so! Such Vicars, I think, should be called " Diabolical;" and not " Apostolical" Agents! Yet, the work of converting the Heathen must not then go on by God's instrumental means, because a PRINCIPLE OF ACTION laid down at Rome stands in the way!!! This, Sir, is one of the many consequences of that doctrine to which even the liberal Mr. Charles Butler tenaciously subscribes, of the Papal Supremacy and an infallible Church Guide; a notion; as obviously wicked and mischievous as it is absurd.

You observe, that the excellent Mr. MARTYN's Persian translation of the New Testament; lately printed at St. Petersburgh, but which the Jesuits in that city had opposed, is condemned by the Pope; and that he has issued letters accordingly, to his Agents in the East. Thus a version, so highly approved by the King of Persia, and by all good judges, is prohibited by an Italian Prelate as injurious to the "Infidels ;" so that (in the Pope's opinion) Mahomedans had better remain attached to their KORAN, than read so heretical and uncanonical a book as the New Testa ment, translated by the best scholars out of the pale of the Roman Church!!! Of this Persian Testament, the Rev. Dr. John Paterson wrote from St. Petersburgh, under date of June 25, 1816: "The eagerness with which the Persians. receive, and the attention with which they read, the New Testament, exceed all expectation. The style is allowed by them to be elegant and simple, such as befits the sacred books. MARTYN, though dead, is now preaching the Gos pel to this numerous people. We cannot supply them fast enough. In three days I sent off one thousand copies to Astrachan."-P. 477, Seventeenth Report of the Church Missionary Society. Yes, Sir, nothing can now stop this current of Divine Truth, which is flowing in a full stream through all the barren regions of the earth, and has already reached the opposite Poles.

If the Bible, the whole Bible, and the Bible alone, con

tains the religion of Protestants, as Chillingworth of old, and the Bishop of St. David's in modern times, decidedly affirm;-if Bible Societies have no other object, notwithstanding the alarms of prejudice or malignity, than to disperse God's own Word, purely, without note or comment; -if this be done in a peaceable and honest manner, wherever Bibles are wanted, and (should any exist) in the approved or generally received versions ;-then, to condemn such Associations, as crafty, pestilential, mischievous to so ciety, and as being at variance with real CHRISTIANITY, is to falsify Divine Truth, declare war against Protestants, and to set up the standard of anarchy and discord! Yet this has been done by the Pope and his Cardinals: for, unless it be proved that other designs or practices had mingled with the work of Bible institutions, existing in Poland, Russia, Bavaria, Austria, and in other countries where opposition has been excited by Papal interference; and, unless such proofs are very clearly exhibited, we must admit that great injury and unjust provocations have been sustained by British Protestants, in so preventing the general diffusion of heavenly light.

Besides, since Bible Societies consist always of different religious denominations, not only of Protestants and innumerable members of the Greek church, but even of Jews and Mahomedans, and also embrace Hindoos, Chinese, Tartars, Persians, Hottentots, Negroes, Calmucks, &c. blind worshippers of dumb idols, feeling their way to the God of Christians, flocking to the ark as doves to their windows; all these and many more " nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," must likewise be shut out from "the light of life," and sustain damage, if the translation and circulation of the Scriptures be thus prevented.

The day is now dawning," which portends that a new epoch will commence in the history of humankind, when the Christian religion shall be universally received, rightly un

derstood, and conscientiously practised," as the late Bishop of Landaff has observed; and when, by means of these combined exertions, as the Bishop of Durham says, "the Holy Scriptures will be made known in the most unenlightened regions of the earth, conveying to millions what they would not have otherwise enjoyed, the inestimable blessing of the Gospel."S-It is surely an earnest of the future harvest, to find (after only a few years' labour) that nearly SEVENTY LANGUAGES, or dialects, are made to speak in divine accents to a perishing world.

Then I ask, if the ruling powers in the Church of Rome, by their recent conduct, be not committing an act of hostility against the natural rights and liberties of ALL mankind? For ALL HAVE GOD'S PERMISSION to read and profit by his revealed Word; and no man, or set of men, can have authority to hinder this. They may not conceal the recorded truth, nor alter or dilute it; nor restrain any one from using it freely, at all times, and in all places; no more than they are entitled to exclude the natural light, to corrupt the air we breathe, or to turn aside the rain which descends on the earth.—I hold this principle to be beyond controversy; that what is given, or allowed, TO ALL by our Creator, cannot be justly withheld by any human power: and whoever shall act contrary to this principle, violates the law of GOD, and obstructs human happiness; becoming thereby a traitor to the Majesty on high, and an enemy to man.

