PETER A MAN OF PROGRESS.

            The Council of Toulouse, in 1229, decreed that “The laity should not be allowed to have the books of the Old and New Testament, except perhaps a Psalter or Breviary for public worship, or the Hours of the blessed Mary; and we most strictly forbid their having those permitted books translated into the vulgar tongue.”—Labbei Concil. tom. xxiii. p. 197. Terribly afraid of the people understanding what they read!

            In reply to the churches of Bohemia Pope Gregory VII. Said, “Your nobility has requested that we should allow the public service to be celebrated in the Sclavonian language. You should know that we can by no means favour you your petition. It is clear to those who consider it, that it has pleased the Almighty that the scriptures should be obscure in some places, lest if they were plain to all, they should be despised, or lead to error if misunderstood by the common people. We, therefore, by the authority of the blessed Peter, prohibit what you have unwisely asked, and commend you to resist that presumption with all your power to the honour of the Omnipotent.”—Gregorii Epist. ii. lib. vii. Labbei tom. xx.p. 296.

            In theory Protestants condemn the papal policy of keeping the people in ignorance of the Scriptures; practically, however, their policy is the same, only finding expression in a different way. For instance, if a man go to the rulers of a Bethanian Synagogue, and say to them, “I have been studying the Word of the Kingdom of God diligently for many years past, and have discovered that your people are lying under a great mistake concerning the gospel, will you allow me to lay before them, in your place of meeting, what I am able to prove the scriptures teach upon the subject?”—they would refuse, and do the best they could to prevent all from hearing over whom they had influence. This is not a supposition, but a notorious fact which has often been repeated in this boasted land of liberty, intelligence, and free inquiry; and that, too, among a people whose motto used to be “prove all things, and hold fast what is good,” but who now refuse to examine any thing that calls in question the traditions of their scribes, elders, and supervisor! What is true of the Campbellite sect in this country, is equally so of all others. They will only read the scriptures (if at all) in the sense put upon it by the interpretations of their own system. If wrong, they prefer to be so if being set right would put them in opposition to the authority of their church and its guides. These will permit no lay interpretations which do not harmonise with theirs; nor would they permit the Gospel of the Kingdom, or Israel’s Hope, to be examined, or exhibited in their “Sacred Desks.” All this is rank popery—the spirit and policy of their old mother; and in whatever sect her spirit is found there is one of her meretricious brood. A policy that discourages a free and untrammelled examination of the Bible, and an open avowal of the conclusions to which such an investigation leads, and sustains itself by pains and penalties of whatever kind, whether expressed or implied, is in principle as devilish and Satanic as that which lies in the name of Peter, and boldly forbids the light to shine into the human mind at all.

            Gregory VII., called “the Great,” we would suppose, because of his superlative ignorance, falsehood, and impiety, prohibited the reading of the scriptures in a language intelligible to the hearers. He says he made this prohibition “by the authority of the blessed Peter!” Now we do not say that this is untrue. This is too milk-and-water, or sky-blue, a term to express the enormity of the falsehood. When one man tells another he lies, he expects, if the other has any ferocity in his nature, to be knocked down for so plain and unvarnished an avowal of his conviction of his mendacity. Now, although there is not a more ferocious creature than a pope, or one in whom his spirit dwells, we will not fear of consequences hesitate to aver, that it is a lie, and that he who utters it, or endorses it in word or deed, is a child of his, of whom the Lord Jesus said—

                        “He is a liar from the beginning.”

Peter never authorised the keeping of mankind in ignorance. On the contrary, his whole apostolic life was a career of self-denial and sacrifice in enlightening the public—in turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. It is utterly false to say that he prohibited, or authorised any one to prohibit, the worship of God, or the reading of the scriptures in the language of the common people. He taught them that believed, that they were begotten of incorruptible seed, by the word of God evangelised to them; and exhorted them to desire the unadulterated milk of the word that they might grow thereby. He commands all popes, patriarchs, cardinals, bishops, priests, and people to speak as the scriptures teach men to speak, or to hold their peace; for he says,

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”

If “the authority of the blessed Peter” were respected in this matter, it would put to silence the perverters of the people from St. Peter’s Chair to “the Chair of Sacred History” in the setting of the sun. “Add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge,” is the exhortation of “the first pope,” as he is absurdly and ignorantly styled. After enumerating other qualities to be added to these, that they might “not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he remarks, that “he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off;” so that, if Peter be counted as the first Pope of Rome, he condemns all his “successors” for a set of blind fellows who cannot see beyond their nose; for their ignorance of “the knowledge of the Lord Jesus” is notorious to a proverb. The “blessed Peter” was a man of progress; but the High Priests of Jupiter’s statue who “bless” him, forbid the people to advance. Their commands are “keep them in ignorance; exterminate them with fire and sword if they deny our infallibility: thrust them into the deepest, foulest, darkest dungeons, if they read that cursed book the Bible for themselves.” But Peter saith,

“Go on, my brethren: add to faith and goodness, knowledge. Ye have our testimony, and also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private impulse. For prophecy came not in old time by the will of men: but holy men of God spake, being moved by the Holy Spirit.”

If then we must hear a man called a pope, let us hear the “blessed Peter” in his own words: and let all other popes, popelings, and crafty ecclesiasticals of all the “names and denominations,” take up their chairs and walk.

EDITOR.