cil at Jerusalem, five years after, A. D. 49, which he attended, and nobly atoned for his former hypocrisy, by manfully supporting in the council the cause of the Gentile converts against the Judaizers. Acts, xv. 1-31. After this council, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, which they made their head quarters, Acts, xv. 35, while Peter probably proceeded on his mission to the Jewish converts of the dispersion in Pontus, &c. at this convenient season.

From thence he appears to have bent his course westwards to Greece, where he visited Corinth, as we have seen from the joint testimonies of Paul and Dionysius, before A. D. 57, the date of the first epistle to the Corinthians. In those parts Peter probably continued a good while, preaching the Gospel to the numerous Jews settled in Greece and Macedonia.

That Peter had not visited Rome when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans, may fairly be collected from the omission of his name throughout the Epistle, and especially among the salutations at the end; and also from the wish Paul expressed "to communicate some spiritual gift for their establishment," Rom. i. 11, which would not have been necessary had Peter been already there.

The knowledge of Christianity might have been first introduced at Rome by the Roman converts on the day of Pentecost. Acts, ii. 10. And that a church was already founded there when Paul wrote his epistle, is evident from his salutation to "his coadjutors in the Lord, Priscilla and Aquila," who had been banished from Rome, with the Jews, about the 9th of Claudius, A. D. 40, Acts, xviii. 2, but had returned thither again, and had collected "the church in their house." Rom, xvi. 3-5. Perhaps Priscilla is ranked before her husband in this salutation, because she might have been more successful in converting the Roman ladies. Among these is celebrated a British lady, Pomponia Græcina, the wife of the Roman proprætor in Britain, Aulus Plautius, who obtained an ovation on his return to Rome, A. D. 57. "This eminent woman (insignis femina)," says Tacitus (Annal. xiii. chap. 32), was arraigned on account of the foreign superstition (superstitionis externæ rea) and permitted, according to ancient custom, to be tried by her husband. He therefore, in presence of her relations, tried her cause, involving her life and reputation, and pronounced her innocent." And to this noted trial, perhaps, among others, at that time, the Apostle might have alluded in his epistle the ensuing year, A. D. 58, "I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for

This is a strong incidental confirmation of the date, A. D. 58, assigned to this epis. te by Barrington, Lardner, Michaelis, and Hales. This fundamental date is further

you all, that your faith is spoken of, throughout the whole world." Rom

i. 8.

It is also probable that Peter had not reached Rome at the time that Paul was brought prisoner thither, about A. D. 62; as we may collect from the ignorance of the Jews at Rome respecting Paul's persecution at Jerusalem. Acts, xxviii. 21. It is not true, however, that "they had heard very little of Christ before Paul's arrival," (as the tract supposes,) because, on the contrary, "the sect of the Christians was every where spoken against," verse 22; but surely, if they had heard before of its tenets from Peter at Rome, they would not now be so curious to hear an account of them from Paul.

We may collect, however, from the foregoing testimonies, and especially the last, of Nicephorus, that Peter came to Rome about A. D. 63 ; but we have reason to think that he did not make any stay there, at that time, from the silence of Paul's epistles written from Rome respecting him, as justly observed in the tract, but rather that he proceeded to Spain, which Paul had intended to visit, Rom. xv. 24-28, but was prevented by his long confinements at Cæsaria and Rome, for four or five years. Nor had he time, in the interval between his enlargement, A. D. 64, his journey to Syria, eastwards, and bis return to Rome and martyr. dom, A. D. 65, to execute that western journey. His place was most probably supplied by Peter, fulfilling his beloved brother Paul's intentions, when unable to execute them himself.

And that Peter did indeed travel westward of Rome, we may collect from the following testimonies:

1. Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, A. D. 178, speaks of Christianity as planted to the ends of the earth, by the Apostles, and their disciples, and particularly specifies the churches planted Ev Tais ICɛplats, "in Spain and Portugal ;" nai ev toig Keλtois, "and among the Celtic nations," of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. Among these "Apostles," therefore, we are warranted to include Peter.

2. Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, in his Demonstratio Evangelica, 3, 7, observes, "that some of the Apostles passed over the ocean to the British Isles." This likewise may include Peter.

3. Simeon Metaphrastes, a monkish writer of the tenth century, says that" Peter spent some days in Britain, and enlightened many by the word of grace; and having established churches [in the West] and elected bishops, presbyters, and deacons, came again to Rome, in the 12th year

confirmed by the varying dates, in defect and excess, of the Magdeburgh History and Bishop Burgess, A. D. 53 or 54; Simson, A. D. 55; Pearson, A. D. 57; and the Bible Chronology, A.D. 60, between which it is nearly a mean.

of Nero (A. D. 65), where, having found Linus dead, he elected Clemens bishop in his room, who with great reluctance accepted the station, and was afterwards spared in the ensuing persecution because he was a kinsman of Nero.". Cotelerius Patres Apostol. Vol. I. p. 148, not. 39.

4. And this testimony of Metaphrastes, in perfect unison with the preceding, seems to be confirmed by a remarkable inscription found in the village of Marcosia, in Lusitania, or Portugal, shewing that Nero's persecution of the Christians extended to that province,

"NERONI CL. CAIS. AUG. PONT. MAX.

OB. PROVINC. LATRONIB. ET HIS QUI

Nov. GENERI. HUM. SUPERSTITION.

