THE DOCTRINES OF MAYNOOTH. THE DOCTRINES OF MAYNOOTH. PART III. HOW THE CHURCH OR ROME TREATS THE WORD OF THE Church of Rome dishonours the Bible. She de mics its sufficiency as a rule of faith and practice; she adds to it human traditions; she takes from it divine commandments; she denies its sole authority; she forbids its general perusal; she changes its divinely appointed and promised interpreter. are I. She denies the sufficiency of the Bible, as a rule of faith and practice. St Paul asserts its sufficiency very plainly, when he says: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, &c., that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." If Scripture be sufficient to lead a man to perfection, what more would he have? But Rome, as usual, contradicting St Paul, declares that it is not sufficient; and, in maintaining that position, scruples not to occupy the very ground which Infidels are accustomed to take up in attacking the credibility of revelation. Thus, she tells us that the Scriptures "not plain enough to be a suficient rule." David thought otherwise when he said: "Thy Word is a light unto my feet, and a lamp. unto my path." The assertion involves a libel upon God's wisdom, and comes in the end to this, that men, without the assistance of God's Spirit, may give more plain and complete directions as to the way of life and holiness, than men with it—which is blasphemy. The Bible is plain enough to show men the way to heaven; for the "light of the glorious Gospel shines" in its every page-it is "able to make rise unto salvation." It is plain enough to leave man without excuse, if, after perusing its messages of warning and of love, he refuse to listen to them. It is plain enough, if a man will but follow its directions, to keep him back from every sin, and to preserve him in the exercise of every virtue; for we are told that it is "profitable for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righ teousness." And the differences which exist as to its The Lord says: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you; neither shall ye diminish aught from it."-Deut. iv. 2. Again: "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add to it, nor diminish from it."-Deut. xii. 32. 151 And yet, again: "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."-Rev. xxii. 19. Now Rome has added to the Word, and incurred the curse. She has added to it 1. By introducing the apocryphal books into the Canon. These books are not the Word of God. All external evidence is against them. The testimony has been from the first against them; and they were of the Church of God, both Jewish and Christian, not recognised, even by the Church of Rome, till the year 1545. (1.) Josephus, who gives a list of the in his time, does not mention one of the apocryphal Old Testament Scriptures, as received by the Jews books. (2.) There are, in the New Testament, about six hundred quotations from the books of the Old; but not one of these is from the Apocrypha. (3.) The most distinguished of the fathers, in the catalogues which they give of the books of Scripture, omit the books of the Apocrypha, many of them expressly condemning them. (4.) The Council of Laodicea, which, in the fourth century, fixed the Canon, did which mentions them in the fifth century, only pernot recognise them. (5.) The Council of Carthage, mits them to be read in the churches, "for example of life and manners," without appointing them to Jerome, who is a distinguished saint in the Romish "establish any doctrine." Such is the testimony of calendar. After this time various portions of the Church recognised them as possessed of more or less authority; but they were never sanctioned by a general council till the year 1545, by the Council of Trent, when a decree asserting their divine authority was passed-only fifty bishops being present -a considerable minority of whom opposed it. How miserably this comes short of the evidence by which the canonicity of the books of Scripture is supported, we might go on to show, but it is unnecessary, and would be out of place. There is no evidence whatever for the canonicity of the Apocrypha. Indeed, Dupin, a Romish historian, says, in his History of the Canon, that "their authority (that of the books of the Apocrypha) is not founded on the testimony of any creditable author." And so indefensible do learned Papists feel the decree of the Council of Trent on this subject to be, that we been paid to everything connected with the books of are told, that in Germany, where much attention has Scripture, some of them "have invented an absurd distinction of proto-canonical and deutero-canonical; claiming for the apocryphal books only the second of these characters-which amounts, in substance, to a confession that they are not canonical at all."