THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.

SECTION FIRST.

THEIR SMALL NUMBER AND THEIR VALUE,

236. It was in the time of these fathers that the Church, deprived of its living prophets, was obliged henceforward to advance towards the kingdom of heaven by the sole light of the written Word. Their testimony, such as it is, is fitted to give us the utmost satisfaction; but we must not forget their small number.

Although the name of apostolic father might belong to men who, like Ignatius and Polycarp, while having known personally some one of the apostles, prolonged their old age even to the middle of the second century, they are, as we have said, extremely few; and, besides, their authentic writings do not form all together more than a very small volume, composed of epistles only, and these of no great length. We can reckon only eight, or, according to others, twelve. The following is their order, beginning with the most ancient. One. by Clement, the second bishop of Rome, to the church at Corinth; one by Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, to the church of the Philippians; one of the same church of Smyrna, narrating the martyrdom of Polycarp; three of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to Polycarp, to the church at Ephesus, and to that at Rome;¹ one on the martyrdom of Ignatius; and, lastly, one to Diognetus, but of which we know neither the author nor the date, though its authenticity is universally admitted.²

We do not add The Shepherd of Hermas, because its date, now known by the fragment of Muratori,³ is too late to give it a place among the apostolic fathers. Still less shall we add some other works, which almost all the learned men of the present day place in the rank of supposititious books — the Second Epistle, attributed to Clement, his pretended Homilies, and the pretended Epistle of Barnabas.⁴

237. Modern rationalism has made great efforts to weaken the testimony of these fathers.

The first objection is founded on the numerical superiority of these citations of the Old Testament to those they have made from the New; whence it may be inferred, it is said, that our canon was either indifferent or unknown to them. But this fact alleged by the rationalists does not exist. If you except Clement of Rome, who wrote very near the time of Paul’s martyrdom, and, consequently, was disposed (as the apostles had been) to quote the Old Testament very frequently rather than refer to contemporaneous writings, you will find that the apostolic fathers have made, on the contrary, very frequent use of the New Testament. Indeed, so little ground is there for this objection, that we shall more be struck by the contrary excess. In Polycarp, for example, you will find almost fifty quotations from the New Testament for one from Moses and the prophets; while, in the Epistle to Diognetus, you will be even struck with the studious care with which the author seems to avoid the Old Testament.⁵

238. A second objection of the rationalists is the want of precision in the passages where the fathers seem to adduce the New Testament. They do not quote them, it-is said, either directly or correctly, and when it happens that they give a sentence exactly, it is almost always without naming the author; this must bring us to the conviction that these fathers had not the same books in their hands as ourselves. But this second objection is of no more value than the first; for the examples we shall cite go to shew that almost always, on the contrary, the language of these fathers is manifestly that of authors quite full of our Scriptures, and whose readers are intimately acquainted with the sacred Word. The apostolic fathers pour forth and spread abroad the sayings of our holy books in their own language; they take them freely, and from memory, without restricting themselves to the same terms; they often blend several passages in the same sentence, so as to make a continuous discourse; they paraphrase them when they quote them to adapt them better to their own thoughts; and you: see they are satisfied that their readers will understand them at half a word, and recognise immediately the source from which they have drawn their materials. Is it not just so that in our own day men most intimately acquainted with the Scriptures speak, when they address other men who are nourished by the same spiritual food? Let us open their letters, written under circumstances such as those of the apostolic fathers, and we shall be struck with the resemblance. We shall even recognise, in reference to their preoccupation with the Scriptures, a superiority in the latter; for it must not be forgotten that the only writings which have come down to us of these men of God are pastoral epistles, composed, not to inculcate doctrines, but to exhort, to console, to recount the examples of martyrs, and to encourage their brethren.:

239. Such, to give an example from later times, were the letters of the great Calvin, a man so eminently distinguished by his reverence for the Scriptures. Take his two hundred and seventy-two letters in French, and compare them. This interesting collection, recently edited by Jules Bonnet, has struck us vividly by its resemblance to the epistles of the apostolic fathers, as to the manner of quoting the New Testament. While writing these lines we have the first volume before us; and, though admiring it, we very soon discover that the Reformer himself referred much. less frequently to the New Testament in his letters than these fathers did in theirs. We do not hesitate to affirm that, if we were disposed to reason about this great theologian in the same style as the German rationalists have adopted towards Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement, we might legitimately deduce from his letters the same conclusions against the existence of a canon in the sixteenth century which they have drawn from our eight epistles against the existence of a canon in the second. In the Latin text of Hefele these eight epistles occupy eighty-seven pages in octavo;⁶ while the two volumes of Calvin contain upwards of a thousand. But suppose nothing was left to us of the Reformer but his French letters, certainly future critics, in taking the first eighty-seven pages, or the second, or as far as the tenth, would have much stronger grounds for expressing doubts on the canon of Calvin than modern critics have for those they have expressed on the canon of the fathers. Could Calvin, they might ask, make use of the same Gospels or the same epistles as ourselves? And in these Gospels, or these epistles, can a text truly like our own be found? In fact, in his French letters, which are hortatory and pastoral, (like those of Polycarp, Clement, or Ignatius,) he does not quote the New Testament more than they do, or, rather, he quotes it much less. No doubt, the spirit of his correspondence is wholly impregnated with it; but he does not quote it textually, and, like the fathers, does it almost always from memory; he paraphrases it more or less; he adapts the terms to his purpose to retain only the most striking point; he rarely names the author, and indicates him rather in vague terms, just as do the fathers. Take, for example, his touching letter to Mme. de Cany on the eminently Christian death of Mme. de Normandie, (vol. i, p. 295,) an epistle almost as long as that of Polycarp to the Philippians, and compare it with that. It contains only a single phrase from the New Testament, and with a very slight reference, — “St Paul, treating of charity, does not forget that we ought to weep with those that weep.” Again, take his four admirable letters to the students of Lausanne, the martyrs at Lyons, and that to the martyr Dimonet. In the last, (p. 367,) he quotes only two short sentences, without marking either the place or the. author. In the first, to the martyrs at Lyons, having been consulted on points of doctrine, (vows, celibacy, monastic poverty, and the nature of the glorified body,) he adduces expressly one passage from Matthew, two from Paul, and one from the Apocalypse; but in the second, (p. 371,) he cites none of them, excepting that he says, in vague terms, “Let me remind you of that saying, that stronger is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” In the third, (p. 382,) there is not a single quotation, though the whole letter, throughout its five pages, is imbued with unction from on high. In the fourth, there is one short expression — “I know in whom I have believed;” and yet how does he introduce it? Without naming either Paul or his epistle, and then by paraphrasing it: — “You can say with that valiant champion of Jesus Christ, ‘I know from whom I received my faith.’” Reason, then, about Calvin in the style of the German rationalists, when they speak of Clement or Ignatius. “What!” (you might very well say,) “in this long letter, written by the greatest Reformer of the sixteenth century to young martyrs immured in a dungeon, — there is not another citation from the whole New Testament! Calvin, then, could not have had our canon! And even there is nothing to attest that in this short phrase he intended to cite the Second Epistle to Timothy, or, at least, if he did so intend, that he had before him the same Greek text as our own, since we do not find in it the exact translation of Paul’s words!” But enough of this.

‘We know very well that this mode of citation, very far from indicating a time when the canon did not exist, marks, on the contrary, a time when the Scriptures were everywhere spread abroad, read in all public assemblies, familiar to all, small and great, in the memory of all, and so recognised by half a word. Why, then, not reason on the epistles of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, as any one would do on those of Calvin?

Perhaps-some apology should be made for having given too much space to objections which will have their day, and will soon be forgotten. We now come to these eight letters, and we will begin with the latest.

SECTION SECOND,

THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS.

240. The name of the apostolic person to whom we owe this eloquent production remains unknown to us; and all we know of Diognetus is that he was a pagan of distinction. The majority of learned men have for a long time⁷ attributed this epistle to Justin Martyr. But, besides that the too late age of this father does not correspond with what this author says of his own,⁸ the manifest superiority of his style does not allow us to think of Justin; while his doctrines, antijudaical to excess, allow it still less. Others, on the contrary, ascribe it to Clement of Rome; and others to Apollos.⁹ It is, without doubt, more ancient than Justin; but it is also more recent than those two men of God; and we rather think with Hefele, that the allusions in the seventh chapter to great. contemporary persecutions, and the rapid increase of the Church, assign its place at the end of Trajan’s reign, (117,) or towards the beginning of Hadrian’s, (133.)

But if we examine this remarkable piece, we shall soon recognise in the author a zealous disciple of Jesus. He addresses himself, it is true, to a man who is still a stranger to the New Testament; but we perceive that he himself is thoroughly imbued with it, and that he was living in the midst of a people who were nourished like himself by that heavenly manna.

241. In the fourth page, where he recalls to Diognetus the superstitious practices of the Jews, devoted to the observance (παρατήρησιν) of months, and days, and times, (καιρῶν,) you see him borrow the language of Paul, (Gal. iv. 10.) In his fifth chapter, in which he describes the life of Christians, you still find paraphrased expressions from the epistles of the apostle to the Corinthians and Philippians.¹⁰ “They are in the flesh,” he says, “but do not live according to the flesh; they pass their time on earth, but they are citizens of heaven; they love all men, and are persecuted by all; they are not known, and are condemned; they are put to death, and made alive; they are esteemed beggars, and enrich many; they are destitute of all things, and yet abound in all things; they are treated with insult, and glorified in their insults; they are blasphemed, and are justified; they are reproached, and they bless,” &c.

