repent of what he had done, and commanded that "the Christians should indeed be searched out, but

that, being discovered, they should not be put to "death; only they should not be admitted into any "offices, nor be suffered to meddle with any public "employs. Thus was not only the life of Ignatius "of great use to the Church; but his very death "the means of procuring much good to it." And what Metaphrastes here tells us, we find in effect delivered by another author' of his Acts, not yet set forth; from whom he seems to have taken his story, only with the addition of some farther circumstances of his own, to make it the more complete.

16. But though I should be far from envying any thing that might make for the honour of this blessed martyr, yet are there many circumstances in the story, which Metaphrastes has here put together, that make me justly, call in question the truth of it. For first, it is evident, beyond all doubt, that the persecution was abated at Antioch before Ignatius suffered, nay, before he was yet gone out of the Lesser Asia. Insomuch, that in his three last epistles which he wrote from Troas to the Philadelphians, the Smyrnæans, and to Polycarp himself, he particularly takes notice of the peace of the Church of Antioch, and exhorts them to send congratulatory messages thither upon the account of it.

17. Nor was this suspension of the persecution granted upon Ignatius's account, but upon the remonstrances which the Emperor's own officers made to him, both of the numbers of those that died for the Christian faith, and of the innocency of their lives; and lastly, of the readiness with

3 Vid. Usser. Annot. in Act. Ignat. p. 55, 56.

which they not only suffered when taken, but voluntarily came and presented themselves before those who were to condemn them. Two of these epistles, relating to this very persecution, we have still remaining; the one written by Tiberianus', President of Palæstina Prima; the other of 'Pliny the Younger, Pro-prætor of Bithynia: and the answer of Trajan' to the latter, of which we find to have been in the same words that Jo. Malela tells us he replied to the other; viz. "That the "Christians should not be sought after; but if they were brought before them and convicted, "should be punished unless they abjured."

18. The same is the account which not only Eusebius, from Tertullian', gives us of the Emperor's order as to this matter; but which Suidas, after both, has left us of it: which makes it the more strange to find such a different relation both in Bishop Usher's manuscript author, and in Metaphrastes' Acts of Ignatius before mentioned. It is true that, notwithstanding these rescripts of the Emperor, the persecution still continued; nor was it so soon over in other places as it was at Antioch. This is not only evident from the history of this time left us by Eusebius', but may in general be concluded from the prayer which this holy Saint made at his martyrdom; where, say our Acts, "He entreated the Son of "God in behalf of the Churches, that he would put

'Apud Usser. Annot. in Epist. ad Philadelph. not. 82. Et in Append. p. 9.

2 Plin. Secund. Epist. lib. x. Epist. 97.

3 Ibid. Epist. 98.

4 Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 33.

5 Apologet. cap. ii.

• In voce Τραϊανός

7 Lib. iii. c. 32. Hist. Eccles.

8 Acta Mart. Ignat. num. xii.

9

a stop to the persecution, and restore peace and "quiet to them." But these were only local persecutions, as Eusebius calls them; and proceeded rather from the fury of the people, and the perverseness of some particular governors, than from the design or command of the Emperor.

19. As for the time of Ignatius's suffering, we are only told, in his Acts, that it was when "Syria and Senecius were Consuls; nor are learned men yet agreed in what year to fix it. Eusebius, in his Chronicle, places it in the year of Christ cx. Marianus Scotus, CXII. Bishop Usher" yet sooner, in the year cvII. And lastly, to name no more, our most exact bishop Lloyd", followed therein by the late critique upon Baronius, Antonius Pagi, yet later than any; to wit, in the year that the great earthquake fell out at Antioch, and from which Trajan himself hardly escaped; which, as Jo. Malela accounts it, and is followed therein by bishop Usher in his computation, was in the year cxvi.

13

20. And this may suffice to have been observed concerning the most eminent passages that occur in the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius. I shall need say nothing to the authority of the relation itself; which, as it is written with all sincerity, and void of those additions which later writers have made to these kind of histories, so we are told, in the close of it, that it was compiled by those who went with him from Antioch, and were the eye-witnesses of his encounters. That the

latter part of these Acts was added to the original account of the martyrdom of this holy man, the

9 Euseb. ibid.

10 Or, Sura.

11 Annot. in Act. Martyr. Ignat. not. 39.

12 Vid. Ant. Pagi. Critic. in Baron. ad Ann. 108.

13 Apud Usser. loc. supr. cit. Comp. the Dissert. of bishop Pearson in the late edition of his Epistles at Oxford.

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learned Dr. Grabe has proved to be at least probable but this does not at all affect the other parts of them, which the same judicious writer receives as true and authentic. These Acts were first published from two very ancient Manuscripts, by our most reverend archbishop Usher, in the appendix to his edition of Ignatius, anno 1647. They have since been printed in their original Greek, by a very learned man abroad; and reprinted by Dr. Grabe, in his Spicilegium, here in England. From this last edition they are now translated into our own language. I cannot tell whether it be worth the observing, that in the collection made by the late learned Cotelerius of the Writings of the Apostolical Fathers, instead of these genuine Acts, there is inserted the account which Metaphrastes put together of his sufferings, several ages after. It would perhaps have made a more agreeable history to the vulgar reader, had I translated that relation, rather than this, which is much shorter, and wants many notable passages that are to be found in that other. But, as I should then have departed from my design of setting out nothing but what I thought to be indeed of Apostolical antiquity; so, to those who love the naked truth, these plain Acts will be much more satisfactory, than a relation filled up with the uncertain, and too often fabulous, circumstances of later ages.

· CHAP. VI.

OF THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. POLYCARP, AND OF THE EPISTLE WRITTEN BY THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA CONCERNING IT.

That there were heretofore several called by the name of POLYCARP-Both the country and parentage of St. POLYCARP uncertain-What he was before his Conversion; and by whom converted-He is made Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles-How he behaved himself in that office-The great veneration which the Christians had for him-Of his journey to Rome, and what he did there-The testimony of St. JOHN concerning him, Rev. ii. 8.-Of the time of St. POLYCARP'S Martyrdom-What Persecutions the Church then laboured under Of the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning his Sufferings; and the value which the Ancients put upon it-Of the Miracle that is said to have happened at his death-What his age was when he suffered-What the day of his suffering-In what place he was put to death-Of the authority of the present Epistle; and its translation into our own language.

1. THE Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, (the next piece that follows in the present Collection) however it makes mention of some others that suffered at the same time with St. Polycarp, for the faith of Christ; yet, insisting chiefly upon the particulars of his passion, and being designed by that Church to communicate to all the world the glorious end of their beloved bishop, and most worthy and constant martyr of Christ, I shall observe the same method in treating of this, that I did in discoursing of the Acts of St. Ignatius before; and speak somewhat of the life of St. Polycarp first, before I come to consider the account that is here given us of his death.

2. That there were several of the name of