The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

ORDER AND PLAN STATED. 167parent that they are permitted to occupy this place, notfrom any vahie which the Church of Rome puts upon themas connected with the glory of God and the salvation ofman, but because they afford her a better foundation thanany she could invent on which to rear her system of superstition.For certainly no system bearing to be a religioussystem would have obtained any credit with men, in thecircumstances in which the Church of Rome was placed,which ventured on repudiating these great truths. But thatChurch has so overlaid these glorious truths, so buried thembeneath a mass of mingled falsehood,absurdity, and blasphemy,and has so turned them from their peculiar andproper end, that they have become altogether inoperativefor man's salvation or God's glory. In her hands they arethe instruments, not of regenerating, but of enslaving theworld. The only purpose they serve is that of impartingthe semblance of a supernatural origin and a divine authorityto what isessentially a system of superstition and imposture.It is as if one should throw down a temple toliberty, and on its foundations proceed to rear a dungeon.On the everlasting stones of truth Rome has built a bastilcfor the human mind. This will very plainly appear whenwe proceed briefly to state the leading tenets of the Popishtheology.In following out our brief sketch of Romanism, it mayconduce somewhat to perspicuity and conciseness that weadopt the following order :—We shall speak first of theChurch ; second, of her Doctrine ; third, of her Sacraments; and fourth, of her WoRsnn\ This method willenable us to embrace all the more salient points in the systemof Romanism. Our task is one mainly of statement.We are not to aim, save in an indirect and incidental way,either at a refutation of Popish error or a defence of Protestanttruth ; but must restrict ourselves to giving a concise,though tolerably complete, and, above all, an accurate andcandid, statement of what Popery is. Though this forbidsthat we should indulge in proofs, or illustrations, or argu-