In his eleventh chapter, in which he is speaking of communion with Christ, and of His benefits for docile souls who keep within “the limits traced by faith, and indicated by the fathers,” he adds, “Then the fear of the law is celebrated, and the grace of the prophets is known, the faith of the Gospels is established, the teaching (παράδοσις) of the apostles is guarded, and the grace of the Church leaps (σκιρτᾷ) with joy.”

In his ninth chapter, in which he explains the mission of the Son of God, “His goodness, (χρηστότητα,)¹¹ His power, and His superabounding love towards men, (ὑπερβαλλούσης φιλανθρωπίας)” he says, “He himself took upon Him our sins, He gave up His own Son as a ransom in our stead, (λύτρον ὑπερ ἡμῶν) the holy for the lawless, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for mortals. By what could our sins be covered but by His righteousness? By whom was it possible that we, the lawless and the impious, could be justified, excepting by the only Son of God? Oh, sweet exchange! Oh, inscrutable operation! Oh, unexpected benefits! (Ὤ τῆς γλυκείας ἀπαλλαγῆς, ὢ τῆς ἀνεξιχυιάστου δημιουργίας, ὢ τῶν απροσὸοκήτωυ εὐεργεσιῶν) that the iniquity of many should be hidden in one Just One, and that, by the righteousness of one, (δικαιοσύνῃ δὲ ἑνὸς) He should justify many of the lawless, (πολλοὺς ἀνόμους δικαίωσῃ!)"¹²

And again, in the twelfth chapter, having shewn that, in the soul of the believer, as in the paradise of God, “the tree of knowledge must never be separated from the tree of life,” he says, “Life cannot be secure without knowledge, or knowledge without life; wherefore each is planted near the other.”

He then adds these remarkable words, in which he appeals to the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, as a modern Christian pastor might do in the midst of our flocks: — “Observing the power of this union, the apostle, blaming the knowledge (τὴν γνῶσιν) which is exercised without the truth of the commandment for life, says, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity buildeth up;” the author employing without any change St Paul’s own words, ἡ γνῶσις φυσιοῖ, ἡ δε ἀγάπη οἰκοδομεῖ, (1 Cor. viii. 1.)

Here, then, at the beginning of the second century, the Epistle to Diognetus directly quotes the apostle Paul and his Epistle to the Corinthians! The author had at that time the sacred collection before him, or carried it reverently in his memory, and, moreover, he wrote in the midst of a Christian people, among whom our Scriptures were universally known; for he does not even give himself the trouble to specify the name of him whom he calls the apostle, nor the title of his epistle. But why should he take this trouble? Would not these four words be sufficient for every one then, as at the present day, to be able to recognise the epistle, and lay his finger on the passage?

We now go back to Polycarp, and begin with his martyrdom.

SECTION THIRD,

THE CIRCULAR (ἐνγκύκλως) EPISTLE OF THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA.

242. This is certainly one of the most interesting monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity, as it is one of the most authentic. We find it inserted almost entire in the history of Eusebius¹³ It was at the request of a church in Phrygia that the church of Smyrna wrote this circular letter to all the parishes of the universal Church, Tt will be found to be imbued entirely with the spirit of the Scriptures. Scaliger, in his notes on Eusebius, declares that he had never seen anything in the history of the Church which more deeply affected him. “I seemed to be another man,” he said, “after reading it.”

Let us now listen to the first chapter: —

“Almost all things that went before happened,” it says, “that the Lord might shew us from above a testimony (or martyrdom) according to the Gospel, (τὸ κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον μαρτόριον.) . . . For who would not admire the generosity, and endurance, and love towards the Lord of these witnesses? . . . Staying themselves on the grace of Christ, they despised earthly tortures. They had before their eyes the escaping from the fire that is eternal, and never to be quenched, and they looked with the eyes of the heart on the goods that are reserved for those who persevere, which ear hath not heard, nor eye seen, nor has it entered into the heart of man,” (chap. ii.)

We find ourselves here in this first page not only on the height of apostolic faith, but with that faith expressed in the very words of Paul to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. ii. 9.)

And, a few lines lower, (chap. iv.,) giving an account of the sad fall of a Phrygian named Quintus who offered himself to persecution, and lost courage at the sight of the lions brought out for his punishment, the epistle makes this reflection — “Therefore, brethren, we do not praise those who offer themselves voluntarily, for this is not what the Gospel¹⁴ teaches, (ἐπειδῆ οὐχ' οὕτως διδάσκει τὸ εὐαγγέλιον.)”

The narrative presents other quotations from the Sacred Word which for brevity we do not mention; but when the venerable bishop, eighty-five years old, appeared before the proconsul, who commanded him to swear by the fortune of Caesar, we hear immediately appeal to our Scriptures, (Rom. xiii. 1; Titus iii, 1,) — “It is my duty to answer you, for we have been taught to render, as it becomes us, the honour to principalities and powers ordained by God — (δεδιδάγμεθα γὰρ ἀρχαῖς καὶ ἐξουσιαις ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ τετωγμὲναις τιμὴν κατὰ ,τὸ προσῆκον τὴν μὴ βλάπτουσαν ἡμᾶς ἀπουέμειν,) — the honour, at least,” he added, “that hurts us not,” (that is, before God.)

But above all, his last prayer, in the fourteenth chapter, ought to be read. We pass on to his own letter.

SECTION FOURTH.

THE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP.

243. This admirable monument is at once of an antiquity approaching so near the apostles, of an authenticity so perfectly attested, and so abundantly rich in its quotations of Scripture, that itself alone would furnish satisfactory evidence of the universal use of the canon in the first years of the second century.

As to its antiquity, the letter itself tells us (chap. 13) that it was written very near the martyrdom of Ignatius, (the year 107,) that is, only four years after John’s death. We know that Polycarp had been a disciple of the apostles; “he had lived,” as Irenæus¹⁵ says, “in intimacy with men who had seen the Lord;” and as Jerome¹⁶ reports, was placed over the church at Smyrna by the apostle John himself.

And as to its authenticity, we have the most unimpeachable guarantees; Irenæus, who, himself a disciple of Polycarp, could not be deceived about the letter, mentions it with high commendation;¹⁷ Eusebius, who speaks of it more than once, quoting faithfully many passages from the ninth and thirteenth chapters, which are still found there; and Jerome¹⁸ in his turn, who tells us of the high rank this epistle held in the esteem of the first Christians, and the use made of it in his time for public reading in many churches.

We find ourselves, then, very near the apostles, and by means of a most incontestable monument.

244, But it would be difficult to discover, even in our days, a composition more saturated with Scripture. Its Latin translation does not occupy more than seven pages in the octavo text of Hefele; and yet you may count at least forty or fifty quotations from the New Testament. The whole epistle, from one end to the other, reveals a piety which is immersed in the Sacred Word, and thinks in apostolic language.

We may form some estimate of it from the first chapter. It opens in the apostolic style: — “Polycarp and the presbyters with him, to the church of God sojourning at Philippi. Mercy and peace from God the Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, be multiplied to you! I greatly rejoice with you in our Lord Jesus Christ that you have received the copies of true charity, and that you have accompanied, as it became you, those who were bound in bonds worthy of saints, which are the diadems of the elect of God and of our Lord; and that the firm root of your faith, renowned from ancient times, (Phil. i. v.,) remains until now, and bears fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured to face death for our sins, whom God raised, having loosed the pains of Hades, (λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ ᾅδου, and in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, (1 Pet.i.8;) a joy into which many of you desire to enter, knowing that ye are saved by grace, not of works, (Eph. ii. 8, 9,) but by the will of God, through Jesus Christ.”

Here, then, we see the contemporary of the last years of the apostles, who, in a very short chapter, shews himself so filled with their writings that he scatters them abroad in superabundance. It is like a man who gives his national accent to every word he utters. We have just heard him quote, in quick succession, with out effort, without even naming them, three or four scriptures of the New Testament, and shew his readers that, like them, he carried at the same time on the tablet of his memory the Book of Acts, the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, the Epistles to the Philippians, and the catholic Epistle of Peter; and that he mixed them with his own thoughts in one continued discourse. And if such was his first chapter, such also, we shall find, will be the thirteen others.

The second begins at once with the words of St Peter, and however short, it gives evidence, especially in the Greek, that the author had before him the Gospels of Luke and of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of Paul, and the first of Peter. “Wherefore,” he says, “having girded up your loins, (διὸ ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας ὑμῶν, 1 Pet. i. 13,) serve the Lord with fear, (Ps. ii. 2,) forsaking vain-babbling, (τὴν κενὴν ματαιολογίαν, 1 Tim. i. 6,) and the error of the multitude, believing in Him who has raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and given Hum glory, (1 Pet. i. 21,) and made Hum sit at His right hand; to whom are subject all things, heavenly and terrestrial, whom every breath worships, who comes as judge of the living and of the dead, (Acts xvii. 31,) and whose blood God will. require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him from the dead will raise us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loves; abstaining from all injustice, fraud, avarice, evil-speaking, and false witnessing; not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, (ἦ λοιδορίαν ἀντὶ λοιδορίας, 1 Pet. iil. 9,) nor a blow for a blow, nor cursing for cursing; being mindful of what the Lord said when teaching, (Matt. v. 2, vii. 1,) Judge not, that ye be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you, (Luke vi 2; Matt. vi. 12, 145) with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again, (Matt. vii. 2;) and blessed are the poor and persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for thevrs is the kingdom of God,” (Luke vi. 30.)

