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

———214 APOSTOLICITY, OR PETER's PRIMACY.del,—the arx causcc pontificiw^ as Spanlieim terms it,*for which she is to do battle :doubtless she has taken careto make it impregnable, and "esteemeth iron as straw,and brass as rotten wood. Darts are counted as stubble ;""she " laugheth at the shaking of a spear." So one wouldhave thought. But alas for Rome ! Not one of the positionsabove stated has she proved to be true, and not a fev; ofthem can be shown to be false.The words of our Lord to Peter, already quoted,f are theanchor by which Rome endeavours to fasten the vessel of herChurch to the rock of Christianity ": Thou art Peter, andupon this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates ofhell shall not prevail against it." As it happens that, in theoriginal, the term Peter and the term roch closely resembleeach other, the Church of Rome has taken advantage of this,dexterously, and by a kind of sleight of hand, to substitutethe one for the other, and thus to read the passage substantiallyas follows :Iluildmy Church.Thou art Peter ; and upon thee, Peter, willThe reader who is just breaking ground* Spanhemii VindicijB BlblicEe, lib. ii. loc. xxviii. ; Frankfort, 1663.t The Douay version of the Bible has this note on ]Matt. xvi. 18 :" The words of Christ to Peter, spoken in the vulgar language of fheJews, which our Lord made use of, were the same as if he had said inEnglish, Thou art a roch, and upon this rock I mil build my Church. Sothat by the plain course of the words, Peter is here declared to be therock upon which the Church was to be built, Christ himself being b othtlie principal foundation and founder of the same." This commentar isat direct variance with the original, which runs thus :lu $7 XIitjio;, xaiIt/ ra-vrn tTi Tr'tT^ot, otKohoi;t,viffu fiov tjjv ly^xXriiriaii. It also Contradicts the"Vulgate, which is the authorized version of tlie Church of Rome. In theVulgate, the words are :— " Tu es Petrus, et super banc petram a:>dificaboecclesiam meam." The German has it thus :— " Du hist Petrus, und aufdiesen Felsen will ich bauen meine Gemeine." The Italian thus :— " Tusei Pietro, e sopra questa pietra io edifichero la mia chiesa." And theFrench thus :— " Tu es Pierre, et sur ccttc pierre je battirai mon Eglise."Of all these versions, the only one in wliich the resemblance between thetwo terms " Peter" and " rock" is complete is the French ; and in thatversion, in order to maintain the play upon the term " pierre," the(See Cookesley's Ser-rock is mistranslated by a term that signifies a stone.mons on Popery ; Eton, 1847.ord