piety..... We confirm, and by apostolical authority

What says the decree of the Council of Trent on the subject? Does it contain no prohibition? It runs in these words (we give both Latin and English, that there may be no mistake):

"Cum experimento manifestum sit, si Sacra Biblia vulgari lingua passim sine discrimine permittantur, plus, inde, ob hominum temeritate, detrimenti, quam utilitatis oriri, hac in parti judicio Episcopi aut Inquisitoris stetur: ut cum concilio Parochi, vel Confessorii, Biblorum à Catholicis Auctoribus versorum lectionem in vulgari lingua eis concedere possint, quos intellexerint ex hujusmodi lectione, non damnum sed fidei atque pietatis augmentum capere posse: quam facultatem in scriptis habeant. Qui autem absque tali facultati ea legere seu habere præsumpserit, nisi prius Bibliis Ordinario redditis, peccatorum absolutionem percipere non possit."

"Since it is manifest by experience, that if the sacred Bibles in the vulgar tongue be allowed everywhere indiscriminately, more injury than advantage will thence arise, through men's rashness, let this matter be determined by the judgment of the bishop or inquisitor; who may, by the advice of the parish priest or confessor, allow the reading of Bibles translated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic authors, to those of whom they learn that they are likely to derive, not mischief, but an increase of faith and piety from this kind of reading; which license they must have in writing. Whosoever, without such a license, shall presume to read them, or possess them, shall not receive the absolution of his sins, till the Bibles are given up to the ordinary.-Rule iv."

This is decisive. What does the decree mean but this, that the general circulation of the Bible is a very bad and dangerous thing, and that, therefore, no man is to have a Bible in his possession, unless he has obtained a written permission from the bishop; and further, that the possession of a Bible by any one, without such permission, shall be held as rendering his sins incapable of pardon ! Any man who thinks or acts otherwise is declared to be accursed!

God says: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life." "No," says Rome, "search not the Scriptures; for if ye do, ye bring down upon yourselves eternal death." True, there are cases in which the bishop may permit the reading of the Scriptures. But what blasphemy is here! -a man permitting some of his fellow-men to do what God has commanded! How true is that feature of the great Apostasy-" He exalteth himself above all that is called God!"

We might give many extracts from the bulls of Popes following up this decree, but the following extract from a bull of Gregory XVI. (the present Pope), and issued only last year, will suffice:

"We read in the rules drawn up by the fathers chosen by the Council of Trent, approved by Pius IV., our predecessor of happy memory, and prefixed to the index of prohibited books, a provision which has been generally approved-that Bibles published in the vulgar tongue should be allowed to no persons, but to those to whom the reading of them was judged likely to be productive of an increase of faith and

ing the printing, publication, reading, and retaining of the books of Holy Scripture translated into the vulgar tongue; while with respect to other works of whatever author, we will that all should remember. that they must abide by the general rules and decrees of our predecessors, prefixed to the index..... Called as you are, venerable brethren, to participate in our solicitude, we urgently bid you, in the Lord, to announce and explain, as place and time permit, to the people intrusted to your pastoral care, this our apo tolic judgment, and these our commands..... It wi also be your duty to seize out of the hands of the faithful, not only Bibles translated into the vulger tongue, which may have been published contrary t the above directions of the Roman Pontiffs, but also proscribed or injurious books of every sort."

Is any further proof needed that Rome is an enemy to the general circulation and perusal of the Word of God? Let it be found in the awful fact, that in Roman Catholic countries the Bible is scarcely known. or when known, it is avoided, and often burned. In Italy and Spain, a Bible reader would be marked. and shunned, and punished as a heretic. Dr Keith mentions that he could not get a single Bible to purchase in the whole of a Continental city.

And to refer to Ireland, in many parts of which Popery is made to wear as Protestant a garb as pos sible, Mr Morgan of Belfast stated sometime ago. that among the Papists of Belfast such a thing as a Bible was almost unknown.

