unanswerably established by Bishop Pearson: and, in this judgment, symbolise the deservedly great names of Vossius, Grotius, Petavius, Cotelerius, Grabe, Tillemont, Le Clerc, Du Pin, Usher, Hammond, Cave, Bull, Lardner, and Horsley. I shall, therefore, without hesitation, adduce Ignatius, as a competent and unexceptionable witness. Six out of his seven Epistles are addressed to Churches. Hence they partake of the public character of the Apology and hence the doctrinal system, which they propound evidently as common alike to the writer and to the several Churches addressed, must be viewed, not as the mere insulated speculation of an individual, but as the familiar Creed of the entire Christian Community.

There is one physician, fleshly and spiritual, made and not made, God become incarnate, true Life in death, both from Mary and from God, first passible and then impassible'.

Our God Jesus Christ was conceived by Mary according to the economy of God, from the seed indeed of David, but from the Holy Ghost".

1 Εἷς ιατρός ἐστιν, σαρκικός τε καὶ πνευματικὸς, γεννητὸς καὶ αγέννητος (sive, juxta Athanasium et Gelasium, γενητὸς καὶ ἀγένητος), ἐν σαρκὶ γενόμενος Θεός, ἐν θανάτῳ ζωὴ ἀληθινὴ, καὶ ἐκ Μαρίας καὶ ἐκ Θεοῦ, πρῶτον παθητὸς καὶ τότε ἀπαθής. Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. § vii. Cotel. Patr. Apost. vol. ii. p. 13.

2 Ο γὰρ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστὸς ἐκυοφορήθη ὑπὸ Μαρίας κατ' οικονομίαν Θεοῦ, ἐκ σπέρματος μὲν Δαβίδ, Πνεύματος δὲ 'Ayiov. Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. § xviii. p. 15.

Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God1.

I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who has thus endued you with wisdom2.

Expect him who is beyond all time, the eternal, the invisible; even him, who on our account became visible: him, who is intangible and impassible; who yet, on our account, suffered; who yet, on our account, endured after every manner 3.

XVII. The very short Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, which alone has survived him, is chiefly practical. Hence, we cannot expect there to find any very precise doctrinal statement. Yet, even in this document which appears to have been written almost immediately after the martyrdom of his friend and fellow-disciple Ignatius about the year 107, we may observe an incidental recognition of the divine nature of our Saviour.

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and may he himself, the eternal high-priest, the Son of God, Jesus Christ; build you up in faith and truth ;—and grant unto you a lot and portion

1 Ἐπιτρέψατέ μοι μιμητὴν εἶναι πάθους τοῦ Θεοῦ μου. Ignat. Epist. ad Rom. § vi. p. 29.

2

* Δοξάζω Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν τὸν Θεὸν τὸν οὕτως ὑμᾶς σοφί σαντα. Ignat. Epist. ad Smyrn. § i. p. 33.

3 Τὸν ὑπερκαιρὸν προσδόκα, τὸν ἄχρονον, τὸν ἀόρατον, τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς ὁρατὸν, τὸν ἀψηλάφητον, τὸν ἀπαθῆ, τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς παθητὸν, τὸν κατὰ πάντα τρόπον δι' ἡμᾶς ὑπομείναντα. Ignat. Epist. ad Polyc. iii. p. 40.

among his saints, and to us also along with you, and to all who are under heaven and who hereafter shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him up from the dead'.

