clear in Christian antiquity, toat it is a shame for any Protestant to confess that any Protestant ever denied it. This partial procedure demonstrates that Mr. Bower has by no means got clear of the prejudices of some Protestants; as an impartial writer of history, which he strongly pretends to be, ought to do, and has in this case greatly hurt the Protestant cause instead of helping it."

Baratier was an eminent Protestant divine, whose dissertation was printed at Utrecht in 1740. It is entitled, A Chronological Inquiry about the most ancient Bishops of Rome, from Peter to Victor. In it he demonstrates the fact which had been so ably exhibited in the learned dissertation of Bishop Pearson.

Will it be pretended then that English, French, and German Protestant divines are interested in rendering this fact credible? The Reverend Mr. Blanc is not more opposed to the See of Rome than they were: the Christian Advocate is not more inimical to what he and they call Popery, than were those writers. But they were men who had read extensively and searched deeply upon the subject.

I shall now adduce the testimony of men whom the essayist would, perhaps, with some show of ground, assert were interested, because they were Roman Catholics. Are we then to reject the evidence furnished by the best witnesses of the brightest days of Christianity, merely because it will lead to a conclusion at which some gentlemen do not choose to arrive?

St. Epiphanius was born at Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, in the year 310. In his youth he closely studied the Hebrew, the Egyptian, the Syriac, the Greek, and the Latin languages, for the purpose of being better able to study the Holy Scriptures. He retired into a monastery in the desert of Egypt, whence he returned to Palestine in 333, and built a monastery near the place of his birth, in which his time was divided between labour, study, and prayer. About the year 367, he was chosen Bishop of Constantia, now Salamis, in the island of Cyprus. In 382 he accompanied St. Paulinus of Nola to Rome, during the pontificate of Damascus. Scarcely a book of note was to be found which he had not studied, and he had improved his reading by travel and observation. His death occurred in 403. In his account of the twentyseventh heresy, which is that of Carpocrates, he distinctly states

He follows up the assertion by stating

"The succession of Bishops in Rome had this consecution. Peter and Paul, Linus, Cletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander," and so forth.

This is pretty strong testimony, given by a man of extensive knowledge and reading, whose research was close and protracted, and whose opportunities were abundant and ample.

St. Jerome was born in the year 329, or 331, and lived to the year 420, enjoying extraordinary advantages of extensive information in Rome, in Palestine, and in various other places where the best opportunities of knowledge were to be found. He writes of himself, Book 12. chapter 40, Ezechiel: "When a boy I studied the liberal arts at Rome; I was wont to make a round to visit the tombs of the apostles and martyrs, with others of the same age and inclinations, and often to descend into the caves which are dug deep into the earth, and have for walls on each side the bodies of those that are interred there." His close application to the study of the Holy Scriptures has never been exceeded, perhaps never equalled: no one better knew the whole range of ecclesiastical affairs. In his notices of illustrious men we read the following brief but emphatic and explicit testimony.

"Simon Peter went to Rome in order to vanquish Simon Magus, and there he held the sacerdotal chair during twenty-five years, that is, to the fourteenth or last year of Nero, by whom he was fastened to the cross, and suffered martyrdom, with his head down towards the earth."

In his Epistle to Marcella we read the following testimony regarding Rome, which, however, as the centre of former pagan infidelity, he styles the Babylon of the Apocalypse.

"There exists indeed there the holy church, there are the trophies of the Apostles and of the martyrs, there the true confession of Christ, there too the faith preached by the Apostle, and the Christian name daily raising itself on high, having trodden on the Gentile system."'

In his Epistle I. to Pope Damascus, the 37th Bishop of Rome, concerning the name hypostasis: he has the following testimony:

"I speak with the successor of the fisherman and the disciple of the cross: I am joined in communion with your holiness, that is to the Chair of Peter.'

