a taste for it, by looking for and learning a certain number of striking passages, and becoming acquainted with their application to the different doctrines taught by the Church.

The primary object of this book is not controversial, but devotional; that is, not to make our children sharp controversialists, but to store their minds with some of the grand thoughts and beautiful expressions which occur in the Inspired Writings, so that the truth of religion may not be to them naked forms of words, but may be associated with beautiful and devotional thoughts likely to come back to them in times of trial. I say the primary object because, of course, the principal texts, which will be useful to those who are called upon to give an account of their Faith, will be found in their places.

I have called the book the "Catechism Illustrated," because it does not attempt or profess to prove the Catholic Faith from Scripture. To do so would be entirely contrary to the spirit of the Church. Every Catholic knows that the doctrines of the Catholic Church are independent of Scripture; that is to say, that the Church teaches from the plenitude of the power committed to her; that she did so from the beginning, before the New Testament was written-centuries, indeed, before the Bible was collected into its present form; and that she would have done so in precisely the same manner had they never been written. For example, every Catholic knows that the Faith of the Church about the Holy Eucharist would have been precisely what it is, had it pleased God that not one of the passages relating to It ever had been written; and, therefore, that these passages, however clear they may be, cannot properly be referred to as the ground of the Church's teaching.

A Catholic looks upon the Church and the Holy

Scriptures as two distinct and independent sources of religious knowledge, both coming from God-the one illustrating and explaining indeed, but not the mere echo of the other, dependent on it for authority.

I have also indulged in the hope that this book may be useful to Protestants. I believe the Catechism to be one of the best possible books of controversy, to those, at least, who are inquiring with a real desire to find the truth. It is impossible for any one to have a reasonably accurate knowledge of the Catholic Faith without being brought nearer to it, especially when put in the way of seeing how closely it agrees, not with half a dozen isolated passages, but with the whole teaching and spirit of the Scriptures.

I must observe that, as the object of the book is not controversy, but illustration, it will sometimes happen that texts are chosen which would not be legitimate in strict controversy; that is, texts the words of which admit of a different explanation from the one suggested, or which, from the context, appear to have been originally used in a different sense. I have subjoined a few words on the canon of Scripture; and also a list of the different books given in the Catholic and Protestant Bible, with a view to assisting such Protestants as may wish to verify any of the passages quoted.

I must conclude by asking the indulgence of the reader for the many omissions which he will certainly find in this little book; and by hoping that it may please God to make it a means of increasing the knowledge and love of His Holy Word, and of leading souls to that Faith taught by His Church.

RICHMOND,

Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, 1870.

INTRODUCTION.

ON THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE.

THE canon of Scripture received by the Catholic Church is that laid down by the Council of Trent. The word " canon means rule, and here it is used to signify the catalogue of works which the Church receives as inspired by God. Let us consider (1) the process by which such a canon of Scripture was arrived at ; (2) the authority by which it became binding on the consciences of Christians; (3) what this canon actually is.

The Scriptures were written, not as one whole, but in the shape of a number of different treatises, which, so far from making parts of a whole, were written by different authors, at different times, addressed to different people, and for widely varying objects. Many books were addressed to small bodies, and, in the first instance, were not intended for all mankind. For example, most of S. Paul's epistles were written to the people of some particular city, for some special purpose, and were intended to be read only by the Christians residing there, and perhaps by those of the neighbouring towns. It must, therefore, have been many years before all the different parts of the Scripture could have been even known to Christians generally, and many more years before the Christian world could have been able to form any decided opinion on their genuineness and authority. We find, accordingly, in the early Church a great uncertainty about the Scriptures. Portions of the New Testament were almost unknown in some countries, whilst apocryphal writings of all descriptions, highly coloured accounts of our Lord's life and miracles, and of the teaching of His apostles, sprang up every where and appeared to carry with them more or less authority. How was all this con

fusion to end? It was obviously beyond the power of any individual, however learned and holy he might be, to pronounce in such a case as this. It could only end by the intervention of an authority having a right to speak in the Name of God. Nothing less than a Divine authority could venture to pronounce on the Divine Inspiration of God's Word. Accordingly, in due time, that is, when the knowledge of Scripture was sufficiently diffused, the Church did pronounce, and that decision has been final. In the year of our Lord 397 the Council of Carthage, following the tradition of the Church and the teaching of other councils which had preceded it, published a rule or canon of Scripture which has been the canon of the Christian Church ever since. The Council of Trent did little more than re-enact the same canon.

About three hundred years ago, when this canon had been for eleven centuries acknowledged by all Christians, Protestants thought fit to reconsider it, and to leave out some books both of the Old and the New Testament. On what principle they did so is not very apparent. As they had rejected the idea of a Church teaching with authority from God,—the one principle on which Christians had hitherto received the Bible, it is not easy to see how they could find a firm basis for a decision on the Holy Scriptures; and, accordingly, we are not much surprised to find that they could not agree amongst themselves, and that the Lutherans adopted one canon and the Calvinists another. The unfortunate result, however, is that, to the present day, Protestants, on the faith of the judgment of certain private individuals at the time of the Reformation, reject some portions of the Word of God. I have thought it desirable, therefore, to give a list of the books comprised in the canon of Scripture, showing the different names by which they are sometimes known, and marking those omitted by Protestants.

In the Anglican version the Psalms are divided and numbered in a manner which slightly differs from that in use in the Catholic Church. In each version there are 150 Psalms.

The two versions correspond until the ninth Psalm; but the ninth Psalm of the Vulgate includes the ninth and tenth of the English version. The consequence of this is that from

Psalm ix. to Psalm cxiii. the number given to each Psalm in the latter is one above that given in the Vulgate. Thus, the Miserere, Psalm 1., is called in the English version, Psalm li. Psalm cxiii. of the Vulgate contains Psalms cxiv. and cxv. of the Anglican version, whilst, on the other hand, Psalms cxiv. and cxv. of the Vulgate are both comprised in Psalm cxvi. of the other version. Psalm cxvii., therefore, of the English version corresponds to Psalm cxvi. of the Vulgate; and so the Psalms in the former continue to be one higher in number till Psalm cxlvii. of the English version, which includes Psalms cxlvi. and cxlvii. of the Vulgate, so that Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., and cl. correspond in the two versions. There is also a slight difference in the numbering of the verses in some of the Psalms. It may be added that there is more variation in the translations of the Psalms than in those of most other parts of Scripture; probably on account of their highly poetical nature, and on account of the devotional use made of them in the Church for so many centuries. It may be well to observe that a great many of the Scripture names are written and pronounced in two different ways→→ one taken from the Latin form of the Hebrew name, the other from the original. For the former it may be said that it is the form which has been almost exclusively used in the Christian Church for eighteen centuries; for the latter, that it is supposed more nearly to approach the name as actually used. In what degree either pronunciation resembles that in use in the time (say) of King David may be rather a matter of speculation.