(1.) The first proof that I shall adduce will be taken from the Roman Catholic version of the epistle of Clement Bishop of Rome, to the Corinthians, written about A. D. 90. In this epistle he expostulates with them on their having deposed their ministers, and having permitted contentions amongst themselves. It will be observed that Clement here affects no superiority over the Corinthian Church, but addresses it as having equality with the Church at Rome. The commencement of the epistle runs thus: "The Church of God which worships at Rome, to the Church of God which worships at Corinth, called and sanctified by the will of God, &c.," a very different style of address from that which is now employed by the Bishop of Rome, when he writes an ecclesiastical epistle.

"The Apostles,' preached to us from Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ from God. Christ, therefore, was sent by God, and the Apostles by Christ; each mission was performed in its own order, by the will of God. Therefore, having received their command from him, and being certainly assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed in faith by the word of God, with the plenitude of the Holy Ghost, they went forth announcing the approach of the kingdom of God. Preaching, therefore, through regions and cities, they appointed the first fruits of those whom they approved in the spirit as Bishops and Deacons, over 'those who believed.'

"Our Apostles also, knew through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be contention about the name of Bishop. Therefore, on this account, being filled with

perfect foreknowledge, they constituted those of whom we have spoken before, and delivered a rule thenceforward for the future succession, that when they departed, other approved men should take their office and ministry. Those, therefore, who were constituted by them, or after their time, by other approved men, with the consent of the whole Church, and who fulfilled their ministry to the sheepfold of Christ, humbly, quietly, and liberally, and through a long period, obtained a distinguished report from all men, those we think it unjust to depose from their office. For it will not be accounted a light sin, if those who offer gifts without strife and with holiness, should be removed from their episcopate."

(2.) The second patristic testimony which I shall adduce is from the writings of Irenæus; and here I shall have to tax your patience for a little, because it is to the authority of this Father that our Roman Catholic friends so frequently refer in proof of the supremacy and catholicity of the Church of Rome. Listen then, to the following sentence from his work against Heresies: "We have not known the system of our. salvation, except by those through whom the Gospel came to us; which then, truly, they preached, but afterwards, by the will of God, they delivered to us in the Scriptures, to be the pillar and ground of our faith." Here at least, there is no reference to the Church having been built upon Peter, but upon the Gospel Faith-this is the pillar, this the ground of saving truth.

But in the third chapter of this same book against

Heresies, there occurs the following passage, to which I invite your candid attention, because it is the strongest evidence from antiquity which the Roman Catholic Church can adduce in favour of her claims. Irenæus, then, contending against the Gnostics of his day, says, "The tradition of the Apostles being manifested through the whole world, it remains to be seen throughout the whole Church by all who wish to behold the truth. And we are able to enumerate those who were instituted Bishops by the Apostles in the Churches, and their successors to our own time, who taught and knew nothing like what these men rave about:-But since it would be tedious," he continues, "in such a volume to reckon the successions of all the Churches, we confound all those who in any manner infer what is unseemly, by the successions of the Bishops of that greatest, very ancient, and universally known Church, founded and constituted at Rome, by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, which shows the tradition which it has from the Apostles, and the faith announced to men, and descending even to us. For to this Church, on account of the more powerful principality, it must needs be that the whole Church should resort, that is, those who are faithful, from all places round about; in which Church, the tradition which is from the Apostles, has always been preserved by those round about it." This I grant is a strong passage; but let us fairly examine it, and see whether, as Roman Catholics say, it proves Irenæus to be a witness that the Bishop of Rome then possessed supreme authority over the Christian World, and that the

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Church of Rome was acknowledged of right to be the mother and mistress of all Churches. Observe then,

First, That this Father speaks of all the Apostles indifferently, and expressly declares that the tradition of the Apostles was given to us in the Scriptures to be the pillar and ground of our faith.

Secondly, That he speaks of "the successions of all the Churches," and expressly tells us that to avoid tediousness merely, he selected one, and that one, in his estimation, the most illustrious in the world.

Thirdly, That he ascribes the establishment of the Roman Church to the joint labours of Peter and Paul, uttering not a syllable respecting the primacy of Peter.

Fourthly, That with respect to "the more powerful principality" of which he speaks, Irenæus does not use one word which connects this principality with the Church, or with its Bishops. He simply says, "to this Church on account of the more powerful principality," not on account of its or her, but the more powerful principality :-" Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam." I think the candid hearer will agree with me that the fair interpretation to be put upon these words is this: "That on account of the more powerful principality of Rome, where was held the seat of the imperial government, where was the Capitol from which the decrees of the Roman Senate went forth throughout the globe; in which were concentrated all the wealth, the learning, the ambition, the pleasures, and the interests of millions, and which was at once the head and the heart of that most mighty of empires, it must

needs have been that the Church founded there, and flourishing there, was regarded with peculiar interest by the minor Churches around it-that it was the richest, the most numerous, the most influential, and the most important Church in the general esteem of Christians, by reason of its peculiar location." Nothing could be more natural than that it should be so regarded. We meet daily with similar cases amongst every denomination of Christians. We see, even amongst ourselves, that it does not require a prelatical form of government to impart to a Church influence and power. Let a church, Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, or Methodist, be established in any metropolis; let it rise to the position of a wealthy, a numerous, a benevolent church; let it be served by ministers of talent and experience, and by officers of repute in the state as well as in the church;-I ask you what would be the influence of such a church upon the surrounding country churches? Precisely that which Irenæus ascribes to the Church at Rome in the passage now under consideration. It is a satisfaction to know that this view of the language of Irenæus is taken by a celebrated Roman Catholic author, the learned Touttée, the translator of Cyril.

But we have the testimony of Irenæus himself that this, and no other must have been his view. In the second century there was a controversy between Victor, the Bishop of Rome and the Churches of Asia, about the time of keeping Easter: and the eastern churches, refusing to change their custom for the sake of conforming to the practice of Rome, Victor undertook to