6. Our sixth specimen is afforded by Mr. Husenbeth. The famous text in the Gospel of St. Matthew, which exhibits our Lord as saying, _Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church_, is universally explained by the Romish Clergy, as being _a grant from Christ of a monarchal supremacy in the Catholic Church_, _both to Peter individually_, _and to Peter’s alleged heirs and successors the Bishops of Rome_. Now, most unluckily for this current explanation, the primitive theologians knew nothing of it: for, while the early Fathers, Justin and Tertullian and Cyprian and Origen and Athanasius and Jerome and Augustine and Chrysostom and Hilary, differ as to the true meaning of the text (some supposing the rock to be Peter personally and exclusively; some, to be Christ himself; and some, to be Peter’s confession of Christ’s divinity); NOT ONE of them interprets it, as the Romish Clergy would now interpret it. Yet, by way of putting to open shame every opponent of the Pope’s supremacy by divine right, Mr. Husenbeth deliberately assures his plain country readers: that, _by_ ALL _the holy Fathers and Doctors_, _by_ ALL _the Councils_, _and by the most learned and pious men in the world in_ EVERY _age down to the Reformation_, _the text in question has been_ UNIFORMLY _understood as it is now explained by the Romish Clergy_. {68a} 7. The copiousness of Mr. Husenbeth will afford us also yet a seventh specimen. With every semblance of even scrupulous fidelity, giving distinct references to his authorities, this theologian, in a small Work written for circulation among _the unlearned_, declares; that _Papias_, _Ignatius_, _Irenèus_, _Dionysius of Corinth_, _Caius of Rome_, _Clement of Alexandria_, _Tertullian_, _Origen_, _and Cyprian_, _all with one voice explicitly assert St. Peter to have been the first diocesan Bishop of Rome_: and he adds, still for the information of _the unlearned_; that _Mr. White_, who had unceremoniously pronounced St. Peter’s Roman Episcopate to be an idle and ungrounded report, _did but attempt to impose upon such humble readers as have no means of examining history_, _by such worn out fallacies and vile fabrications_. {68b} Yet I have myself examined all Mr. Husenbeth’s references to his above alleged witnesses from the three first centuries: and I can positively state, from the testimony of my own eye-sight, that NOT ONE _of those witnesses says a single syllable_, _as to St. Peter having been the first diocesan Bishop of Rome_, _or indeed as to his_ EVER _having been Bishop of that See_. 8. Our eighth specimen is furnished by the joint industry and rival intrepidity of Bp. Trevern and Mr. Husenbeth.