Certainly these two chapters will be sufficient to characterise Polycarp and his age as far as the canon is concerned; but we should like to quote the third, since it is very short, and the holy bishop makes a more direct mention in it of Paul and his writings, in reference to the inspired epistle which they had received fifty years before.

245, Chapter iii.: — “These things I have written to you, my brethren, concerning righteousness, not arrogating anything to myself, but because you have invited me. For neither I nor any one like me can attain to the wisdom (τῇ σοφίᾳ, 2 Pet. iii. 15) of the blessed Paul, who, when he was among you, taught accurately and firmly in the presence of the men who then lived the words concerning the truth; and who, when absent, wrote epistles to you, into which, if you look closely, you will be enabled to be built up in the faith given to you.”

246. The fourth chapter, on avarice, begins in the same way, with textual quotations from the first Epistle to Timothy, (vi. 10,) and from the Epistle to the Ephesians, (vi. 11;) the fifth chapter with a quotation from the Epistle to the Galatians, (vi. 7,) and with some very clear allusions (in the Greek) to 1 Tim, ii. 8; to 2 Tim. ii. 12; to Philip. i 27; to 1 Pet. ii, 11; to 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; the sixth chapter with allusions to 2 Cor. v. 10; to the Epistle to the Romans xii. 17; and to the Gospels of Luke (vi. 38) and Matthew (vii. 2;) the seventh chapter with these words, from 1 John iv. 3, “Whosoever confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is an antichrist;” and he adds, “Whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; therefore, leaving the vanity of the multitude and false doctrines, let us return to the word given us from the beginning, (Jude iii,) watching unto prayer, (1 Pet. iv. 7,) and beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation, (Matt. vi. 13,) according to what the Lord said, The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” (Matt. xxvi. 14; or Mark xiv. 38.)

247. The seven last chapters present the same characteristics, The eighth chapter, and the two following quote textually, without naming the apostle, the First Epistle of Peter, (ii, 24, 22, 17, iv. 16, 11, 12;) while the eleventh chapter, on the other hand, expressly names St Paul, repeating this passage from the First Epistle to the Corinthians — “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” as Paul teaches; and chapter the twelfth begins and goes on with these remarkable words — “I hope that you are well exercised in THE SACRED LETTERS. As it is said in the Scriptures, Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath, (Eph. iv. 26.) Pray for all the saints, (Eph. vi. 18:) pray also for kings, and powers, and princes, (1 Tim. it 2.) and for them that hate you and persecute you,” (Matt. v. 44.)

In truth, when we have read these chapters of Polycarp, in which the New Testament abounds and overflows, we ask ourselves how the unbelieving criticism of Germany could take so much pains to dispute or invalidate the testimony of Justin Martyr, which comes fifty-three years later, and how believing criticism can take such pains, on the other hand, to defend it. Here we see what the New Testament was already in Asia Minor, and at Philippi, in Macedonia, four years only after John’s death — what it was to a martyr, the immediate disciple of that apostle, and in the very localities in which he had resided so long!

But on this subject we shall mention one word from his thirteenth and last chapter, and shall be able to recognise with advantage the care which all the churches took to edify one another by the reciprocal communication of the letters they received from the servants of God. “You have written to me,” said Polycarp, “and Ignatius also has written to me, that if any one should be coming (from Smyrna) into Syria, he should bring your letters thither, and if I should find opportunity, I will do it myself, or send by some other person for you. We have sent to you the letters of Ignatius, and others, as many as we have, as you requested. You will gain much fruit from them, for they embrace lessons of faith, and patience, and every kind of edification.”

Thus the letter of this great servant of the Lord concludes, and we love to recall these last traits, because they make us understand that if the churches and their bishops already took such pains to collect the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp, and if the Philippians asked for them as fitted to edify them, with how much more vigilant and religious earnestness must these same churches have collected and transmitted during fifty years the inspired epistles of the Lord’s own apostles. We also learn from other historical monuments that in some churches they preserved with special care the original texts, and we have already cited, in reference to this fact, a remarkable expression of Tertullian.

We now pass on to Ignatius, to his martyrdom, and his letters.

SECTION FIFTH.

IGNATIUS, HIS MARTYRDOM AND LETTERS.

248. Ignatius was one of the hearers of St John, and, if we may believe Chrysostom,¹⁹ he was placed over the Church at Antioch by the Apostle Peter himself. Eusebius, it is true, places him after Evodius, (H. E., iii 22;) but the “Apostolic Constitutions,” (vii. 46,) indicate rather that these two men of God presided simultaneously in Antioch, the one by the appointment of Peter over the Jewish Christians, and the other by that of Paul over the uncircumcised Christians.

However that may be, it is certain that Ignatius, having been condemned to the wild beasts by the Emperor Trajan, when that prince was preparing at Antioch for his first expedition against the Armenians and Parthians, was sent to Rome under an escort of ten soldiers to undergo that dreadful punishment. On reaching Smyrna he had the consolation of being able to visit Polycarp, and at last landing at Ostra, he was conducted to Rome, where two lions devoured him in the sight of the Roman people. This was in the tenth year of Trajan, the year 107.

249. The “Acts” of this martyr, written and published by ocular witnesses (τούτων αὐτόπται γενόμενοι, ch. vii.,) were edited for the first time by Archbishop Usher in 1647. We can recognise distinctly the New Testament in the second page. When the emperor, elated by his triumphs over the Scythians and Dacians, beheld Ignatius before his tribunal, he hastened to treat with contempt the Christian words of the martyr. “You carry, then, within you, Him who was crucified?” — “Yes,” replied Ignatius, “FOR IT IS WRITTEN, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them, (Ναί, γέγραπται γάρ ἐνοικήσω ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐμπεριπατήσω.)” These are the exact Greek expressions in 2 Cor. vi. 16, and not those of the LXX. in Leviticus xxvi. 12.

“Yes! FOR IT IS WRITTEN.” These, then, are the words uttered in the year 107 before the tribunal of a Roman emperor, within four years of the death of St John! Such is the language, mark you, of the most illustrious bishop of the East, when appearing in his own city of Antioch before the renowned conqueror of the Scythians and Dacians! Not only he confesses himself a Christian before the whole empire, and at the hazard of his life; but he declares that for Christians everything is decided when they can say, “IT IS WRITTEN!” This is their rule, and by these words their faith is justified, their course is marked out, and every mode of death is good to them. On hearing these words, Trajan replied, “We ordain that Ignatius, who says that he carries about the Crucified within him, be chained and conducted by soldiers to great Rome, that he may become the food of wild beasts for the pleasure of the people, (βρῶμα γενησόμενον θηρίων εις τερψιν τοῦ δήμου.)”!

We pass on to his letters, all three written some weeks before his martyrdom.

250. Fifteen letters ascribed to this father have been published; but the unanimous opinion of the learned has long since rejected eight as evident forgeries.²⁰ Only a controversy has been carried on respecting the Greek text of the seven others, as an edition of them has been extant evidently more extended, and suspected of numerous interpolations. From the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day, a great number of the most distinguished scholars, Vossius, Usher, Le Clerc, Grabe, Pearson, (and, recently, Hefele,) have given the preference to the shorter recension, Such was the state of things when, in 1845, the learned Orientalist, Dr Cureton, published a very ancient Syriac version of the Epistles of Ignatius, discovered, six years before, by Dr Henry Tattam, in an ancient monastery of Upper Egypt. The manuscript is of the sixth century; but the version, most probably, is of much greater antiquity. Cureton has published a beautiful edition; in preparing which he made use of another Syriac manuscript of the epistles of Ignatius, found by him in the British Museum. ‘The whole is accompanied with the Greek text, and an English translation. But this collection contains only three epistles — the first, to the Ephesians; the second, to the Romans; the third, to Polycarp; and further, it has been satisfactorily ascertained that the extravagant passages on the episcopate, which have hitherto presented to impartial readers the appearance of an awkward anachronism, were really interpolations. We shall, therefore, take our quotations only from Dr Cureton’s text, and content ourselves with saying, with Bunsen, that in the present day all critics reject the authenticity of the ancient text, “unless some Romanists, among whom,” (he says,) “only Dr Hefele deserves to be mentioned.”²¹

These three epistles of Ignatius, after the reductions called for by the Syriac text, do not occupy more than ten or eleven pages octavo in the Latin text of Hefele.

251. The Epistle to the Ephesians, although reduced, at most, to two pages and a half, yet abounds in allusions to Paul’s epistles. It begins in the style of the apostolic epistles; and in his salutation we at once recognise (especially in the Greek) most distinct reminiscences of the Epistle to the Ephesians, (i. 4, 19, iii. 11, 19, iv. 8,. — “Ignatius to the church which is blessed in the greatness and plenitude of the Father, ordained before the ages to be always united in permanent, immutable glory, and elected in the true passion, by the will of the Father, and of Jesus Christ our God, to the church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, be abundance of joy in Jesus Christ, and in grace.”

