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

UNIVERSAL PASTORATE EXAMINED. 227cause usurped ; and therefore the Popes are still usurpers." I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not," said ourLord to the same apostle, when predicting that he shouldfall, but not finally apostatize ; and Papists have built muchupon the words, especially as regards the infallibility of thePope. The words refer us back to a part of Peter's historywhich one would have thought those seeking to establish aprimacy for him would have prudently avoided. They attest,as a historical fact, Peter's fallibility ; and it does seemstrange to found upon them in proof of the infallibility ofthe popes. If the ordinary laws which regulate the transmissionof moral qualities operated in this case, and if Peterbegot popes in his own likeness, how comes it that from afallible man proceeded a race of infallible pontiffs ? It isone of Rome's many mysteries, doubtless, which is to be believed,not explained. But to an ordinary understandingsuch arguments prove nothing but the desperate straits towhich those are reduced who make use of them. And what,moreover, are we to think of the Council of Basil, which, bysolemn canon, decreed that a pope might be deposed in caseof hei'esy,—a most necessary provision, verily, against an evilW'hich, on the principles of the papists, can never happen !Once more, we are referred in proof of Peter's primacy tothese words in John,— " Jesussaith unto him [Peter], feedmy sheep.""' " At most, the words do only," as St Cyrilsaith, " renew the former grant of apostleshijy, after his greatoffence of denying our Lord."-f- But according to the Romaninterpretation of these words, Peter was now constitutedUNIVERSAL PASTOR of the Church.Now, certainly, asa doctor of the Sorbonnej argues, if these words prove SiX\yi\nngpeculiar to Peter, they prove that he was sole pastorof the Church, and that there ought to be but one Church inthe world, St Peter's, and but one preacher, the Pope. "The* John, xxi. 1(), I7. t Barrow's Works, vol. i. p. 586.t Stillingfleet's Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome, by DrCunningham, p. 217 ; Edin. 1845.