to come,' or this new state of things, were to be conferred upon the church; if after all this, 'these men fall away,' and renounce Christianity, it is very hard, and even 'impossible to renew them again unto repentance.' For by this means 'they trod under foot,' and 'crucified the Son of God afresh,' and put him to an open shame,' profaned 'the blood of the covenant,' and 'did despite to the spirit of grace.' So, that 'to sin' thus wilfully after they had received the knowledge of the truth, there' could remain' for them no more sacrifice for sins; nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which should devour' these 'adversaries.' And a fearful thing it was,' in such circumstances, ' to fall into the hands of the living God;" who had particularly said of this sort of sinners, that if any man drew back, his soul should have no pleasure in him.' Hence it is, that every where in this epistle he mixes exhortations to this purpose, that they would give earnest heed to the things which they had heard, lest at any time they should let them slip;' that they would hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end,' and 'beware, lest by an evil heart of unbelief they departed from the living God;' that they would labour to enter into his rest, lest any man fall after the example of unbelief; that leaving the' first principles of the doctrine of Christ, they would go on to perfection, showing diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end; not being slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises; that they would hold fast the profes

1 Cap. x. 26-31.

sion of the faith without wavering, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, (as the manner of some was,') nor cast away their confidence, which had great recompence of reward ;' that they had need of patience, that after they had done the will of God, they might receive the promise; that they would not be of them who drew back unto perdition, but of them that believed to the saving of the soul;' that being encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,' who with the most unconquerable constancy and resolution had all holden on in the way to heaven, they would lay aside every weight, and the sin which did so easily beset them, and run with patience the race that was set before them; especially looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, who endured the cross, and despised the shame;' that therefore 'they should consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest they should be wearied and faint in their minds;' for that they had not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; looking diligently, lest any man should fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble them, and thereby many be defiled.' By all which, and much more that might be observed to this purpose, it is evident what our apostle's great design was in this excellent epistle.

7. Our apostle being now, after two years' custody, perfectly restored to liberty, remembered that he was the apostle of the Gentiles, and had therefore a larger diocess than Rome, and accordingly prepared himself for a greater circuit, though which way he directed his course is not absolutely

certain. By some he is said to have returned back into Greece, and the parts of Asia, upon no other ground that I know of, than a few intimations in some of his epistles that he intended to do so. By others he is thought to have preached both in the eastern and western parts, which is not inconsistent with the time he had after his departure from Rome. But of the latter we have better evidence. Sure I am, an author beyond all exception, St. Paul's contemporary and fellow-labourer, I mean Clemens,' in his famous epistle to the Corinthians, expressly tells us, that being a preacher both in the east and west, he taught righteousness to the whole world, and went to the utmost bounds of the west which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of one (otherwise a man of great parts and learning) who so peremptorily denies that ever our apostle preached in the west, merely because there are no monuments left in primitive antiquity of any particular churches there founded by him; as if all the particular passages of his life, done at so vast a distance, must needs have been recorded, or those records have come down to us, when it is so notoriously known, that almost all the writings and monuments of those first ages of Christianity are long since perished; or as if we were not sufficiently assured of the thing in general, though not of what particulars he did. there. Probable it is, that he went into Spain, a thing which himself tells us he had formerly once

· Κῆρυξ γινόμενος ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἐν τῇ δύσει, δικαιοσύ νην διδάξας ὅλον τὸν κόσμον, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς δύσεως EXO-Ep. ad Cor. p. 8.

2 L. Cappell. Append. ad Hist. App. p. 33.

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and again resolved on. Certain it is, that the ancients do generally assert it, without seeming in the least to doubt of it. Theodoret and others tell us, that he preached not only in Spain, but that he went to other nations, and brought the gospel into the isles of the sea, by which he undoubtedly means Britain; and therefore elsewhere reckons the Gauls and Britons among the nations which the apostles, and particularly the tent-maker, persuaded to embrace the law of Christ. Nor is he the only man that has said it, others having given in their testimony and suffrage in this case.*

8. To what other parts of the world St. Paul preached the gospel, we find no certain footsteps in antiquity, nor any further mention of him till his return to Rome, which probably was about the eighth or ninth year of Nero's reign. Here he met with Peter, and was, together with him, thrown into prison; no doubt in the general persecution raised against the Christians, under the pretence that they had fired the city. Besides the general, we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes of his imprisonment. Some of the ancients

1 Rom. xv. 24-28.

2

Epiphan. Hæres. 27, p. 51; Chrysost. de Laud. Paul. p. 536, tom. v. Cyril. Catech. 17, p. 457; Theod. in 2 Tim. iv. 16, et in Psalm cxvi. id. de cur. Græc. Affect. Serm. 9, p. 125; Athan. Epist. ad Dracont. p. 737.

Sophron. Serm. de Natali App.

"Transit et Oceanum, vel quà facit insula portum, Quasque Britannus habet terras, atque ultima Thule."

Venant. Fortun. de vit. Martin. lib. iii. non procul à fine It is on an expression in the epistle of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians, that the opinion respecting Paul's journey into Spain chiefly rests. Clemens says, that "he came to the borders of the west;" but it is argued on the other side, that Rome or Italy only was intended by this expression.--ED.

make him engaged with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus, and that that derived the emperor's fury and rage upon him. St. Chrysostom gives us this account;' that having converted one of Nero's concubines, a woman of whom he was infinitely fond, and reduced her to a life of great strictness and chastity, so that now she wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces; the emperor stormed thereat, calling the apostle a villain and imposter, a wretched perverter and debaucher of others, giving order that he should be cast into prison; and when he still persisted in persuading the lady to continue her chaste and pious resolutions, commanding him to be put to death.

9. How long he remained in prison is not certainly known: at last his execution was resolved on; what his preparatory treatment was, whether scourged as malefactors were wont to be in order to their death, we find not. As a Roman citizen by the Valerian and the Porcian law, he was exempted from it; though by the law of the twelve tables notorious malefactors, condemned by the centuriate assemblies, were first to be scourged, and then put to death; and Baronius tells us, that in the church of St. Mary, beyond the bridge of Rome, the pillars are yet extant, to which both Peter and Paul are said to have been bound and scourged.3 As he was led to execution, he is said to have converted three of the soldiers that were sent to conduct and guard him, who within few days after, by the emperor's command, became martyrs for the faith.

Adv. vit. Monast. vituperat. lib. i. c. 4, p. 361, tom. iv. ? That is, about the year 64 or 65.-ED.

3 Ad. An. 69, n. 8.