This style often reproduces elsewhere expressions peculiar to Paul. (Μιμηταὶ ὄντες, Eph. v.1; ἑδραῖοι τῇ πίστει, Col. i. 28.)

“Being imitators of God,” (he says at the beginning,) “revivified by the blood of God, you have accomplished the work of the brotherhood; for having heard, since my departure from Syria, that I am in bonds for our common hope and name, you have been anxious to visit me, who hope to obtain by your prayers to combat the beasts at Rome, and to obtain by martyrdom to be a true disciple of Him who offered Himself for us to God, an oblation and a sacrifice, (τοῦ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἑαυτὸν ἀνενεγκόντος Θεῷ προσ-φορὰν καὶ θυσίαν, Eph. v. 2.)”

252, As to his beautiful and holy Epistle to Polycarp, though reduced in like manner to less than two pages and a half, it recalls with the same clearness the language of the New Testament. “Give yourself to continual prayers,” he says to his friend, (προσευχαῖς σχόλαζε ἀδιαλείπτοις) expressions familiar. to St Paul, (1 Cor. vii. 5; Rom. i. 9; 1 Thess. v. 17.) “Be prudent as a serpent in all things,” he adds, “and simple as a dove, (Matt. x. 16.) Be temperate as an athlete of God — the prize is immortality and eternal life. Exhort my brethren to love their companions as the Lord loveth the Church, (Eph. v. 25, 29,) that all things may be done for the honour of God, (1 Cor. x. 31.) Please Him to whose army you belong, and from whom you will receive your pay, , ἀρέσκετε ᾧ στρατεύσθε.·” (See 2 Tim. ii. 4.)

253. Lastly, in his Epistle to the Romans, the least interpolated of the three, we find the same character. “I write to the churches,” he says, “and make them all know that I die voluntarily for God. I pray you not to hinder me by an untimely kindness. Rather entreat Christ on my behalf, that by these instruments (the wild beasts) I may be found a victim. I do not give you commands, like Peter or Paul. They are apostles, I am a condemned man; they are free, but I am even now a slave. But if I suffer, I shall be a freeman of Jesus, (ἀπελεύθερος Ἰησοῦ, 1 Cor. vii. 22,) and I shall rise again free in Him. I am bound to ten leopards, by which I mean a company of soldiers; but I learn much from their bad treatment; but for this I am not justified, (ἀλλ' οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο δεδικαίωμαι,  1 Cor. iv. 2, 4.) I do not take delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I wish to have the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ, and His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.”

But we pass on, in the last place, to the most ancient and authentic monument of apostolic antiquity, the inestimable epistle of Clement; and we think it proper to give rather longer quotations.

SECTION SIXTH.

THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENT OF ROME TO THE CORINTHIANS.

254, This beautiful monument, so worthy of the apostolic age, forms a splendid close to the chain of historical testimonies which connects the days of Ignatius and Irenæus with those of Paul and the other inspired writers. We find in it an abundance of everything we have a right to expect from a pious writer of the age in which the New Testament was completed; for the author, filled with the remembrance of the apostles, of their doctrine, and their Epistles, reproduces their expressions of faith, and speaks their language. Like them, he quotes most freely the ancient Scriptures, which they read every Sabbath in all their assemblies. He also cites the words of Jesus, as reported by Matthew, Mark, and Luke; but, in citing them, he does not give himself the trouble of naming the sacred historians. He often employs, and in their’ strictest sense, the familiar expressions of Paul. With a holy simplicity, he recalls to the Corinthians the epistle they had received from that apostle, fifteen or sixteen years before, and affirms that it was written by the Holy Spirit. In a word, you will find this epistle such, in all respects, as would be in character with that Clement whom Paul, writing from Rome about the year 60, had called his “fellow-labourer,” and “whose name,” he said, “was written in the book of life,” (Phil. iv. 3.)

But when, and why was this epistle written? What is its authenticity? And how has it come into our possession? On these points we must touch before going any further.

255. This epistle was written by Clement in the name of the church at Rome to that of the Corinthians, which some factious persons violently agitated against their own pastors.

Origen, (on John i, 29,) Eusebius, (Hist. Eccl., iii, 15,) Epiphanius, (Haer., xxxvii., 6,) Jerome, (Catal., xv.,) and others, agree in regarding our author as indisputably the same Clement of whom the apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Philippians, (iv. 3.) And as the Scripture has not named this person elsewhere, and Paul, when he visited Philippi, (Acts xvi,) had with him only Silas, Luke, and Timothy, we must suppose that he found Clement in this Roman colony, and that he left him there to carry on his evangelical labours, till about the year 60. But was this Clement a Roman, as might be inferred from his Latin name? or was he an Israelite, as Tillemont has conjectured from some expressions in the epistles, (our father Jacob, our father Abraham, and others)?²² We cannot decide. That he was bishop of Rome all affirm. But whether he was the first after Peter, as Jerome thought, or the second, as Augustin believed, or the third, as Irenæus²³ affirms, after all, little concerns us. Eusebius assures us that he presided nine years over the church at Rome; but where are we to place these nine years? According to all appearance from 68 to 77; for the epistle itself, (chap. i.) by informing us that it was written a little time after a violent persecution, points necessarily to that of Nero, at the time of Paul’s martyrdom, (from 65 to 68.) That of Domitian, which followed in 96, appears much less probable, for many reasons given by Grabe, Galland, Wotton, Hefele, and others. In fact, Clement (in the fifth chapter) mentions as recent the martyrdom of Paul and Peter; besides, he describes in the sixth chapter this persecution as cruel from the great number of martyrs, while that of Diocletian was more noted for the high rank of its victims; and, lastly, the fortieth and forty-first chapters attest that the epistle was written at a time when the temple-worship was still celebrated, and, therefore, necessarily before the year 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus.

We say nothing of the career, martyrdom, nor strange miracles which the Roman Breviary²⁴ ascribes to Clement. No historian has spoken of them — neither Irenæus, nor Eusebius, nor even Jerome.

256. The epistle of Clement, which our Reformers believed to be irreparably and long ago lost, was at first highly honoured for five or six centuries by all the ancient fathers. They were delighted most unanimously to recommend it; the numerous quotations they have made from it fully guarantee the authority of the edition we possess in the present day; for we find them in it, word for word. Polycarp often speaks as having had it in his hands; Irenæus calls it ἱκανωτάτην; Clement of Alexandria mentions it six times; Origen three times; and Eusebius calls it “great and admirable,” (μεγάλην τε καὶ θαυμασίαν;) Cyril of Jerusalem cites it in like manner; so does Epiphanius; Jerome cites it many times, and calls it “valde utilem,” (Catal. Scrip., exv.,) adding, that in his time it was the custom in certain places to read it publicly. In like manner, Photius²⁵ in the ninth century. But at a later period, and during all the Middle Ages, it had disappeared. Scholars, at the revival of letters, as well as the Reformers, had often lamented its loss; till at last, in 1628, Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, having made a present to Charles I. of England, of the famous Alexandrian manuscript of the Scriptures, the learned world was agreeably surprised to discover this ancient, long-lost treasure, written on the last leaves of the manuscript.²⁶ The University of Oxford printed²⁷ it for the first time in 1638. Wotton published at Cambridge, in 1718, an edition carefully edited, but that of Dr Jacobson, published with learned notes at Oxford 1838 and 1840, is regarded as superior to all that preceded it.

When this interesting book reappeared, many critics, such as Bignon, Le Clerc, and Mosheim, suspected its integrity; but in our day all serious doubts, Hefele says, have ceased, (Prolog., p. Xxxiii.;) and all modern scholars, without exception, are unanimous in acknowledging both the authenticity and integrity of this ancient document. —

257. To render intelligible the value of its testimony in favour of the canon, no reasoning can avail so much as the simple process of passing a rapid analysis of its contents under the eyes of the reader. Its fifty-nine short chapters occupy but thirty-three pages and a half in the octavo text of Hefele.²⁸

The frank and pious simplicity of this piece, worthy of primitive times, the elevation and apostolic purity of its doctrine,²⁹ distinguish it from all subsequent writings. Wotton, in the preface to his edition, says, “It is the style and method of the New Testament; nothing appears in it which is not entirely worthy of an apostolic man.” “It speaks of doctrines,” Grotius³⁰ has remarked, “without subtlety or disguise; it employs the terms vocation and election, called and chosen, in a perfectly Pauline sense.” And as to its mode of citing the Scriptures, it is equally that of the apostles; that is to say, it takes almost all its quotations from the Old Testament, and its employment of the scriptures of the New is much more rare. When it cites the words of Jesus Christ, already recorded in the first Gospels, it is without naming the place; when it adduces expressly one of Paul’s epistles,³¹ it is as Peter had³² already done; and when it cites them indirectly, it is often by reproducing entire phrases, but without taking the trouble to state whence they are taken. It often introduces into its language the most characteristic expressions of the apostolic writings, expressions which had become familiar to the members of the primitive Church, and recognised by every one as soon as they were uttered.

It was very natural that Clement of Rome, writing so soon after the death of Paul, should follow entirely the method of the apostles; and his epistle would have been justly suspected if it had then made the same copious use of the New Testament which was made at a later period, as, for example, by Bishop Polycarp. It must not be forgotten, that in the times of his epistle, the Church of the’ New Testament had received only a part of its inspired scriptures, and that its canon was not closed till thirty years after. The Gospel of Mark, that of John, as well as his two last epistles, and that of Jude, were not yet in existence, nor the Apocalypse. And even that “epistle of the blessed Paul, (τὴν ἐπιστολὴν τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου,)” of which he speaks in his forty-seventh chapter, had appeared only fifteen years before, (in the year 53.)

