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

POPERY AND PAPACY DISTINGUISHED. SO 7to SCO all the ends why God has permitted this evil systemto exist. Some are already known, but the more importantare still veiled in mystery ;but we cannot doubt that endsthere are, great, wise, and beneficent, and that what is darkto us will be clear to posterity. Nor can we doubt that,when these ends are disclosed, they will be found to be suchas we have indicated, namely, a demonstration of the necessityof bringing the principles on which society is framedinto harmony with those on which the divine government iscarried on, in order thatsociety may be saved, in its futurestages, from the errors which have misled it hitherto, andthe calamities which have overwhelmed it.Popery we have described pretty fully in its leading principlesand aspects ; and we now pass from the subject of Popery,strictly considered, to that of the Papacy. We distinguishbetween Popery and the Papacy, and on justgrounds, as we believe. Popery is the principle or errorwhich may be defined to be salvation of man, in oppositionto the truth of the gospel, which may be defined salvation ofGod. The Papacy is the secular organization by which theprinciple or error became as it were incarnate. This organizationformed the body in which it dwelt,—the frameworkby which it sought to establish itself and reign in theworld. The political system of Europe, as it has existedfor the past thousand years and upwards, has been thisframework. The soul that animated this system wasPopery. It was the mind that guided it, and the powerfulthough invisible bond that gave it unity.the Seven Hills ;Its head sat uponand there was not a priest in Europe, fromthe scarlet cardinals of the Eternal City, down to the wanderingCapuchin, with his dress of serge and his girdle ofrope, nor was there a king in Europe, from the monarchs ofFrance down to the petty dukes of Germany, who was not apart of that system. All strove together with one heartand soul for tlicsame iniquitous object, namely, the exaltationof the priesthood, and especially of the high priest ofRome, to the dishonour of the High Priest in the heavens.