ENTITLED FIAT LUX. 97
professed in England, or that of Rome? If this be determined, the business is at an issue. We are persuaded Joseph brought no other religion with him than what was taught by Peter and Paul, and the rest of the apostles and evangelists, in other parts of the world. What religion men taught " viva voce," in any age, is best known by their writings, if they left any behind them. No other way have the Romanists themselves, nor other do they use, in judging what was the doctrine of the fathers in the following ages. The writings of the apostles are still extant; by them alone can we judge of the doc- trine that they preached. That doctrine, then, unquestionably taught
says he, after mentioning Spain, " preached salvation to the islands that lie in the ocean."- — A^ol. iv. 6erm. 9. He makes a similar statement in liis exposition of 2 Tim. iv. 17 : "St Paul, after his release at Eome, Aveut to Spain, and thence carried the light of the gospel to other nations."
If these testimonies do not prove that to the great apostle of the Gentiles in parti- cular we are indebted for the first publication of the gospel in our island, they show that, coeval with the very origin of ecclesiastical history, a belief existed that within the first century, and even in the days of the apostles, Britain had been favoured, to some extent, with the light of divine revelation. If we discard, therefore, the tradition that the first evangelist in Britain was Josei^h of Arimathea, to which Dr Owen seems willing to attach some importance, it is only to fall back upon an account of the intro- duction of the Christian religion into our country that has more of the weight and dignity of genuine histoiy, and which supplies an answer more conclusive and satisfac- tory to the reasoning of his opponent in '■ Fiat Lux." The curious incident recorded by Tacitus (" Anual." xiii. cap. 32) has been regarded as proving that even in the reign of Claudius, a. d. 41-54, there might have been Chi-istians in Britain. Pomponia Grtecina, on the return of her husband from Britain, Avas accused of being tainted with a " fo- reign siiperstition;" and if this be the Christian religion, as is commonly supposed, her zeal as a primitive Christian, in diffusing the gospel, is not likely to have slumbered in Britain, where human degradation aroinid her would serve so powerfully to evoke it into operation ; and distance from Rome might lead her to avow her principles more freely than in a city where the martyrdom of Christians was no uncommon S23ectacle. Ter- tuUian also affirms (" Adver. .Jud.," cap. vii.) that by his time those parts of Britain inaccessible to the arms of Eome had been penetrated by the gospel. Mosheim (" De Rebus Christianis," p. 205) alludes to this testimony in disparaging terms : " Rhetori- catur paullulum vir bonus." If, however, there were no pi-ecise and definite facts to sustain his assertion, it is diificult to conceive how Tertullian could indulge in a state- ment so specitic as that the gospel had entered coimtries which had checked the trium- phant advance of the Roman legions, and so likely to offend the piide of the Roman, to pi'ovoke a denial and recoil upon its author if untrue. Gildas, writing in the sixth cen- tury, states that the svm of Christianity shone upon our island about the time when Boadicea revolted against the authority of Rome, a. d. 62 ; and seems to intimate that the Roman soldiers, of whom there were forty-eight thousand in Britain, and whom it was imlawful to accuse of Christianity, had been the means of diffusing a knowledge of the gospel. Mosheim, it may be added, in the work to which we have already referred, holds that the balance of probability is in favour of the view which ascribes the first publication of Christianity in our countiy to an apostle, or some companion of the apostles; and as the Bi-itish churches Avere in the first century independent of the Ro- man see, had the same forms of worship, and observed Easter at the same time, with the churches of Gaul, which doubtless had an Asiatic origin, the evidence is very strong that the gospel reached us originally by a cour.se exclusive of Rome. The "Origincs" of Stiliingfleet were published two years after the death of Owen ; and the lattei", accord- ingly, not having the advantage of the sifting discussion which the story about Joseph of Arimathea has since undergone, might the more readily conunit himself to a profession of belief in its truth. His own language, however, " Either by him or some other evange- list," is sufficiently guarded, 'i'he facts we have stated enhance the strength of the general argument; and the knoAvledge of them will adapt it to the pi'csent state of tlie
VOL. XIV. 7
98 ANIMADVERSIONS ON A TREATISE
Joseph in Britain; and that doctrine (blessed be God!) is still owned and professed amongst us. All, and only what is contained in their writino-s, is received with us as necessary to salvation. This conver- sion was Avholly ours. " Quod antiquissimum id verissimum." Being the first, it was certainly the best. Our author, indeed, tells us of crosses, shrines, oratories, altars, monasteries, vigils, embers, honour- in <t of saints (you must suppose all in the Roman mode), making oblations and orisons for the dead ; and that this was the religion in those days planted amongst us. If this be so, I wonder what we do to keep the Bible, which speaks not one word of that religion which the apostles and apostolical men preached. Strange, that in all their writings they should not once mention the main parts and duties of the doctrines and worship which they taught and propa- gated ! that Paul, in none of his epistles, should in the least give the churches any direction in or concerning the things and ways wherein their Avorship principally consisted, and their devotion was chiefly exercised ! But how comes our author to know that these things, in the Roman mode, were brought into England at the first entrance of Christianity? Would he would give us a little information from what writings or monuments of those times he acquired his know- ledge. I know it is unreasonable to put an historian to his oath; but yet, unless he can plead that he received his acquaintance with things that are so long past by inspiration, as Moses wrote the story of the creation and ages before the flood, being destitute of any other monu- ments or testimony that might give evidence to what he says, I hope he will not be offended if we suspend our belief " Solus enim hoc Ithacus nullo sub teste canebat," [Juv., xv. 26]. This first conversion, then, as was said, is wholly ours; it neither came from Rome, nor knew any thing of that which is the present religion of Rome, wherein they differ from us.