Indeed, "a Bible reader" is a term of reproach in Ireland, and even a Romish bishop (Dr Doyle) deliberately declared that he greatly admired the orthodoxy of a man who had taken a Protestant Bible with the tongs, lest he should defile his touch with it, and buried it in the earth, and when examined before Parliament, stated further, that he "would be highly amused by such a proceeding, and would reward a man for it!"

THE SOUL IN AND OUT OF THE BODY. LIKE as a light, fast lock'd in lantern dark, Wherewith by night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets, and dirty channels mark; Some weaker rays through the black top do glide, And flusher streams perhaps from horny side:

But when we've past the peril of the way, Arrived at home, and laid that case aside, The naked light, how clearly doth it ray, And spread its joyful beams as bright as summer's day!

Even so the soul, in this contracted state,

Confined to these strait instruments of sense, More dull and narrowly doth operate;

At this hole hears, the sight must ray from thence;

Here tastes, there smells; but when she's gone from

hence,

Like naked lamp, she is one shining sphere, And round about hath perfect cognizance,

Whate'er in her horizon doth appear; She is one orb of sense-all eye, all airy ear.

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rences.

ciate. The structure of the houses and gardens-the employments of the people the mosaics and paintings-speak a language so plain as to be unmistakable. They warrant a multitude of certain infeThe half-disinterred towns themselves, and their more interesting remains, which have been collected into museums, explain and confirm the written accounts of Roman history. They prove not only the existence, but the character of the people. They proclaim their peculiarities, and illustrate what is obscure in their writings; nay, the paintings throw light on the literature and mythology of Greece as well as of Rome. So it is of the Egyptian monuments and remains. They bring out the existence and character of the Egyptians, and of the Israelites who dwelt in their borders. They, in an undesigned but direct way, show the accuracy of the writings of Moses that the author could have been no recent impostor, dealing in forgeries, but must have been a contemporary and eye-witness of many of the events which he describes; in short, they show that his pictures are real as well as ancient. Had the writings professed to be of the same age and country with the monuments, and had it appeared, on examination, that they did not correspond-that the one contradicted the other-the inference would have been inevitable, that one or other was speaking falsely; and as this could scarcely be supposed of the stone or the paint, the next inference must have been that the writer was not worthy of credit. In the case of Moses and his writings, the result is widely and happily different. The fine, steady, almost invariable climate of Egypt, has tended to preserve the remains in all the freshness and vividness of colour in which they were originally impressed; and they speak, like so many living attestators, to the scrupulous accuracy of the Hebrew lawgiver and historian. There are no discrepancies-there is nothing but agreement. The evidence is something of the same nature as the raising of an unexpected witness from the dead. The monuments of Egypt, with their recent revelations, are like witnesses called from the grave. Indeed, in some respects, they are better than living men-they cannot be bribed to lie. We must only be careful that we do not draw false inferences from their silent testimony. It is surely matter of thankfulness to God, that in his all-wise providence, such materials of proof have been treasured up both in Italy and Egypt. The latter is the Scripture field; but by the parallelisms which the former supplies, we are better enabled to discern the force of the argument for revelation. If Infidels object, they are now answered out of their own mouth. The men who think, and justly, that the letter of Pliny, giving an account of the eruption of Vesuvius, and confirmed by the remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii-who see the suddenness of the devastation in the skeleton bearing the bag of gold, and caught in the act; or the sentinel, now a skeleton, standing in his sentry-box with his lance; and particular shops, with the marble counter, with the wet marks of vessels on its surface-these persons cannot object to the friends of revelation drawing inferences with similar confidence from the remains of Egypt-cannot question, for instance, the remarkable circumstances of

