tions that have been added to the original institution of the Lord's Supper, there still are, even in the Church of Rome, traces of the primitive customs.

"1st. The Pope always appears in a white gown, as the White Pope, in contradistinction to the Black Pope, the general of the order of the Jesuits. This is the white frock of the primitive Christians, as seen in the oldest mosaics.

“2nd. At the Holy Communion, while others kneel, he sits, and thus preserves the posture of the early Christians.

66 3rd. When he celebrates mass in his own cathedral of St. John Lateran, he does it on a wooden plank. This primitive wooden table is the mark of the original social character of the Supper, and is preserved through the East.

"4th. Again, when he celebrates mass, he stands behind the table with his back to the wall, and facing the congregation, which represents what must have been the original institution.

5th. The Gospel is read both in Greek and Latin, for the early Greek community to whom Paul wrote.

"6th. When the Pope officiates there is a total absence of instrumental music.

"7th. He has no crozier : being borne aloft he has no need of a walking stick, which is simply the staff of the old man. The crozier was the symbol of old age, and nothing besides-neither the symbol of the priesthood nor the crook of the pastor."-"Good Words," May, 1868, p. 304.

NOTE N.

THE BRUISING OF THE SERPENT'S HEAD.

The ascription of power to the Virgin may probably be traced to the Douay translation of Gen. iii. 15.

Our translation gives the neuter and masculine pronouns; the Douay translation gives the feminine.

Gen. iii. 14, 15: "The Lord God said unto the serpent, I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Douay version has instead of "it shall bruise," &c. . "she shall bruise," &c., &c.c

The following important information is derived from Dr. Payne Smith, the Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford, whose Bampton Lectures are most valuable. It may be appreciated at the present moment by those true Christians in the Church of Rome who are in earnest in their search after truth.

Speaking of the Bible as the book read by countless multitudes, to give them strength for the struggle of life, and comfort under its sorrows, the learned Dr. observes, that so important is everything connected with this wonderful book, that even a pronoun found in it

"In Callot's 'Images' (Paris, 1636,) the Virgin is represented trampling on the head of the serpent or dragon, in allusion to Gen. iii. 15; and this is the usual figurative manner of representing the Conception' in art."-" Calendar of the Prayer Book (Parker, Oxford). See also an article in "The True Catholic," Jan., 1870.

C

becomes a subject of earnest debate. He clears up the controversy by stating that the language of the Pentateuch has only one pronoun for the third person singular in all genders, namely, , hu he, she, it. The Masorites give this pronoun a different sound, by vocalizing the consonants for masculine or feminine, but the consonants alone are genuine.

=

The pronoun, then, in Gen. iii. 15 proves nothing; the import of the text is really settled by the verb, which is masculine, and can be nothing else."

The verbs in the Eastern or Semitic languages are always masculine or feminine; i.e., unlike our verbs they have genders.

The gender of the verb in the above text is strongly marked, so that no confusion is possible. It stands thus, , yeshuf-" He shall bruise." If it were

"She shall bruise," it would be, teshuf. could mistake two such dissimilar words.

No one

All controversy on this subject might have been terminated long ago, if both parties would have referred to the original Hebrew.

Bellarmine says that he once saw a copy with the feminine pronoun. This may be true, but it would only prove that whoever copied it must have understood very little of the rules of grammar; for how can a feminine pronoun agree with a masculine verb?

"Prophecy a Preparation for Christ:" Bampton Lectures for 1869. By R. Payne Smith, D.D. Page 5, note.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.