and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all. They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil-spoken of, and yet are justified. They are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign a reason for their hatred.

Ch. 6. What the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in the world. The soul is spread through all the members of the body, and Christians through the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; so Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded in the visible body; so Christians are known as existing in the world, but their religion remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul and wages war on it, though it has received no wrong, because it is forbidden to indulge in pleasures; so the world hates Christians, though it receives no wrong from them, because they are opposed to its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh which hates it, and it loves the members; so Christians love those who hate them. The soul is enclosed in the body, yet itself holds the body together; so the Christians are kept in the world as in a prison-house, yet they themselves hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; so Christians sojourn amid corruptible things, looking for the incorruptibility in the heavens. The soul when hardly treated in the matter of meats and drinks is improved; so Christians when punished increase more and more daily. In so great an office has God appointed them, which it is not lawful for them to decline.

In the post-apostolic period are to be traced the beginnings of distinctive forms of religious and ethical ideas as distinguished from mere repetition of New Testament phrases. The most influential writer was Ignatius of Antioch, the founder, or earliest representative, of what may be called the Asia Minor theology, which is to be traced through Irenæus, Methodius, and Athanasius to the other great theologians of the Nicene period, becoming the distinctive Eastern type of piety. It probably persisted in Asia Minor after Ignatius. Among its characteristic features was the thought of redemption as the imparting to man of incorruptibility through the incarnation and the sacraments.

(a) Ignatius, Ep. ad Ephesios, 18 ff.

The Epistle to the Ephesians is doctrinally the most important of the writings of Ignatius. In the passage that follows there is a remarkable anticipation of a part of the Apostles' Creed (cf. Hahn, § 1). The whole passage contains in brief the fundamental point of the writer's teachings.

Ch. 18. My spirit is an offering1 of the cross, which is a stumbling-block to unbelievers, but to us salvation and life eternal. "Where is the wise man? where the disputer?" [I Cor. 1: 20.] Where is the boasting of those called prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the dispensation of God, conceived in the womb of Mary of the seed of David, but of the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.

Ch. 19. And the virginity of Mary was hidden from the Prince of this World, and her bringing forth, and likewise the death of the Lord; three mysteries of shouting, which were wrought in silence of God. How, then, was He manifested to the world? A star shone forth from heaven above all other stars, and its light was inexpressible, while its novelty struck

1 Piaculum.

men with astonishment, but all the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon, formed a chorus to this star, and its light was exceedingly great above them all. And there was agitation whence this novelty, so unlike to everything else. Hence every kind of magic was destroyed and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed and the old kingdom abolished, for God had been manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God. Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult because He meditated the abolition of death.

Ch. 20. Especially [will I write again] if the Lord make known to me that ye all, man by man, through grace given to each, agree in one faith and in Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David according to the flesh, the Son of Man and the Son of God, so that ye obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent dying, but which is life forever in Jesus Christ.

(b) Ignatius, Ep. ad Smyrnæos, 7.

The following passage may be regarded as a parallel to part of the preceding extract from the same writer's Epistle to the Ephesians.

They abstain from the eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not that the eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, die while disputing. But it were better for them to love it, that they also may rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and not speak of them either in private or public, but to give heed to the prophets and, above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion has been revealed to us and the resurrection fully proved. But avoid all divisions as the beginning of evils.

(c) Ignatius, Ep. ad Trallianos, 9, 10.

The heresy which the writer fears is that known as Docetism, which denied the reality of the body of Jesus. Reference is made to it in the New Testament, I John 4:2. It was based upon the same philosophical idea as much of the later Gnostic speculation, that matter is essentially evil, and therefore a pure spirit could not be united to a real body composed of matter. See J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. II, vol. II, p. 173 f.

Ch. 9. Be ye therefore deaf when any one speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, who was born of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, who was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, who was truly crucified and died while those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth looked on; who, also, was truly raised from the dead, His Father having raised Him, who in like fashion will raise us who believe in Him; His Father, I say, will raise us in Christ Jesus, apart from whom we have not true life.

Ch. 10. But if it were as certain persons who are godless, that is, unbelievers, say, that He only appeared to suffer, they themselves being only in appearance, why am I bound? And why, also, do I desire to fight with wild beasts? I therefore die in vain. Truly, then, I lie against the Lord.

13. WORSHIP IN THE POST-APOSTOLIC PERIOD

The worship of the Christian Church in the earliest period centred in the eucharist. There are references to this in the New Testament (cf. Acts 2:42; 20:7; I Cor. 10:16). How far the agape was connected with the eucharist is uncertain.

Additional source material: See Pliny's letter to Trajan (v. supra, §7); the selections from Ignatius already given (v. supra, § 12) and the Didache (v. infra, § 14, a).

Justin Martyr, Apologia, I, 61:65-67. (MSG, 6:428 f.) Cf. Mirbt, n. 18.

The First Apology of Justin Martyr was written probably about 150. As Justin's work is dated, and is of indisputable authenticity, his account of the early worship of the Christians is of the very first impor

tance. It should be noted, however, that, inasmuch as he is writing for non-Christians, he uses no technical terms in his description, and therefore nothing can be determined as to the exact significance of the titles he applies to the presiding officer at the eucharist. The following passage is of importance, also, as a witness to the custom of reading, in the course of Christian public worship, books that appear to be the Gospels. Irenæus, thirty years later, limits the number of the Gospels to four, v. infra, § 28. On the eucharist, v. infra, § 33.

Ch. 61. But I will explain the manner in which we who have been made new through Christ have also dedicated ourselves to God, lest by passing it over I should seem in any way to be unfair in my explanation. As many as are persuaded and believe that the things are true which are taught and said by us, and promise that they are able to live accordingly, they are taught to pray and with fasting to ask God forgiveness of their former sins, while we pray and fast with them. Thereupon they are brought by us to where there is water, and are born again in the same manner of a new birth as we, also, ourselves were born again. For in the name of God the Father and Lord of all, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing in the water. For Christ said: "Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." But that it is impossible for those once born to enter into the wombs of their mothers is manifest to all. . . . And this washing is called enlightenment, because those who learn these things have their understandings enlightened. But, also, in the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit who by the prophets foretold all things pertaining to Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed.

Ch. 65. But after we have thus washed him who is persuaded and has assented, we bring him to those who are called the brethren, to where they are gathered together, making earnest prayer in common for ourselves and for him who is enlightened, and for all others everywhere, that we may be accounted worthy, after we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found right livers and keepers of the