Syria was at peace, and had received its "proper body;" probably by the appointment of Heros, as his successor in the episcopal office. Ignatius would have written to other churches ;" but was hurried away from Troas to Neapolis by those who guarded him. He thence proceeded by land through Macedonia and Epirus, to Epidamnus; embarked again for Italy; and, on his arrival at Rome, on the last day of the public spectacles, was immediately thrown to the wild beasts in the Amphitheatre; displaying in his last moments the same constancy and piety as had marked his previous life. THE EPISTLES OF IGNATIUS. THE Epistles of Ignatius are most interesting and valuable documents of the early Christian Church. They are the unstudied effusions of an ardent and deeply religious mind; and bespeak a man who was superior to this world, and anxious to finish his course with joy. It is an internal mark of their genuineness that their style is harsh and unpolished; and occasionally not untinctured with some degree of oriental exaggeration. a EUSEBIUS, in mentioning these seven Epistles, observes that Ignatius was peculiarly desirous to repress the heretical opinions which were then first beginning to spring up in the Church, and to confirm those whom he addressed, in the faith delivered by the Apostles. The heretical tenets were those of the Gnostics; and it is evident from Ignatius' Epistles to the Asiatic Churches that the evil was very prevalent and injurious. In his Epistle to Polycarp there are only two general "Epist. to Polycarp, Sect. 8. • Hist. Eccles. iii. 36. cautions against false doctrine; and in his Epistle to the Romans, there are no allusions to the subject. That Epistle, however, was written principally to prepare the Church of Rome for his approach; and Ignatius. was so far from possessing the same acquaintance with it as with the Churches of Asia, that he does not even mention the name of its Bishop. No conclusion, therefore, can be drawn from this circumstance, as to the prevalence of Gnosticism at Rome. The evils of schism, and the great disorders arising from the disobedience of individuals, especially in the infant state of the Church, will account for the very forcible language in which Ignatius urges obedience to the Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, as the successors of the Apostles, according to Divine appointment. The doctrines contained in the Epistles of Ignatius are purely scriptural. The hasty manner in which they were written, prevents them from containing any thing like a formal declaration of any doctrinal points: but constant incidental references are made to the absolute divinity of our LORD, to his pre-existence, and eternity, and the union of the divine and human nature in his person; to the influence of the Holy Spirit, salvation by means of CHRIST's death alone, and the necessity of personal holiness.' g The testimony which Ignatius bears to the writings of the New Testament is very valuable. He quotes, ⚫ Sect. 3. 5. Ephesians, Introduction, Sect. 1. 7. 18. 19. 20. Magnesians, Sect. 7. Epist. to Polycarp, Sect. 8. Martyrdom, Sect. 2. 8. indeed, only one book by name, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians; but LARDNER shows at length that he alludes plainly to the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, and probably to that of St. Luke: that he has allusions to the Acts of the Apostles, to eleven of the first thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, to the Epistle to the Hebrews, to the first Epistle of St. Peter, and to the first and third Epistles of St. John. He uses terms also which imply a collection of the Gospels, and of the Epistles of the Apostles, and of the books of the New Testament generally.1 These allusions, it will be seen, are usually made in an incidental, unstudied manner, without express marks of reference; precisely, indeed, in the manner in which we might expect Ignatius, under the circumstances in which he wrote, to have referred to Scriptures, with the general meaning of which both he and those whom he addressed were well acquainted; but without the formality of express verbal quotation. It would be foreign to the present purpose to enter at any length into the well-known controversy respect-> ing the genuineness of these Epistles of Ignatius. All that can be here attempted is to give a general view of the evidence in their favor, as it has been most laboriously collected by Bp. PEARSON and others who have exhausted the subject. The question resolves itself into two parts, whether Ignatius left behind him written Epistles; and whether they are the same with those which we now possess. Now, Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, ex IGNAT. Epist. to Ephesians, Sect. 12. ILARDNER, Credibility, Part ii. c. 5. Vindicia Epistolarum S. Ignatii. See also HAMMOND, Dissertationes adversus Blondellum. USHER, Prolegom. ad Epist. Ignat. BULL Defensio Fid. Nicænæ, ii, 2. 8. pressly mentions Epistles written by Ignatius. IRENEUS," in the second century, refers also to Ignatius, and alludes to a passage now found in his Epistle to the Romans. ORIGEN," in the early part of the third century, quotes two passages from the Epistles of Ignatius, now extant in the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians. EUSEBIUS, in the beginning of the fourth century, states that Ignatius wrote seven Epistles, four from Smyrna, and three from Troas, agreeing in their inscriptions and general character with the Epistles now extant. He quotes remarkable passages from the Epistles to the Romans, and Smyrneans; describes particularly the Epistle to Polycarp, by saying that in it Ignatius commends to Polycarp the care of the Church of Antioch; and with respect to the Epistles to the Ephesians, Magnesians, and Trallians, he says that in them Ignatius makes particular mention of the bishops of those Churches, Onesimus, Damas, and Polybius. Such an accurate description of the Epistles of Ignatius could have been given only by one well acquainted with the Epistles themselves. Bp. PEARSON shows, at length, that the chain of reference to the Epistles of Ignatius extends without interruption through Christian writers from the second century to the fifteenth. This evidence is abundantly sufficient to prove that Ignatius wrote certain Epistles; that seven of these 'n EUSEBIUS, Hist. Eccles. v. 28. IRENEUS, Adv. Hæres. v. 28. EUSEBIUS, Hist. Eccles. iii. 36. ORIGEN: Prolegom. in Cant. Canticor. Hom. vi. in Luc. IaNAT. Epist. to the Romans, Sect. 7. Ephesians, Sect. 19. EUSEBIUS, Hist. Eccles. iii. 36. existed at the beginning of the fourth century; and that they were never altogether lost sight of. The first printed edition of any Epistles ascribed to Ignatius appeared in 1557, although an old Latin version of three Epistles had been published sixty years earlier. This edition, with two others which appeared about the same time, contained twelve Epistles; and it was soon suspected that the Epistles so edited were interpolated. It was observed, that seven Epistles only had been mentioned by EUSEBIUS; that the seven published Greek Epistles, with titles corresponding to those stated by Eusebius, did not agree with quotations from the acknowledged Epistles of Ignatius made by ancient Christian writers; and that of the remaining five no notice was taken by any ancient writer. It Nearly a hundred years after the publication of these editions, Archbishop USHER observed that some English writers had quoted passages from the Epistles of Ignatius, which did not agree with the Greek text or Latin version of the published Epistles, although they did agree with quotations made by THEODORet. immediately occurred to his acute and inquiring mind, that some manuscript of the genuine Epistles of Ignatius might exist in England: and his inquiries led to the discovery of two Latin manuscripts, one in the Library of Caius College, Cambridge, the other in the possession of Dr. RICHARD MONTACUTE, Bishop of Norwich, which differed materially from the Greek editions hitherto published, but agreed with the quotations made by the earlier Christian writers. With the assistance of these manuscripts, the Archbishop published, in 1644, a Greek edition of the Epistles of Ignatius, in which the additions made in the interpolated editions were distinguished by red ink. Two years after this, in 1646, ISAAC VOSSIUS published |