But we shall better judge of the character of his epistle, and its quotations, when we have gone through our rapid survey of it.

258. Chapter. i The salutation: —

“The church of God which sojourns at Rome to the church of God sojourning at Corinth — to the called, sanctified according to the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied from the omnipotent God through Jesus Christ.

“In consequence of the sudden calamities and accidents that have befallen us, beloved, we have been slower in attending to your requests, and to that detestable and unholy revolt, so contrary and foreign to the elect of God, which a few rash and bold persons have lighted up among you, so that your honourable and illustrious name, worthy to be beloved by all men, has been greatly dishonoured,”

Chapter ii. The exemplary conduct of the Corinthians before their schism: —

“Who has remained some time among you without admiring your faith, so firm, your piety, so sober, your hospitality, so generous, your knowledge of the truth, so perfect and so firm? All things were done by you without respect of persons, (ἀπροσωπολήπτως.)³³ You were subject to your leaders, and gave due honours to the elders (τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις) who were among you.

“You were all of a humble mind, without vain-glory; disposed rather to be subject yourselves than to subject others; giving more willingly than taking away; satisfied with the supplies furnished by God; and, carefully attending to His words, you preserved them in your vitals, and His sufferings were before your eyes, (Gal. iii. 1.) There was a contest (of prayer) (ὠγών, Gal. ii. 1,) day and night for all the brotherhood, (ὑπὲρ πάσης τῆς ἀδελφότητος,)³⁴ that the number of the elect might be saved. . . . All sedition and all schism were an abomination to you. . . . You were ready for every good work,” (Titus iii. 1.)

Chapter iii. Their sad state since their divisions: —

“But your prosperity has produced among you jealousy, envy, contention and faction, persecution and anarchy, war and captivity.”

Chapter iv. From this source the greatest evils for a long time have issued for the people of God: —

“It was envy and jealousy which caused the death of Abel — persecuted Joseph — excited Moses — placed Aaron and Miriam without the camp, and brought ruin on Dathan and Abiram.” . . .

Chapters v. and vi.: — “But let us leave these ancient examples and come to recent times, contemplating Paul and Peter, and other athlete who have combated nearest us, (ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔγγιστα γενομένους ἀθλητάς.) Let us take the generous examples of our generation, (τῆς γενεᾶς ἡμῶν.) On account of envy and jealousy (διὰ ξῆλον καὶ φθόνον)the greatest and most righteous pillars (Gal. ii. 9) have been persecuted even unto death. Let us place before our eyes the good apostles. On account of unjust zeal, Peter endured, not one or two, but many labours, and thus, suffering martyrdom, he went to the place of glory which was due to him, (ἐπορεύθη εἷς τὸν ὀφειλόμενον τόπον τῆς δόξης.) It was through envy, and on account of jealousy, too, that Paul sustained the combat and obtained the reward of endurance, (ὑπομονῆς βραβεῖον ὑπέσχεν.) He was seven times thrown into bonds, obliged to flee, and was stoned, and, having become a herald of the Word in the East and the West, he acquired the glorious renown of his faith, taught the whole world righteousness; coming to the boundary (τὸ τέρμα) of the West, he suffered martyrdom in the time of the governors, (ἐπὶ τῶν Ἡγουμένων.)³⁵ Thus he was released from the world, and went into the holy place, having been the greatest pattern of endurance.”

Chapters vii. and viii. Exhortation to repentance: —

“We write these things, beloved, not only to exhort you to. duty, but to remind ourselves, for we are here in the same arena, and have the same contest before us. . . Let us look steadfastly on the blood of Christ, and consider how precious to God is His blood, which, having been shed for our salvation, proffers the grace of repentance to the whole world. Let us go back to all generations, and learn that in every generation the Lord has given place for repentance (μετανοίας τόπον ἔδωκεν ὁ δεσπότης) to all who are willing to turn to Him. Noah preached repentance, (ἐκήρυξεν μετάνοιαν, 2 Pet. ii. 5,) and those who listened to him. were saved.”

Chapters ix. — xii. The examples of the saints: —

“Consider Enoch, who, being found just in obedience, was translated, and his death was not found, (Heb. xi. 5.) Noah, being found faithful by his ministry, preached regeneration (παλυγγενεσίαν) to the world. Abraham, who was called the friend of God, (James ii. 23; Heb. xi. 8,) was found faithful, because he obeyed the words of God. He believed God, and tt was counted to him for righteousness, (Rom. iv. 3.) On account of his hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom, (2 Pet. ii. 6,7.) For her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved,” (Heb. xi. 31.)

Chapter xiii. Exhortation to humility: —

“Let us be humble in spirit, (ταπεινοφρονήσωμεν,)³⁶ my brethren. Let us lay aside all boasting and conceit, and folly and anger, and do what is written; for the Holy Spirit saith, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong in his strength, nor the rich in his wealth; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord, (Jer. ix. 23; 2 Cor. x. 17; 1 Cor. i. 31.) Let us, above all, remember the words of the Lord Jesus, which He spoke, teaching equity and long-suffering; for He said, (Luke vi. 36-38; Matt. vi. 12-15; 1 Cor. i. 31,) Be ye merciful, that ye may have mercy; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you; as ye do, so shall it be done to you; as you give, so shall it be given to you; as you judge, so shall you be judged; as you are kind, so shall kindness be shewn to you, (ὡς χρηστεὺεσθε, οὕτως χρηστευθήσεται ὑμῖν;) with what measure ye mete, wt shall be measured to you again.”

Chapters xiv., xv. We must obey God rather than man, and join the lovers of peace: —

“It is just and pious, my brethren, that we should obey God, rather than follow the leaders of a detestable schism in pride and insubordination. Let us cleave to those who live in peace with piety,” (τοῖς μετ’ εὐσεβείας εἷρηνεύουσιν, an expression of Paul, Rom. xii. 18; 2 Cor. xiii. 11; 1 Thess, v. 13.)

Chapter xvi. Christ the pattern of humility: —

“Christ is theirs who think lowly of themselves; not theirs who elevate themselves above His flock, Our Lord J esus Christ, the sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride and arrogance, however powerful, but in humility, as the Holy Spirit spoke concerning Him, for He said, Lord, who hath believed our report, &c. . . . And again He said, I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the scorn of the people. Consider, then, beloved, what an example He has given to us!”

Chapters xvii, xviii.: — “Let us imitate the humility of Abraham, of Jacob, of Moses, of David.

“Be imitators of them who wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, (Heb. xi. 37,) preaching the coming of Christ. We speak of Elias, Elisha, and Ezekiel, the prophets, and with them those who have obtained a testimony, (καὶ τοὺς μεμαρτυρημένους)”

Let us take notice of this passive expression, frequently used by Luke and Paul, (Acts vi. 3, x. 22, xvi. 2; 1 Tim. v. 10; Heb. xi. 2, 4, 5, 30.) Thus Abraham received an eminent testimony, and was called the friend of God, because he said in his humility, “I am but dust and ashes.” Thus Job; thus Moses, who was called faithful in all his house, (Num. xii. 7; Heb. iii. 2;) thus David. . ... ‘

Chapter xix.: — “Let us also seek peace after their example.

“Receive, then, the instruction of humility and obedience which is offered to us by so many great men, to whom the Scriptures have given such testimonies; and let us contemplate the mercy and long-suffering of God towards His whole creation.”

Chapter xx. Does not the government of the world shew that God is pleased with harmony and peace? —

“Consider the heavens, the seasons, the sun and moon, the choir of stars, the earth, the ocean, day and night — how all creatures are harmoniously submissive to His sovereign will; and let us acknowledge that He is the friend of peace and of good order, beneficent towards all, but superabundantly to us who have taken refuge in His compassions, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Chapters xxi. xxii. Submit yourselves to order in everything before God: —

“Consider how near He is, and none of our thoughts or reasonings are hidden from Him. He is a searcher of the thoughts and intentions, (ἐρευνητὴς γὰρ ἐστιν ἐννοιῶν καὶ ἐνθυμήσεων, Heb. iv. 12.)”

Chapter xxiii Be humble and true. Remember that Christ will come again: —

“This is why we approach to Him with a simple mind. Wherefore, let us not be double-minded, μὴ διψυχῶμεν, δίψυχος, a word peculiar to James i. 8, iv. 8.) Let that scripture be far from us which says, Miserable are the double-minded or the undecided, (ζόιζψυχοι.) whose soul is in doubt, who say, We have heard these things even in the times of our fathers, and behold, we are grown old, and none of these things have happened to us.” “Clement combines here,” Wotton remarks, “James and Peter (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4) in his recollections; for the Scripture bears this joint testimony, (συνεπιμαρτυρούσης καὶ τῆς γραφῆς,) that the Lord will come quickly, and will not tarry! (Heb. x. 37;) and the Lord will suddenly come to His temple, and the Holy One whom ye expect,” (Mal. iii. 1.) $

Chapters xxiv.-xxvii. God teaches us the future resurrection continually even in nature: —

“Consider, beloved, how the Lord shews us continually the future resurrection, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits, (ἀπαρχή. 1 Cor. xv. 20, 28,) having raised Him from the dead. Let us behold the fruits of the earth; how was the sowing effected? The sower went forth, and cast seed into the earth, (Luke viii. 5,) and the seed being scattered, those that fell dry and naked into the ground are decomposed. The greatness of Divine Providence raises the same, and many are produced from one, and bring forth fruit.”

