rities ought, if we may judge by our own convictions, to put the subject of St. Paul's preaching the Gospel in Britain beyond all controversy or doubt. Parker, Camden, Usher, Stillingfleet, Cave, Gibson, Nelson, and Collier; Goodwin, De Præsulibus; Alford, in his Annals; Rapin, the historian; Bingham, in his Antiquities; Stanhope, on the Conversion of St. Paul; Warner's Ecclesiastical History; and Trap, in his Popery truly Considered, all take this view of the matter.

We are further informed, that St. Paul appointed Aristobulus, who is mentioned in his Epistle to the Romans as the first bishop, and that he appointed other ministers of the church. By the appointment of bishops, priests, and deacons, Burgess says, "that the form of church government was complete, and the British Church, therefore, in a spiritual sense, was fully established."* And he continues, "This very natural consequence results, that the Church of Britain was fully established before the Church of Rome. For Linus, the first bishop of Rome, was appointed by the joint authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, in the year of their martyrdom, and therefore after St. Paul's return from Britain.” This very eminent divine of the sister Church of England says, in conclusion of his able Dissertation, of which, and of Stillingfleet's Dissertation, we have made a free use, because to his diligence, accuracy, and research, nothing material has been added by any of the writers since his day: "I am led to think thus, not from any hatred of popery, but from a perfect conviction that St. Paul preached the Gospel in Britain, and that the Church of Britain was fully established before the Church of Rome."

For ourselves, we take this opportunity of stating how much the church of our Lord upon earth has been indebted, from first to last-at the Reformation from popery, and since that period―to the learning, talents, and piety, of the writers belonging to the church of England. Nor are the dignitaries

As to this point, the writer possesses no historical data on which to decide, and, therefore, refrains from giving any opinion.

of the English Church of the present day less distinguished as men of God, of learning, and talent; among whom, no man in all England is more distinguished in these respects now stated, than the pure and simple-minded, talented, learned, and evangelical Archbishop of Canterbury: from a sermon we last summer heard him preach, at the consecration of a church at Tunbridge Wells, we wish sincerely that his Grace may long be preserved in life and activity as Ecclesia decus et tutamen.

It is generally understood that Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia Rufina, mentioned in the Second Epistle to Timothy, were natives of Britain; and as this circumstance gives countenance to St. Paul's having been in this island, it is worth while to follow out the inquiry as far as the clue may lead us. Pomponia Græcina, wife to Aulus Plautius, the Roman lieutenant under Claudius in Britain, is also supposed to have encouraged St. Paul to visit Britain. Tacitus mentions the serious reserved manner of this Christian convert. He says, "Pomponia Græcina, a celebrated lady married to Plautius (who returned with public honours from the Britannias), being accused of the foreign superstition, was referred to her husband's decision. So he, by an ancient institute, took cognizance, in the presence of (their) neighbours, of his wife's reputation and capital hazard, and pronounced her not guilty. Thus Pomponia's life was long, and her sadness permanent; for after Julia, daughter of Drusus, (was) murdered by Messalina's contrivance, she went through forty years not otherwise than in a sorrowful manner-not otherwise than with a troubled mind: and this during the reign of Claudius with impunity." This lady's description, as given above, presents a correct portrait, as drawn by a learned heathen, of the primitive Christian,-charging her religion with gloomy superstition, and her severity of life as a continual solitude. But she might probably have converted many of the British and Roman dames, and also have informed St. Paul of the condition of Britain, and

have induced him to take a voyage thither. It is not improbable that some of the British captives carried over with Caractacus and his family, might have helped to promote the conversion of their country by St. Paul. Stillingfleet is doubtful whether Claudia was the daughter of Caractacus, though Monceaux affirms it; but he thinks it certain that Claudia Rufina was a Briton. She was much commended by Martial for her wit and beauty; and the marriage of Claudia to Pudens, the Roman senator, is celebrated by Martial in his noted Epigrams. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, says (chap. xvi. 13), "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." This seems to have been Rufus Pudens, husband of Claudia Rufina.

An ingenious Essay has been written by J. Williams, M.A., London, 1848, entitled, "Claudia and Pudens." Martial, in two of his Epigrams already alluded to (iv. 13; xi. 154), describes the marriage, and tells us that Claudia was a foreign lady and a Briton. Thus the Claudia and Pudens of Martial may be the same with the Claudia and Pudens the friends of St. Paul. But further, Tacitus mentions (Agric. 14), "that certain territories in the south-east of Briton were given to a British king, Cogidunus, as a reward for his fidelity to Rome, while Tiberius Claudius Nero, commonly called Claudius, was emperor, A. D. 52." Again, in 1723, a marble was dug up at Chichester with the following inscription, in which the brackets indicate the part lost by the portion of the stone broken off :—

(N)EPTUNO ET MINERVÆ

TEMPLVM

(PR)O SALUTE DOMUS DIVINÆ

AUCTORITATE TIB. CLAUD.

(CO)GIDUBNI REGIS LEGATI AUGUSTI IN BRIT.
(COLLE) GIVM FABRORUM ET QUI IN EO

(A SACRIS SUNT) DE SUO DEDICAVERUNT DONANTE AREAM
(PUD)ENTE PUDENTINI FILIO.

The Cogidubnus here mentioned is proved to be the same as mentioned by Tacitus, the British king of Chichester.

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Hence, this king's daughter must have been called, according to Roman usage, Claudia, and she must have been sent to Rome to be educated. Thus the young Claudia would be put under the protection of Pomponia, the wife of Aulus Plautius the conqueror of that part of Britain. She, being a convert to the foreign superstition, may have converted the young Claudia. Another connecting link between Claudia and Pomponia may be found in the cognomen Rufina attached to Claudia by Martial, for a distinguished branch of the Pomponian gens, at this period, bore the cognomen Rufus; thus her protégée would be called Rufina. And this probability is increased, when we find a Rufus taking an interest in the marriage of a Claudia (in Martial's Epigram), Again, in the above inscription we find the name of Pudens, son of Pudentinus, united with that of Cogidunus, which would exactly correspond with the hypothesis that the former was the son-in-law of the latter.

CHAPTER XIV.

ST. PAUL'S SECOND IMPRISONMENT AND MARTYRDOM AT ROME,
CONCLUDING REMARKS.

AFTER this indefatigable Missionary of the Gentiles had planted the "tree of righteousness" throughout the whole Roman empire in Western Europe, he returned once more to the East, and visited Ephesus. But again his stay seems to have been short, his track by no means certain, and the periods of his journey so little known accurately, that every writer seems to fix times for himself, and to name places according to the best of his own judgment. Not only, then, does one author contradict another in these minute details, but the same author seems sometimes to contradict himself. Knowing that his time in this world was short, Paul, the aged and infirm, was hurried from country to country, and from church to church, till he had finished his Master's work on earth; when he was arrested, and forwarded to Rome for trial, as the author conjectures, (and why should his supposition be admitted amid that of so many others?) by the active instrumentality of Demetrius the silversmith at Ephesus. At this critical period a dark and dreadful cloud hung over the whole Church of Christ, both in Asia and in Europe, and nowhere more than at Rome; which at this turn of affairs was the seat of a beast more Satanic than Satan himself, if such can possibly exist. In the Apostle's melancholy journey westward through Europe, he had but few friends to cheer him: Demas had forsaken him for the love of this present world, and departed to Thessalonica; Crescens had gone to Galatia; and the