world, is to be
discovered in any part of St. Paul's Epistles. In my opinion, there is
no proof of his ever having been there, much less of his having held
the bishopric. Finally, his own two Epistles furnish no evidence for
such a supposition: the first, and in all probability, the second
also, is written from Babylon, 1 Peter, 5:13, and addressed, not to
the Romans, but "to the strangers (that is to say, the converted Jews)
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,"
1 Peter, 1:1, countries where, it would appear, that he exercised
his ministry, after having for some years preached to the church at
Antioch.

Thus, my children, I discovered that these two primary doctrines of
the Romish church, viz. purgatory and the supremacy of St. Peter, had
not, at any rate, been inculcated by the writers of the Gospel. I
cannot tell you what interest I felt in the new ideas I had acquired.
The New Testament, which I was still far from regarding as a divine
revelation, appeared to me a collection of precious documents, in
whose authority I then began to feel some degree of confidence. Though
I found this study novel and difficult to a poor uneducated artisan
like myself, it was at the same time so attractive to me, that I was
induced to continue my researches.

I have already mentioned to you, my dear children, the invincible
repugnance which I had always felt to receiving the sacrament as
administered in the Romish church. I have said that nothing in the
world could have forced me to this act, by which it is profanely
pretended that the _creature_ EATS _his Creator_!! I could never even
think of it without shuddering. This doctrine, which asserts that
Jesus Christ is present, in body and in spirit, in the consecrated
wafer, and that every communicant is actually nourished by his flesh
and blood, is, of all the tenets of popery, that which contributed the
most to alienate me from the Christian religion, to which I attached
it, and to drive me to infidelity.

This, therefore, now attracted all my attention; and again I began to
read the New Testament, entirely occupied, as previously, by the one
object which I had in view.

I found nothing in the three Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, or St.
Luke, which gave me the least reason to suppose that their author had
recognized the real and corporeal presence of Jesus Christ in the
sacrament of the holy supper. The words of the institution, as related
by t