* The internal evidence is against them. (1.) They contradict each other; (2.) They contradict the canonical Scriptures; (3.) Many parts of them are at variance with the authentic records of profane historians. All these things have been repeatedly proved.+ It is of books thus demonstrably uninspired and uncanonical that the decree of the Council of Trent * Dr Cunningham's Edition of Stillingfleet's Answer to Gother, p. 121. + See Horne's Introduction, vol. i.; Dupin's History of the Canon; Glasgow Lectures on Popery. says: "Whoever shall not receive, as sacred and canonical, all these books, and every part of them, as they are commonly read in the Catholic Church, and are contained in the old Vulgate Latin edition, let him be accursed." Can it be denied, then, that Rome adds to the Word of God? But this is not all; she adds to it yet further 2. By declaring what are termed the apostolical traditions to be part of the Word of God.-This is what she calls the unwritten Word. The written Word comprises the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament. The unwritten Word, again, consists of oral traditions alleged to have been received from Christ and his apostles. The idea of proving these traditions to be apostolical, and, therefore, to belong to the Word of God, is altogether out of the question; and until they can be proved apostolical, they cannot, of course, be received as such. What is written remains, and remains the same; or if, in any case corrupted, the corruption may be detected by a comparison of manuscripts. But what is unwritten, merely oral, is incapable of such a proof. How can the Church of Rome prove that her traditions came from the apostles? She may refer us to the writings of the fathers; but how can she prove that the fathers received them from that source? And besides, the fathers contradict each other. How are we to come at the truth between them? How, but by referring to the Law and to the Testimony? And thus are we just brought back to the written Word, which it would be much better for us never to leave. The case is shortly this: Those traditions which agree with the written Word, are unnecessary; and those which contradict it, are blasphemous. And it is chiefly in the latter kind that Rome deals. For what are the traditions which she elevates to a level with the words of inspiration? We are not aware of the existence of any book containing a summary of what the Church believes under the head of tradition; but we suppose her traditions must sanction and embody her own system of doctrine. And if it be so, then we know that her traditions are false; for her doctrines make void both Law and Gospel, and never could have come from the same source from which the Bible came. “To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to that Word, it is because there is no light in them." We will pursue this subject in our next. ' EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK. BY THE REV. W. K. TWEEDIE, EDINBURGIL. THE PASSES OF THE ALPS. As we advance nearer to the south of Europe, and find at once a more genial climate and a more productive soil, it is instructive to notice how fast men degenerate-how sin grows more vigorous or bold, and right principle less influential or restraining. Were the views of Infidelity true, then the more beneficent the Creator, the more grateful and devout should be the creature; but the truth is the very reverse of this. Just in proportion as God over all lavishes his providetnial bounty upon us, we often become more devoted to the gift and less to the Giver. Proceed from Britain to France, from France to the north of Italy, from the north of Italy to the southfor example, to Naples-and finally, from Naples to Sicily-at each remove you find the productions of the earth more abundant or spontaneous, while "brighter suns dispense serener light;" and yet at each remove the moral being degenerates-God is less regarded, superstition becomes more and more dominant, and men more and more spiritually enslaved. If you carry out the remark to climes yet more remote, you will find that in countries where the year is one long autumn, or where three of our seasons are perpetual, man deteriorates in proportion to the exuberance that surrounds him. This we think an indirect, but not obscure, demonstration of the necessity of something more than nature or providence affords, ere man can be refitted and enabled to fulfil the high purposes of his destiny on earth the glorifying of his God and preparing to enjoy him. Let a ceaseless autumn pour the affluence of Jehovah's bounty into the lap of man-let the sun above combine with the earth beneath to render him happy a an animal; all this will only help forward his degeneracy as a spiritual being, unless the power of God's Spirit combine with the beneficence of his providence to train and elevate his mind. The truth can make him free, but nothing else can do so; and many thoughts like these were forced upon us as we