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Untitled Article
He , according to ancient law and custom , convened her whole family and relations ; and having , in their presence , tried her for her life and fame , pronounced her innocent of any thing immoral . Pomponia lived many years after this trial , but
always led a gloomy melancholy kind of life / Tacit . AnnaL 1 . 13 . c . 32 . Tacitus , no doubt , deemed the lives of the primitive Christians gloomy and melancholy ; and had he been called upon to describe them , he would , in all probability ,, have represented their religion as a vile foreign superstition , and the sobriety and severity of their lives ( abstaining from pagan rites and excesses ) as a continual solitude , dismal dulness , and intolerable austerity . Ci It was the way ,- ' says Bishop Stillingfleet , of the men of that tirri ^ , such ¦ &s Suetonius and Pliny , as well as Tacitus , to speak of
rrforisfiahily as a barbarous and wicked-superstition ( as appears by their writings ) being forbidden by their laws , which they made the onlv rule ot ^ their religion / ' Or'ig " . Britannicae , p . 44 . This trial of Pomponia happened , it seems , while 3 SFero and Calphnrnus Piso were consuls , after the apostle Paul ' s coming to Rome the first tiftie : and therefore she
may not unreasonably be supposed one of his converts . Jt appears that there were other persons of distinction among the apostle ' s converts then at Rome ; of which number we may reckon those of Caesar ' s household , mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians ; aitiohg whom might &e some
of those British captives who had accompanied Caractacus , and who , it seems ( like Daniel arxl his companions at Babylon ) , Jiad long before found favour with the emperor and his court , and probably now composed a part of the imperial household . Other authorities render it highly probable that some of those captives had embraced Christianity during their residence at Home ; but the Triades above mentioned seem
to reduce the matter to a certainty : hence the conversion of Bran , or Brennns , and family , has been there commemorated ever since , as a most memorable and interesting matterof fact . The point , therefore , may be considered as pretty well arid firmly established , that Christianity was actually introduced into this island as early as between the years 60
and 70 of the Christian era : but we ought to consider and conclude at the same time , that the religion of the first British Christians was most beautifully simple , pure , and perfect j and alas ! considerably and very widely different from that which is in vogue among the present generation of Britons .
Untitled Article
S 3 G The first Introduction of the Gospel into Britahz .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/6/
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