Moses' birth, in so far as the bathing is concerned, when they find, however unlikely it might otherwise || have appeared, that an ancient Egyptian bathing, scene has been preserved among the monuments, in which a lady is represented as bathing, attended by four servants, ready to perform their various offices. What more just illustration could be given of the visit of Pharaoh's daughter and her attendants to the Nile? The only thing to be borne in mind, in making comparisons between the evidence supplied of Egyptian and Hebrew life by the monuments of Egypt, and that supplied of Roman life by the excavations of the towns in the neighbourhood of Vesuvius, is the vast antiquity of the one compared with that of the other. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place fifteen hundred years before the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Indeed, the glory of the Hebrew nation was over, and its tribes broken up and dispersed, ere the first foundations of Rome were laid. The proofs of the character of its people, as recorded on the monuments of Egypt, are not, on that account, less true; but they can scarcely be expected! to be so abundant, or to be so easily verified. Their antiquity adds, however, greatly to their interest; and the evidences are far from scanty. Indeed, they are most abundant and minute-showing the perfect accuracy of the Mosaic narrative, on the one hand, and the kindness of Divine Providence, in the ample! records, preserved as a counterpart, in the monu- | ments of Egypt, on the other. With these explanatory remarks, I have space only for a few illustrations.

VEGETABLES.-The writings of Moses speak of the Egyptian onion as peculiarly grateful, so that the Israelites lamented the loss of it. Was this the fancy of a forger about what had no existence? On the monuments of Egypt there are drawings of the onion, which is a large and agreeable food, extensively used by the common people to the present day. The translator of Hengstenberg remarks, generally: "Vegetables are depicted in great variety and abundance. It is indeed impossible to look at any representation of an Egyptian garden without feeling some sympathy for the complaints and murmurings of the Israelites in the desert."-P. 201. How exactly does this coincide with the statements of Moses!

ANIMALS. An inference, adverse to the Mosaic parrative, has been drawn from the circumstance that in Pharaoh's gift to Abraham no mention is made of horses, though they were common in Egypt. But the inference is hasty. Evidently it was not intended that the descendants of Abraham should place their reliance in cavalry, but in the Lord of hosts. Hence there is no mention of the horse in the law of Moses. It was not till the days of Solomon that a cavalry force was employed; and then it was comparatively small, and unwarrantable besides. Even in Egypt the horse is introduced into the monuments, chiefly, if not exclusively, in cases of war; and it was not in that character that Abraham appeared before Pharaoh. Hence the propriety of no mention of horses in his case. In harmony with this and Abraham's character as a shepherd, there is a striking pastoral scene taken from a tomb hewn in the rock, on which, according to Mr Wikin

"First came the oxen, over which is the number 834, cows 220, goats 3234, asses 760, and sheep 974." There are no horses. The Israelites were shepherds in Egypt, and sheep appear on the monuments frequently, and in great numbers.

FISH.-One of the first complaints of the Israelites, in the desert, was the absence of the fish of Egypt. These were most abundant. The monuments proclaim this. Fishing is one of the employments most frequently depicted. Indeed, an entire caste was devoted to the occupation; and their inferiority to the agriculturists can be traced in the pictorial representations.

EMPLOYMENTS OF MEN-BRICK-MAKING.-Agreeably to the intimations of Moses, the bricks of Egypt are found to contain a portion of chopped straw. A picture, taken from a tomb at Thebes, is believed by Rossellini to be a representation of the unhappy Hebrews at brick-making. The dissimilarity to the Egyptians appears in a moment. By complexion, physiognomy, and beard, they are at once seen to be Hebrews. Their degradation, too, is vividly depicted. WORKING IN METALS.-Moses speaks of Bezaleel having power to devise curious works, and working in gold, and silver, and brass. The ark of the testimony and the boards of the tabernacle were to be overlaid with gold. Rossellini says: "From the articles represented in the Egyptian tombs, it is manifest how anciently the art of casting and working metals was practised in Egypt." Wilkinson testifies to various articles, from the earliest times, being overlaid with gold. The mummies were gilded, and chains of gold for necklaces were very common. Such is the testimony, not only of the monuments, but of remains themselves.

