settled in the negative; that St. Paul had indeed at one time intended to visit Spain, but at the close of a long series of adverse events had felt himself, consistently with other duties, unable so to do, if indeed he had not rather abandoned all intention of the kind long before.

Even thus, Cardinal Cajetan, in his Commentary on the Epistles (Parisiis, M.D.XXXVI.) when he comes to the text, ROM. XV. [28.]

Redibo per vos in Hispaniam,

determines the matter in a very just and summary way, satisfactory at once, I think, to every unprejudiced mind.

"Dicit quod intendit; sed aliud disposuit Spiritus Sanctus, quandoquidem vinctus fuit in Hierusalem," &c.

But inasmuch as the sincere feeling of respect is due to the piety and learning of those excellent persons, who have latterly revived the subject of St. Paul's visit to Spain from its necessity for establishing their favourite notion that he might preach the gospel in Britain also; a few pages more shall be devoted to the consideration of the one journey, and if that be negatived, I may without offence reasonably decline all farther notice of the other.

Briefly, therefore, let me endeavour to show under what circumstances the apostle appears to have conceived the idea of going to Spain at all; for otherwise its original rationality might not be justly apprehended. And then, however briefly, the entire deficiency shall be pointed out in that evidence; by which such a design, if it had ever been executed, would naturally have been recorded afterwards.

In the first place, it is deserving of observation, that St. Paul represents himself as in a very peculiar predicament, when he wrote the latter part of the Epistle to the Romans. He had recently arrived in Corinth from that scene of apostolic labour, ROM. xv. 19., in the Macedonic confines of Illyricum, or even in Dalmatia, the southern part of the region so called. And at v. 20. he particularly intimates that he had been engaged in striving to preach the gospel where Christ was not yet named, lest he should build upon another

man's foundation.

Now, therefore, vv. 19. 23., after he had fully preached the gospel wherever he could do so without intruding on the province of any other man, from Jerusalem even unto Illyricum; when he had no more place for such labour in those parts, he naturally turned his thoughts at length to a new and yet more distant field for evangelic cultivation. And having for many years, v. 23., entertained a great desire to come unto the brethren at Rome, the apostle now declares, that in case of his taking the journey which he had meditated into Spain, he would see them in the way, hoping for their assistance also to forward him thither.

What knowledge of facts, it may here be asked, and, humanly speaking, what encouragement, could have impelled the apostle, when at Corinth, to think of so extraordinary an enterprise? For the name of Spain, be it remembered, except in Roм. xv. 24. 28., is never once mentioned in the sacred volume; and in that enumeration of Jews at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, A. ii. 5., though they are said to be "out of every nation under heaven," strangers from Spain there are none. And yet it must have been in the prospect of finding some of the children of Israel established on that coast, that agreeably to his line of procedure every where else Paul would ever have thought of commencing to preach the gospel in Spain.

Only suppose him once to have known of any settlement of Jews in that country: and their very remoteness and destitution would form, to a spirit of Christian heroism like his, a sufficient motive to go there and offer to them, in the first instance, his "kinsmen according to the flesh," the glad tidings of salvation through the name of Christ Jesus.

Fortunately, then, we possess in the persons of Aquila and Priscilla, early sojourners in Rome, A. xviii. 2., peculiar advantage from that position for their knowing the existence and state of their Jewish brethren on the coast of Spain, and from their afterwards meeting Paul at Corinth, the certainty that he might profit by their intelligence. Then, too, at the very time that he wrote thus to the Roman church, Aquila and Priscilla were once more domiciled in that city; and to

them, his "helpers in Christ Jesus," if he had gone to Rome, he would have immediately betaken himself.

By the kind information of Professor Hyman Hurwitz, I am enabled also to state it as the opinion of many learned men of his nation, that there were Jews in Spain long prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, and that many of the Jews brought by Pompey to Rome had found their way into that country either as slaves or as free men for the sake of commerce.

Thus much for the apostolic journey as originally projected. That is, we are quite satisfied, and readily concede, that after his last recorded visit to Jerusalem, had he not been apprehended there, St. Paul might have immediately set off for Rome; and when he had first been "somewhat filled with the company" of the brethren there, Rom. xv. 24., by the co-operation of Aquila and Priscilla amongst others, he might have been forwarded to some known settlement of Jews on the eastern coast of Spain.

