pect to the worth of a piece so highly applauded among the antients, and so well deserving the esteem of all good men, thought it would be no unuseful digression to present to his reader so venerable a monument of the Primitive Church; and therefore subjoined it entirely to his account of the life of St. Polycarp, in a most accurate English translation of it.

27. It would no doubt have been more to the reader's satisfaction, to have met with that translation of this Epistle here, than to find another, which he may have just reason to suppose can never equal that which was finished by so great a hand. And indeed I could have been glad to have rendered the following collection more considerable, by the reputation of a translation made by so eminent an author. But however, as it now is, I hope it may not be unacceptable to the pious peruser of it, who, whatever other defects he may find in it, may yet, I am pretty confident, depend upon the exactness of the translation; seeing I perceive, by an after collation of it, that it does not differ in any thing that is material, from that of the judicious and worthy Dr. Cave,

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE EPISTLES OF ST. IGNATIUS

Of the different editions of St. Ignatius's Epistles, which are here translated from that of Isaac Vossius, and according to the enumeration made by Eusebius of them. The authority of these Epistles vindicated, against the objections raised of late against them. The Epistle to St. Polycarp, one of those mentioned by Eusebius: the exception against it taken from the substance of the Epistle itself answered. A short account of the following translation of all of them.

1. BEFORE I enter upon that account which I am to give of the Epistles of St. Ignatius (the next that follow in the present collection) it will be necessary

for me to observe, that there have been considerable differences in the editions of the Epistles of this holy man, no less than in the judgment of our latter critics concerning them. To pass by the first, and most imperfect of them; the best that for a long time was extant, contained not only a great number of Epistles falsely ascribed to this author, but even those that were genuine, so altered and corrupted, that it was hard to find out the true Ignatius in them.

2. The first that began to remedy this confusion, and to restore this great writer to his primitive simplicity, was our most reverend and learned Archbishop Usher, in his edition of them at Oxford, Anno 1644. But still we wanted a correct copy of the original Greek. The Epistles set out by him, though exceedingly more sincere than any we had seen before, yet consisting only of the old Latin translations of them. Now this was in a great measure performed by the learned Isaac Vossius, in the edition printed by him at Amsterdam, Anno 1646; in which, from the Florentine manuscript, he published six of the Epistles of this holy martyr mentioned by Eusebius, in their antient and pure Greek; and the seventh so happily amended from the antient Latin version, that there was but little doubt to be made of the integrity of that

too.

But to remove all scruple concerning this one Epistle, Mr. Ruinart has also published that from a Greek uninterpolated copy,(x) in the acts of the martyrdom of this holy man, set forth by him at Paris, Anno 1689. And concerning these Epistles of St. Ignatius, enumerated by Eusebius, and set out according to their primitive purity by those learned men, whom I have before mentioned, and from them translated into the following collection; there are two things to be considered, and proved by me in this place: first,(y) that St. Ignatius did write such Epis

(x) Acta martyr. Sincera & Select. Paris, 1689. (y) Vid. Vossii Præfat. in Ignat. ad Lectorem.

tles as those I have here translated: and secondly, that those Epistles we here have, are the very Epistles which he wrote.

3. That Ignatius did, in general, write such Epistles to the Churches about him, however it has been denied by some, is yet, I think, now universally allowed even by those(z) who are the greatest opposers of these Epistles which we affirm to be his. That he wrote to those particular Churches to which the Epistles here subjoined are addressed, we have both St. Polycarp and Eusebius to assure us. For, first, St. Polycarp,(a) in the close of his Epistle, (which I am now to look upon as sufficiently proved to be his) speaking to the Philippians of this holy man, tells them, that he had sent them all such Epistles of his as Ignatius had either written to himself, or to his Church at Smyrna, or as had hitherto come to his hands. So that here then we have a plain account of two of those Epistles which we affirm Ignatius to have writtenone to St. Polycarp himself, another to the church of Smyrna, of which he was Bishop.

