gospel shall endure-without interruption, until the end of time. St Augustine says, we must form our judgment of the holiness of the church-not by the scandalous lives of wicked christians, but by the edifying conduct of the good, who will never be wanting to solace her under her affliction for the sins of men. It is then an error to imagine, that her eternal duration can be affected by the scandals and the crimes of wicked livers. It is God himself who has given unto her length of days; and neither the iniquity nor the persecutions of men shall be ever able to abridge them. Here below she is not, it is true, in the tabernacle of her repose: the earth, in her regard, is a place of trial, a strange and unknown land; where she is environed with enemies that seek in vain to rob her of her most valuable property, that is---of charity and truth. However violent the tempests that assail her, the faithful christian needs not fear her being overwhelmed: He who commands the swelling waves is himself the pilot of this cherished vessel. He will bring her to a secure haven. Let him whose happiness it is to have been born and nurtured in the bosom of this catholic church,-instructed in its salutary doctrines, sanctified by its sacred rites, and educated in the principles of an inviolable attachment to its faith,-rejoice at the virtues practised by its true professors, while he laments the evils which he cannot remedy, and carefully preserves the unity of spirit in the bond of peace; that desirable peace which surpasseth all understanding, and which consists in the stability of faith and the consolation of hope, and-in a union of hearts by means of perfect charity," L'Aumont Hist. Abreg. de l'Eglise.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

Primitive Patriarchs through whose medium successively, was preserved the knowledge of the true God-from the creation of the first man down to Moses. The year of their birth before Christ is marked as follows:

St Denys

St Felix

THIRD CENTURY.

Septimius Severus, Caracalla
Geta, Macrinus, Heliogabalus
Alexander Severus, Maximinus
The two Gordians-father and son
Pupienus, Balbinus

Gordian III.

The two Philips-father and son
Pacatianus, Decius

Herennius, Hostilian
Gallus, Volusian, Emilian
Valerian I. Gallien

St Xystus, or Sixtus II. Valerian II. Salonius, Sulpicius

The thirty Tyrants or Pretenders.
Claudius II. Quintillus, Aurelian

St Eutychianus
St Caius

St Marcellinus

Interregnum of eight months in 275
Tacitus, Florianus, Probus
Carus, Carinus, Numerian

t Marcellus I.
St Eusebius
St Melchiades
St Sylvester I.
St Marcus

St Julius I.

Liberius

St Damasus

St Siricius

FOURTH CENTURY.

Dioclesian, Maximian

Constantius Chlorus, Galerius
Severus, Maxentius, Maximinus
Constantine the Great, Licinius
Constantine the younger, Constans and
Constantius, Julian the apostate
Jovian, Valentinian I.

Valens, Gratian, Valentinian II.

Ursicinus. Theodosius the Great