ȧpapтías, as our present copies read it; I am much persuaded, I say, that if the oldest MSS. were nicely examined, some of them would shew us, instead of εἰς Τὸ πολλῶν, εἰς TO TÎN πоλλŵv, to bear the sins of THE MANY; that is, as before, Twν Táντшν, of the whole race of men, exclusive of himself; agreeably to that of St. John, 1 epist. ii. 2, He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also FOR THE WHOLE WORLD; and to that of St. Paul, 1 Tim. ii. 6, Christ Jesus, who gave himself (åντíλUTρOV úπÈρ TÁνTWV) a ransom for all. For it cannot appear improbable that the article should be dropped here, when we find it actually slipped in another place of this epistle, Heb. xii. 15, Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby MANY be defiled, διὰ ταύτης μιανθῶσι πολλοί. Thus all the printed books, and the generality of MSS.; but the famous Alexandrine, and another at Oxford, have pravdaoi oi Toλoi, lest THE MANY be defiled, the multitude, the populace, the congregation; which certainly is the more elegant, nay the genuine reading, and ought to be assumed into the public editions.

We are now arrived at a full and adequate interpretation of our text. For we are not as (oi Toλλol) the many, the major part of the world, (kaπηλeúovtes) which adulterate and negotiate the word of God for our own lucre and advantage; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. And hereby we have made the nearer advances to a clear view and just character of Popery: we'll allow them to be the oi Toλλoì, the most as well as the worst of Christians; nor at present will contend with them about their boasted titles of Catholic and Universal; for it was never yet so well with mankind, that the major part was the better. And then for the other mark, κаπηλеúоvтes, I shall now trace and expose their corruptions and cauponations of the Gospel: that they are true Χριστέμποροι, real Χριστοκάжηλοι, have perverted and abused the divine institution to the base ends of worldly profit and power, have consociated

Jesus with Belial, Christianity with Atheism; every part of their system, which our pious reformers renounced and exploded, being founded upon mere politic, built up and supported by the known methods of subtlety and force.

And yet I would not be thought to charge every single member of that communion with this heavy imputation. I question not but great numbers think and act in godly sincerity; every age has produced among them some shining examples of piety and sanctity. We do not now consider individuals, but the collective body of Popery; not private lives and secret opinions, but the public avowed doctrines, and the general practice of the managers. There was one pious family even in Sodom, and without doubt many wicked ones even in Jerusalem. Not every single person within the limits of the Reformation is as good as his profession requires, nor every papist as bad as the popish system permits.

And now, τί πρῶτον, τί δ ̓ ἔπειτα ? What can I better begin with than what our text suggests, their enhancing the authority of the vulgar Latin above the Greek original; so that we must search for St. Paul's meaning here, not in the notion of καπηλεύοντες, but of adulterantes ; not of οἱ πολλοὶ, but of multi without its article, an original defect in the Latin tongue. Now, can any thing be more absurd, more shocking to common sense, than that the stream should rise above the fountain? that a verbal translation, which, were the author of it inspired, must yet, from the very nature of language (as has appeared above), have several defects and ambiguities; that such a translation, I say, by a private unknown person not pretending to inspiration, should be raised and advanced above the inspired Greek? Is it possible those that enacted this could believe it themselves? Nor could they suggest that the first Greek exemplar had been more injured by the transcribers and notaries than that of their version. More ancient MSS. were preserved of this than they could shew for the Latin. There were more, and more learned commentators to guard it; no age of the eastern empire without eminent scholars; while the west lay sunk many centuries

under ignorance and barbarity. And yet, in defiance of all this, the Latin is to be the umpire and standard, and the apostles to speak more authenticly in that conveyance than in their own words. Nay, a particular edition shall be legitimated and consecrated, with condemnation of all various readings; and two popes, with equal pretence to infallibility, shall each sanctify a different copy with ten thousand variations. These things are unaccountable in the way of sincerity; but if you view them on the foot of politic, as an acquest of power, authority, and preeminence, the council of Trent knew then what they did.

