ing; while we can count hundreds upon hundreds; nay, the two thousandth year shall come, without our signalizing it in any manner, save by the discharge of our duty to give daily praise and thanks to the Almighty. In the second place, I was grieved to think, that all this excitement should have been created-I will not say by falsehood-but by misapprehension; that an attempt should have been made to bring crowds together, to commemorate an event as giving commencement to a certain period, which yet had no connexion with it.

For it is well known, or ought to have been known, to those who raised this cry, that long before any Protestant version existed in any language in Europe, there were, not one, or two, or five, or ten, but almost innumerable translations, not only in manuscript, but in print, for the use of the faithful, in the short interval between the invention of printing and the rise of Protestantism. And as I know that a different opinion prevails, even among some Catholics, on this point, I will give a few particulars, that so you may be on your guard against similar misconceptions.

Let us take Germany as an instance. A clergyman, who was among the most active promoters of the late tercentenary festival, speaks of Luther's version as the first published in Germany. He simply says, that "so early as the year 1466, a German translation from the Latin vulgate, was printed, the author of which is unknown. Scarcely, however, had the Reformation commenced, when Luther meditated a new version." "* And a little later, he observes, "that besides the versions made by Protestants, there are also translations made by Romish divines, some of which appeared almost as early as that of Luther." Now, how accurate all this is, you shall see, from the enumeration which I will give you, of the Catholic translations, and their editions made before that of Luther, * Horne, Vol. ii. appendix, p. 88.

P. 91, Mr Horne adds, that "the Romanists in Germany, have evinced an ardent desire for the Scriptures, notwithstanding the fulminations of the Papal See against them." The inaccuracy of this writer, in all that concerns Catholics, is truly astonishing. Why did he not tell us when these fulminations were pronounced?

which was begun in 1523, but not completed until eleven years afterwards.

In the first place, there is a copy yet extant of a printed version so old as to have no date; for the first printed books had neither a date nor name of place. In the second place, a Catholic version was printed by Fust, in 1472, nearly sixty years before the completion of Luther's version. Another had appeared as early as 1467; a fourth was published in 1472; and a fifth in 1473. At Nuremberg, there was a version published, in 1477, and republished three times more, before Lu-ther's appeared. There appeared, at Augsburg, another in the same year, which went through eight editions before that of Lu-ther. At Nuremberg, one was published, by Koburg, in 1483, and in 1488; and at Augsburg, one appeared in 1518, which was republished in 1524, about the same time that Luther was going on with his; and down to the present time, the editions of this version have been almost countless.

In Spain, a version appeared in 1478; before Luther was thought of, and almost before he was born. In Italy, the country most peculiarly under the sway of Papal dominion, the Scriptures were translated into Italian, by Malermi, at Venice, in 1471; and this version was re-published seventeen times before the conclusion of that century, and twenty-three years before that of Luther appeared. A second version of parts of Scripture, was published in 1472; a third at Rome, in 1471; a fourth by Bruccioli, at Venice, in 1532; and a corrected edition, by Marmochini, in 1538; two years after Luther had completed his. And every one of these came out, not only with the approbation of the ordinary authorities, but with that of the Inquisition, which approved of their being published, distributed, and promulgated.*

In France, a translation was published, in 1478; another,

* I remember some years ago, reading in an English Review, that my arned and amiable relative, Don Tomas Gonzales de Carvajal, had met with difficulties from the Inquisition, about the publication of his metrical version of the poetical books of Scripture. I believe the Inquisition did not exist. at that time; but at any rate, the entire statement was without foundation

y Menand, in 1484; another, by Guiars de Moulins, in 1487; which may rather be called a history of the Bible; and finally, another, by Jacques le Fevre, in 1512, often re-printed.

In the Belgian language, a version was published, at Cologne, in 1475, which, before 1488, had been republished three times. A second appeared in 1518.

There was also a Bohemian translation, published in 1488, thrice reprinted before Luther's; not to speak of the Polish and Oriental versions. In our own country it is well known that there were versions long before that of Tyndal or of WickLiffe. Sir Thomas More has observed, that "the hole Byble, was, long before his (Wickliffe's) dayes, by vertuous and wel lerned men, translated into the English tong, and by good and godly people, with devotion and soberness, wel and reverently red."* And if it be said that the Scriptures were not disseminated, it was because the want of printing and of a general literary education prevented this.

I have mentioned these facts, to show how unjust is the assertion, that the spread of the Reformation gave rise to Scriptural translations,-how unjust it is to say that the Church has withheld the Bible from the people. But mark the change. The Scriptures had been diffused among the faithful, and would have so continued, had not dangerous doctrines sprung up, which taught, that men should throw aside all authority, and each one judge for himself in religion; a system which we have seen fraught with such dreadful difficulties, that it is no wonder that it should have been made matter of discipline, to check, for a time, its perilous diffusion. Sir Thomas More truly observes, that, if we look at the act of Parliament on this subject, we shall find, that it was not any Church authority, but the civil government which first interfered. Because it was when the Scriptures had begun more to be read, from the times of the Waldenses and Wickliffe, that the doctrine was broached, that the civil magistrate lost all his authority when he committed crime, and that no man had a

"A dialogue concernynge heresyes." B. 3, c. 14. p. 282.

right to possess jurisdiction, civil or ecclesiastical, if he was in a state of sin. When these doctrines had raised the arm of fanatics against social order, the civil authority called in the aid of the Church; although, in the first instance, the Church did not prohibit the diffusion of the Scriptures.

Those, therefore, who say that the Reformers were the first to communicate the Scriptures, are evidently in error; for they had previously been spread in the Catholic Church, which, subject to the supervision of its pastors, permitted almost, I might say quite, their indiscriminate perusal.

Thus much may suffice for the present. I have only as yet kept you amidst the outworks, I have not yet brought you within the precincts, of the inquiry. In treating of the Protestant rule of faith, I have refrained from alluding to the decision of Scripture itself. As yet, I have handled it merely as a question of moral and philosophical discussion. I have simply deduced, from the nature of the rule itself, how far it can be considered satisfactory. I have arrayed its difficulties before you, and I have shown that it requires a strong shelter under Divine warrant and sanction to justify the institution of so complicated and difficult a rule. Now, whether there be that Divine authority, I have not yet examined; for I have not touched upon the passages adduced, to prove that the Scripture is a satisfactory rule of faith. That I reserve for future discourses; when I hope I shall be able to meet, before you, all the arguments that are to be drawn from the word of God. Next Friday, I will pass to the positive portion of my theme. Having first excluded, or partially removed, the system of others, I will proceed to what I consider the true and legitimate mode of argument on this subject; that is to say, to proving what we believe; and when you can compare the two systems together, you will judge between them which is the institution of God.

You may, perhaps, consider that system which I have already described (and upon which more has yet to be said), as at first sight appearing regular, orderly, and beautiful. It may be compared to a handsome, modern, edifice, which

strikes you when passing along the high road, and which, only judging of it, as you hasten on, by the measure of its outward proportions, by the artful scale on which it has been constructed, and the apparent uniformity of all its parts, has seemed to you to possess within, a proportionable fitness and beauty and convenience; but which, when you have entered in, as I have partly led you this day, you discover to be composed of dark and tortuous passages, and of strait and inharmonious, and ill-contrived apartments, which give no joy or comfort to those who therein dwell. Now from this, I will lead you to a far more beautiful fabric, of which the other will seem to be but a mean copy, as though its architect had seen the exterior of ours, but had not been allowed the privilege of entering. It will appear, at first, to you, as if upon it there were time-stains, and other traces of the course of centuries over its surface; but, on a nearer approach, even these will be respected, as venerable signs of sacred antiquity. But, when you have looked within, you will see through the whole of the edifice, beauty, and symmetry, and just proportion, and grandeur in every part; where all the members of the goodly building are harmoniously composed into one beautiful whole, and all its chambers adorned with whatever can rejoice the heart of man, and gladden his existence. Then, I am sure, you will acknowledge, that if that which you have just seen was but the work of man, this which you will have thoroughly examined, was the erection of God. And I trust that you will not so content yourselves with looking in—that you will not be satisfied with taking a cursory glance at all the zeauties and perfections of the edifice; but that, using the ights which it is given to fallen man to have, you will, under my humble guidance, enter therein: that so, many, who now stand without, may come therein to abide, with the children of Christ, and to sit around that banquet of heavenly gifts which there only is to be enjoyed on earth, as an earnest of what God has prepared in Heaven.