descended into the Valley of Aoste. Far up on the mountain-at a height, perhaps, of five thousand feet-we saw patches of cultivation; but as the temperature and productiveness of the Valley increased, man appeared to us more enfeebled and degraded. It was at Aoste that we first saw individuals, in great numbers, afflicted with the double disease of goitre and cretinism-either of them painful- together, loathsome. The former begins to appear at all ages-from twelve, ten, or even eight years-and is found almost exclusively among the poor. In a goitre patient, the thyroid gland enlarges so as to form an enormous mass of flabby tumour; the chin protrudes; and from the angle which the countenance is thus made to assume, the forehead appears flattened, sometimes like that of a Carib; the countenance becomes sallow and cadaverous, and the whole frame is generally listless and torpid. Whatever be the origin of the disease-whether it be produced by the use of snow-water, as some suppose, or by the exhalations and heated air of the valleys affecting the throat and neck, as others allege-it is so unpleasant to the eye, that one's first instinctive feeling is to turn from it in disgust. But when to the state of goitre is added that of cretin, the victim of the twin malady becomes an object of deep commiseration. The latter affects the mind, as the former the body. The eye is dull and lustreless. Deafness supervenes. The hands are often deformed; the limbs and feet are distorted; the tongue refuses to perform its functions, or utters only eldrich screams, or as wild unmeaning laughter; so that when all these meet in one poor mortal, dis figuring his body, and all but destroying his mind, he becomes like a living hospital of disease. Yet, it is beautiful to notice-it half reconciles one EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK. As a 153 crown, a jawbone of John the Baptist, and other lying wonders, so revered or worshipped that it is scarcely too much to say: "These be thy gods, O Israel," or to add: "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." (Ps. cxv.) Indulgences seem the chief religious commodity, and these are offered to the faithful in "The vision of all is become as a book abundance. that is sealed." When shall the day arrive "when the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and dark(Isa. xxix.) ness ?" to the spectacle-to observe how affection clings to dral, the priests exhibit a thorn of the Redeemer's these hapless beings with obvious tenderness. compensation for the wretchedness which parents bequeath to their diseased offspring, we often notice that they hang with most intense regard over the feeble or the decrepit of their family; and by this fine exhibition of the vis medicatrix naturae, the misery which cannot be removed is soothed. But for this strongly developed instinct, the Valley of Aoste would be yet more wretched than it is. While the cretins lie basking by the waysides, or at the corner of streets, in all the imbecility of helpless idiocy, affection tends them just as mothers tend their infants; and cretins in Italy and Switzerland are like the innocents of Scotland-somewhat of a sacred caste. And what is the scale which they hold in God's mysterious scheme of providence? Incapable of rational acts, are they to be created anew in a sense different from that commonly meant by the words? Are they to be dealt with as responsible beings? Or-But there is no end of such questions. In the streets of Aoste, as we looked upon some of these beings, the "Be still, and know words were forced upon us: that I am God:" "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Their future portion is among the things not revealed, which belong to the Lord our God; and where he has been silent, it is vain for us to speculate. It has been said that Bonaparte ordered all the cretins to be destroyed at their birth. If there be truth in the assertion, that cretinism is unknown in the uplands, that might suggest some explanation of the origin of this affecting malady. It was at Aoste (Augusta Praetoria) that we first saw in masses the remains of Roman architecture. There are here an amphitheatre, and a triumphal arch reared in honour of Augustus, who was the first to subdue the Sallaces-the ancient inhabitants of the Valley. Even at the distance of nineteen centuries, the arch testifies to the taste, while it tells of the triumphs, of ancient Rome. It renders man yet more a marvel, when one sees such opposite properties blended in the same individuals. The arch before us was based on the freedom, or cemented by the blood, of forty-four thousand immortal beings; while yet the symmetry and elegance that mingle with such grinding oppression, tell how wonderful is man, even amid his ruins! Even though the ancient city was taken, sacked, and rebuilt, the lusts of the Romans were not satisfied. An amphitheatre must