I shall here attempt to obviate the objection so generally laid against me, that I am inimical and hostile to the Bible Society. I speak the truth when I say—first, that I esteem the Bible as the choicest gift of God, save that of his own Son, the restorer, the light and saviour of the world—Secondly, that I esteem and cordially approve the universal spread of the Bible among all nations, and in every language; believing, as I firmly do, in the sufficiency of the Scriptures to make all men (who use them properly) wise unto salvation, since all scripture (which is) given by the inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works. Convinced as I am, that the Scriptures contain a full, clear, and plain revelation of every thing that is essential for mankind to know, believe, and practice; of all that God requires from them, or gives them ground to expect from him, in order to promote their virtue and peace on earth, and final happiness in heaven. I approve of the principle on which protestantism is founded, that the Bible alone contains the religion of protestants; I consequently fall in most heartily with the circulation of the Scriptures without note or comment; leaving every man at full liberty of conscience, and the use of his own reason and judgment in interpreting and understanding the word of God. I have attended Bible Societies from their first formation; I have contributed to them in several parts of the kingdom, and at Halesworth too, without sounding a trumpet; I have recommended them constantly on the principles stated above; and, if I have not been a public advocate on the platform, the reason has invariably been, because the advocates have universally treated me, even when on the platform among them, with silent contempt and cold disdain. It is not the Bible Society I object to; but, the way in which its professed advocates expose the cause and themselves, by bringing forward in their speeches subjects calculated only (in some instances) to insult a rational understanding, and impose on and deceive the vulgar; and the effect produced has been to lead numbers to imagine, that if they give a trifle, or obtain a Bible, it will go well nigh to secure their salvation. Hence it happens, that in every village I can find a Bible or two in almost every house; in many of which they are never read, because not one in the family can read them. Can it be otherwise in other countries? And yet what romantic tales we often hear of the wonderful conversions effected by the Bible! just as if the Bible could produce any good effect, but where it is read, understood, and its precepts reduced to practice. Let the professed advocates lay aside those arts and tricks which alone become mountebanks and quacks, and let them plead the cause of the Bible as becomes the dignity and grandeur of the subject, and I will wish them God speed in spreading the Bible to the remotest habitation of human beings; and, let those who cannot treat the subject as becomes truth and holiness, keep silent. Religion and the Bible require not the aid of enthusiasm, ribaldry, and buffoonery; nor of tales and anecdotes on a par with Mother Goose’s Fables.
In addition to those tales which I have advanced on former occasions, and numbers that I could still advance, I will only select the following. I once heard a preacher at a meeting in Wellingborough church recommend the Bible, as a quack recommends his pills and balsams—a cure for every malady, “Do you know (said he), a drunkard, a swearer, a liar, give him a Bible; do you know an adulterer, sabbath-breaker, or covetous miser, give him a Bible; do you know a bad husband, a bad father, a bad wife, or a bad mother, give them each a Bible; do you know a bad master, of mistress, or a bad servant or apprentice, give them a Bible; do you know a bad neighbour, a slanderer, backbiter, or busybody, give them a Bible.” Thus he ran on through the whole catalogue of vices, and recommended, as a cure for them all, the gift of a Bible. I need not remind my readers of what has been stated in the Ipswich Chronicle twice over, on the application of the funds of the Bible Society; but I remember a speaker said at the conclusion of a meeting at Halesworth, three years back, “that in answer to the question, what becomes of the money given at these meetings, he would assure them, on the word of a dying man, speaking as to dying men, in the presence of God, before whom all must appear in judgment, that not a single penny of their money was applied to any other purpose than that for which they gave it, (namely), for printing and circulation of the scriptures.” It belongs not to me to reconcile this with the statements in the Ipswich and London papers. Since those persons who have enjoyed the advantage of travel are allowed to enliven your meetings by anecdote, I will give a specimen or two of their manner and matter. At a meeting held at Leeds, some months past, Dr. Patterson stated, that in his travels he had found a set of men making an attempt to supplant the Bible by substituting in its place a Socinian Bible, full of errors, and void of every essential doctrine; that he had procured the suppression of it and of another as bad, and hoped the whole was rotten or rotting in a fort to which they were consigned; that a professor in a university, the author of the above, had been turned out of his professorship. All this and much more was stated and printed in the Leeds paper, but no name of the book, place, or professor was mentioned. The whole was a fabrication to suit a purpose, and has been well exposed by Dr. Hutton, Unitarian minister, at Leeds. At a meeting in the City-Road Chapel, London, last May, Lord Mountcassel proved, that the age of miracles was returned in Ireland; he could vouch, he said, as a missionary was preaching in a village, a Catholic priest interrupted him: the day following the priest pointing out the place to a friend, said, there is the spot where that cursed pharisee preached to the people;—he was struck with paralysis, his arm fell powerless, his mouth was distorted, he fell back, and was taken home senseless. Another priest, a great opponent of Bibles, was struck in a meeting with a paralytic shock and never spoke afterwards. These were the visitations of God, and are recorded as such in the Evangelical Magazine. While such men as doctors of divinity and titled noblemen can thus, with devotion’s visage and pious actions, sugar over the devil himself, we may expect that other pigmies, in a petty way, will ape and mimic their example; but if the Bible which they circulate teaches others no better morals than theirs, the gift will be of little use to those who obtain it. I wish such advocates as the above to recollect, that we are forbidden by the Bible “to do evil that good may come,” or to propagate “cunningly devised fables.”
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