Although not a few unprejudiced, learned, and zealous Priests abroad, truly called Catholics, have long been en

§ See a circular paper, entitled, “ Episcopal Testimonies in favour of the general Circulation and Perusal of the Holy Scriptures without Note or Comment." Printed and sold by Mr. Low, 21, Gracechurch Street.

DR. LEANDER VAN ESS, Roman Catholic Professor of Divinity in the University of Marburg, has distributed about 240,000 copies of the German New Testament, chiefly among persons of his

Τ

rolled in our lists, and have come boldly forward to enlighten their dark brethren of the Romish communion; yet, these good men are now stigmatized and bitterly persecuted by their respective Prelates, who are chiefly desirous to bolster up the tottering remains of a narrow and exclusive system: and many of those honest Christians abroad have brought down on their heads the vengeance of Inquisitors, who strenuously combine with the crafty Jesuits in opposing or corrupting Christianity.

Sir, the language used by King James's venerable and learned translators of the Bible (which I have already quoted, at page 109, in a former Letter), should be deeply impressed on the minds of all those Church-of-England Ministers who object to the unlimited and most free use of the Scriptures; lest they, unintentionally, be seen to fight in the ranks of Papal Troops, and to join in their antichristian WORK OF SUBJUGATING CONSCIENCE TO A HUMAN TRIBUNAL. The beneficial effects of the Bible, universally read, would be like a moral vaccination of the world; tending not only to stop the ravages of ignorance and Christian corruption, but to heal the wounds inflicted on the body-politic by civil and religious discord.§

"No man liveth in that commonwealth where nothing is amiss; but yet, because God hath so placed us Englishmen here in one Commonwealth, also in one Church, as in one

1

own communion! But the Conclave at Rome has evinced its decided abhorrence of such conduct, and branded this hero with the honourable name of "LUTHER THE SECOND."-See the late Extracts of Correspondence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and its 14th Report for 1818.

§ "La vaccine elle-même aura-t-elle produit d'ausi grands résultats que cette sorte de vaccine morale, pour ainsi parler; qui, non seulement doit prévenir les ravages du double fléau de l'ignorance et de la corruption, mais peut cicatriser encore les plaies du corps politique."—Page xxvij, “ Avant-Propos de l'Abrégé de la Méthode des Ecoles Elémentaire; Paris, 1816."

Ship, together, let us not mangle or divide the Ship's crew, which being divided perisheth: let every man serve with diligence and discretion, in his order, wherein he is called; they that sit at the helm must observe the point of the needle, to know how the Ship goeth, and whither it should. Whatsoever weather betideth, the needle, well touched with the Stone of God's WORD, will never fail."-So said JOHN Fox, the Martyrologist, whose advice is not unseasonable in our own time of dissension.

SIR,

LETTER XXIII.

HISTORICAL records (exhibiting the actual views and principles of the Roman See, and ascertaining the state of modern Popery beyond contradiction) must be deemed highly valuable by every British Legislator. It was therefore a proper step in Mr. Leslie Foster, to copy (from the Antibiblion) both of the Pope's Latin Bulls at the end of his late Speech in Parliament; and an appeal to these documents is known to have produced no small sensation upon his hearers in the House of Commons. It is only as containing historical facts that I call your attention to these Rescripts, and now beg leave to offer a few more remarks on them. They were also noticed in the House of Lords by the Bishop of Ossory, whose printed Speech has disclosed to the public a fresh example of Popish subtlety, in the construction and

EVASION OF A CIVIL OATH.

§ In a letter to Bishop Poynter from Sig. Quarantotti (Feb. 16, 1814), this Cardinal refers to the words of an OATH proposed, A. D. 1813, for the British Catholics, in what was called the "RELIEF BILL;" and the Cardinal says, "In case the Bill be already passed containing the same words [i. e. of this oath], or that nothing in it is al