This passage is indisputably a prayer, for edification in faith and truth, and for eternal felicity in heaven, addressed jointly to God the Father and to his Son Jesus Christ: for the Father and the Son are supplicated, that they would jointly confer these blessings, upon the Philippians, upon Polycarp himself, and upon all the faithful throughout all ages. Hence I see not how we can avoid the conclusion, that Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, must either have held the proper divinity of the Son, or have been apostatically guilty of gross and most indecent idolatry. How he taught his flock at Smyrna, over which he had been placed by the Apostles themselves about the year 83, we have already seen. In evident consequence of their primitive instructor's authoritative lessons, they habitually offered to Christ that divine adora

1 Deus autem et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi; et ipse sempiternus pontifex, Dei Filius, Jesus Christus; ædificet vos in fide et veritate ;-et det vobis sortem et partem inter sanctos suos, et nobis vobiscum, et omnibus qui sunt sub cœlo qui credituri sunt in Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum et in

ipsius Patrem qui resuscitavit eum a mortuis. Polycarp. Epist. ad Philipp. § xii. Cotel. Patr. Apost. vol. ii. p. 191. This part of the Epistle exists only in the ancient Latin Version.

tion, which they shrank with horror from paying to their martyred Bishop'.

XVIII. We can as little expect, from the plan of their composition, any very copious and precise statement of doctrine in either of the two Epistles to the Corinthians written by the venerable Clement of Rome. Yet, though the first is altogether a practical dissuasive from schism and division, and though the second is professedly of a didactic and hortatory character: yet, in both of them, do the recognised opinions of the early Church shew themselves with abundantly sufficient distinctness.

1. The first Epistle is thought, by some, to have been written about the year 67: by others, about the year 96. To my present purpose, its date is no way material: for I am concerned only with the authority of its writer. Now, on this point, St. Paul himself bears testimony to Clement, as being one of his fellow-labourers whose names are in the book of life 2.

Ye were all humble-minded, in no wise boastful, subject rather than subjecting, giving rather than receiving. Being satisfied with the supplies which God has furnished for your journey, and diligently attending to his words, you received them into your very breasts and bowels: and before your eyes were his sufferings. Thus was there given unto all, a deep

1 See above, book i. chap. 4. § XII. 2.

2 Philip. iv. 3.

and glorious peace, and an insatiable desire of doing good: and, over all, there was a full effusion of the Holy Ghost.

For Christ is of the number of the humble-minded, not of those who exalt themselves above his flock. The sceptre of the majesty of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the pride of pomp and circumstance, though he was able to have done so; but with humbleness of mind, as the Holy Ghost spake concerning him.-Ye see, beloved, what an example has been given unto us. For, if the Lord bore himself thus humbly: what ought we to do, who have come under the yoke of his grace2?

1

Πάντες τε ἐταπεινοφρονεῖτε, μηδὲν ἀλαζονευόμενοι, ὑποτασσόμενοι μᾶλλον ἢ ὑποτάσσοντες, μᾶλλον διδόντες ἢ λαμβάνοντες· τοῖς ἐφοδίοις τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀρκούμενοι, καὶ προσέχοντες τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ ἐπιμελῶς, ἐστερνισμένοι ἦτε τοῖς σπλάγχνοις· καὶ τὰ παθήματα αὐτοῦ ἦν πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ὑμῶν. Οὕτως εἰρήνη βαθεῖα καὶ λιπαρὰ ἐδέδοτο πᾶσι, καὶ ἀκόρεστος πόθος εἰς ἀγαθοποιΐαν· καὶ πλήρης Πνεύματος ̔Αγίου ἔκχυσις ἐπὶ πάντας ἐγίνετο. Clem. Rom. Epist. i. ad Corinth. § ii. Patr. Apost. Cotel. vol. i. p. 147, 148.

For παθήματα, Junius would read μαθήματα, totally remodelling according to his humour the entire passage. The whole alteration is merely conjectural, and rests upon no authority. Junius, indeed, himself confesses it, when he says: Totus hic locus corruptus, et sic FORTE restituendus. The bold assertion and the projected correction are alike altogether arbitrary. They are supported by no evidence.

2

• Ταπεινοφρονούντων γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, οὐκ ἐπαιρομένων ἐπὶ τὸ ποίμνιον αὐτοῦ. Τὸ σκῆπτρον τῆς μεγαλωσύνης τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, οὐκ ἦλθεν ἐν κόμπῳ ἀλαζονείας