INCULCAB. PURGATAM."

"To Nero, Claudius Cæsar Augustus, chief Pontiff,

For purging the provinces of robbers,
And of Christians] who inculcated

A new superstition to the human race."

See Lardner, VII. p 248, or Hales's Analysis, II. p. 1257.

Is it, then, at all improbable that Peter's martyrdom by that ruthless tyrant might have been occasioned by the success of his labours in planting the Gospel in the Western provinces, as of Paul, for his similar sucDess, at Rome?

From the foregoing premises, we seem warranted to draw these conclusions:

1. A Christian church subsisted at Rome before either Peter or Paul visited that metropolis, composed principally of Paul's converts, coadju tors, and friends, and therefore more intimately connected with him than with Peter, who visited Rome after him.

2. Peter's visit to Rome could not well have been earlier than A. D. 63, if, according to Nicephorus, his episcopate lasted only two years. At his first visit he and Paul, conjointly, might have appointed Linus, according to Irenæus; and at the second, Clemens Romanus, according to Metaphrastes. Hence,

3. Peter's episcopacy of four or five and twenty years at Rome, according to Jerom, &c. is proved to be fictitious.

4. It is improbable, however, that either Peter or Paul visited Britain personally, from the shortness of the interval between their first and second visits to Rome. The precise time of planting the Gospel in Britain I shall reserve, perhaps, for some future communication.

INSPECTOR,

To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate.

SIR,-It may be interesting to the readers of the PROTESTANT Adve. CATE, who have turned their attention to the securities of Mr. Canning's bill and Signor Quarantotti's rescript, to be acquainted with the laws by which a Roman Catholic republic would rule her Protestant subjects; and the following articles, drawn up by the French government of 1801 for the Protestant churches within her dominions, supply an instance in point.

Should their tendency be to establish the necessity of much stronger securities, for our establishment in church and state, than any that have been yet offered by the friends of the Roman Catholics of this empire, it is hoped they may be deemed perfectly adapted to promote your views, as the Editor of the Protestant Advocate.

The Protestants of France, like their brethren in all countries, ac. knowledge no superior power beyond the limits of their own churches; yet such was the jealousy of Roman Catholic France, that in the second article even communion is interdicted with foreigners: -and the strict ties by which the ministers of worship are connected with the state, evince the danger of committing political power into the hands of men uninterested in its support.

"Art. 1. No individual shall officiate as a minister of religion that is not by birth a Frenchman.

"2. Neither the Protestant churches, nor their ministers, shall have ANY CONNEXION with a foreign power or authority.

"4 No doctrinal decision of formulary, under the title of confession, or under any other title, shall be published, or become a subject of instruction, before its publication has been authorized by government.

"5. No change shall take place in the forms of their discipline without the same authority.

"6. The council of state shall take cognizance of all alterations attempted by their ministers, and of all the dissentions which may arise among them.

"7. Provision shall be made for the support of pastors of consistorial churches, but so as that the property of these churches, as well as the oblations established by usage and by positive regulations, shall be applied in part of such provisions.

11. The professors in all the academies or seminaries shall be nominated by the chief consul. (A Roman Catholic.)

"12. No person shall be elected a minister or pastor of any church of the confession of Augsburgh, who has not studied during a fixed period

in one of the French seminaries appointed for ministers of this persuasion, and who shall not produce a certificate in due form of his capacity and regular conduct during the continuance of his studies.

"13. No person to be elected a minister or pastor of the reformed churches, without having studied in the seminary of Geneva, &c. &c.

"14. The regulations respecting the administration and internal police of these seminaries, the number and qualification of their professors, the mode of instruction, the subjects which are taught, &c &c. are to be approved of by the government.

19. The number of ministers or pastors in one consistorial church shall not be augmented without the authority of government.

"22. The extraordinary (consistorial) assemblies shall not be held without the permission of the sub-prefect, or the mayor, in his absence.

"24. No new consistory to be elected without the authority and personal attendance of the prefect or sub prefect. (Both likely to have been Roman Catholics.)

25. Pastors can only be deposed after the reasons of such deposition have been confirmed by government.

" 26. All newly elected pastors to be approved of by the first consul. (A professed Roman Catholic.)

"30. All decisions of synods, of whatever description, to be submitted to the approbation of government.

"38. Synods not to assemble without the permission of government. Previous notice given of the subjects of discussion. To assemble in the presence of the prefect or sub-prefect; and the minutes of their deliberations to be transmitted to government.

"40. Protestant churches governed by general consistories.

"41. The president and two ecclesiastical inspectors of each consis tory to be nominated by the chief consul."

- It is hardly necessary to offer any remarks on these articles. They speak, for themselves, a very intelligible language. If a Roman Catholic government provided so many securities for itself, and laid the Protestants under such severe reflections, extending to doctrine and to discipline, laying their religious affairs under the superintendance and control of a lay government-will not the Roman Catholics allow to a Protestant government some small degree of reciprocity? Will they not offer to a Protestant government something in the shape of securities? Will the Irish Roman Catholics, to a man, adopt the rude defiance of Dr. Dromgole, and say "we have no securities to offer." I am aware of the danger which must accrue to the establishment by the abolition of restrictions, under the supposed safeguard of any securities whatever. I know