Now let us examine carefully—and I earnestly crave _your_ attention to this point, my Roman Catholic hearers—what is the language of your Church? You shall not have _my_ words. I will give you the words of _your own Church_. And I presume I am not saying anything which a member of the Church of Rome will deny. Nor am I relying on an authority which the Church of Rome can now repudiate. For before I read the extract which I am about to read to you from an Italian writer, it is necessary that I should prove to you that the writer is one fully recognised and endorsed by the Church of Rome. It appears that on the 26th of May, being Trinity Sunday, 1839, Alphonsus Liguori was canonised at Rome, that is to say, he was admitted into the muster roll of the Saints of the Roman Catholic Church. On the 18th of May, 1803, Pius VII confirmed the decree of the sacred College of the Jesuits, which declared that all the writings of St. Alphonsus had been most rigorously examined, and I beg you to mark what follows—“That not one word” (after this rigorous examination) “_not one word had been found worthy of censure_.” I think then what I can bring forward from writings thus examined, from writings which have been thus broadly endorsed and declared free from censure, from the writings of a man who has been recently canonised, may safely be dealt with as recognised by the Church of Rome. Many of you are aware that certain books are prohibited to her people. There is a congregation called the “Congregation of the Index,” appointed to examine books to put them into the class of prohibited works. Will you believe the fact that “THE WORD OF GOD”—Protestants! Romanists! let it sink deeply into your hearts—THE WORD OF GOD!—not in the Protestant translation, not in a heretical version, but the WORD OF GOD as received by the Church of Rome—is IN THE ROMISH INDEX OF PROHIBITED BOOKS! I do not ask you to take my word for a fact so incredible. Rome shall speak for herself. Here are the words of the Index.— “Since it is manifest by experience that if the Holy Bibles are allowed everywhere without difference in the vulgar tongue, more harm than good would arise from it on account of the rashness of men. Let the judgment of the Bishop or inquisitor be abided by in this matter, so that with the advice of the parish priest or confessor _they may grant_ the reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, translated by Catholic authors to those whom they shall have ascertained to be likely to derive no harm, but rather an increase of faith and piety from this sort of reading, _which permission they must have in writing_; _but if any one shall presume to read or possess them without such permission_, _he may not receive absolution of his sins unless he first deliver up the Bibles to the ordinary_.