6. " The Scripture you received from the pope." Not at all, as hath been proved ; but from Christ himself, by the ministry of the first planters of Christianity.
7. "You cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God but upon the authority of the church." We can and do upon the authority of God himself; and the influence of the church's ministry or authority into our believing concerns not the church of Rome.
8. " You account them that brought you the Scriptures as liars." No otherwise than as the Scripture affirms every man to be so ; not in their ministry wherein they brought the word unto us.
9. " The gospel, separate from the church, can prove nothing." Yes, itself to be sent of God; and so doing is the foundation of the church.
Sundry other passages of the like nature might be remarked, if I could imagine any man Avould judge them worthy of consideration.
CHAPTER XL
Story of religion.
The fourth and last part of our author s discourse is spent in two stories, — one of religion, the other of himself His first, of religion, is but a summary of what was diffused through the other parts of his treatise, being insinuated piecemeal, as he thought he could make any advantage of it to his puqjose. Two things he aims to make his readers believe by it: — first, That we in these nations had our religion from Rome; and, secondly, That it was the same which is there now professed. Those whom he tells his tale unto are, as he pro- fesseth, such as are " ignorant of the coming in and progress of religion amongst us;" wherein he deals wisely and as became him, seeing he might easily assure himself that those who are acquainted before his information with the true state of these things, would give little credit to what he nakedly avers upon his own authority. For my part, I sliall readily acknowledge, that for aught appears in this book, he is a better historian than a disputant; and hath more reason to trust to his faculty of telling a tale than managing of an argument. I confess, also, that a slight and superficial view of antiquity, especially as flourished over by some Roman legendaries, is the best advantage
ENTITLED FIAT LUX. 95
our adversaries have to work on, as a thorough, judicious search of it is fatal to their pretensions. He that, from the Scriptures and the writings extant of the first centuries, shall frame a true idea of the state and doctrine of the first churches, and then observe the adven- titious accessions made to religion in the following ages, partly by men's own inventions, but chiefly by their borrowing from or imita- tion of the Jews and Pagans, will need very little light or help from artificial arguments to discover the defections of the Roman party, and the true means whereby that church arrived unto its present condition. To pursue this at large is not a work to be undertaken in this scambling chase. It hath been done by others ; and those who are not unwilling to be at the cost and pains in the disquisition of the truth, which it is really worth, may easily know where to find it. Our present task is but to observe our author's motions, and to consider whether what he offers hath any efficacy towards that he aims at.
A triple conversion he assigns to this nation. The first by Joseph of Arimathea; about which, as to matter of fact, Ave have no contest^
1 It was sixflScient for our author's purpose to show that if, according to tlie statement in " Fiat Lux," Britain was indebted, in the first instance, to Joseph of Arimathea for a knowledge of the gospel, it is not Eome, but Palestine, that is entitled on such a ground to urge any claim to supremacy over the British churches. Subsequent inquiry has proved that no such degree of certainty attaches to the tradition as Dr Owen seems willing to concede to his opponent. The ti-adition is, that when the church at Jerusalem Avas dispersed by the persecution in which Stephen suifei'ed martyrdom, Lazaiiis, Mary I.Iagdalene, Martha, with her servant Marcella, a disciple of the name of Maximin, and Joseph of Arimathea, were placed on board of a vessel without sails, and that it was miraculously impelled and directed till it reached the haven of Marseilles in France. Fiom Gaul Joseph is said to have been despatched by Philip on a mission to Britain, a.d. 63. He succeeded in converting many of its inhabitants to Christianity, obtained by royal grant land to the extent which could be included within twelve hides at Glaston- bury, in Somersetshire, and built a wattled church, — the first erected for Chiistian wor- ship in Britain. His staff, when stuck into the earth, took root, it is alleged, and grew into a species of thorn, which blossoms in winter, and still exists in the neighbourhood —an endui-ing memorial of the first evangelist who brought the gospel into this island. A famous abbey was afterwards erected, and, in virtue of its reputed antiquity, was held to prove the early origin of the British church ; and precedence was therefore ac- corded to the English clergy over those of some other churches in the Council of Basle, A.D. 1434. The details of the legend on which this claim to high antiquity is found- ed are given by William of jMalmesbury, who wrote in the twelfth century. It is re- pudiated and exposed as a monkish fiction by Bishop Stillingfleet, in his " Origines Bri- tannicse." Mosheim attributes it to the eagerness with which different nations vie with each other in magnifying the antiquity of their respective churches : the Gauls con- founding a bishop of the same name, who lived at Paris dm-ing the second century, with Dionysius the Areopagite; and the Germans affirming that Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus, of the third and fourth centuries, were contemporaries and companions of the apostle Peter ; while the Britons, because the name was identical, would fain insist that the first Christian missionary who reached this country was Joseph of Arimathea.