i-, are to he had ami retained, and bonoi ami veneration are to lie given to them. I also affirm that the power of indulgences was lefl bj Christ in
; ; ami that the use of them is nio-t w I
to Christian people, i acknowledge the holy Catholic and Apo-tolic Roman chnnh. the mother and m -
all churches ; and 1 promise and swear true ol eiiieni e to
the Roman bishop, the sua essor of 8t Peter, prince of
the apostle-, and vicar Of Jesns Christ. I also profess and undonhtedly receive all other things delivered, de- fined, oid declared by the sa.ieil canons and general councils, ami particularly by the holj Conncil ofTrent: and likewise I also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things coutrary thereto, and all heresies « hat-. -ever, con-
POPISH PLOT
415
POPLAR
demned and anathematized by the Church. This true catholic faith, out of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, I, N., promise, vow, and swear most constantly to hold and profess the saint- whole and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life. Ameu." For literature, see Romanism.
Popish Plot, the name given to an imaginary plot on the part of the Roman Catholics in England during the reign of Charles II. the object of which was believed to be a general massacre of the Protestants. See Oates, Titus.
Popish View of Christianity. The supporters of this view regard the Church as the mediator between God and the individual: the Church (by which some of them seem to mean "the clergy") is a sort of char- tered corporation, by belonging to or by being at- tached to which any given individual acquires certain privileges. The opponents of such a view regard it as a priestcraft, because it lays the stress not on the rela- tions of a man's heart towards God and Christ, as the Gospel does, but on something wholly artificial and for- mal—his belonging to a certain so-called Society ; and thus, whether the Society be alive or dead, whether it really help the man in goodness or not, still it claims to step in and interpose itself, as the channel of grace and salvation, when it certainly is not the channel of salva- tion, because it is visibly and notoriously no sure chan- nel of grace. The opponents of the popish views ac- knowledge that, where the Church is what it should be, it is so great a means of grace that its benefits are of the highest value; yet they regard relation to any Church as a thing quite subordinate and secondary, the salvation of a man's soul being effected by the change in his heart and life wrought by Christ's Spirit: and because all who go straight to Christ (their baptism into the communion of the Church being assumed) do " manifestly and visibly receive grace, and have the seal of his Spirit, and therefore are certainly heirs of salva- tion." They adopt this view of Christianity because it seems "simple and scriptural," while any other is com- plex in its character and human in its source. Accord- ing to this view, all seems plain : " we are not to derive our salvation through or from the Church, but to be kept or strengthened in the way of salvation by the aid or example of our fellow-Christians, who are formed into societies for this very reason that they might help one another, and not leave each man to fight his own fight alone; the Scripture notion of the Church being that religious society should help a man to become bet- ter and holier, just as civil society helps us in civiliza- tion." See Tor-EKY.
Popkin, John Snei.i.ing, D.D., a Congregational minister, was born June 19, 1771, in Boston, Mass. He graduated at Harvard College in 1792, and held the office of tutor of Greek from 1795 to 1798. Having en- tered the ministry, he was ordained pastor of the Federal Street Church, Boston, July 10, 1799, which charge he resigned in 1802, and became pastor of the First Parish in Newburgh Sept. 19, 1804. In 1815 he was elected professor of Greek in Harvard College, and served until 1826, when he accepted the professorship of Greek literature. He resigned it in 1833, and lived in retirement until his death, March 2. 1852. Dr. Pop- kin published Three Lectures on Liberal Education (1830), and a number of occasional sermons. Some of his lectures and sermons, with a Life by Prof. Felton, were published in 1852. See Sprague, Annals, ii, 434; North Ainer, Rev. 1875, p. 473; Christian Examiner, vol. liii.
Poplar (n;3^>, libneh; Sept. otvoukivoc, in Gen. xxx, 37; \cubjj, in Hos. iv, 13; Vulg. populus), the
rendering of the above-named Hebrew word, which oc- curs only in the two places cited. Peeled rods of the libneh were put by Jacob before Laban's ring-streaked sheep. This tree is mentioned with the oak and the
terebinth, bv Hosea, as one under which idolatrous Is- rael used to sacrifice.
Several authorities, Celsius among the number (Hie- rob. i, 292), are in favor of the rendering of the A. V., and think the "white poplar" {Populus alba) is the tree denoted. The Hebrew name libneh, being sup- posed to be derived from *2^ if0 be white), has been considered identical with the Greek Xevki), which both signifies "white" and also the "white poplar." This poplar is said to be called white, not on account of the whiteness of its bark, but of that of the under surface of its leaves. It may perhaps be so designated from the whiteness of its hairy seeds, which have a remarkable appearance when the seed-covering first bursts. The poplar is certainly common in the countries where the scenes are laid of the transactions related in the above passages of Scripture (comp. Belon, Obs. ii, 100). Rau- wolf also mentions the white poplar as abundant about Aleppo and Tripoli, and still called by the ancient Ar- abic name haur or hor, which is the word used in the Arabic translation of Hosea.