taining that the passage is levelled against the Gnostics, Manicheans,. and other heretics of the earlier ages. It is true they do not explain very satisfactorily why those earlier ages should be denominated the latter times, nor why the very same practices, which were abominable in the ancient heretics, should be holy and praiseworthy in themselves.— But the more sagacious translators of Bourdeaux have thrown an entirely new light upon the passage, the true meaning of which had until their time been buried in profound darkness; and have contrived to give us the Council of Trent in a nut-shell.

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, (or clearly) that in the last times, some shall separate themselves from the Roman faith (!!!) giving themselves up to spirits of delusion, and to doctrines taught by devils; speaking falsehoods through hypocrisy, having also their conscience seared. Condemning the Sacrament of Marriage, the abstinence from meats, which God has created for the faithful, and for those who have known the truth, to receive them with thanksgiving."*

Can any thing be plainer than that the Apostle foretells in these words the apostacy of the Protestants, who are here depicted much more clearly than under the type of those locusts in the Revelations, where your expositors have now and then found them, and from which your Late Bishop Walmsley confidently predicted their utter destruction in the year 1825 Those apostates foreseen by St. Paul were to separate themselves from the Roman faith, so have the Protestants done. They were to condemn the sacrament of marriage, and, accordingly, Protestants affirm that marriage is no sucrament. And lastly, they were to be recognized by condemning the abstinence from meats, which note of apostacy and error is plainly discoverable in all Protestants, who impiously deride the distinction of meats prescribed by the Roman Catholic Church! Here then, Sir, is a fair opportunity of putting an end to a polemical struggle of three centuries, which, in spite of Dr. Milner's unanswerable "End of Controversy," now rages as obstinately as ever. Let your rulers get the above interpretation of the Apostle's prophecy universally established, and Protestants, and all other seceders from the Roman faith, will, as the Abbé Grégoire happily expresses it, be pul

verized at once!!

And now, Sir, having, as I trust, repaid you with interest for the

L'Esprit dit clairement, qu' ès derniers temps, quelques uns se sépareront de la foi Romaine, s'adonnans aux esprits d' erreur, et aux doctrines enseignées par des diables: Disans des choses fausses par bypocrisie, ayans aussi la conscience cauteriseé: Condamnans le sacrement de Mariage, l'abstinence des alimens, que Dieu a crées pour les fidèles, et pour ceux qui ont connu la verité, pour les recevoir avec actions de graces. B. T. Those worthy children of the Roman faith, (which, to judge of it from their practice, seems to be much akin to the ancient Punick faith) could not, or would not perceive the incongruity of making the Apostle stigmatize those who condemn abstinence from meats, which God has created to be thankfully received by the faithful. To make their interpretation consistent with itself, and with the principles of their Church, they should have said, "which God only allows to be used with certain restrictions, under pain of mortal sin !"

+ For Mr. S.'s more ample satisfaction, I subjoin a few more specimens, arranged under the heads of the different doctrines or practices which they are meant to favour : they are all taken from the Bourdeaux Testament, except when otherwise specified. 1. Texts favouring tradition. 1 Cor. xi. 2, "I praise you, that you keep the ordinances, as I left them with you by tradition." 2 Peter ii. 21, "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them by tradition." It seems from this, that it is more dangerous to depart from tradition, than from Scripture !---2. Translation of Relics. Heb. xi. 22, "By faith Joseph, when he died ordered the transla. tion of his bones "---3. Processions. Heb. xi. 30, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after a procession of seven days around them ".-4. Crucifixes. Gal. iii. 1,"Have you not got Jesus Christ pictured before your eyes, as crucified among you ?---5. Antiquity of Papal Legates. Ephes. vi. 19, 20, "The mystery of the Gospel, for which