WRITING AND WRITERS.-NO nation seems to have been more, if so much, addicted to any art as the Egyptians were to writing. It is owing to this very turn of mind that on their tombs, and even their clothes, we have such ample memorials of their character to the present day. There was, besides, a distinct class of scribes, whose importance is vividly depicted on the monuments. Their early perfection in the art of writing coincides with various notices of writing of different kinds in the Books of Moses, and also the Book of Job. It is evidently taken for granted that the people would have no difficulty in transmitting knowledge in an accurate form to remote periods. PHYSICIANS.-These were very numerous in Egypt. Indeed the country was famous for them, so that even Cyrus and Darius had Egyptian medical attendants. The practice of embalming necessarily created a great demand for such officers. Hence we read of Joseph commanding his physicians to embalm his father. Hence, too, the many mummies preserved to this day. The pictures of funeral processions are very frequent, and so vividly recall the narrative of Moses, that Hengstenberg remarks: "When we behold the representations of the processions of the dead, we seem to see the funeral train of Jacob."

Among the employments of men, the last which I shall mention is that of SOLDIERS. In regard to the

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The sacred historian describes the soldiers which pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea, and in whose waves they were engulfed, as consisting of war chariots not of cavalry, strictly speaking, but of chariots with two horses. And this is singularly correct. So far as the investigations have proceeded, there are no cavalry, but abundant traces of the war chariot, which, on the occasion of the exodus, was the more needed, that the occasion was one in which infantry could be of no great service.

CUSTOMS.-It is a remarkable peculiarity of the Egyptians, that they sat at meals. In all the pictures of entertainments it appears that the guests, male and female, sat at table. Though couches are found in the room, these were reserved for sleeping. Now, in harmony with this Egyptian custom, Joseph and his brethren, in the narrative of Moses, are represented as sitting, though the patriarchal practice was to recline.

Another peculiarity was the carrying of burdens on the head. We see a reference to this in the dream of Pharaoh's chief baker, who carried the basket with various confectionaries, for which the Egyptians were celebrated, on his head. There are frequent examples of this mode of carrying on the monuments. It is characteristic, though not exclusive; and as Moses' mention of it is incidental, the coincidence is the more striking.

ORNAMENTS OF RANK.-Pharaoh put a gold chain or necklace around the neck of Joseph, in token of honour. The monuments are full of them. Slaves are represented as carrying them to their master. Kings and nobles are uniformly arrayed in them. "Figures of noble youth are found entirely devoid of clothing, but richly ornamented with necklaces." Beautiful specimens of the articles themselves, as well as of the representation of them, are deposited in the British Museum.

SACRED OINTMENTS are made of great account in the Old Testament, even in early times. In harmony with this, we find ample use of unguents among the Egyptians. There are not only pictures of them, but vases, still fragrant with their perfume, have descended to our day.

CORN THRESHING.-Moses forbids the Hebrews to muzzle the ox when treading out the corn. The monuments proclaim that oxen were used for threshing. Champollion, describing a subterraneous apartment where this operation is depicted, gives a song addressed by the overseer to the oxen, and which is inscribed above them, encouraging the cattle to partake.

FAMINE, AND PROVISION AGAINST IT.-Though Egypt be so fertile-dependent for its crop, not on the rains, but on the regular overflowing of the Nile

yet no country has been so great a sufferer in every age from famine. Hence the necessity of storehouses, such as those which Joseph is represented in the Book of Genesis as constructing. In perfect accordance with the Mosaic account, store-houses form a very prominent object in the paintings. They are very numerous and vast, and present all the air of public buildings.

The

The monuments proclaim the same qualities. name Pharaoh means an incarnation of the sun. The ancient palaces were temples for worship as well as the residence of kings. The miserable monarch claimed and received divine honours.

The hatred of the Egyptians to the Hebrews is well known; this also is apparent from the remains. Those who have had an opportunity of studying them, declare that there must have been some foreign Asiatic class in Egypt the objects of humiliating degradation. Joseph tells us, that "every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." "The artists of Upper and Lower Egypt vie with each other in caricaturing them." The hatred is conspicuous; nay, it is stated that the progress of the dislike can be traced, in perfect conformity with the growing aversion discovered in the Pentateuch.

