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

UNKNOWN TO THE APOSTLES. 225corner."* Nay, more, our Lord himself knew not that thepassage referred to Peter''s primacy, otherwise he surelynever would have claimed the honour to himself, as we findhim doing. " Did ye never read in the Scriptures," said he tothe representatives of those evil husbandmen who slew theSon, " the stone which the builders rejected, the same hasbecome the head of the corner Vf Thus, He who conferredthe dignity, the person on whom that dignity was conferred,and those who were the witnesses of the act, all, on their ownshowing, were ignorant of the important transaction. Theapostles preach sermons and write epistles, and omit allmention of the fundamental article of Christianity. Theydelivered to the world but a mutilated gospel. They keptback, through ignorance or through perversity, that onwhich, according to Bellarmine and De Maistre, hangs thewhole of Christianity, and the belief in which is essential tosalvation on the part of every human being.Paul preached" Christ crucified" when he ought to have preached " Peterexalted." He gloried in the " cross" when he ought to havegloried in the " infallibility." The profession of the Ethiopianeunuch to Philip ought to have run, not " I believe thatJesus Chtist is the Son of God," but " I believe that Peteris prince of the apostles and Christ's vicar." The writer ofthe epistle to the Ephesians,]: when he enumerates apostles,prophets, evangelists,pastors, and teachers, and omits thepontiff, leaves out the better half of his list, and passes overan office-bearer who had much more to do with the perfectingof the saints and the unity of the Church than all the restput together.And, in fine, when the survivor of the twelve,the beloved disciple, indited his epistles, exhorting to loveand unity, recommending for this purpose an earnest attentionto those things which they had heard from the beginning,he altogether mistook his object, and ought to havereminded those to whom he wrote that Peter's successor wasreigning at Rome, and that the perfection of Christian duty* Acts,iv. 10, 11. + Matthew, xxi. 42. J Ephesians, iv. 11, 12.