It may seem almost superfluous to observe, but it is important to consider, that the charge against Rome for her literary proscriptions does not attach to the simple act of censure or condemnation, but to the objects, quality, and character, of the censure or condemnation. For there is not a determination on the subject more just or applicable than that of the poet, —
Si mala condiderit in quern quis carmina, jus est Judiciumque. H. Esto, si quis mala; sed bona si quis, &c. Hor. Sat. II. 1.
And to one affecting Academic sagacity, who should insist or insinuate, that the determination is indecisive, it may be enough to say, that there are many points on which suspense is allowable and even unavoidable, and there are likewise others, not a few, which are about as certain, as that darkness is not light. Apart from books of impiety, obscenity, magic, &c. which, for form's sake, and for policy's sake, are condemned, and which are readily given up by all, let any one call to mind the other objects of reprobation, which are almost exclusively books of evangelical piety, and emphatically translations of the Scriptures, most hypocritically denounced as unfaithful; and which, where particular passages are specified (as in the single Expurgatory of Rome, or the numerous ones of Catholic Spain,) are for the most part the main and saving truths of the Gospel, particularly justification by faith in Christ alone — and then
