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which , will not perrtiit us to ^ scribe its formation to a nat ion of savages , or to an age involved in barbarism . Beyond all doubt there has been an era when science diffused its light among the Britons , beyond what will be now readily
acknowledged / and that too in a very early period of the world . " To that period we must attrjimte the institution ot Bardism ( or Druidisrn ^ as it is most commonly called ) a * uong our ancestors , which , according to the above mentioned writer , embraced all the leading principles which tend to spread liberty ^ it
peace and happiness among mankind , j ^ nd has been affi rm ed to have been no more inimical to Christianity than the religion of Noahj Job or Abraham . Be that as it might , it is not to be supposed that it could bear any comparison with Christianity , as taught by its blessed founder and his apostlesj which doubtless is , " to adopt the words of the late Dr . Franklin ,
In a letter to a friend ^ a little before he died , " the best religion the world ever saw ? or is likely to see . " At what time this best of all religions was first introduced into this island , is a question upon which our ecclesiastical historians have been much divided . Most of them , however , seem to agree in fixing that event before the expiration of the Jirst century ; and the testimonies of the ancients have been produced in support of this opinion . Both Tertulliaii and Origen speak of Christianity as having made
its way into Britain : nor do they represent it as a recent event , but rather the contrary ; so that it may be presumed to have taken place long before their time , anil even as early as the first age . The former says , there are places of the Britons which were inaccessible to the Romans , but yet subdued by Christ * : ' - meaning , probably , North Britain , or Scotland , some parts of which the Romans , it seems ,
could never entirely subdue ; but the gospel cannot well be supposed to have penetrated into that country till some time after it had been received in the southern parts of the island . The latter says , " the power of God our Saviour is even with them in Britain , who are divided from our world f . "> Eusebius is more explicit : speaking of the pious labours of the apostles , lie positively declares , that some of them " had passed over the ocean , and preached in the British Isles . " From his
* Terr . Adv . Judseos , cap . 7 , f Orig . in I ^ uc . cap . i ~ horn . 6 . It was usual with the ancients long before Oilmen ' s time , to speak «> f Britain as divided from the world . Even King Agrippa , in his speech to the Jews at Jerusalem ,, about the beginning of the revolt , uses a simitar laugwa ^ c Sec Vir £ , J ^ ciog . I . Hor . Od . i , 35 . Josephus Jewish W ^ r , ii . 16 * 4 .
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226 The first Introduction of the Gospel into jBrltain .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/2/
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