be reared for the exhibition of their barbarous sports-to tell to all posterity at once the massive elegance of Roman architecture, and the unquenchable thirst of Roman conquerors for blood. But the abominations of one dynasty-the Cæsarshave given place to those of another-the Popes; and Popery is reigning here over men's souls, as Roman One cannot estityranny once ruled their bodies. mate the importance of the Reformation aright, or thoroughly understand the need of divine power to achieve that signal revolution, till he has seen Popery domineering, without restraint, over men's minds and souls, in unreformed countries. At Aoste, for instance, and indeed everywhere in the Valley, the seventy thousand souls who inhabit the Dutchy appear to be sunk in deepest ignorance. In the cathe In the market-place of Aoste, there stands a column bearing the following inscription :"Hanc Calvini fuga erexit, Anno MDXLI. Religionis constantia Reparavit. Anno MDCCXLI." There is some difficulty in pronouncing with certainty regarding this column; for both history and tradition vary in the accounts which they give. The common opinion is, that Calvin, after visiting the Duchess of Ferara, at whose court he is known to have resided, returned by Aoste, and preached the doctrines of the Reformation there, as he had done elsewhere in Italy. But persecution drove him thence. The pillar commemorated the event; and renewed, as it was, after the lapse of two hundred years, it proclaims that another Calvin is needed to preach again the Gospel of the Son of God. The most rigid censorship in all that is connected with literature and religion here prevails, and the effects are visible in the general prostration of mind. The Valley of the Doire, which flows by Aoste to the Po, though rich, is not healthy; but the antidote as well as the bane is there; and between Aoste and Courmayeur (Curia Major) we passed some medicinal springs, formerly much frequented. The Little St Bernard was on our left, and at night we took up our abode at the base of Mont Blanc, with some of its glaciers full in view. At day-dawn, on the 30th of August, we left Courmayeur to make the passage of the Col de la Seigne, We were now the Col de Four, and of Bon Homme-so many spurs from the monarch of mountains. mounted upon mules; and as we, our two Martigny guides, with the two muleteers, all emerged from the courtyard and proceeded along the mountain pass, not abreast, for that was impossible, but in a line, the cavalcade was rather bizarre; but ere the day was done we had reason to think much of our new acquaintances, the muleteers and mules. It seemed strange to meet with hot springs in this ice-bound region; yet, shortly after starting, we passed one where the supply is copious. Our object now was, not to ascend Mont Blanc, but to climb to the points where the most commanding views upon the mountain, from summit to base, are enjoyed. At Entreves, we came in sight of the Glacier of Brenva, reputed one of the finest on the Alps. A mass so magnificent and singular is best described by comparing it to an ocean congealed in a moment, amid its wildest heavings. The resemblance to waves is perfect. The crevices are often fathoms deep; so that travelling over the glacier, were that possible, would literally correspond to the Psalmist's description: "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted within them." The Ruize of Brenva suggests the thought, that all the snows on Mont Blanc had been suddenly dissolved -had flowed in this direction, and been suddenly congealed again in their flow. The debris from the mountain is piled in masses on the glacier, favouring the study of the geologist, and illustrating the theories of Agassiz and others; but the moraines destroy the picturesque effect of the sea of ice. At the Glaciers of Miage, Fresnai, and Broglia, the moraine lies in such piles as to resemble a shattered mountain. It was near this glacier that we first distinctly heard the war of the avalanche. They were frequent throughout the day-literally like thunder in loudness, but more brief in duration. The dreary Lake of Combal, is like the pelican's home, so lonely and desolate is the spot. Yet here, also, we found traces of French hardihood and ambition. The ruins of a redoubt, reared to defend the pass, are still standing-another monument of mad ambition. By a dyke and sluice at the outlet of the lake, the waters are dammed up; and were it needful, as it has been, to defend the pass against an enemy, he could be swept away by the flood rushing down the steep declivity. We felt it strange that even here men should have found it necessary thus to plot and counterplot each other. From the lake a steep climb of half an hour through the Allée Blanche brought us to the Col de la Seigne, at the height of seven thousand five hundred and seventy-eight feet above the level of the sea, or