St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was born in Gaul in the year 340, where his father, who was at the time prefect of the Prætorium, kept his court. Ambrose himself, when Governor of Liguria and Æmilia, was chosen for the See of Milan, and consecrated in the year 374; he died in 397. His instruction was had in Rome, and no person could be more fully qualified that he was by education, by habit, and by principle, to investigate the origin of the church. It is from his oration against Auxentius which is found in his epistles, Book 5, we read one of those accounts of St. Peter, at which the Rev. Monsieur Blanc, the clerical brother, and the Christian Advocate, would affect to sneer as a "ridiculous tale," "a fable," and so forth. But our wise friends ought to be aware that we have received the Holy Scriptures, which contain many similar statements, only from the same hands, and by the same testimony which transmits to us those tales and fables, as the sage and

critical trio are pleased to designate them. St. Ambrose is stating an occurrence which took place after the Christians had prevailed upon Peter to leave the city of Rome in order to escape.

"He began to go beyond the walls by night, and seeing Christ meet him in the gateway, as if entering the city, he said: Lord, whither goest thou? Christ answered; I come to Rome for the purpose of being again crucified. Peter understood the divine answer to relate to his own cross, and so forth. . Being quickly seized upon, he by his cross honoured the Lord Jesus."

In his Book III., On the Sacraments, chapter i., he has the following testimony, showing the ground upon which he made a statement.

"Truly we have as the author of this our assertion, Peter the Apostle, who was the Priest of the Roman Church."

St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, was born of illustrious parents, at Bordeaux, in the year 353, educated in the most famous schools, and possessing all the advantages of talent, fortune, books, and communication with the most learned men of his time, in various places where he resided: he entered upon retirement from his worldly grandeur in the year 390, was consecrated in 409, and died in 431. In his book Natali, 3, he gives us the following testimony.

"And Rome herself, powerful in the sacred monuments of the heavenly leaders, in Peter and in Paul."'

St. John Chrysostom was born about the year 344, at Antioch; he was the only son of Secundus the commander-in-chief of the imperial troops of Syria. His name is his eulogy; his knowledge was indeed. extensive, as his tongue was eloquent: he was ordained deacon in 381; priest in 386; and was consecrated Bishop of Constantinople on the 26th of February, 398; and died on the 14th of September, 407. In his Commentary on the 18th Psalm we read.

"Because Peter the fisherman took possession of the chief royal city, he shines, even after death, more splendid than the sun.''

In his Homily 32, On the Epistle to the Romans, he states: "The heavens do not shine so brightly when the sun shoots forth his rays, as doth the city of the Romans, pouring out the light of those two lamps through all the world. From this place Paul will be snatched, from this place Peter. Consider, and be astonished what a spectacle Rome will behold, to wit, Paul arising suddenly from the repository together with Peter, and borne upwards to meet the Lord.”

Eutropius, an excellent historian, born in the same century, who wrote ten books of the history of Rome down to the time of the Emperor Valens, gives the following testimony in his book vii. On the life of Nero.

"Finally he added this to all his other crimes, that he butchered the holy Apostles of God, Peter and Paul."

St. Sulpicius Severus, of a rich and illustrious Roman family, was

born near Toulouse in Aquitain, about the year 360: he was a most acute and eloquent barrister, of extensive reading and deep erudition. Upon the death of his wife he retired and devoted himself altogether to piety and literature; some writers state that he was ordained priest, but doubts exist upon the subject: he compiled an ecclesiastical history and some works of hagiography. The language of his abridged history, to the year 400, is such as to deserve a comparison in style with the best of the earlier ages, and procured for him the appellation of the Christian Sallust; his death occurred about the year 420, when it is generally supposed he was a monk in a monastery, founded near Marseilles, by Cassian, who came thither from Constantinople, about twelve years previously. I shall give his testimony in the original, together with the translation, (lib. 2. Sac. His.)