eight corruptions which you found in the Protestant Bible, I leave it to the public to decide how far it was well-judged in you to bring an accusation against our Church, which there are such ample means of retorting upon your own.-You may perhaps recollect maintaining that our Church was certainly responsible for a version published "during the reign of that bright occidental star, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth," is not yours, therefore, equally answerable for one published during the reign, and by the orders of the Most Christian King Louis le Grand, eldest son of the Church, at the suggestion of the eagle of Meaux, the illustrious Bossuet, with the approbations of theologians and a prelate of the highest rank, and forced into circulation by the authorities, with the tacit permission of the whole body of clergy, and of the head of the Church? And this nefarious transaction is appealed to by Mr. Butler as an example of the encouragement given by Roman Catholics to vernacular translations of the Scripture, and recorded by him to the honour of Bossuet, and the French clergy! If any thing could increase our abhorrence of those who promoted the revocation of the edict of Nantes, it would be this base and systematic attempt, worthy of Julian the apostate, to corrupt the faith of the oppressed and harassed victims of their bigotry, by wickedly falsifying those Scriptures which they had been accustomed to rely on with implicit veneration, and forcing the oracles of God to give testimony on behalf of the degrading superstitions of the Church of Rome. From this memorable instance we may form some idea of the vigilant guardianship exercised by the rulers of your Church over the purity and integrity of the Scriptures, and may also appreciate the motives of that flaming zeal which they have sometimes manifested against real or supposed corrupters. Not to dwell upon the different treatment experienced by Veron and the Mons editors, it will be sufficient to advert to the instance of Quesnel. When this exemplary divine argued from certain texts of Scripture, that the fear of an unjust excommunication ought not to deter us from doing our duty, and that Christians of all classes and conditions have a right to read the word of God, he was denounced to the Holy See as an heretical perverter of revealed truth, a furious Bull was fulminated against him and all his adherents; a hundred French Bishops subscribed to his condemnation; and, they who dared to breathe a single murmur against those proceedings, ran no small risk of being immured in a dungeon. But when the Bourdeaux editors tampered with the words of divine inspiration, in a manner unparalleled since the days of the heretic Marcion, (and the thing was not done in a corner) no murmurs arose among the I am a legate in bonds."...6. Power of departed Saints to help the living. 2 Peter i. 15, "I will have a particular care of you after my death, that you may have a remembrance of those things." This rendering, which is an improvement upon the Rhemish..." I will doe my diligence you to have often after my decease also," is also adopted, in substance, in the Rouen Testament and by Father Amelotte...-7. Merit of Good Works. Heb. xiii. 16, “Doing good, &c. do not forget, for by this sort of offerings God considers himself obliged." Father Amelotte. Philemon, ver. 22, "I trust I shall be given to you, through the merit of your prayers."--8. Distinction between mortal and venial sins. 1 John v. 17, "All iniquity is sin, but there is some sin which is not mortal, but venial.” Whether falsifying the Scriptures is a mortal or a venial sin, the Bourdeaux translators have not thought proper to inform us, nor have we need of their casuistry to help us to settle this point, which was decided long ago before a much higher tribunal. Vide Revelation xxii. 18, 19. Prov. xxx. 6.

• That Bossuet was a party to the transaction, at least by connivance, is what I can easily believe. It was consistent enough with the character of the man who could say to the hunted and persecuted Protestants of his diocese..." So far have you been from suffering torments, that you have not so much as heard them mentioned. You are returned peaceably to us, you know it ;" and not long after, pronounced a solemn panegyric upon the King for having “exterminated the heretics!" Bossuet's conduct towards the Protestants, and his malevolent persecution of Fenelon, are stains upon his character which cannot be easily glossed over, not even by an exposition as artful as his own.

Gallican clergy, no thunderbolt was launched from the Vatican, no rod of chastisement was held up in terrorem by the domestic authorities.Would you know the reason of this uneven-handed dispensation of justice?-it is briefly this. The Bourdeaux editors taught acceptable falsehoods, and Quesnel inculcated disagreeable truths. The former only broke the laws of God, the latter was guilty of violating the majesty of the Pope.

