" llippolytc, sic est; Thcsei \'\iltus amo, lUos priorcs quos tulit quondam puor, Quuni jirima piira.s barba signarct <j;onas, Et ora iiavus tciicra tiugcbat rubor."
We love the church of Rome as it was in its purity and integrity, in the days of her youth and chastity, before she was deflowered by false worship; but what is that to the present Roman carnal confederacy? If, then, an}' in this nation did receive their religion from Rome, — as many of the Saxons had Christianity declai-ed imto them by some
DID TIf E GOSPEL CXjME TO BRITAIN FftOM ROME ? 20.0
sent from Rome for that purpose, — yet it doth not at all follow that they receivefl the present religion of lUjme.
" Hei mihi qTialJ.1 ! quanttirn rntitattir ab ilia," Virg, y?^n, iL 274,
which of old .she profes-sed !
" Malta dies Tarituyine la>>or mntabilw jevi, Rettulit in pejtuf." iEn. xi 425,
And this sad alteration, deden-iion, and change, we rnay bewail in her, as the prophet did the like af^ostany in the church of the Jews of old: " How i.s the faithful city become an harlot ! it was full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Tliy silver is Vjecome dross, thy wine mixed with water." He admires that it should l>i .so: was not ignorant how it became so: no more are others in reference unto your ap^/stasy.
And what if we harl received from you, or by your means, the re- ligion that is now profes.sed at Rome, I mean the whole of it, yet we might }iave received that with it, — ^namely, the Bible, — which woiald have made it our duty to examine, try, and reject any thing in it for which we .saw from tlience ju.st caase so to do, unless we should be condemned for that for which the Bereans are so highly commended. So tliat neither is your position true, nor, if it were .so, would it at all advantage your preten.sion.s.
I added, al.so, " Did not the gospel come from another place to Rome, as well as to us ? or was it first preached there V Tlii.s you have csaWtfl out, as supposing yourself able to say something unto it; and wliat is it ? '•' Properly speaking, it came not so to Rome as it came to us; for one of the twelve fountain.s, nay, two of the thirteen, and those the largest and greatest, were transferrer! to Rome ; which they watered with their bkxxL We had never any .such rstanding fount,ain r/i our Christian religion here, but only a stream derived unto us from thence -" It is the hard hap, it .seem.s, of England, t» claim any jjiri- vilege or reputation that may .stand in the way of .some men's designs, No apoistle nor apostolical person mast be allowed to preach the gospel unto us, lest we .should perk up into competition with Rome. But though Rome, it seerns, must always be excepted, yet I hope you do not in general conclude our condition beneath tliat of any place where the gospel at first was preached, by one or two apostles, so as to CTT, '• Prop^.-rly .speaking, it came not to us at all' What think you of Jerusalem, where Christ him.%lf and his apostles, all of them, p^reached the gosj^el? or what think you of Capernaum, that was "' lifted up to heaven," in the privilege of the means of light granted for a while unto them? Do you think our a^ndition worse than theirs ? The two fountains you mentioned were opened at Antioch in Syria, as well as at other places, before they conveyed
TOL. XIV, 14
210 A VINDICATION OF THE ANBIADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
one drop of their treasures to Rome ; which whether one of them ever did by his personal presence, is very questionable. And by this rule of yours, though England may not, yet every place where St Peter and St Paul preached the gospel may, contend with E-ome as to this privilege. And what will you then get by your triumphing over us ? " Non vides id manticae quod in tergo est." When men are intent upon a supposed advantage, they oftentimes overlook real in- conveniences that lie ready to seize upon them ; as it befalls you more than once. Besides, there is nothing in the world more obscure than by whom, or what means, the gospel was first preached at Rome. By St Paul it is certain it was not; for before ever he came thither there was a great number converted to the faith, as appears from his epistle, written about the fourteenth year of Claudius, and the fifty- third of Christ. Nor yet by Peter: for, not at present to insist on the great uncertainty whether ever he was there or no, which shall afterward be spoken unto, there is nothing more certain than that, about the sixth year of Claudius, and forty-fifth of Christ, he was at Antioch, Gal. ii. (Baronius makes the third of Claudius and the forty-fifth of Christ to contemporize, but upon a mistake) ; and some say he abode there a good while, sundry years, and that upon as good authority as any is produced for his coming to Rome. But it is generally granted that there was a church founded at Rome that year, but by whom, abrfkov rravrl -ttXyiv n rCj Qiu) (as Socrates said of the preference of the condition of the living or dead), — " is known to God alone, of mortal men not to any." " Jam sumus ergo pares." For, to confess the truth unto you, I know not certainly who first preached the gospel in Britain: some say Peter, some Paul, some Simon Zelotes, most Joseph of Arimathea, as I have elsewhere showed, by whom certamly I know not; but some one it was, or more, whom God sent upon his errand, and with his message.^ No more do you know who preached it first at Rome, though in general it appears that some of them at least were of the circumcision ; whence the very first converts of that church were variously minded about the observation of Mosaical rites and ceremonies. And I doubt not but God, in his infinitely holy wisdom and providence, left the springs of Christian religion, as to matter of fact, in the first introductions of it into the nations of the world, in so much darkness as to the know- ledge of aftertimes, to obviate those towering thoughts of pre-emi- nency which he foresaw that some men from external advantages would entertain, to the no small prejudice of the simplicity of the gospel, and ruin of Christian humility. As far as appears from story, the gospel was preached in England before any church was founded at Rome. It was so, saith Gildas, " Summo tempore Tiberii Caesaris,"