Chapters xxvii.-xxx. Let us rely on God's promises, and draw nigh to Him in sanctity of heart: —

“He who commands us not to deceive will certainly himself not deceive, for nothing is impossible to God, except to speak falsehood, (Tit. i. 2; Heb. vi. 18.) Let us approach, therefore, to Him in sanctity of soul, raising pure and undefiled hands to Him,” (1 Tim. ii. 18.)

Chapter xxxi. How shall we obtain the Divine blessing unless, like Abraham, by faith? —

“Let us cleave to His blessing, and let us see what are the ways ‘of blessing. On account of what was our Father Abraham blessed? Was it not that by faith he practised righteousness and truth? In the same manner Isaac, in confidence, knowing what would happen, willingly became a victim. Jacob, with humility, left his country on account of his brother, and made himself a slave, and the twelve sceptres of Israel were given to him.”

Chapter xxxii. We are justified, not by works, but by faith: —

“Whoever will meditate on these things with sincerity will acknowledge the greatness of the gifts which were bestowed upon him, for from him were all the priests and Levites who were employed about the altar of God; from him was our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the flesh, (Rom. ix. 5;) from him were kings, governors, and leaders of the tribe of Judah. But all these obtained glory and grandeur, not by themselves, nor by their works, nor by just dealing, (δικαιοπραγίας.) which they practised, (ἧς κατειργάσαντο,) but by His will, (Rom. iii. 23, v. 2, vii. 18, ix. 11, 32; Tit. iii. 5,77; Eph. ii. 9.) And we, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, (James i. 18; Gal. i. 4; Eph. i 5, 9, 11,) nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or piety, or works which we have accomplished in holiness of heart, but by faith, (Rom. iv. 16, v. 1, iii. 24, i 16, 17,) by which, from the beginning, God the Almighty justifies all those whom He has justified. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” |

Chapter xxxiiii But we must not neglect love, and good works: —

“What, then, shall we do, brethren? Shall we cease from doing good, and forsake charity? By no means does the Lord suffer this; but we must hasten with earnestness and readiness to fulfil every good work. He has created us for this. Let us apply ourselves, then, to works of righteousness. Let our glory and confidence be in Him, and let us be subject to His will.”

Chapter xxxiv. Let us live, then, im concord, and pray together to God for it: —

“We are led by conscience into a holy concord, and animated by one spirit; let us cry ardently to Him as with one mouth, that we may become partakers of His great and glorious promises, (2 Pet. i. 4;)³⁷ for he has said, Eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what things He hath prepared for them that wait for Him.” We find these words imperfectly in Isaiah lxiv. 3, 4; but they are read almost literally in 1 Cor. ii. 9.

Chapter xxxv. The gifts of God are admirable: —

“How blessed and wonderful, beloved, are the gifts of God! Life in immortality, splendour in righteousness, truth in liberty, faith in confidence, self-government (ἐγκράτεια) in sanctity! And all these fall under the cognisance of our understanding. What, then, are those things that are prepared for those that wait for Him?”

Chapter xxxvi. All this blessedness is obtained through Christ: —

“This is the way, beloved, in which we find our salvation, Jesus Christ, the High Priest of our oblations, (ἀρχιερέα, Heb. iv. 15, viii. 1-3,) the protector and helper of our weakness. By Him let us look to the heights of heaven; by Him let us contemplate, as in a mirror, His pure and sublime countenance; by Him the eyes of our heart have been opened, (ἡμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τῆς καρδίας, Eph. i 18;) by Him our stupid and darkened mind (ἀσύνετος καὶ ἐσκοτωμένη διάνοια ἡμῶν) has revived into His marvellous light, , (εἰς τὸ θαυμαστὸν αὐτοῦ φῶς, Rom. i. 21; 1 Pet. ii. 19;) by Him the Sovereign Lord has willed that we should taste immortal knowledge. Being the brightness of his majesty, (ἀπαύγασμα τῆς μεγαλωσύνης αὐτοῦ, Heb. i. 3, 4;) he as so much greater than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name, (Heb. i. 7;) for it is written, Who maketh his angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire; but concerning has Son the Lord said, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee, &c. And again he saith to him, Sit at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool, (Heb. i 5, 18.) And who are these enemies? The wicked; those who set themselves in opposition to the will of God.”

Chapter xxxvii. Let us be, then, devoted soldiers of Jesus Christ: —

“Let us fight, brethren, as soldiers of Christ, (2 Tim. ii. 3, 4,) with all earnestness, according to His irreproachable orders. Consider what soldiers are under their generals, — what order, what obedience, what submission! All are not tribunes, nor chiliarchs, nor centurions. Each one in his own rank fulfils the commands of the king and the generals. The great cannot exist without the little, nor the little without the great. All are mixed; and hence their use and their power.” . . . .

Chapter xxxviii. Let every one among us place himself under Christ's orders: —

“Let every one be subject to his neighbour, (ὑποτασσέσθω, Eph. v.21; 1 Pet. v. 5,) according to the order in which he has been placed by the grace of Christ. Let not the strong neglect the weak; let the weak pay respect to the strong.”

Chapters xxxix.-xlii. We cannot raise ourselves. We must submit, therefore, to the order established by God in the Church, and consider what it is: —

“The apostles have proclaimed the gospel to us by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ by the command of God. Therefore, having received their orders, and by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ being full of assurance, and confirmed in the word of God, (πληροφορηθέντες, Rom. iv. 21; πιστω θέντες, 2 Tim. iii. 14 — words altogether Pauline,) they went forth with full assurance (πληροφορίας, 1 Thess. i. 5) of the Holy Spirit, announcing the good news of the coming of the reign of God. Preaching the words through regions and cities, they ordained their first-fruits, (καθίστανον τὰς ἀπαρχὰς αὐτῶν,) having proved them by the Spirit, for bishops and deacons (overseers and servants) of those who would hereafter believe.”

Chapter xliii. Moses had contentions of the same kind: —

“And is it, then, wonderful if those who have been intrusted in Christ with such an office by God (ἐν Χριστῷ πιστευθέντες παρὰ Θεοῦ ἔργον τοιοῦτο) should appoint those before mentioned? Do we not see the blessed Moses, a faithful servant in all his house, (Heb. iii. 5,) set down in the sacred books all that had been commanded him? (Num. xvii.) He acted thus lest sedition should arise among the people of Israel on the subject of the priesthood, and that the name of the true and only God (τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ καὶ μόνου Θεοῦ, John xvii. 3) might be glorified; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Chapter xliv. The apostles established bishops and deacons, and therefore it is a sin to reject those who fill these offices: —

“The apostles knew by our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be contentions on the subject or dignity of the episcopate, (ἐπὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς,) For this reason, having received perfect foreknowledge, they constituted those we have spoken of, and then gave this precept, ἐπινομήν, (an expression which some would translate testamentary order,) that when they had fallen asleep, other approved men might receive their ministry, (διαδέξωνται τὴν λειτουργίαν,) Therefore we think that those who have been established by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the approval of all the Church, (συνευδοκησάσης τὴς ἐκκλησίας πάσης,) and who have served the flock of Christ in humility, without reproach, quietly, and liberally, (ἀβαναύσως,) having had for a long time the testimony of all, — such men, we think, cannot be justly ejected from their offices. This would not be on our part a light sin. And yet we see that you have removed some who acted honourably from an office which they had filled unblamably and with honour.”

Chapter xlv. It is the part of the wicked to persecute and expel the just: —

“Ye are contentious, my brethren, and ye are zealots about things which do not pertain to salvation. TURN YOUR REGARDS³⁸ TO THE SCRIPTURES, THE TRUE SAYINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

There ye will never find the just rejected by holy men. The just have suffered persecution, but it was from the wicked; they have been thrown into prison, but it was by the impious.” . . .

Chapter xlvi. Adhere to the just; your dissension is pernictous: —

“Why should there be among you contentions, wrath, divisions, schisms, and war? (James iv. 1.) Have we not one God and one Christ, (Eph. iv. 4, 6,) and one Spirit of grace shed upon us, and one calling in Christ? Why should we tear asunder and mangle the members of Christ, and forget that we are members one of another? (Eph. iv. 25.) Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, for He said, (Matt. xxvi. 24; Luke xvii. 2; Mark ix. 42,) Woe to that man! it had been better for him never to have been born, than that he should offend one of my elect; it had been better for him to have had a millstone fastened to him, and to be drowned in the sea, than to offend one of my little ones. Your schism has perverted many; it has thrown many into dejection, many into doubt, and all of us into grief; and your sedition is still enduring.”

But, above all, hear Clement in his forty-seventh chapter, where he says expressly to the Corinthians that their present dissensions are worse than those in the time of Paul, fifteen years before.

