and particularly specifies the Churches planted εν ταις Ιβεριαις, and εν Κελτοις, in Spain, and the Celtick nations*. By the KEATO were meant the people of Germany, Gaul, and Britain †. (3.) At the end of the second and the beginning of the third Century, (A. D. 193-220.) Tertullian mentions among the Christian converts, Hispaniarum omnes termini, et Galliarum diversæ nationes, et Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subditat. Christianity had penetrated, where the Roman arms had not. Tertullian was contemporary with the later dates assigned to Lucius, who was probably one of the unsubdued Reguli of the country. Though Irenæus and Tertullian, in their testimonies, do not expressly mention St. Paul, yet the conversion of Britain to Christianity is acknowledged by both; and the planting of Christianity in Spain, and in the Celtick nations, is recorded as the work of the Apostles and their disciples. It is most interesting to find such writers speaking of their proximity to the origin of the Christian * L. i. C. 2 and 3. + Cluverii Introd. Georg. L. ii. C. 5. E Church, and consequently of the perfect competency of their testimony. Hesterni sumus, says Tertullian, et vestra omnia adimplevimus, urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, Palatium, Senatum, forum *. 66 (4.) In the fourth Century, (A. D. 270— 340.) Eusebius says that some of the Apos tles (TEpous)" passed over the Ocean to the (ἑτερους) British Isles,” επι τας καλουμένας Βρετανικας vous, and Jerome, in the same Century, (A. D. 329-420) ascribes this province expressly to St. Paul, and says, that after his imprisonment, having been in Spain, he went from Ocean to Ocean, and that he preached the Gospel in the western parts ‡. In the western parts he included Britain, as is evident from a passage in his Epitaphium Marcella §. * Apologet. C. 37. Demonstr. Evang. L. iii. C. 5. p. 112. De Script. Eccles. and in Amos, C. 5. § If the passage be rightly quoted by Camden. "The Britains, who live apart from our world, if they go in pilgrimage, will leave the western parts, and seek Jerusalem." Gibson's Translation of Camden's Britannia, p. Ixx. edit. 1695. [It is not in the Epitaphium Marcellæ, but the Epist. ad Marcellam, p. 128. Tom. i.] (5.) In the fifth Century, (423-460) Théodoret mentions the Britons amongst the nations converted by the Apostles; and says that St. Paul, after his release from imprisonment went to Spain, and from thence carried the light of the Gospel to other nations *. He says also that St. Paul brought salvation (wa) to the Islands that lie in the Ocean f: ταις ἐν τῷ πελαγει διακειμεναις νήσοις την ωφέλειαν προσηνεγκε. If there could be any doubt whether the British Islands were meant by the Islands that lie in the Ocean, we have, besides the passage of Nicephorus before quoted, the following of Chrysostom, who thus describes them: Kat γαρ αἱ Βρετανικαι νήσοι αἱ τῆς θαλαττης εκτός ai κείμεναι, και ἐν αὐτῷ ουσαι τῷ Ωκεανῳ, της δυναμεως του ῥήματος ησθοντο μ. (6.) In the sixth Century, (560-600) Venantius Fortunatus says thus of St. Paul: Transit et Oceanum, vel qua facit insula portum, Quasque Britannus habet terras, quasque ultima Thule. * In 2 Ep. ad Tim. iv. 17. + Tom. i. in Psalm 116. Orat. Tom. i. p. 575. This passage has been sometimes hesitatingly admitted, as if verse were necessarily the vehicle of fiction. But that the testimony of Venantius Fortunatus is not to be ascribed to the licence of poetical exaggeration; and that the language of Clemens, Jerome, and Theodoret, is neither ambiguous nor hyperbolical*; we may judge from an authority, which will not be suspected of making any undue concessions in favour of the evidences of Christianity; but who was well acquainted with the political facilities, which the Roman empire at that time afforded for the universal propagation of the Gospel. "The public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain f." Considering, then, the authority of the first witness to St. Paul's western travels, and the means of authentick information, which the other Fathers possessed, we may finally conclude that the testimony respecting St. Paul's * Linguard, Anglo-Saxon Church, Vol. I. p. 3. note 3. + Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ch. XV. Vol. II. p. 358. 8vo. edit. preaching in the utmost bounds of the west, that is, in Britain, is indisputable, because 1. It is the testimony of St. Paul's fellowlabourer, who, of all men, best knew the extent of the Apostle's travels; 2. It is the testimony of a Roman Bishop, S. And is confirmed by the eastern Fathers of the Church, who must have known, if St. Paul's labours, after his release from his imprisonment at Rome, had been confined to Italy and the East; 4. It is not the " fond conceit" of British writers, who might be desirous of doing honour to their country; 5. But it is greatly confirmed by coinci dent events in Britain and Rome, recorded by British writers. To the ancient authorities here cited we have to add the concurrence of the very learned and judicious modern writers referred to before, p. 21. 21. We may add, further, the testimony of Archbishop Parker*: Paulum * De Vetustate Ecclesiæ Brit. initio. |