The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

18-i OF READING THE SCRIPTURES.1824, says, " If the Bible Society came to distribute copiesof the Bible, even of that version which the Catholic Churchapproves of, on this principle [that of the Bible Society], weshould still consider it our duty to oppose them,"'"'* Sincethe 1st of June 1816, four pontiffs in succession, includingPius IX., have distinctly and formally intimated to theworld, that by the distribution and reading of the holyScriptures in the vulgar tongue, " the very foundations oftheir religion are undermined.''"''fIn the face of these facts,—of their written creed plainlyprohibiting the reading of the Scriptures without a licence,under pain of being held guilty of mortal sin ;of anathemasagainst Bible Societies, thundered forth by the pontiffs ;the burning of the Bible by the hands of priests, as if it were" the book of heresy," as it was termed by the public prosecutor,when he pulled the New Testament from the sleeve ofthe " Vicar of Dollar ;" in the face of the refusal of thesacrament to the dying, for the crime of sending theirchildren to a school where the Bible was read ; and the attemptsboth in Edinburgh, as in the case of the RaggedSchools, and in Ireland, as in the case of the KildarePlace Society schools, to defeat and overthrow schemesdevised for the reclamation of the ignorant, the vicious, andthe outcast, because these schemes included the reading ofthe Scriptures without note or comment,—it requires, as-of* Elliott's Delineation of Romanism, pp. 21, 22.+ Doubtless the most effectual way of extirpating heresy would be toextirpate the Bible ; and this object Rome has striven to effect, not onlyby pontifical bulls, but by stigmatizing the Bible in every possible way, tobring it into general contempt. Pighius called the Scriptures a nose ofwax, which easily suffers itself to be drawn backward and forward, and mouldedthis way and that ivay, and however you like. Turrian styled them a shoe thatwill ft anyfoot, a sj^hinx riddle, a matter for strife, Lessius, imperfect, doiditful,obscure, ambiguous, and perplexed. The author De Tribus Veritatibus designatesthem a forest for thieves, a shop :— of heretics. How different the estimatewhich Djivid had formed of them " The law of the Lord is perfect, conveiijngthe soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise tlieeiuiplc."