just about half the elevation of the mountain. The dark and savage wildness which predominates all around, the depths into which even the eye can scarcely penetrate, and the clouds rolling far below us, made up a scene to which, even among the Alps, we had not been accustomed. Nothing was heard save the wail or scream of the lonely marmot, and the roar of distant waterfalls; but Mont Blanc was hid in clouds, and its stupendousness was wanted to realize our expectations. Amid a scene like this, one can more than ever understand the meaning of the words: "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." We allowed the guides, with the mules, to descend into the Valley of Mottet, while we lingered for a little behind in this region of inexpressible grandeur. It is the spirit of man that communes with God, and that spirit may often be independent of external aids. The Son is the way to the Father, and through him there is access, in the dungeon or at the stake, as easily as on the summit of an Alp; yet when the soul of a believer has learned the way to the throne, there are external objects which solemnize his mind and render devotion more easy. The Spirit of God may bless such things to enable us more sensibly to *The local name for glacier. realize the majesty and the nearness of the Omnipresent. Amid the dark depths of the Black Forest we had felt thus solemnized; and now, to be alone at such a height, completely insulated from every human being, and no eye seeing, no ear hearing, but that of the Omniscient, tends to detach the mind from the things that are seen and temporal. Eternity feels nearer; and the soul, in its loneliness, now understands why Moses was taken to a mountain to be alone with God-why Jesus retired to a mountain apart to pray-why he loved the desert and the solitary place, where God was near, and all besides remote. No doubt, this may not be devotion-the religion of the Spirit. It may be only imagination, or sentiment, turned in a particular direction. But the Christian can test his emotions by a standard that is infallible. Do they tend to humble him?-to bring out more thoroughly his own insignificance, contrasted with the glory of his God-the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is sin felt to be more sinful, because it impedes our access to God? and holiness to be more lovely, because it is the medium in which God is enjoyed? In short, amid such scenes, as everywhere, does the Christian feel that Christ is increasing-that self is decreasing? Then his feelings tend to heaven; and one hour of such communing with God is better than a thousand with his creatures. MY PILGRIMAGE. My gown of glory, hope's true gage; Travelleth tow'rds the land of heaven Other balm will not be given. Over the silver mountains, The bowl of bliss, And drink mine everlasting fill THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. ONE of the means used by John Williams for the information and improvement of the converted South Sea Islanders, was the institution of a weekly meeting, at which they might converse on religious subjects among themselves. Williams himself presided, and stated the subject of conversation-doctrinal, or as it might be, practical or devotional and thereafter the islanders freely gave their thoughts upon it-if they felt difficulties, stating them, that they might be solved-if they saw clearly, showing how and always deeming it essential to support what they said by a portion of Scripture; and Williams himself occa MYCONIUS' DREAM. sionally proposing a question, starting an objection, or throwing out a remark, as circumstances might dictate. The meetings excited great interest, and were followed with the very best results. In one of his letters, Williams gives us the following specimen of them, being an account of a meeting at which the subject of conversation was the divinity of Christ: 155 Our missionary cures by giving medicine; Jesus did so by his voice only.' 'Stay; did not Jesus mix clay with spittle and anoint the eyes of the blind? But and anoint the eyes of Taeva (a blind man), and see is that medicine? You take clay, or sand, or coral, what a miracle you will make of it.' Is it a Godlike action to pray? is there not something un-godlike in praying? For you, the prayerless, did he pray.' Another said, he believed he was God, because he said, I and my Father are one; and, I am the Alpha and Omega; and because the Father addressed him, saying, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness,' &c. "Another believed it, because he fully satisfied the justice of God; and, when cast off by his Father on the cross, yet bore the weight of man's guilt by himself. 'He is also,' added this native, to judge the world, and must therefore be God.' "Another said, 'He himself has promised, Where two or three are met in my name, there am I in the midst of them; and, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world. Now how can he fulfil these promises? While we are gathered here to worship and pray, others are gathered in distant lands-some in Britain; and how can he be with them all if he is not God?"" MYCONIUS' DREAM. IN the life of Myconius, the friend of Luther, as given by Melchior Adam, we have the following beautiful and striking account of an event which proved the turning-point in his history, and led him to devote his energies to the cause of Christ:-The first night that he entered the monastery, intending to becone a monk, he dreamed; and it seemed as if he was ranging a vast wilderness alone. Suddenly a guide appeared, and led him onwards to a most lovely vale, watered by a pleasant stream-but of that he was not permitted to taste; then to a marble fountain of pure water. He tried to kneel and drink "I firmly believe,' said the first speaker, that Jesus Christ is God as well as man.' Are you not mistaken?' was the reply; was not Jesus man, and man only? I believe,' rejoined the first, that Jesus was really man, for he had both the body and soul of man; but he was God as well as man, for he took on himself the form of man. If he had been only man, he could not have died for sinners.' 'Is not that a proof," asked another, that he is not God? If God, why die? First speaker: His dying only proves him to be man; his rising again proves him to be God.' And if," added another, he was only man, why so much ado about his death? Many have died cruel deaths; Paul was beheaded, and Peter was crucified, but there is not so much said about their deaths. Ah! but,' rejoined another, lately Tuihe died among us, and there was a great ado about his death-what he said, and how happily he died.' 'But stop,' cried one, did the sun hide himself in darkness at Tuihe's death?-did the rocks rend at Tuihe's death-did any exclaim at Tuihe's death, Truly this was the Son of God? But did not Jesus eat food when on earth, and will God eat food?" I say,' was the answer, he was man as well as Godtherefore did he eat food.' Give us some other proof that he was God,' said another. The various miracles that he wrought,' was the reply. But did not Peter and all the apostles work miracles?' 'Yes; but they did their miracles with borrowed power; and, when they returned, did they not tell Jesus that they did all in his name, and not in their own; and even that they had cast out devils in his name? Another said, 'Is not the star that led the wise men from the Fast a proof of the divinity of Jesus? But, if really God, would he have been laid in a manger?' "Yes,' said another; for did he not humble himself, and lay aside his glory as God? If he had come in his glory, would not man have exceedingly feared? We know what Moses said. Another added: When Jesus was baptized by John, did not God say from heaven, This is my beloved Son? Did not the Spirit descend upon him-did not the heavens open? and what is all this, but proof that he was really God?' But have not others been spoken to from heaven?" Who-who?" Paul was addressed from heaven-ply. They came nearer, and saw a solitary reaper Peter was addressed from heaven.' 'True, but did God say to Paul, Thou art my beloved Son?' Another, Could any man feed five thousand with a few loaves and fishes?' Another, Angels attended at the birth of Christ: a great company. 'Angels attended also about John.' 'An angel brought the message to Zacharias; but angels did not attend at his birth, and sing, Glory to God,' &c. Another, 'If he had been only man, he would have been in the cave to the present day.' 'Don't you know that his disciples stole him away?" • Was he stolen ?-that's a lame tale. If the soldiers were asleep, how could they know he was stolen? Well, how can you prove that he is gone to heaven? Was he not seen on earth after he rose? did he not ask meat of his disciples, and converse with them?" 'Stop, friend,' one replied; is it general with dying men to rise again, and go about and ask meat, and converse with their friends?" "You talked about miracles; does not our missionary cure the lame, the halt, and the blind? Answer, How many people did Jesus bleed? to whom did he give medicine? when, lo! a crucified Saviour stood forth to view, from whose wounds gushed the copious stream. In a moment his guide flung him into the fountain. His mouth met the flowing wounds, and he drank most sweetly, never to thirst again! No sooner was he refreshed himself, than he was led away by his guide, to be taught what great things he was yet to do for the crucified One whose precious wounds had poured the living water into his soul. He came to a widestretching plain, covered with waving grain. His guide orders him to reap. He excuses himself by saying, that he was wholly unskilled in such labour. "What you know not, you shall learn," was the re toiling at the sickle with such prodigious effort, as if |