With regard again, more particularly, to the FEMALE EGYPTIAN CHARACTER, the monuments bear out the written records. The profligacy of Potiphar's wife may almost seem incredible in her rank of society, but the remains of the Egyptians themselves render it of easy belief. Females are represented as being so much overcome with wine as to be unable to stand or walk alone, or "to carry their liquor discreetly." Ladies are represented as sitting unveiled at banquets, and indulging in large libations of wine. Contrary to the practice of the East generally, there was far more social freedom in Egypt at that time than even in Greece. The pictures of entertainments, in so far as the easy mingling of the sexes is concerned, give much the air of modern European intercourse. In harmony with this, Sarah is represented, in the 12th of Genesis, when in Egypt, as appearing unveiled in public. Fairness of complexion, too, which was admired in her, it appears, from the monuments, was generally esteemed; so much so, that ladies of rank, though belonging to nations of dark complexion, are represented as comparatively fair.

Such is a rapid glance at a few monumental illustrations of the accuracy of the Books of Moses. The proofs might be greatly enlarged. Indeed, the number and minuteness of the points of agreement form one of the wonders of the comparison, and must be examined in detail in order to be appreciated. Let what has been stated suffice as a specimen. No impartial, no honest man, after this contemplation, can doubt the truth of the Mosaic narrative. He may as well doubt his senses. And how much does the truth of the Mosaic narrative imply and involve? The New Testament hangs upon the Old, and upon both our eternal safety is suspended. Shake the truth of Moses, and the same principle of doubt will reach to the entire Scriptures. How pleasing to find that age, which, in other things, is associated with weakness and decay, brings no injury to the Word of God or its proofs that, on the contrary, the latter grow and improve with years! How pleasing, too, to mark the traces of an over-ruling Providence in the present case! A Neological, in other words, an Infidel professor, attacked the authenticity of Moses, and hoped to gather proofs for his scepticism from the monuments of Egypt. He was full of ignorant confidence, like the class to which he belongs. A brother pro

fessor (Hengstenberg) of a different (the evangelical) school, took up the gauntlet, and not only showed the superior learning of truth above error, but established the particular truth which was assailed on a basis of clearness and certainty not reached before. Thus it has often been in the history of revelation. Its enemies have frequently, though unwittingly, done more for it than friends. So true is its own statement, that God makes the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of his wrath he restrains.

MOSES AND SOLOMON THE FIRST NATURAL HISTORIANS.

THE first chapter of natural history, though written considerably more than three thousand years ago, is the most precious that ever was written. It was written by Moses, under the immediate teaching of God; and without the aid of inspiration it could not have been written, for it tells us of the creation of the heavens and of the earth, and of the creation of man. It is a pattern of the manner in which natural history should be written, as it gives to God, in all things, the glory and the praise. In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth." This is a sentence similar to that in which Longinus, a heathen writer, saw so much of the true sublime-“God said, Let there be light, and there was light." What a word! "He spake, and it was done." Of nothing. "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." They who believe that the globe we inhabit existed for ages as the residence of inferior animals, before man was brought into being, contend that this first verse contains all the information that the Lord saw fit to give respecting this world's his tory, before it was fashioned afresh to be the abode of the human race. The Bible was given for nobler purposes than as a repository of natural science. He who is from everlasting to everlasting, can afford to pass over the wonders of his power in creating and preserving myriads of irrational creatures, when he has far greater wonders to set before us, in the crea tion, the ruin, the redemption of creatures formed after his own image, raised from misery in which, through sin, they had involved themselves—in a way the most astonishing made partakers of the divine nature, and raised eventually to eternal glory and blessedness, at his right hand in the heavens. He can leave inferior matters "to be sought out of those who have pleasure in them;" and inferior though they be, compared with the wonders of redemption, they are worth being “sought out,” for they furnish abundant proofs of the power, and wisdom, and fore sight of an all-wise and all-powerful God.

The Bible is the record of God's dealings towards man. Had it contained only the natural history man, it would have been a most mournful book--“ roll written within and without with lamentations mourning, and woe." But, blessed be God, the Bible contains not only mournful records of "the natur man," but also many joyful pages respecting "renewed man." It tells us of man's supernatur history-of the fulfilment of a heaven-devised pa in which "mercy and truth meet together, and righ teousness and psace kiss each other," by which G can be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly.