subjects of the Roman empire, but the Scythians, and the Sauromatæ, the Indians, also the Ethiopians, the Persians, the Hyrcani, the BRITONS, the Cimmerii, and the Germans; so that it may be said, in one word, that all the different nations of mankind have received the laws of the Crucified."

This declaration, of so eminent a person as Theodoret, evinces it to have been the general belief, in his age, that the Britons had received the Gospel from the days of the apostles. We shall presently notice a further testimony from this father.

6. But the testimony of EUSEBIUS should carry great weight with it. This venerable man was bishop of Cesarea, and celebrated for his writings; and in particular for his ecclesiastical history. He considered it a striking evidence of the truth of Christianity, that the apostles had preached the Gospel with so great success, in so many countries and regions of the globe, so widely remote from each other. The apostles, he argues, could be no impostors: "For, although it were possible for such men to deceive their neighbours and countrymen with an improbable tale; yet, what madness were it for such illiterate persons, who understood only their mother-tongue, to go about to deceive the world, by preaching this doctrine in the remotest cities and countries?" Having then named the Romans, Persians, Armenians, Parthians, Indians, and Scythians, he adds, 66 particularly, that some of them passed over the ocean to the BRITISH isles." Such a position could not be advanced by so learned and well-informed a person as Eusebius, without possessing sufficient grounds for what he so confidently affirmed. This excellent bishop was the intimate friend of the Emperor Constantine; and had every opportunity to examine public records and documents, to satisfy himself on subjects of that nature.

We may, therefore, infer, without danger of being deceived, that it was the generally received opinion in that age, that Britain was one of the countries which was favoured with the light of the Gospel in the age of the apostles. Thus all antiquity bears testimony to the fulfilment of the prediction and promise of our Lord, respecting the general spread of the Gospel by the ministry of the apostles and their co-adjutors.

7. But we have the positive testimony of a countryman of our own, as to the early reception of Christianity in Britain: this is GILDAS, generally called Badonicus, the son of Gaw, a chieftain of the north, and brother to Aneurin, the famous Otadinian Bard, the author of the Gododin, a Poem written in commemoration of the battle of Cattraeth; the last grand conflict between the Saxons and the Northumbrian Britons. Gildas, with his father and other branches of the family, fled into Wales, where many of them embraced a religious life. There he appears to have paid attention to the history of Britain: bút he complains that, owing to the distresses of the times, and the unsettled state of things, he could collect but little information. The only thing we have of this old Briton, is his epistle De Excidio Britannia. In that he notices the deplorable situation of the Britons, in consequence of the revolt under Bo-. adicea; and the terrible havoc that ensued upon the defeat of that heroine, which happened A. D. 61. But about that time, or soon after that memorable event, this country was visited with that manifestation of Divine mercy, which is thus narrated by Gildas: "In the mean time, Christ, the true Sun, superior to that luminary which shines in the firmament, displayed His Divine rays, the knowledge of His precepts, to This ISLAND, benumbed with the gloom of winter; for we know that in the latter end of the reign of Tiberius

Cæsar, His bright and glorious beams first shone upon the world." The passage, as it stands in the original Latin, is rather obscurely expressed with regard to one or two particulars, which Dr. Stillingfleet has taken some pains to clear up-1. By reading Soz for SOLUM 2. By construing the reign of Tiberius in connection with the manifestation of Christ to mankind, and not the time of the Gospel being first propagated in Britain; for, as he previously speaks of the revolt under Boadicea, Gildas meant to intimate that it was about that time the blessed event took place.

As to

As to any further

We see, then, what was the received tradition of the British Christians in the age of Gildas, who was born upon the day of the famous battle of Badon Mount; which was fought about A. D. 520. particulars respecting this interesting subject, the historian was not able to convey any information. Whatever memorials relative to the first propagation of Christianity might have been at one time preserved, they were either no longer in existence, or unknown to Gildas. He knew nothing of the honoured instrument by whom the sound of salvation was first proclaimed in this island. There has been, however, a current tradition, and which, it must be admitted, has had the passport of many ages, respecting a name of great veneration, Joseph of Arimathea, him who deposited the body of Christ in his own sepulchre.

The account given by the Romish writers respecting the mission of St. Joseph to Britain, is to the following purport :

In consequence of the persecution which ensued upon the death of Stephen, the proto-martyr of the Christian church, the apostles and their disciples being scattered abroad, the apostle Philip, (or, according to others, the evangelist of that name,) along with Joseph

of Arimathea, came to France, (the ancient Gaul;) where, it is said also, they were miraculously brought by sea. Finding that Britain was only divided by a narrow sea from France, and that the superstitions of the people of both countries were much alike, Joseph was deputed by Philip, with eleven companions, to cross the sea to Britain. Where these good people landed, whether in Cornwall or in Kent, we know not; but the first scene of their mission is laid in Somersetshire : there they gained the favour of the prince of that country, called Arviragus, who assigned them a spot of land for their residence, and the building of a church. The extent of the land given them was twelve hides, one for each of them. This was at the place called YNYS WYDRIN, and afterwards YNYS AVALON, (near Wells,) the famous Glastonbury. Here was a glorious beginning for these missionaries, who, as it seems, were more concerned to have a suitable residence for themselves than to propagate the Gospel through the island.

This was in the year 63, or thirty years after the ascension of our Lord; by which time St. Joseph, who was not a young man at the time of our Saviour's death, must be well stricken in years to travel into France and Britain, to evangelize the fierce inhabitants. But the whole of the circumstances of this story, (of which I have omitted some of the most absurd appendages,) smell very strongly of monkery. Bishop Goodwin was disposed to credit it; but neither Usher, nor Parker, nor Stillingfleet, could be induced to receive it.

This may have been generally received among the monks since the conquest; but not previous to that period, as Dr. Stillingfleet has proved: for we have no evidence of any charter granted to the monks of Glastonbury more ancient than that given by King Ina; and

as to the tales we have of David, Patrick, and Gildas, frequenting the place, as if it were of great celebrity in ancient times, they rest on no good authority. But if we admit the antiquity of Glastonbury, yet that does not prove the truth of what is said respecting Joseph of Arimathea, and his company, of whom nothing is said in those charters granted by King Ina. The monks of other places laid to the charge of those of Glastonbury, that they pretended to greater authority than they had reason for, that monastery being first founded by King Ina; whereas they pretended that they had lands given them by Arviragus, a king of the Britons. Even William of Malmsbury, says Stillingfleet in one place, plainly affirms that King INA was the first founder of it. To this Asserius, in his Chronicle, agrees, saying—“ That, A. D. 726, IN A went to Rome, and died there; having built and dedicated a monastery in Glastonbury."

That the Gospel was preached in an early age, at or near that spot, and a small edifice erected there for public worship, and the celebration of Christian ordinances, there may be some reason to believe. The retiredness of the situation might also render it suitable for the British Christians, when the system of monkery, or religious seclusion, began to prevail among them. It may have been a kind of sanctuary even in the time of the Druids; and the British Christians, being fond of erecting their churches on the site of spots deemed sacred in Heathen times, that may have given rise to the idea of the peculiar sanctity of Glastonbury.

In order to account for the imposing and fictitious legend of Joseph of Arimathea, we must advert to the disputes which were frequent and vehement respecting religious houses, soon after the Norman conquest. The monasteries, in order to rank high, and claim exemption from the jurisdictions of their respective bishops,