Divina apud urbem religio invaluerat, Petro ibi Episcopatum gerente; et Paulo postea Roman adducto.. Paulus ac Petrus capitis damnati, quorum uni cervix gladio desecta, Petrus in crucem sublatus est. "The divine religion had grown strong in the city, and Paul having been afterwards led to Rome. Paul and Peter were capitally sentenced, of whom one was beheaded with a sword; Peter was lifted on

a cross.

Peter being bishop there,

.

The Emperor Theodosius the Great, reigned from 395 to 408, and from his situation must have had good opportunities of knowing the general impression of the wise and the learned of his own day, as well as the history of previous times. This emperor must, if local prejudices or partialities swayed him, have been less disposed to favour Rome than Constantinople. Let us view his testimony given in G. de summa Trinitate, et fide Catholica, L. cunctos populos.

"We desire all the people who are under the rule of our clemency to be exercised in that religion, whose preservation as yet amongst the Romans declares it to have been to them delivered by the blessed Apostle Peter.''

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was born at Tagaste in Numidia in the year 354: his education was most carefully looked after, his talents were of the first order, and his research was extensive and accurate. Having been instructed in the Christian doctrine by St. Ambrose, as well as by an aged priest named Simplican, whom Pope Damasus had formerly sent to instruct Ambrose himself, he became a Christian, and was baptized by St. Ambrose, on Easter eve, in the year 387 in the course of two or three years afterwards he was ordained priest, and was consecrated Bishop in the year 395, and died in the year 430. I might quote many passages from his voluminous writings to sustain the facts which I here uphold. I shall be content with the following:

:

"Rome commends more solemnly, and with greater celebrity, the merits of

Peter and of Paul, because they suffered on the same day. Book i. Chapter 10. De Consensu Evangel."

"What hath the chair of the Church of Rome done to you, that chair in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius now sits? Book ii. Chapter 51, Contra Litteras Petiliani."

In his sixteenth epistle, he enumerates the Bishops of Rome from Peter to Anastasius.

Paul Orosius, a learned Priest of Tarragona, in Spain, who about the year 416, was in Palestine, and in several parts of the most flourishing divisions of the Church, the doctrine and knowledge of which he had fully known, testifies in Book vii. chapter 6 of his History:

"In the beginning of the reign of Claudius, Peter, the Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, came to Rome, and by faithful discourse taught the saving faith to all, and approved it by most powerful virtues, and from that time Christians began to be at Rome."

"For Nero first at Rome punished and slew Christians, and endeavouring to extirpate the very name, he put to death the most blessed Apostles of Christ, Peter by the cross, and Paul by the sword.''

Theodoret, Bishop of Cypress, was consecrated in 423; his see was about 80 miles from Antioch. He died in the year 458, before he had reached his 70th year. He was deeply versed in every branch of Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew learning, highly esteemed for his critical and philosophical powers. An unfortunate dispute existed between him and St. Cyril, of Alexandria, legate of Pope Celestine, regarding the personal criminality of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople; so that Theodoret was no flatterer of the See of Rome. He made a valuable compilation of Church history from the year 324, when Eusebius closed, to the year 429; besides writing several other works. In his Commentary on chapter i. to the Romans, we have this testimony:

"The great Peter first gave to them (the Romans) the gospel doctrine.''

In his Epistle to Pope Leo the Great, writing of Rome, he states: "She possesses the sepulchres of our common fathers and doctors of the truth, of Peter and of Paul, which illuminate the souls of the faithful.''

"They (Peter and Paul) have made your See the more illustrious; this is the sum of your goods. But God hath now also rendered their See bright and worthy of remark, when he has placed your holiness in that seat which emits the rays of the orthodox faith."

I could swell this catalogue; but to what purpose? Nothing is more plainly exhibited upon the records of antiquity, in the writings of historians, in the letters of bishops, in the edicts of emperors, in the documents of churches, in public monuments, in the acts of councils, in the avowal of opponents, than that the blessed Apostle Peter was at Rome, was first Bishop of Rome, and died in that city, being bishop thereof. Let any man of common discernment now compare the small por