Stillingfleet, Cave, Gibson, Nelson, Rowland, Roberts, and lately by the pious and primitive Bishop Burgess, in his elaborate Tracts on the Origin and Independence of the British Church, 1815, second edition, which originally appeared in the form of Letters to his Clergy of St. David's. A tradition so fully and so respectably supported, merits the strictest discussion. And I have been encouraged to undertake the arduous task, by his Lordship himself; who, in a letter, with which I was favoured by him, July 17, 1815, thus expresses himself, with the candour and liberality of a scholar, whose sole object is the discovery of truth: "I am glad you are pursuing your inquiries into the first introduction of the Gospel into Britain. The more I study the subject, the more I am convinced of St. Paul's having preached the Gospel in these islands. But your convictions are equally decided, that he did not. Nothing but ample and full investigation of the subject can remove the difficulties, which occasion such a difference of opinion. I shall therefore receive with great pleasure, the result of your inquiries." And again, August 28, 1815.-"I shall be very glad to see your Essay on the subject. I most cordially adopt your maxim: Mon JUTEOV yanag-"Sacrifice to THE TRUTH alone." The Bishop maintains (with Usher) that "St. Paul established a form of Church Government in Britain; and that he appointed Aristobulus (noticed by the Apostle, Rom. xvi. 10.) to be the first Bishop of Britain: upon the authority of the Greek Menæa, and of Dorotheus." Tracts, &c. pp. 55, 70. To support this authority, his Lordship produces a considerable number of vouchers; Clemens Romanus, Eusebius, Jerom, Theodoret, &c. among the Fathers, and two British records; pp. 3, 23, 70-73. 1. His first and most important evidence, is that of Clemens Romanus, the intimate friend and fellow-labourer of St. Paul, of whom honourable mention is made, Phil. iv. 3,-which is partially cited, Tracts, pp. 47, &c. 108, &c., and fully, in the foregoing Introduction, p. 12. But it is to be observed, that this passage seems too vague and rhetorical to ascertain the fact upon sober, historical testimony. Clemens represents the Apostle, as δικαιοσυνην διδαξας όλον τον κόσμον, "having taught the whole world righte ousness." This surely is not geographically true. He did not at all preach the Gospel in the Parthian empire; in the extensive and populous regions of Upper Asia; of India, cast and west of the Ganges; in the wide regions of Libya and Africa; nor even in the northern parts of Europe; His travels were confined to the southern parts, within the precincts of the Roman empire. And if so, surely we are not bound to understand in strictness, the next passage: επι το τέρμα της δύσεως ελθών, 66 Having gone to the termination of the west," or rather, of the setting sun. But admitting that it is to be understood geographically, where is this "termination of the west" to be found, within the wide range of the sun's setting amplitude? Have not Cape Finisterre, and Cadiz, in Spain, better astronomical and classical pretensions than Britain? as being nearer to the tropics; those To λ, "turnings of the sun," noticed by Homer, Odyss. xv. 403, which include the sun's greatest northern and southern declinations from the Equinoctial. Cape Finisterre (finis terræ, the land's end,) was usually considered as the western termination of Europe. And so was Gades or Cadiz, by Juvenal, the contemporary of Clemens : Omnibus in terris quæ sunt a Gadibus usque Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt "In all the lands that reach from Cadiz [westward] SAT. X. 1. And surely, Ireland, lying still more westerly, has better pretensions than Britain. But unquestionably St. Paul never visited Ireland. How inconclusive then is the testimony of Clemens ? And how unwarrantable is it to erect a logical argument, upon a figurative expression? Still more vague and indeterminate are the Bishop's succeeding early testimonies, p. 48-50. Irenæus speaks of Christianity as having been propagated by the Apostles and their disciples, έως περάτων της γης, "to the ends of the earth;" εν ταις Ιβερίαις, "in the Iberias," or regions of Spain and Lusitania or Portugal; xou ev KENTO15;" "and among the Celts," or Germans, Gauls and Britons: but he does not specify, at what time, nor distinguish by whom. Tertullian represents "all the extremities of the Spains, the different nations of the Gauls, and even the regions of the Britons inaccessible to the Romans, as converted to Christ, in his time;" but with the same latitude of expression. "that Eusebius, indeed, says more distinctly, some (regs) of the Apostles passed over the Ocean to the Isles called British." But he does not state which of the Apostles. Jerome says, " that St. Paul, after his libera tion by Nero, preached the Gospel in the western parts;" and that he included Britain, in the western parts, appears, says the Bishop, from his 66 Epist. ad Marcellum," pp. 50, 115. But the fuller testimony of Jerome,* referred *"Paulus Apostolus vocatus a Domino, effusus est super faciem universæ terræ, ut prædicaret evangelium a Hieru to, but not cited by the Bishop, on Amos, c. 5, is highly rhetorical: "The Apostle Paul, after his call, by THE LORD, was spread over the face of the whole earth, to preach the Gospel from Jerusalem [southwards] even to Illyricum [northwards]; and that he might not build upon another's foundation,' where it had been preached before, he moreover went to the Spains: He also ran from the South Sca, [or Red Sea] even from the (Indian) Ocean [eastward] to the (Atlantic) Ocean, [westward]; thus imitating the Lord his God, and the Sun of Righteousness of whom we read, 'His going forth is from one end of the heaven, and his arrival at the other end of it.' And sooner should the earth fail, than Paul's zeal in preaching the Gospel." This highly figurative language, resembling Clemens, does not specify the British Isles. The testimony, indeed, of Theodoret is express, that "St. Paul, after his release from confine ment, went to Spain, and brought salvation to salem usque ad Illyricum, et ædificaret non super alterius fundamentum, (Rom. xv. 20.) ubi jam fuerit prædicatum, sed usque ad Hispanias tenderet; et a mari Austro, immo ab oceano ad oceanum curreret: imitans utique Dominum Deum suum, et Solem Justitiæ, (Mal. iv. 2.) de quo legimus, A summo cælo egressio ejus, et occursus ejus usque ad summum ejus.' (Ps. xix. 6.) Et ante Paulum, terra deficeret, quam studium prædicandi evangelium." Pererii Dissert. p. 3. |