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

LOWERS GOD AND EXALTS THE PRIEST. 409thority.of the old Csesars.It is the ghost of Peter, with the shadowy diademSimilar is the tendency and design of all the dogmas ofthe Papacy.These are but so many defences and outpoststhrown up around the infallible chair of Peter: they areso many chains forged in the Vatican, and cunningly fashionedby Ilome''s artificers, for binding the intellect andthe conscience of mankind.There is not one of the articlesin her creed which is not fitted to exalt the priesthood anddegrade the people.This is its main, almost its sole object.That creed, superstitious to the very core, exerts no wholesomeinfluence upon the mind : it neither expands the intellectnor regulates the conscience. It does not set forththe grace of the Father, or the love of the Son, or the powerof the Spirit. It has been framed with a far different object.It sets forth the grace of the pope, the power of thepriest, and the efiicacy of the sacrament. The pope, thepriest, and the sacrament, are the triune with the mysteryof which the creed of Popery is occupied. We have alreadypointed out the tendency of each of the separate articles asthey passed in review before us, and it becomes unnecessaryhere to dwell upon them. Let it suffice to remark, that bythe doctrine of tradition the priests are constituted the exclusivechannels of divine revelation, and by the doctrine ofinherentefficacy they become the only channels of divine influence.In the one case the people are entirely dependentupon them for all knowledge of the will of God ; and in theother, they are not less dependent upon them for the enjoymentof divine blessings. It is easy to conceive how thistends to exalt this class of men. They have power sinrituallyto shut heaven, that it rain not upon the earth. Bysprinkling a little water on the face of a child, the priest canremove all its guilt, and impart holiness to it. A whisperfrom the priest in the confessional can absolve from sin, oradjudge to eternal flames. By muttering a few words inLatin, he can create the flesh and blood, the soul and divinity,of Christ ;and in saying mass, he can so regulate his inten-