4. But Eusebius will enable us to carry this testimony yet farther: whilst assuring us, that he wrote four Epistles from Smyrna; namely, to the Churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles and Rome; he gives us just grounds to conclude that these also must have been part of St. Polycarp's collection; and have been some of those others, besides the two before mentioned, which he tells us he sent to the Philippians, unless we should suppose that either he knew not of Ignatius's writing, though every day, almost every hour, with him at the time that he wrote them; or else that knowing of it, he took no care to preserve the copies of his Epistles; which yet we see he put the highest value, that can well be imagined, upon. Seeing therefore we cannot with any reason suppose, either that

(z) Vid. Vindic. Pearson, in Procm. p. 20.

(a) Polycarp. Epist. num. xiii. Annot. Cotel. in loc. Polycarp. p. 486. B.

St. Polycarp did not know of Ignatius's writing to these Churches; nor is it probable, that being present with him at the writing of them, and acquainted with it, he should not have kept any copies of his letters to them. Seeing, lastly, he himself tells us that he had copies of more of the Epistles of this great Saint, besides those that were sent to Smyrna, and that what he had, he sent to the Philippians; neither can we reasonably doubt but that these also were in his hands, and sent by him to the Church at Philippi.

5. And thus have we, I think upon very good grounds, concluded that six of the seven Epistles, which we affirm to have been written by St. Ignatius, were collected by St. Polycarp; and sent, together with his own Epistle, to the Philippians. Let me add yet farther, that neither can we reasonably question but that the seventh too was at that time in the hands of St. Polycarp; and by consequence, that what we now have is no other collection than what he made (and by that means helped to preserve to after ages) of the Epistles of this holy martyr. Now this I conclude not only from the nearness of the Church of Philadelphia to which it was written, to that of Smyrna, in which St. Polycarp resided; and from the great respect which all the neighbouring Churches payed to him, as a kind of universal Bishop of the whole Lesser Asia; but from the conclusion of the Epistle itself; which tells us that it was sent by Ignatius to the Philadelphians, not only from the same place, and at the same time that he wrote to St. Polycarp himself and to his Church at Smyrna, but also by the same person that carried the other two, and that person St. Polycarp's own Deacon, whom he had sent with Ignatius to Troas, and by whom Ignatius wrote back that Epistle.

6. St. Polycarp, therefore, certainly knew of Ignatius's writing to the Philadelphians; and very probably sent on Burrhus, his Deacon, from Smyrna to Philadelphia, with his letter. And then I think we may

very reasonably conclude, that he brought back with him the copy of it: and that St. Polycarp had that Epistle too in his hands, when he wrote to the Philippians.

7. Such good grounds are there to believe, that the collection we now have of St. Ignatius's Epistles, was no other than what St. Polycarp himself made; and referred to in that passage of his own Epistle to the Philippians, which I have before shewn to be truly his, and not the addition of any latter hand. And the same is the account which Eusebius(b) himself has given us of this matter. He tells us that as Ignatius was on his way to Rome, 'where he was to be cast to the wild beasts, he not only confirmed the Churches that were in the places through which he passed, by his exhortations, but wrote to the chiefest of those others that were near, such Epistles as these of which we are now speaking. And that, as he goes on, in this following order: first, from Smyrna, (c) where he tarried some time with his old acquaintance and fellow disciple St. Polycarp, he wrote to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians and Romans: and being gone farther on his way to Troas, he from thence wrote to the Philadelphians, and Smyrnæans; ' T T THÚτn; Пçoηγεμένῳ Πολυκάρπῳ, and a particular letter to Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna.

8. I say nothing to the testimony of St. Hierome(d) as to this matter, who as he exactly agrees with Eusebius in all this, so I make no question but that he transcribed his account out of him. It is sufficiently evident from what has been already observed, not only that St. Ignatius did in general write some Epistles (which even Monsieur Daille(e) himself thinks ought not to be any question) but that he wrote to those particular Churches to which the Epistles we now have are directed, and of which I am persuaded there ought to be as little doubt.

(b) Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 36. (e) Vid. Chrys. Orat. ad Antiochen, (d) Libr. de Script. Illustr. cap. xvi.

(e) Apud Pearson. Vindic. Ignat. Prolegom. p. 20.