But what is gained by this concession? Does it follow, that under a total change of circumstances when five years had elapsed, he was then bound to carry such a design into execution? If so, some definite time must be fixed for it. After liberation from his first imprisonment at Rome? The sacred narrative, as developed in these pages, forbids that idea. On his return from what is here called the Fourth Progress, and before his second imprisonment? The developement of the period connected with that event equally excludes any such supposition.

Waiving the farther consideration of internal evidence from the Acts, which never mention Spain, and from the seven latest epistles which are utterly silent on the subject, let us pass at once to the testimony which authors of a subsequent age bear to the negative or the affirmative side of the question.

I assert, then, without fear of contradiction, that down to the time of Eusebius inclusive, no writer (except it be Caius the Presbyter, to whom the NOTE II., at the close of this, shall be devoted,) can be produced as vouching for the fact of Paul's journey to Spain.

In the very first rank of authors quoted to prove the

affirmative, Clemens, long after his own time for distinction surnamed Romanus, has been brought forward, as affording indisputable testimony to the fact in question; whereas the famous passage in s. 5., from that Epistle to the Corinthians, if the common principles of interpretation be followed, affords the strongest evidence which all but direct negation can supply, to the contrary.

Here, then, is the original Greek, with the lacunæ in the text, as filled up by Patricius Junius, the first editor,—

Διὰ ζῆλον ὁ Παῦλος ὑπομονῆς βραβεῖον ἀπέσχεν, ἑπτάκις δεσμὰ φορέσας, παιδευθείς, λιθασθεὶς,

1. κήρυξ γενόμενος ἔν τε τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἐν τῇ δύσει,

2. τὸ γενναῖον τῆς πίστεως αὐτοῦ κλέος ἔλαβεν,

3. δικαιοσύνην διδάξας ὅλον τὸν κόσμον,

4. καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς δύσεως ἐλθὼν,

5. καὶ μαρτυρήσας ἐπὶ τῶν ἡγουμένων,

6. οὕτως ἀπηλλάγη τοῦ κόσμου,

καὶ εἰς τὸν ἅγιον τόπον ἐπορεύθη, ὑπομονῆς γενόμενος μέγιστος ὑπογραμμός.

And here is the plain English of it,

Through bigotry, Paul obtained the reward of longsuffering. After seven times wearing bonds, after being scourged, after being stoned.

1. after preaching the gospel in the East and in the West, 2. he received the glorious renown due to his faith:

3. having taught righteousness to the whole world,

4. and having gone to the limit of the West,

5. and having born his testimony (as a martyr) before the governors,

6. he then departed out of this world,

and went his way to that holy place, after having exhibited in his person the greatest pattern of patient endurance.

Now what I maintain without scruple, is this: that the local designation in line 4. must, in natural continuity of sense, be taken as that also of line 5. And since, in line 5., the scene intended must be the city of Rome, no other meaning in the natural construction of sentences can be given to

N

line 4. which immediately precedes it. The two lines will then be thus translated,

4. having gone to the limit of the West, i. e. Rome,

5. and having borne his testimony,

i.e. been condemned as a martyr,

before the governors there.

Or to fix more clearly still the just apprehension of the whole matter: if the Greek words in line 4. were calculated (which I deny) to suggest the idea of Spain from the pen of Clemens, then to prevent Spain from being taken as the locality. of martyrdom also in line 5., completeness of sense would demand some addition to the following effect. Less than this would not suffice:

4. καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς δύσεως ἐλθὼν,

and having gone to the extremity of the West, to Spain, ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ὑποστρέψας,

and having returned from thence, from Spain,

5. εἶτα μαρτυρήσας ἐπὶ τῶν ἡγουμένων,

after that having been condemned before the governors as a martyr in Rome, &c. &c.

The objection thus developed, which lies against the formality of the expression, as showing that the language is deficient for the purpose, might of itself go near to settle the point at issue.

But a stronger remark, more substantially affecting the question, is in reserve. Neither Clemens could intend, nor could the Corinthians understand in those words of line 4. that Spain was signified.

East and West are relative terms, which can only be understood by ascertaining the point of reference in the mind of the speaker; as that again must be determined by knowing him and his notions on the subject, the notions also of the persons addressed, and even those of the parties who are the subjects of discourse.

Keeping all this in mind, we may fairly ask, When Clemens, himself more an eastern than a western, writes concerning Paul, whose chief labours had lain in the East, to the