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

ROMISH IIERMANEUTICS. 215in the popish controversy learns with astonishment thatthis is the sole foundation of the Papacy, and that if theChurch of Rome fail to make good that this is the truemeaning of the text, her cause is lost. In no other case hasso slender a foundation been made tosustain so ponderousa structure ; nor would it have sustained it for a single fiveminutes, had it not been more indebted for its support tocredulity and superstition, to fraud and compulsion, than toeither reason or Scripture. " If the whole system of the RomanCatholic Church be contained in this passage," remarksthe Rev. J, Blanco White, " it is contained like a diamondin a mountain ;"* and, we may add, this diamond would haveremained buried in the mountain till the end of time, hadnot the Romish alchymists arisen to draw it forth.We lookupon such feats of interpretation much as we gaze upon thefeats of the juggler. Who but the Roman doctors couldhave evolved from this plain passage a whole race of popes ?But why did they not go farther, and infer that each of thesepontiffs would rival the sons of Anak in stature, and Mathuselahin longevity ? The passage would have borne thismarvel equally well.After proceeding a certain length ininterpreting Scripture, it is easy to go all lengths ; for thatinterpretation that proceeds on no fixed principles, and isregulated by no known laws, may reach any conclusion, andestablish the possibility of any wonder.But the Protestant may ask an hundred questions on thispoint, which it will baffle the ingenuity and sophistry of allthe doctors of Rome satisfactorily to answer. Why was soimportant a fact, so vital a doctrine,—for let it be borne inmind, that they who do not believe in the infallibility of thePope cannot be saved,—why was so important a fact as theprimacy of Peter revealed in so obscure a passage ? Whyis there no other passage corroborating its sense, and helpingout its meaning 1 Why, even with the aid of papalspectacles, or tradition, which discovers so many wonderful* Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism, p. 76.