Unprincipled as this affair of the Bourdeaux Testament was, and dishonourable to those who were concerned in it, it conveys a variety of useful lessons to Protestants, and will enable them to understand the real nature of Popery better than Veron's Rule of Faith, or Bossuet's Exposition, or Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic Church. It proves in the plainest manner, that Popery is hostile to Scripture, and that Scripture is no less adverse to Popery. When a Roman Catholic layman thirsts for the sincere milk of God's word, it is either withheld from him altogether, or doled out with as many precautions and restrictions as a chemist uses in vending a deadly poison. But when a set of empirical divines have drugged it well with masses, and purgatory, and worship of saints and angels, the case is completely altered. Bishops, archbishops, and kings, prescribe it to men, women, and children, without limitation or restriction, it is forced down the throats of those very persons who were deemed unfit to have it in its genuine state, and your Baussets and Butlers triumphantly exclaim:-Behold the liberality of our spiritual rulers!-their eager anxiety to prevent all risk of a famine of the word of God in the land! Do not this dread of the true Scriptures, and this affection for the false ones, betray a secret consciousness that there are certain things in Popery which will not endure to be tried by the standard of God's word,-that the Evangelists and Apostles must be taught to speak a different language before they can be safely appealed to by the partizans of the Church of Rome? So your Bourdeaux editors thought, and on this principle they diligently acted. The voice of divine inspiration has indeed declared him accursed who shall presume to add aught to God's word, or diminish any thing from it; the scorn and abhorrence of every upright and ingenuous Christian were sure to be their portion when their impostures were detected, but those intrepid champions of the " Church at Trent " neither feared God nor regarded man! Well did they deserve to co-operate with Louis XIV. and his military missionaries, and to put the finishing stroke to the most treacherous, the most impolitic, the most intolerant wholesale religious persecution which has stained the annals of any nation since the expulsion of the Moors from Spain! Well might the devoted victims of this tyranny prefer exile and poverty to a compulsory obedience to such a religion as this, whose ruling ministers inflicted confiscation and fetters upon those who persisted in worshipping God according to their consciences, and poisoned the spiritual food of those who tamely submitted to their mercy! We do not, Sir, dwell upon those things with vindictive feelings, or wish to retaliate upon your brethren the evils which they have inflicted on ours, but our minds would be strangely constituted indeed if we could contemplate them without any sort of emotion. And, when the panegyrists of Popery represent it as the pillar and ground of the truth, when they tell us that its yoke is easy and its burden light, that its voice is the voice of infallibility, and its sceptre a sceptre of mercy and justice,-we, who judge of it by its fruits, shall run little danger of being imposed upon by such delusive statements, if we only remember the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the Testament of Bourdeaux !

I remain, Sir, Yours, &c.

A LANCASHIRE CURATE.

NOTICE OF AN EDITION OF MELANCTHON'S WORKS.

To the Editor of the Protestant Guardian.

The information conveyed in the following extract from a foreign classical periodical, may not be, perhaps, unacceptable to some of your readers, or they may be able to give more definite information than it affords. It is taken from the Miscellanea maximam partem Critica, edited by Frid. Tr. Friedemann et J. D. G. Scebode, Wittenbergæ, 1823. "Quod autem sæpius optarunt homines harum literarum studiosi, ut esset, qui Melanthonis epistolas editas et ineditas uno corpore comprehenderet et ab oblivione tutas præstaret, id brevi effectum iri obiter hic moneo. Nam has partes a Strobelio olim relictas suscepisse audio virum quendam doctum, evangelicæ formulæ in Curonia doctorem, de cujus consilio plura narraturus sum alio loco." Vol. 2, p. 361.

A. B.

PURSUITS OF LITERATURE.

Extracts from the "Pursuits of Literature." 8th Edition. 8vo. London, 1798.

For the Protestant Guardian.

PAGE 320, Note (r.) It is indeed true, that THE POPEDOM IS NOW FALLEN ; but the spirit of it, I still maintain, is neither extinct nor asleep. By way of contrast, I cannot refrain from presenting to the reader the picture of Pope PAUL THE FOURTH, as drawn by the masterhand of Paolo Sarpi. I will not injure the sublimity and force of the language by a translation. He well knew the court and the policy of Papal Rome, and they knew him. "E ben cosa certa, che Prolo, come quello che era d'animo grande, e de' vasti pensieri, teneva per sicuro di poter remediare a tutti i disordini per la sola sua autorità pontificale, nè riputava di aver bisogna in cio di Principe alcuno : solito di non parlar mai congli Ambasciadori, se non intonandagli nelle orecclie che EGLI ERA SOPRA TUTTI GLI PRINCIPI; che non voleva che alcuno d' essi domesticasse seco, che poteva mutar regni che era SUCCESSOR di CHI Là deposto Rè et Imperadori." 1st del. concil Trident, lib. 5. [p. 403, edit. 4to. Geneva, 1629.] This picture of a Pope, in the plenitude of pontific power, should be presented to all Christian countries, "in perpetuam rei memoriam," that they may contemplate what this spiritual tyranny and usurpation once were, and what the principles of the Romish Church, sacred and political, (which never change in essence, substance, or spirit, under any calamity) will at all times naturally introduce, whenever they obtain their full operation. Ubi PAPA, ibi Roma! in sæcula sæculorum! Let England look to this. (1797.)