Chapter xlvii.: — “Take in your hands THE EPISTLE OF THE BLESSED APOSTLE PAUL. What did he write to you at first in the beginning of the gospel? Of a truth it was by the Holy Spirit that (ἐπ’ αληθειας πνευματικῶς) he sent you his letter concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos, because at that time you were forming parties, (προσκλίσέις.) But those rendered you not so culpable as you are now; for your partiality had for its objects celebrated apostles, (Paul and Cephas,) and a man approved by them, (Apollos.) But now, on the contrary, consider who are those that pervert you, and who have lessened the high reputation of your fraternal love. It is shameful, beloved, and very shameful and unworthy of your life in Christ, to hear that the firmly-established and ancient church of the Corinthians,³⁹ by means of one or two persons, is in a state of revolt against its presbyters. And this rumour has extended not only to us, but to those who are alien from us; so that through your infatuation blasphemies are cast on the name of the Lord, (Rom. xi. 24; 1 Tim. vi. 1,) and danger is created for your church.”

Chapter xlviii. Return to brotherly love: —

“Let us quickly remove this evil. Let us fall before your sovereign Master, and with tears implore His compassion, that He would be reconciled to us, and re-establish us in the venerable and pure relations of our brotherly love.”

“Is there not some faithful man among you, (James iii. 13,) powerful in uttering knowledge, and pure in his actions? Let him shew himself more humble in proportion as he seems to be greater; and let him seek the common profit of all, and not his own,” (1 Cor. x. 33.)

Chapter xlix. Follow after charity: —

“Let him who has charity in Christ observe the precepts of Christ. Who can describe the bond of the love of God? Who is able to describe the greatness of its beauty? The height to which it carries us is inexpressible. Charity unites us to God; charity covers a multitude of sins, (1 Pet. iv. 8; 1 Cor. xiii. 4.) Charity endures all things; charity bears all things; there is nothing mean in charity, nothing supercilious. Charity makes no schism; charity is not seditious; charity does all things in concord, . . . In charity all the elect of God are perfected; apart from charity nothing is pleasing to God; in charity the Lord has succoured us; on account of the charity which He has towards us our Lord Jesus Christ gave His blood for us, by the will of God, and His flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls,” (Gal. 1. 4; John iii, 16; 1 John iv. 9, 10.)

Chapter l. Let us pray for charity: —

“You see, beloved, how great and wonderful is charity. But who is capable of being found in it, excepting those whom God renders worthy? Let us pray, then, and ask of His mercy that we may live in charity, without reproach, and free from human partiality.”

Chapter li. Let the authors of your dissensions confess their sin.

Chapter lii. Such a confession will be pleasing to God.

Chapter. liii, Recollect the charity of Moses towards his people: —

. . . . “O great Charity! O perfection never to be surpassed! The servant speaks freely to his Lord, and asks forgiveness for the people, or that he himself may be utterly destroyed with them.”

Chapters liv., lv. He who is full of charity will endure any loss, that peace may be restored to the Church: —

“Who, then, among you is generous? who is compassionate? who is filled with charity? Let him say — If sedition, strife, and schisms have originated with me, I will withdraw; I will depart wherever you wish, and will do whatever is ordered by the people. Only let the flock of Christ live in peace with the constituted presbyters. He who acts thus will win great glory for himself in the Lord, and every place will receive him; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, (1 Cor. x. 26, 28; Ps, xxiv. 1.) These things they have done, and will do, who act as members of the polity of God, never to be repented of.”

Chapter lvi. Let us admonish and reprove one another. God will protect him who does not refuse correction: —

“And let us also intercede for those who have fallen into some transgression, (Gal. vi. 1, ἔν τινι παραπτώματι ὑπαρχόντων,) that moderation and humility may be granted them, that they may yield not to us, but to the Divine will.”

“Let us receive, then, this correction, (παιδείαις) beloved, at which no one ought to be angry. For thus the Holy Word gays, Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, (παιδεύει;) He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,” (Heb. xii. 6; Prov. iii. 12.)

Chapter lvii. Let the authors of the sedition submit themselves to the elders, lest God destroy them: —

“You, therefore, who laid the foundation of sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters, (ὑποτάγητε τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις, 1 Pet. v. 5,) and be corrected unto repentance, having bent the knees of your heart.”

Chapter lviii. May the Lord bless all those who have called upon Him: —

“May God, the all-surveying, the absolute Master of spirits, and the Lord of all flesh, who chose the Lord Jesus Christ, and us through Him for a peculiar people, (εἰς λαὸν περιούσιον, Titus ii, 14,) give to every soul that has called upon His great and glorious name faith, fear, peace, endurance, long-suffering, continence, purity, and sober-mindedness, by our High Priest and leader Jesus Christ; through Him be to Him glory and majesty, power and honour, both now and for ever. Amen.”

Chapter lix. May the brethren whom we have deputed to you soon return from Corinth in peace and with joy: —

“Send them back to us quickly, that they may announce that the wished-for concord is restored, and that we may rejoice on — account of your sound condition. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and with all in every place who are called by God to Himself; by whom to Him be glory, honour, power, majesty, and an eternal throne for ever and ever. Amen,”

259. We see, then, that this epistle, in the three points of piety, discipline, and doctrine, bears all the characteristics we have a right to expect. As to discipline, Clement shews us only two orders of officers in the Church — (chap. 42) — bishops (or presbyters) and deacons, under the one and sovereign priesthood of Jesus Christ, (chap. xxvi.,) all the bishops (or all the presbyters) being appointed (κατασταθέντες) with the consent of the whole Church, (chap. 44,) and each church being exhorted to walk in peace (εἰρηνευέτω) with the constituted elders, (καθεσταμένων.) ι As to piety, it was that of the apostolic days, which consisted in being attentive to the words of God, in living to Jesus Christ, and having His sufferings constantly before their eyes. And, lastly, as to doctrine, we see ourselves led back to the purest fountains of Christianity. None of those errors that at so early a period invaded the primitive churches; no exaltation of the priest, or of the Church, or of the sacraments, or of Peter, or of Mary. Christ was all — the Alpha and Omega — the beginning and the end. Everything was to be received by grace alone, through faith, (chap. 32,) conversion, and the forgiveness of sins, (chap. 36,) sanctification, and perseverance. ‘To the eternal election of the Father everything was to be referred, the beginning and progress, assurance and glory. And yet, in the midst of this primitive purity, it might be perceived, as must needs be, that an inspired hand no longer held.the pen, and that there could not be found, as in the New Testament, an infallible and well-weighed selection of all the words. Thus, in the twenty-fifth chapter, the author receives, as an ascertained fact of natural history, the fable of the Phoenix⁴⁰ — a harmless error, no doubt — but an error such as is not found in the canonical Scriptures. And thus, in chap. v., speaking of Peter, he places the faithful in glory before the return of Christ and the resurrection, which no inspired book has ever done. And thus, by the side of the purest statements of doctrine, we shall find, perhaps, one or two expressions less exactly balanced, which seem to attribute to human works what the Scriptures do not grant them, — expressions, nevertheless, which, when viewed more closely, may be explained according to the analogy of faith.⁴¹

260. Not to make our analysis of this epistle too long, we have found it necessary, though with regret, to omit almost entirely its ‘continual quotations from the Old Testament. Yet this is one of its most striking features; they abound in it to such a degree that we may count more than a hundred in the thirty-three or thirty-four pages of the text, This is on an average three quotations in a page, and some chapters, like the Epistle to the Hebrews, present a continued succession of them. Clement, like the apostle Paul, paraphrases the passages he quotes, to make the purpose for which he adduces them more intelligible.

But, after all, the question for us does not lie here, and we must set aside for the moment this apostolic trait to examine only the following inquiry: — What conclusion is to be drawn from this epistle as to the canonicity of those portions of the New Testament which were already in circulation at the time of its appearance in the year 68? For we must not forget that at this period the canon had been forming for nineteen years, and was forming for thirty years more, till the year 98, when the Apocalypse appeared. . The first epistle written by Paul had appeared about the year 49; Nero, fifteen years after, had burnt Rome, and put the Christians to death. He was not killed till June 9th, in 68, after having beheaded the apostle Paul; and, two years later, Jerusalem was burnt by Titus, 5th August, 70. But we know the epistle of Clement preceded that catastrophe.

It is proper, then, that we should consider more closely the testimony given by this epistle to the Holy Scriptures already published in the year 70.

261. (1.) And, first of all, we see at this period the canon so received in the churches of Greece and Italy, that the first pastor of the great city of Rome, writing in the name of his church “to the very important and very ancient church of Corinth, (τῆ βεβαιοτάτῃ καὶ αρχαίιιι)” reminds it with authority of the first of the epistles it had received from St Paul fifteen years before, (chap, xlvii.)

(2.) In the second place, it must be carefully observed that, when Clement quotes it, it is not as an ordinary letter; it is, as he says himself, as a scripture “truly inspired, (ἐπ' ἀληθείας πνευματικῶς ἐπέστειλεν.)”

(3.) This first testimony of Clement, if it were the only one, would be evidence that already at that period the church of Corinth acknowledged Paul’s epistles as divine. We could say, as Peter had done, (2 Pet. iii. 15,) that this church acknowledged all the epistles (ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς) which Paul had written, according to the wisdom given unto him; for no reason exists for giving this First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians any superiority over the rest, and it is very clear that Clement named that specifically to them because it treated of other dissensions which had agitated them fifteen years before; and if he named the first rather than the second, it was because the latter said not a word about them. Let it be recollected that we have seen Polycarp writing to the Philippians, and naming none of all Paul’s epistles excepting his Epistle to the Philippians.

