The same Monthly London Review, for February, 1833, speaking of the pamphlet of Thomas Curtis, of Grove House, Islington, on his discoveries of the falsification of the Bible, says: "In this comparatively brief pamphlet, we find the exposition of one of the most singular deceptions, to which the world has yet been exposed. The imposition, is nothing short of a downright falsification of the text of Scripture. Need we add a syllable more, to rouse the attention of the thinking community?" In the same pamphlet Mr. Curtis remarks: "About twenty years ago, an intelligent reader at one of the printing offices, where the Bible was in a course of printing, took the trouble of drawing up a specification of a number of gross errors, which he found in the very copy, that had been selected by the proper authorities, as the standard of correctness to which he was to adhere. The errors pointed out by the penetrating reader, amounted to no less, than seven hundred and thirty-one, and these occurred in the various chapters, from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of Jeremiah."
Well, most Reverend Gentlemen, it is plain from what I have stated (and where is the person who can contradict what I have stated), that the first Protestant foreign Reformers, corrupted and falsified the sacred Scriptures, that your English Protestant Reformers, did also the same, and that even at the present day, your English Protestant translations of that sacred volume, are in a most awful and corrupt state. And would to heaven I could stop here!
But what will the English people say, when they learn, that your Protestant scriptural Church, has not only falsified and corrupted the Scriptures, but that she has had the audacity, to expunge from the canon of the Scripture many books, which are as much canonical (that is, as much the inspired word of God) as those, which she still retains in her present Protestant canon. I will now prove this. The Protestant Church, received at first (as Luther truly informs us) the Scriptures from the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, therefore, must be good authority in this respect, otherwise how can the Protestant Church be, sure that her first Scriptures, were the real word of God? Now, the Catholic Church has ranked, for at least fourteen hundred years, many books as canonical, which your Protestant Church rejects as uncanonical. In the year 397, a Catholic council was held at Carthage, at which the learned and pious St. Augustine assisted. In that council, the canon of the Scripture, was satisfactorily determined; and in that very council, many books were declared to be canonical (that is, the inspired word of God,) which your Church, has had the audacity to tell the people, are not canonical, that is, they are not to be considered the inspired word of God. But what reason had your scriptural Church, to assume the audacious power, to condemn as uncanonical, books, which were declared by this illustrious, numerous, and learned body of Christians, to be canonical, (that is, the inspired word of God?) I ask you, what reason had your scriptural Church for this audacious step? I answer, none. O but I fancy I hear some of your reverends exclaiming, You are wrong for once, old papish botheration. Look at the passage in the sixth of our articles, between our canonical and uncanonical books, and there you will find a good reason for your popish question.
Thank you, courteous clerks; I will now quote the passage, and give your scriptural Church the benefit of it. "And the other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read, for example of life, and instruction of manners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine." (Art. 6, Ch. Eng. P. Book.) Well, most Reverend Gentlemen, truth and falsehood are in this passage, mixed up together to a nicety. In the first part, your scriptural Church tells the people that she, like Hierom (and mind, St. Hierom was a great Catholic Saint), reads her uncanonical books, for example of life and instruction of manners. Well, her object for reading these books, as far as it goes, is very good; but then, your scriptural Church slyly adds, "but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine:" an artful inuendo that St. Hierom did the same. Now St. Hierom wished, indeed, the Catholic Church to read these books, for example of life, and instruction of manners; but St. Hierom, at the same time, included in the Catholic canon all the books, which had been ranked in the Catholic canon by antiquity. Now, if your scriptural Church, quoted St. Hierom's authority in confirmation of the first part of this passage, why does she slyly intimate, to follow him in the second part, where she contradicts St. Hierom, by asserting that certain books of the Scripture, are uncanonical, which St. Hierom believed, and taught were really canonical? Come, Reverend Gentlemen, your Church must have had some sly reason, for this contradictory conduct. Now, do tell us what this reason was. Well, if you will not tell, I must.
You have seen, how the first reformers falsified the Scriptures, to make the sacred text, harmonize with their reformed ideas; but what puzzled them most was, they found there were certain books, which they could not possibly tune to their new ideas. They durst not indeed, entirely reject these sacred books; for they knew in what veneration, they had been always held by antiquity; but on the other hand, they durst not admit them as canonical; for then, the testimony of these books, would upset their new-fangled ideas; they thought, therefore, the most convenient method, was to make flesh and fish of them, and then, they could either admit, or contradict them, according to their own spiritual convenience.
And that I am speaking the truth, I will give you one single instance, and from this one, you will be able to judge of the rest, of their sly method, of squaring the scripture to their new, and reforming ideas. Of all the tenets of the Catholic creed, there is none, that has been more lustily inveighed against, and accordingly, none that sound so awfully, to an English Protestant ear, as Purgatory, and Prayers for the dead. (O keep your seats, Most Reverend Gentlemen, I am not going to put you into Purgatory, although you may imagine it smells very strongly of it on this side the grave.)[L] Well, mind this doctrine of Purgatory, and of Prayers for the dead, was the belief of the Jews, and of all the first Christians, and continued even to the time of the Reformation. Now in the book of Machabees, this doctrine is so plainly laid down, that no man in his senses, can contradict it. Read the following passage, and tell me, if I am not speaking the truth. "And making a gathering, he (Judas Machabeus) sent 1200 drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice, to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well, and religiously, concerning their resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain, should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous, and vain to pray for the dead.) And, because, he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." II. Mac. xii. 43-46.
Now this passage was so clear, and positive a proof of purgatory, and of prayers for the dead, that the first Reformers found, that they could not get rid of it, without denying the divine authority of the book. Accordingly, these new soul-menders, told the people that the two Books of Machabees, were not included in the Jewish Canon, but unfortunately, they forgot to tell the world the reason, (viz.,) because the Jewish Canon was compiled by Esdras, long before the Books of Machabees were written. And now, you may understand the sly words of your sixth article, "but yet it doth not apply them (these books) to establish any doctrine," viz., to establish the Catholic doctrine, and to overturn their new-fangled ideas.
Now, Gentlemen, is it not plain that your Church, hath both corrupted the Scriptures, and expunged from her Protestant Canon, many of the inspired books of those sacred volumes?
And now, allow me to quote the first part of the sixth Article of your Church, and then, tell me what the people are to do, to save their souls, and how your Scriptural Church, is ever to be raised again, to a new spiritual life. "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that, whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be approved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith, or to be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church."
Now this part of your Article, assures us, in the strongest manner, that the Holy Scriptures, contain all things necessary for salvation, that they are the sure palladium of a Christian, and his title-deeds to eternal life; and it also says, that in this sacred volume, are to be included all the books of whose authority, was never any doubt in the Church. Now, it is also plain from what I have advanced, (and find me a person who can overturn by solid argument what I have advanced,) it is plain, I repeat it, that your Church has both falsified the text of the Scripture, and expunged from her Protestant Canon, many books, whose authority and divine inspiration, were held by antiquity in the greatest veneration. Now, most Reverend Gentlemen, do tell me what the people are to do. On the one hand, your Church tells the people, there is no salvation without the Scripture: and on the other hand, your Church has falsified the text, and also expunged from her Protestant Canon, many inspired Books of the Scripture. Really, can you obtain the possession of property by corrupt and mutilated title-deeds? Certainly not. How, then, are your people to obtain eternal life by your false, and mutilated title-deeds of the Scripture? Really, most Reverend Gentlemen, if the prejudices of my popish education do not strongly deceive me, your Protestant mutilation of the Scripture, and your Sixth Article, are pregnant with the most paradoxical consequences. O how justly may I apply to your Scriptural Church, the observations which a distinguished minister of the Church of England, applied to the operations of the Bible Society; these are his words: "Surely, it is enough to make a Christian's blood run cold, to think of the sacrilegious presumption of a Society, which dares thus to tamper, and trifle with the revelation of the Almighty, and dares publish to the heathen, and attempt to pawn upon its credulous supporters, these schoolboy exercises of its agents, as the Sacred Word of God! It is the circulation of such translations as these, that, more than once, at the meetings of this Society, have been blasphemously compared to the miraculous gift of tongues. And such a system is supported, and such comparisons applauded by many, who, on other occasions, lay claim, and justly, to the characters of piety and intelligence."[M] O how justly might he have applied these observations to his own Church.[N]