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

226 APOSTOLICITY, OR PETER'S PRIMACY.was implicit obedience to the infallible dictates of the apostolicchair. But all the apostles went to their graves andcarried this secret along with them. Peter's primacy wasnot so much as whispered in the world till Rome had breda I'ace of infallible bishops. Nevertheless, we have so muchof the spirit of apostolical succession in us as to prefer beingin error with the apostles to being in the right with the popes.To help out the sense of this obscure passage, the Churchof Rome has called in the assistance of other passages stillmore obscure,—obscure, we mean, not in themselves, but underthe sombre lights of Rome's hermaneutics.Not a littlestress has been laid upon the words that follow those onwhich we have been commenting,— " And I will give untothee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoeverthou shalt bind on earth shalt be bound in heaven ; andwhatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven." We have already adverted to these words, andhave here only to remark, that, even granting the affirmationof the Papists, that the keys of the kingdom of heavenwere given to Peter, to theexclusion of the other apostles,his tenure of sole authority must have been brief indeed ; forwe find our Lord, after his resurrection, associating all theapostles in the exercise of these keys. " Receive ye the HolyGhost : whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted untothem; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.*"*Here no primacy is conferred on Peter. He ranks with theother apostles, and receives but his own share of the gift nowconferred by his Master on all.If, then, Peter ever had solepossession of the keys, which we deny, he must from thistime forward have admitted his brother apostlesto a participationwith him in his power, or usurped what did not belongto him, and was in no degree more his right than itwas the right of all.If the former, how could Peter transmitto his successors what himself did not possess ? and ifthe latter, he transmitted a power that was unlawful, be-* John, XX. 22, 23.