(4.) No one can question that Clement, bishop of Rome, writing from Rome in the name of the church of Rome, knew the Epistle of Paul to the Romans quite as well as the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. Besides, without naming it, Clement makes frequent allusions to it, (as may be seen in our analysis,) particularly in the thirty-second, thirty-fifth, and forty-seventh chapters. Thus, also, without naming the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, he manifestly quotes it several times, on other occasions and on other subjects. We have indicated above a good many of these reminiscences; they are very clearly pointed out. Especially we may refer to his beautiful chapter (the thirty-ninth) on charity.

(5.) We hear in the same manner in this epistle numerous citations of the words of Jesus Christ, taken from Matthew and Luke, without the author’s being at the pains to indicate which of the evangelists supplied him with them. Such was the usage of the times.

(6.) We find, also, allusions, sufficiently marked, to many of Paul’s other epistles, and to the two epistles of Peter, and we hear him reproducing passages from them which must have been easily recognised by contemporary churches.

(7.) But still more remarkable are his numerous and clear quotations from the Epistle to the Hebrews. Nor is he at the pains to tell us from what source he has drawn them; but he reproduces almost entirely (in chap. xxxvi.) the thirteen first verses on the divinity of Jesus Christ. He cites, like the apostle, the examples of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Rahab, and those who “announced the coming of Christ, clothed in sheep-skins and goat-skins.” In a word, the passages borrowed from this epistle occur at least fifteen or sixteen times in his text, and his citations are so exact that no one can attempt to dispute the source. It would be useless to repeat them here.

262. (8) It is quite in vain to object, as some persons have attempted, to the frequently paraphrastic language of Clement, as if his citations from Paul, and Peter, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Gospels were too little characteristic to authorise our proof in favour of the canon, It must be rather said, that this very liberty, with which at every turn he embodies in his discourse the sentences of the New Testament, attests with what fulness the contents of the sacred books occupied contemporary minds, so that a minister was certain, by suitably quoting a few words, to awaken in all pious persons their recollections of the written word. This mode of proceeding is, then, on the contrary, a proof to us of the existence of the canon, and the powerful effects of the anagnosis or public reading of the Scriptures. If, in the present day, I introduced into a religious discourse some expressions borrowed from chapters of the Bible best known in all ages — if I spoke of Him who “gives us our daily bread;” of “the mighty and jealous God, who visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children;” of the Saviour “wounded for our - transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities” — I should abstain from mentioning the book from which I took these expressions as mere pedantry.

But we have also more general inferences to deduce from the united testimony of all these apostolic fathers.

SECTION SEVENTH.

INFERENCE FROM THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.

263. We have heard all these fathers. They have come in their turn to confirm our canon, each in his own style; and their testimony for the confirmation of our faith has always been found to be in harmony with the circumstances of the age. We might not be able to construct on the language of each of them the entire doctrine of the canon, and the proof of this, in its fulness, must be sought for elsewhere. But we can irresistibly infer that these documents evidently attest the existence of the first canon — that they call to mind the greater part of our sacred books — that they proclaim their inspiration — that they demonstrate the submission that was paid to them in all the churches of God.

Still another monument, very similar to that of Clement in form and date, remains to be consulted. It differs only on one point — that it is inspired. We refer to the testimonies rendered to the canon, while in process of formation, by the apostles themselves, in some of their more recent writings.

1) We have said that some persons reckon the writings of the apostolic fathers to amount to twelve, instead of eight, because they include four epistles of Ignatius, which are now strongly suspected to be spurious, (See Prop, 253, &c.)

2) At least to the 11th chapter. (Hefele, Patrum Apostol, Opera. Tubing., 1847. Proleg.)

3) This fragment states that Hermas was a brother of Pius I, bishop of Rome. (See Prop. 192.)

4) The following reasons for rejecting the Epistle of Barnabas are given more at sarge in Hefele, (Patrum Apostol., proleg., p. 14): —

1. We have a part of this epistle only in a Latin version. [The whole of the original Greek has been recently discovered by Tischendorf. See the prolegomena to his third edition of the Septuagint, (Lips., 1860,) p. 96--Tr.]

2. The true Barnabas must have died between 60 and 62; but it may be seen, from the sixteenth chapter of this epistle, that it was composed after the destruction of Jerusalem.

3. If this epistle had been held to be authentic by the primitive Christians, it would have been inserted in the canon, because Barnabas was a prophet, (Acts xiii 1.)

4. It contains many extravagant and erroneous expressions which it is impossible to attribute to the true Barnabas, (the apostles, for example, he calls ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἁμαρτίαν ἀνομώτεροι.)

5. The tenth chapter contains ridiculous opinions and indelicate details which cannot be ascribed to this apostolic man.

6. The true Barnabas, who had often travelled through Asia Minor and sojourned in Syria, knew perfectly well that what is said in chap. ix. of the circumcision of all the priests of the idols, and of all the Syrians, is false.

7. The puerile allegories which fill the fifth chapter and the six following come from a man very different from him whose eloquence made him be called by the apostles בַּרנְבוּאָה.

8. It is impossible that the true Barnabas, who was a Levite, and had lived at Jerusalem, could utter on the Jewish rites the falsehoods in chaps. vii. and viii.

9. This piece betrays an antijudaism, contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, on circumcision, (chap. ix.;) on the Sabbath, (chap. xv.;) on the economy of the Old Testament, which he asserts ceased not at the promulgation of the gospel, but when Moses broke the tables of the law, (chaps. iv. and xiv.) All this savours of the Gnosticism of the second century, and its foolish wisdom,

5) See Semisch, Justin der Martyrer; Breslau, 1840; vol. i, p. 180. Hefele, Patr. Apost., proleg., p. 77.

6) That of Clement at most thirty-five pages, (deducting the notes;) the three of Ignatius eighteen, that of his martyrdom five; that of Polycarp seven, that of his martyrdom eleven; and that to Diognetus eleven.

7) Cave, Teutzel, Fabricius, &c.

8) Chap. xi., of his having been a hearer of the apostles.

9) Lumper, De Vita Patrum, tom. i, p. 159. (See Mohler, Patrologie, p. 159; and Gallandi. See Hefele, 79.)

10) 2 Cor. vi. 8-10; and also Phil. iii. 18-20; 1 Cor. iv. 12. A comparison with the Greek will shew most clearly these references of his letter to the epistles.

11) Rom. ii. 4, xi. 32; Titus iii, 4,

12) See Romans v. 12-21

13) Book iv., chap. xv. The Acts of this martyr are the most ancient that exist; but as to the precise time when the event took place, the learned are not agreed. Cave and Lardner place it in 147; Gieseler and Neander in 167,

14) An evident allusion to Matt. x. 23.

15) Contra Haeres., iii., 36.

16) Catal. Script. Eccl., cap. xvii.

17) In his third book, Contra Haeres., ch. iii.; and in Eusebius, (H. E., iv., 14)

18) Catal. Script. Eccl., cap. xvii.

19) Hom, in S. Ignat, Martyr., cap. iv.

20) Among the rest are two addressed to St John, and one to the Virgin Mary.

21) Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i., pp. 58, 59. Vol. iv., Preface. London, 1852.

22) Hefele, Proleg., p. 20.

23) Lib. iii, cap. iii.; and Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v., 6.

24) Of November 23. It exiles him to the Crimea — makes him fall into the Black Sea with an anchor round his neck — makes the sea retire three miles before his corpse, and his body appear on the shore with his anchor, his shrine of stone, and his chapel of marble.

25) Biblioth,, cod, exiii,

26) It wants but one leaf, entirely torn out at the end of chap. lvii. by the ignorant awkwardness of the binder. See the note in Hefele, Patr. Apost. Opera, p. 135.

27) Or its librarian, Junius.

28) From forty-one pages of his Greek text, we deduct seven pages and a half occupied with notes.

29) Notwithstanding his belief in the pretended natural phenomenon of the phœnix, and one or two expressions which might have been better weighed,

30) Epist. ad Bignonium.

31) His First Epistle to the Corinthians.

32) 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16, as we shall see especially in the Epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Hebrews.

33) He speaks here like Paul and James — James ii. 1-9; Eph. vi. 9; Rom. ii, i; Col. iii. 25; Acts x. 34.

34) An expression peculiar to Peter — 1 Pet. ii. 17, v. 9.

35) That is to say, under Tibellinus and Sabinus, who governed during the last year of Nero.

36) This is a favourite word with Paul (Acts xx. 19; Eph, iv. 2; Phil, ii, 3; Col. ii. 18, 33, iii. 32) and with Peter (1 Pet. v. 5.)

37) Yet the Greek words of Peter are not identical.

38) Ἐγκύπτετε — probably an allusion to 1 Pet, i. 12, παρακύψαι.

39) Founded in the year 49,

40) Just as Herodotus reports it, (ii., 73,) and as all antiquity received it, (Tacitus, Annales, vi., 23; Suetonius, in Tiber., 53.)

41) As far as actions are opposed to vain words, it may be said, (as in chap. xxx.,) ἔργοις δικαιούμενοι καὶ μὴ λόγοις. And again, as far as God is bound to keep His promises, it may be said, (as in chap. v.,) εἰς τὸν ὀφειλόμενον τός-τον τῆς δόξης.