(s.) To the revival of the Roman Catholic cause in Great Britain, "Pestis ero vivens." I have given indeed more time and study to this Roman Catholic subject than any man perhaps, at this time, will think it deserves. I have perused many a dull and uninteresting tract, even of their own squabbles among one another, much to the loss of my own quiet. In general, I pass them over, and consign them to their own dullness. But there is one pamphlet, not for any, even the least,

excellence of the composition, but for the virulence of its spirit, which I call into public notice, if the public will, or can feel upon the subject. It is entitled "A Reply to the Report published by the Cisalpine Club, on the authenticity of the Protestation at the British Museum, &c. &c. by the Rev. J. Milner." Printed for Coghlan, Duke-street, Grosvenor Square, 1795. It is written, as the title-page informs me, by one John Milner, a provincial priest, resident (as I am told) at Winchester, not an emigrant, nor in the King's House, (while the priests lived there en masse) but the priest of a private chapel in that city.

He seems by his writings, (I know no more of him) to be of the most intolerant principles, and deliberate in the application of them. He exhibits at once the extremes of fierceness and of impotence. But he represents the opinions of a very large portion of their body, by whom he is accredited. He is very cautious in his pamphlet, as he thinks, but his caution speaks plainer language than the frankness of the most open declaration. "It is apprehended (he says) that the publication of the facts in question might prove detrimental to the Catholic interest (observe the words) on any FUTURE application to the Legislature." p. 36. We see this wary priest has not thought proper to conceal that they have further intentions. He tries the ground before him, but his steps are uneasy. The indulgence, it seems, is not to rest here. The lenity of our Government naturally leads to other demands. With this clue in my hand, I have little difficulty to pass through the intricacy of this Romish labyrinth. In another part of Mr. Milner's "Reply," his indignation rises against some expressions in the declaration of the Catholics. We see the embers under which the fire is not yet extinguished. He is afraid that we Protestants should think that the spirit of his Church has suffered an abatement. "Thus to MY JUDGMENT (he cries out) am I and the whole Catholic body, without consenting to it, pledged in the face of the legislature to condemn the wars of Charlemagne, and THE CRUSADE against THE INFAMOUS ALBIGENSES." p. 28. I hope we are all children of mercy, trained and educated in the benevolence and charity which Christ has taught and enforced, and if we have read the history of that infernal and murderous persecution of the devoted Albigenses, (whose chief crime was their determined opposition and resistance to the papal tyranny)* what opinion, or what comment shall we form on this merciless priest, who after the lapse of centuries, feels the same passions and the same thirst of blood against these innocent victims of Popish and arbitrary violence. Crimine ab uno DISCE OMNES!

In our dread and natural horror of Atheism and of anarchy, why are we to revive superstition and tyranny? I have nothing to do with the emancipation of the Catholics in Ireland, but to my apprehension it is a measure full of danger. It is at one stroke to alter the fundamental law and constitution of the country. I write in Great Britain, and direct my thoughts for this kingdom, wishing for peace, tranquility, and union, between the two Islands. (July, 1797.)

The Albigenses were a sect of the Waldenses, who had their rise in the 12th cen tury. I know what the malice of their enemies has suggested against them. This is not a place to discuss history, but I refer the statesman to Thuanus, lib. 1, 16. vol. 1. p. 221, edit. Buckley. N. B. For their confession of faith, which was presented to King Francis the First, by the wretched remnant of these Albigenses, I refer the theological and political reader to Sandius's Hist. Eccles. It is an honour to their religion. Sandius's words begin, " Anno 1544, Merindoliani et Caprarinses, existentesque Religuiæ Albigensium sequentem fidei suæ confessionem obtulerunt Francisco I. Regi Galliæ, quam a a majoribus quesi per manus acceperant, abhinc anno post Christi Incarn. 1200." &e. Sand. Hist. E. p. 425.