Britain ultima Occidentis insula, Gildas says that Britain is situated in extremo orbis limite occidentem versus. Gregory calls Britain terminum mundi, and limitem Occidentis. Nicephorus says, Again, Eusebius, and, after him, Nicephorus, says, that some of the Apostles went to the British Isles; and calls the British Ocean the Western. Jerome says, that St. Paul preached the Gospel in the West, and that he went from Ocean to Ocean: Theodoret, that St. Paul went to the Islands that lie in the Ocean: and Chrysostom, speaking of the first introduction of the Gospel into the British Islands, describes them, as lying in the Ocean, and distinguishes them from the Islands of the Mediterranean, which was not called the Ocean, St. Paul therefore preached the Gospel in the British Islands. The easy communication, both military and commercial, between Rome and the utmost bounds of the West, removes all appearance of rhetorical expression from the language of Clement. Jerome speaking of 1 St. Paul's journey to Spain, says, to Austin in the sixth Century, could not There is nothing then improbable in the literal sense of Clement's testimony but what arises from the short space, which the objectors themselves allot to the interval between St. Paul's release from imprisonment, and his return to Rome. One year, it is said, is insufficient for the Apostles' western travels. It is not only insufficient, but it is contrary to the testimony of antiquity. Eusebius and Jerome, who say that St, Paul was sent to Rome in the second year of Nero *; (A.D. 56.) say also that he suffered martyrdom in the fourteenth of Nero. (A.D. 68.). As he was released in the fourth year of Nero, (according to Jerome in his account of St. Luke,) if he returned to Rome the year before his death, there will be an interval of nine years, a space quite sufficient for the Apostle's travels in the West and East. This space has been greatly contracted by a theory, resting on conjectures, which I have endeavoured in my former letter, to shew are unfounded, respecting the duration of Felix's government, at the expiration of which St. Paul was sent to Rome. To the grounds of probability, which I then alleged for the recall of Felix in the second year of Nero, I here add the express testimony of Eusebius and Jerome. Admit, then, the interval * Under the second year of Nero Eusebius says, "Festus succedit Felici, apud quem, præsente Agrippa rege, Paulus Apostolus, religionis suæ rationem exponens, vinctus, Romam mittitur." Jerome, in his catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers, (which Erasmus calls eruditum opus et Hieronymo dignum) says " Post passionem Domini vicesimo quinto anno, id est, secundo Neronis, (eo tempore, quo Festus Procurator Judææ successit Felici,) Romam vinctus mittitur,-Hic ergo quarto decimo Neronis anno, eodem die, quo Petrus, Romæ pro Christo capita truncitus sepultusque est in ira Osticusi, anno post passionem Domini tricesimo septimo. asserted by Eusebius and Jerome, and there is nothing improbable in St. Paul's western travels. Admit the western travels, and there will be no want of materials to fill the interval of time attested by those learned Fathers *. *Eusebius, Jerome, Nicephorus, Eutechius, Diaconus, &c. say that St. Paul suffered in the fourteenth of Nero. (A. D. 68.) so also Simson, Pearson, and Stillingfleet. |