5 o 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



they efpoufe is truth, would perfuade us, that the conversion 

 of AbylTmia to Chriftianity happened at the beginning of 

 this period, that is, foon after the reign of Bazen ; others, that 

 Saint Matthias, or Saint Bartholomew, or fome others of the 

 Apoftles, after their mifiion to teach the nations, firft preach- 

 ed here the faith of Chrift, and converted this people to it. 

 It is alfo faid, that the eunuch baptized by Philip, upon his 

 return to Candace, became the Apoftle of that nation, which, 

 from his preaching, believed in Chrift and his gofpel. All 

 thefe might pafs for dreams not worthy of examination, if 

 they were not invented for particular purpofes. 



Till the death of Chrift, who lived feveral years after 

 Bazen, very few Jews had been converted even in Judea. We 

 have no account in fcripture that induces us to believe, 

 that the Apoftles went to any great diftance from each other 

 immediately after the crucifixion. Nay, we know pofi- 

 tively, they did not, but lived in community together for a 

 coniiderable time. Befides, it is not probable, if the Abyf- 

 frnians were converted by any of the Apoftles, that, for the 

 fpace of 300 years, they mould remain without biihops, and 

 without church-government, in the neighbourhood of many 

 flates, where churches were already formed, without calling 

 to their affiftance fome members of thefe churches, who 

 might, at leaft, inform them of the purport of the coun- 

 cils held, and canons made by them, during that fpace of 

 300 years ; for this was abfolutely neceffary to preferve or- 

 thodoxy, and the communion between this, and the church- 

 es of that time. And it mould be obferved, that if, in 

 Philip's time, the Chriftian religion had not penetrated (as 

 we fee in effect it had not) into the court of Candace, fo 

 much nearer Egypt, it did not furely reach fo early into the 



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