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be at the same time peculiarly interesting to those who were sojourning in the scenes where they occurred, and would tend to deepen and fix the impressions which it was his purpose to convey. They are intended as the dark back-ground of his sketch, in order to bring it out with more distinctness.

In prosecuting his purpose, the author does not claim to have thrown any new light on the question of St. Paul's sojourn at Rome. He has only attempted to concentrate that light, and by its aid to look steadily at some of the details of that historical picture in which both Nero and Paul are introduced, which might easily escape a casual observation. Hence he has not felt it needful to encumber his pages with foot-notes of references to authorities. It will be sufficient to name the few authors who have furnished most of the materials which he has employed. They are the following: Tacitus; Suetonius; Les Césars par le Cte. Franz de Champagny, 3 vols., Paris, 1859; Storia degli Imperatori Romani da Augusto Sino Costantino de, Sigg Lebeau, Crevier, etc., 36 vols., Roma, 1857; Indicazione Topographica de Roma Antica in correspondenza dell' Epoca imperiale del Commendatore Luigi Canina, 1 vol., Roma, 1850; Gli Edifici di Roma Antica e sua Campagna, Luigi Canina, 6 vols. folio, Roma, 1851; the Life and Epistles of St. Paul, by the Rev. W. J. Conybeare, M. A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Rev. J. S. Howson, D. D.,

principal of the Collegiate Institute, Liverpool, two volumes, People's edition, London, 1863; Lectures upon the Ecclesiastical History of the first three centuries, by Edward Burton, D.D., Oxford, 1845. Baronius, Fleury, and the Papal Constitutions have been consulted in the library of the Convent of Minerva.

It would not interest the reader of these discourses to know the few modifications which they have undergone in preparing them for the press. They are published in substance as they were delivered.

The last Lecture, on the claims of the Church of Rome to exclusive sanctity, to infallibility, and to unity, has no immediate connection with the series upon St. Paul. It was delivered last year, after the hearing of a discourse by Monsignore Manning. I venture to publish it, because although hastily prepared, it contains a refutation of that one train of argument which is over and over again repeated, by the distinguished author, to the English and American auditors who crowd to listen to his Advent and Lenten Sermons.

The author cannot conclude this preface without the expression of his gratification at the favor with which the discourses were received by the congregation, of several nationalities and many denominations, to which they were delivered. It is but justice to himself to add that it is at the instance of many clerical brethren, English, American, and

Scotch, that he ventures to commit them to the

press.

As he pens these lines, it is with a feeling of sadness that he remembers how many loved brethren and friends, who listened to these discourses, and with whom he has taken sweet counsel in the house of God, under circumstances well calculated to deepen and enrich all Christian sympathies and affections, are now dispersed and journeying far over sea and land. May grace, mercy, and peace attend them and abide upon them forever!

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