Though, in the order of time, the Epistles of Ignatius ought to have had the precedence; St. Polycarp not writing this letter to the Philippians till about, or a little after, the time that glorious martyr suffered for the faith of Christ; as from several passages in the epistle itself may plainly be made appear.

2. For, first, having in his ninth chapter exhorted the Philippians to "obey the world of righteousness, and to exercise all patience," after the examples of those holy men whom they had seen among them, he particularly instances in Ignatius' as one of them. Now the acts of the martyrdom of that holy bishop tell us, that the time when they beheld his patience set forth before their eyes" was, when he passed by them in chains to Rome, in order to his being cast to the wild beasts, according to the sentence pronounced upon him by the emperor Trajan: by consequence that this epistle must have been written some time after his condemnation.

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3. But St. Polycarp goes yet farther; and in the next words supposes, that Ignatius might have been dead at the time that he wrote to them. For enforcing his exhortation to them to follow the examples of Ignatius, and the rest of those excellent men whom he there names, he subjoins ;Being confident of this, that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and are gone to the place that was due to them from the LORD, with whom also they suffered: for they loved not this present world, but him who died, and was raised again by God for us." In which words he evidently implies that Ignatius too, as well as the rest of those whom he there mentions, was by this time gone to the " place that was due to him from the LORD, upon the account

1 Epist. of Polycarp, num. ix.

2 Mart. of Ignat. num. x.

of his sufferings;" and by consequence had finished his martyrdom.

4. It was then about the time of Ignatius's death, that St. Polycarp wrote this epistle to the Philippians. And yet that if this holy man had suffered, it was but a very little time that he had done so, as is clear from another passage of the same epistle'; where he desires the Philippians to send him word "what they had heard with any certainty concerning Ignatius, and those that went to Rome with him." From whence it appears, that, though he supposed that Ignatius by that time might have suffered, yet he had not received any certain account of it; but was still to learn the manner and circumstances of his passion.

5. Now this will lead us to a yet more exact conjecture of the time of St. Polycarp's writing the following epistle, viz. that it must have been just about the time of St. Ignatius's death: it being no way probable, that, had Ignatius been any long time dead, so great a bishop, and so dear a friend of his, as St. Polycarp was, should have been still to learn the certainty of it.

6. And this may serve, by the way, not only to fix the time when this epistle was written, namely, at the end of the year of our Lord 116, or in the beginning of 117; but also to shew how groundless the exception of those men is against the authority of it, who pretend to find out a contradiction between the two passages I have now mentioned; and would from thence infer either the utter falseness of this whole epistle, or at least conclude that this latter part of it is none of Polycarp's, but added by some

3 Epist. of Polycarp, num. xiv.

* Daillæus in Pseudepigr. cap. xxxii. p. 428. Larroque Observat, ip Pearson, p. 69.

later hand, to give the greater credit to the Epistles of St. Ignatius, which they are resolved by all means to reject as none of his. For, indeed, were not men willing to be contentious, where is the contradiction they so much boast of between the two places I have before alleged? Is it that in the former of them he sets before them the sufferings of St. Ignatius, and exhorts them to follow the example of his patience? But it is evident the sufferings he there speaks of were those which the Philippians had seen in him; the weight of his chains; the hardships of his journey; the rudeness of the soldiers that guarded him; and of which the blessed martyr himself complains, in one of his epistles'; and, to add no more, the expectation of that cruel death he was suddenly to undergo.

7. But I suppose the contradiction lies in what follows; that in one place he speaks of him as if he had already suffered; and yet, in the other, desires the Philippians to send him word what they had heard of it. Now what is there in all this that does not very well agree together? St. Polycarp, either by the computation of the arrival of Ignatius at Rome, or by the consideration of the solemn festival that was wont at that time to be held there, and at which it was usual to exhibit such kind of spectacles to the people; or it may be, lastly, from the accounts which he had received of this holy martyr from some of those that were with him; did suppose, nay, if you will, did not doubt, but that Ignatius was dead when he wrote his Epistle to the Philippians. Yet, having not hitherto received any certain account of it, and not being absolutely sure

1 Ignat. Epist. to the Romans, cap. v.
2 Vid. Daillæum et Larroque, loc. cit.

whether he had suffered or not; or, if he had, how he had been treated by his enemies, and how he had behaved himself in his last encounter with the beasts; desires the Philippians, who were much nearer to Rome than he was, and might, therefore, very probably have heard much later from thence than he had done, to send him a certain account of what they knew as to this matter. What is there in all this, I do not say that looks like a contradiction, but that is not very natural, and particularly most becoming the love and friendship of the blessed Polycarp towards him concerning whom he so diligently inquired? I am sure Photius, who had not only read this epistle, but transcribed this last passage out of it, though a severe critic as any that have ever perused it since, saw no contradiction in it to any thing that went before: for if he had, he was not of a humour to have let it pass without making some reflection or other upon it.

8. Let me add yet more; that neither could those see the contradiction here pretended, who, in our present times, would have been as forward as any to have made use of it to the disadvantage of this epistle, had they had but the least grounds so to do. I shall instance only in two :-the first, the late learned divine of Leyden, Monsieur le Moyne'; who, though he judged the passage relating to St. Ignatius's Epistles, which was wanting in his manuscript, to be abrupt, and would from thence argue against the authority of it, yet has he made no reflection on the words immediately following, in which those others will have the contradiction to lie.

9. The other that I shall mention, in opposition

3 Photius Bibl. tmem. cxxvi. p. 305.
4 Proleg. ad Var. Sacr. in Polycarp.

to this pretence, is a yet later writer, Ernestus Tentzelius'; who, though no great friend to this epistle, which he supposes to have been corrupted, no less than those of Ignatius were in the antient editions of them, yet utterly refuses to comply with this objection, as not apprehending that there was the least ground for it.

10. But, to return from this digression, in answer to the exceptions of two of the most learned adversaries of this epistle, against the credit of it. Though, as I have now shewn, St. Polycarp wrote not to the Philippians till after the death of St. Ignatius; and consequently this epistle, in order of time, ought to have been placed after those which the other wrote immediately before it; yet was it fit to give this the precedency in the following Collection, both as containing a most. proper introduction to the Epistles of Ignatius, and as having, in all probability, been first sent, in the same order, by St. Polycarp to the Philippians.

11. For thus we find that holy man speaking to them in the close of his letter: "The Epistles of Ignatius, which he wrote unto us, together with what others of his have come to our hands, we have sent unto you according to your order; which are subjoined to this epistle." So both Eusebius' transcribed it out of the original Greek; and so we find it in our antient Latin version', which is all that remains of that part of this epistle. From whence our learned archbishop Usher', with great reason, concludes, that St. Polycarp caused the copies of St. Ignatius's Epistles to be imme