Litchfield enquirer., 1837-01-19
THE NINE COMMANDMENTS.

THE NINE COMMANDMENTS.
 "Nine commandments What does this mean? always thought the commando mcnss were tem." There used to be that number. There were ten proclaimed by the voicc of God from Mount Sinai; and ten were written by the finger of God on the tables of stone, and when the tables were renewed, there were still ten: and the Jews, the keepers of the Old Testa- ment Scriptures, always recognized ten; and SO did the primitive church, and so did all Protestants in their creeds and cate- chisms. But the Roman Catholics, (you know they can take liberties, for they are infaliible. A person, and SO church. which cannot possibly make mistake, need not be very particular about what it does, these Christians who have their head away off at Rome, subtract one from the ten commandments; and you know if you take one from ten, only nine remain. So they have but nine commandments. Theirs is not a Decalogue, but a Nonalogue.
 1t is just SO. When, many years ago, first heard of it I thought it was islander of the protestants. said, 70, it cannot be tI,a; they have dared to meddle with Gods ten commandments, and leave out one. They cannot havc been guilty of such impie,y. Why, it is just as if some impious Israelile had gone into the holy of holies, opened the ark of the covenant, and taking out the tables of stone, had, with some instrument of iron, obliterated one of the commands which the divine finger wrnie Ihem." DuI it struck me how improbable it was that such story should l.or oosnnI nnlnCC 1hNr0 was some foundation for it. Who would ever have thought of charging Roman Cath- olics with surppessing one ofthe commando ments, unless they had done it or something like it2
 So | thought would inquire whether il was so or not; and did, and found it to be fact, and no slander. 1 saw with my own eyes the catechisms published under the sanction of bishops and archbishops, tn which one of the commandments was omit. ted and the reader may see the same thing in ''The Manual of Catholic Piely," prin- ted no farther off than Philadelphia. The list of ,he commandments runs thus:
 1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange Gods before mc.
 ?. Thou shalt no; take tue name of the Lord thy God in vain.
 3. Remember the Sabbath day, &c.
 The render will see that the command ment which the Catholics leave out, as be- ing erievous to them, is the second in the series. It is the one that forbids making graven images aud likenesses of any thing fer worship. That is the one they don't like; and they don't like ii, because they do like pictures and images in their church. es. They say these things wonderfully ,cnd to promote devotion, and SO they do away that commandment of God! David says, "l esteem all thy precepis concerning all things to be right" But he was no Cath- olic.
 We'll, having got rid of the second, they number third, and SO on till they come to our tenth, which according to .I,eir number ing, is Il,e ninth. But as they don't like the sound "f "ihe nine commandments" " since the Bible speaks of "tl,e ten cO0,- nsandmenis," Exod. S4: 2S, Deui. 4: 13, and every body has got used to ,he num- Der ten, and they must cOnirive to make out ten some how or other. And how do you think they do it7 Why. they halve their ninth, and call the first part ninth, aud the other icnlh.
 So they made out ten. In the Philadcl- phia Manual, corrected aud approved by Right Rev. Bishop KeDrick, it is put down thus: "9,h. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife. 10th. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours goods" You see they make two of the commandments to relate to coyesing. It is not very probable the Lord did 90. I reckon they were not So numbered On the tables of stone. But you see it would never do to let the second commandment stand, and it would never do tU have less than ten: SO they were laid un- der sort of necessity to do as they have done. But after all it is to them bad job, not near as ingenious as many of the devil ees of Popery. Afier all is said and done. tbey have bus nine commandments for ev- cry body knows that by dividing any thing you get not two wholes. but iwo halves 1; tlaere is but one whole sfter the division. ARd 60 the ninih eommandmaps is bul Oae eemmaad@snt afler shey had divided is. M they wes0 tO quarter .it lhsy could not make ! anV aaoE@ of l~ lf the CMah0lleka am~ hmm1