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    states to which the epistle is addressed ; and as Silvamis passed , in company with Paul , through Cilicia and Lycaonia , as well as Galatia and Asia , it is impossible to assign a satisfactory reason for the omission of the former when the latter are included . It seems morally certain , therefore , that Babylon was not the original reading . On the contrary , every internal mark of evidence , and every scattered ray of light which can be collected from the Acts of the Apostles , and the writings of Paul , and made to bear upon the subject , lead us directly

    to the conclusion that the epistle was written soon after the Council of Jerusalem , and either in the city of Antioch , or at no great distance from it . We learn from the Epistle to the Galatians ( ii . 11 ) , as I have before observed , that Peter was at Antioch a short time after the arrival of the deputation from the church of Jerusalem ; but there is no mention of him in any other part of the New Testament at any period subsequent to this . After the

    publication of the apostolic decree , Paul engrosses all the attention of the historian of the apostles , and a desideratum is thus produced in the biography of Peter , which can never be sufficiently deplored , because it can never be adequately filled up . Tradition and ecclesiastical history come indeed to our aid , but the assistance which they bring by no means compensates for >~ the loss which we have sustained in the omissions made by this apostle's earliest and most authentic historian . Jerome , in his " Lives of Illustrious

    Men , " * speaks of Peter ' s episcopate at Antioch as preceding his visit to Rome ; and the same father , in his " Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians , " f says , that Peter , as "he had learnt , first of all preside'd over the see of Antioch , and was translated thence to Rome . " Eusebius likewise calls Ignatius the second in succession from Peter at Antioch ; t and

    Chrysostom writes thus in reference to Peter ' s connexion with the Christian church in that city : § " This is one prerogative of our city , ( Antioch , ) that we had at the beginning the chief of the apostles for our master . For it was fit that the place which was first honoured with the name of Christians , should have the chief of the apostles for its pastor . But though we had him for a master awhile , we did not detain him , but resigned him to the royal city , Rome : or rather , we have him still ; for though we have not his body , we

    have his faith . " Now , whatever may be thought of this apostle's alleged residence at Rome , which I cannot help regarding as an impudent forgery of the second century , framed for the purpose of giving sanction to the exorbitant pretensions of that aspiring see , (| it is natural to infer from the language - of Cnrysostom , who was born at Antioch in the year of our Lord 354 , that he derived ' his knowledge of the apostle ' s residence in his own native city from the most authentic sources of information , historical as well i as

    traditionary . The probability , therefore , is , that after Peter's escape from prison at Jerusalem , he passed the greater part of his life in Syria , of which Antioch was at that time the metropolis . But there was another city of Syria , second in importance only to the metropolis itself , which lay about two days' journey south-east of Antioch , and where the apostle probably spent no small portion of his time . This city was called Beraea by the Macedonians who accompanied Alexander in his

    * Opera , Colon . Tom . I . p . 100 . H . t Tom . VI . p . 128 . G . X Hist . Eccles . Lib . iii . c . 36 . § In Princip . Act . Apost . Horn . ii . See Lardner ' s Works : Stereotype edition , Vol . VI . p . 237 ; or , "A History of the Apostles and Evangelists / ' chap . xix . ( I On this subject the reader may consult "A Modest Enquiry whether St . Peter were ever at Rome , and Bishop of that Church ? London : Printed for Randall Taylor , near Stationers ' -Hall , 1687 . "

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    Remarks on the First Epistle of Peter * 25

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/25/