But though this itself is but a translation, yet no secondary translation must be made from it for the instruction of the people. They must hear the public liturgies in a language unknown to them, and jabber their Credos and Pater-nosters at home without understanding. But was not this Latin version at first the common language of the country? was it not first made, and received into public use, because the Greek was unknown there? If a Christian congregation may be duly edified, may pay acceptable devotions in a language unknown, the Greek original might have reigned alone and universal, and its Latin rival had never existed. Why, then, is Popery so cruel and importune, to withhold this common blessing? to continue the public worship in Latin, after it has ceased to be a living language, against the very reason that first introduced Latin? Seek not a good account for this in Scripture, not even in the Latin Bible; but seek it in the vile arts of politic, and the principles of Atheism. Their authority was secured by it over an ignorant populace; it gave a prerogative to the clergy: like the iepà yρáμμатa, the sacred and secret writings to the Egyptian priests, or the Sibylline oracles to the Roman pontifices, which no body else was to know.

No sooner had Christianity spread itself over the world, but superstition mixed and grew up along with it; a weed natural to human soil, complexionally inherent in the weaker sex, and adventitious to most of our own. Vast multitudes

of all nations withdrew from the world; renounced human society, and all commerce with their own species; abandoned the cities and villages for the solitude of woods, deserts, and caves; under a false notion of pleasing God better by such devotion and mortification. But all this was at first pure and simple superstition; no mixture of avarice and craft in it, no tincture of politic and worldly advantage; their known poverty and perpetual austerities wholly quit them of that suspicion. But how did Popery manage this foible of mankind to its lucre and interest? Under a pretence of a like retirement from the world in a life of prayer and contemplation, they began their monasteries, abbeys, nunneries, &c.; which by degrees so vastly multiplied, that, instead of their first pretence of retreating from the world, the very world was filled with them: instead of the old hermitical poverty, they had drained the riches of kingdoms, had engrossed the fattest of the lands; nay, had appropriated and devoured the very ministerial wages, the bread and sustenance of the parochial clergy, who were impoverished, made vile and contemptible, to feed these vassals of the popes in their laziness and luxury.

In the early ages of the Gospel there was a high and just veneration for the sepulchres and remains of holy men, for the memorials of them in statue or picture, for the places of their abode; and especially for the land of Palestine, which the patriarchs, the Son of God* and his apostles, had made sacred by their birth and habitation. This at first was within due bounds; but superstition was soon engrafted on it, and grew to excess: the remains and relics were supposed to work miracles; the images had not value only, but worship and adoration; long journeys were taken, to the great detriment of families, to visit holy places, and kiss the footsteps of saints and martyrs. These bigotries, though even then reprehended by the best Fathers of those ages, were yet without any mixture of craft and knavery. But Popery soon

[* the patriarchs, the Son of God; 1st ed. "the patriarchs, the prophets, the Son of God."-D.]

saw that here was a proper fund, to be improved and managed to great advantage. Instead of coercion and restraint, they advised, encouraged, commanded those superstitions, with such scandalous κаπηλeía, such abominable traffic, as even paganism would blush at. All the graves and catacombs were exhausted to furnish relics; not a bone, not the least scrap of raiment of any saint, that was not removed into the holy wardrobe, to raise money to the shewers. Where the monuments were dubious and blended, the names and bodies of pagan slaves were taken into the church-calendar and treasury disputes and quarrels arose among the numerous pretenders to one and the same relic, which could never be decided; but the victory was various and alternate, according to the fruitful inventions and ingenious lies of the contending impostors. Even statues and pictures of the same saint were made to rival each other; and the blessed Virgin, like Juno Lucina and Juno Sospita, had as many numina and specific powers as she had pictures and statues; one celebrated for one virtue, another for another. No piety was thought acceptable, no life religiously spent, without a pilgrimage to some foreign saint, where vows and rich offerings must be paid at the shrine. But, above all, the endeavour to gain the Holy Land, by driving out the Saracens, was the most promising project, the very masterpiece of Popery. What arts were used, and* what not used, to inveigle the princes and nobility of Europe into that romantic expedition! Every hour of grief or sickness, every hour of mirth and wine, were a snare and trepan to them. If, in any of those softer moments, they once rashly took the cross on their garments, the vow was irrevocable; to break it was thought attended with all misfortunes in this world, and damnation in the other. In the mean time, salvation, like soldier's pay, was promised and insured to all that embarked; the heavenly Jerusalem to be their certain acquisition, though they failed and perished in fighting for the earthly. Now while the world by these artifices was made mad and infatuate; while

[* and; 1st ed. "or."-D.]