, May 22, 1808; which I transcribe from p. 59, "Correspondence authentique de la Cour de Rome avec la France," Paris, 1814:

"La protection jurée, et si vantée du Souverain des Français pour tous les cultes, n'est autre chose qu'un prétexte et qu'une couleur pour autoriser la puissance séculière à s'immiscer dans les affaires spirituelles; puisqu'en montrant du respect pour toutes les sectes avec toutes leurs opinions, toutes leurs coutumes et toutes leurs superstitions, le Gouvernement Français ne respecte en effet aucun droit, aucune institution, aucune loi de la religion Catholique."

SIR,

LETTER XX.

ACCORDING to my promise, I lay before you a translation of several official Documents, published lately against Bible Societies: and first, the Papal Bull or Rescript issued from Rome under date of June 29, 1816, to the Archbishop of GNEZN, Primate of Poland. §

"POPE PIUS VII.

"VENERABLE BROTHER,

"Health and Apostolic Benediction.

"In our last letter to you we promised, very soon, to return an answer to yours; in which you have appealed to this Holy See, in the name also of the other Bishops of Poland, respecting what are called Bible Societies, and have earnestly inquired of us what you ought to do in this affair. We long since, indeed, wished to comply with your request; but an incredible variety of accumulating concerns have so pressed upon us on every side, that, till this day, we could not attend to your solicitation.

"WE HAVE BEEN TRULY SHOCKED AT THIS MOST CRAFTY DEVICE, BY WHICH THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGION ARE

UNDERMINED; and, having, because of the great importance of the subject, convened for consultation our venerable brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, we have

§ By recent information it appears, that the Jesuits have been indefatigable in different parts of Europe, to prevent the success of the Bible Society; and that they have prevailed so far in Bavaria as to obtain an express prohibition (and even the total suppression) of all Bible Associations, whether connected with foreign countries or otherwise! We know, likewise, how active they are in other quarters of the world to prevent the free use of the Scriptures.