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

224? APOSTOLICITY, OR PETER\s PRIMACY.It is clear that when Paul wrote this passage he was ignorantof Peter"'s primacy ;and it is equally undeniable thatevery other writer in the New Testament was as ignorantof it as Paul. Amazing, that Peter should have been theChurch''s foundation, the Church"'s head, and that his superangelicdignity should have been unknown and unsuspectedby his brethren ! Or, if any man affirms the contrary,he must have had his knowledge through inspiration ; fornot the slightest allusion to it has come from the apostlesthemselves. The prophets may be excused for being ignorantof it. Although Isaiah spoke of a foundation whichGod was to lay in Zion,— " a stone, a tried stone, a preciouscorner-stone, a sure foundation,"*—there is nothing to leadus to suppose that he had the least idea that Peter washere meant. More marvellous still, Peter himself knewnothing of it ; for we find him applying to another thanhimself these words just cited. -f*And we find him, too, inhis ignorance of his own primacy, misapplying another passage:— " The stone which the builders refused," said thePsalmist, "is become the head stone of the corner.";]:far was Peter from believing that himself was that stone,that we find him charging their rejection of Christ uponthe chief-priest and his council as a fulfilment of the prophecy," Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whomGod raised from the dead, even by him doth this man standhere before you whole. This is the stone which was set atnought of you builders, which is become the head of theSoall twelve had been employed in preaching. The city had twelve gates,showing that all twelve, and not Peter only, had been honoured to openthe " door of faith" to the world. On the papal interpretation the cityought to have had but one foundation and one gate ; or, if there mustneeds be twelve foundations, the name of Peter ought to have been inscribedon all of them. It may be objected that this is too figurative. Romanistsat least are not entitled to bring this objection, seeing their greatchampion Bellarmine has built his famous argument on the metaphor ofa building employed in Mattliew, xvi. 18.* Isaiah, xxviii, 16. + 1 Peter, ii. 6, 7. + Psalm cxviii. 22.