ever with him, and with Polycarp who sends Ex. Vet.Inhim.

10 I wish you all happiness in our God, Jesus Christ, in whom continue, in the unity and protection of God.

11 I salute Alce', my well-beloved. Farewell in the Lord.

¶ To Polycarp.

terpr. Vid. Voss. Annot

A DISCOURSE

CONCERNING

THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. IGNATIUS;

AND OF THE FOLLOWING RELATION OF IT, WRITTEN BY THOSE WHO WERE PRESENT AT HIS SUFFERINGS.

Of the Life of St. Ignatius; whence he was called Theophorus ? That he never saw Christ; but was converted to Christianity by the Apostles; and by them made Bishop of Antioch. How he behaved himself in that station. Of his death. Why he was sent from Antioch to Rome, in order to his suffering there. Metaphrastes' account of the effect which his death wrought upon the Emperor Trajan, rejected. How the persecution of the Christians came to be mitigated about the time he suffered. An inquiry into the time of his martyrdom.

1. In the foregoing chapter I have given such an account of the epistles of St. Ignatius, as seemed necessary to vindicate the authority of them, and to remove those prejudices which some had of late endeavoured to raise against them. I am now to pass from the writings of this holy man, to his truly great and heroical sufferings: an account whereof is in the next place subjoined, in the relation of those who accompanied him from Antioch to Rome, and were there the eye-witnesses of his martyrdom.

2. But before I come to the consideration of this last and noblest part of his life, I cannot but think it will be expected from me to give some account of the foregoing passages in it that so we may have at once a full view of this great Saint, and perceive by what steps he prepared himself for so constant and glorious a death.

3. And here it will be necessary for me in the first place to consider the character which he gives of him

A Acts of Ig

iv. v.

self in the beginning of all his epistles, and which he freely asserted before the Emperor himself at his ex-natius, numb. amination, namely, that of Theophorus. Now this, according to the different pronunciation of it, may be expounded after a different manner, and signifies either a person carried by God, or else a divine person, one who carries God in his breast. And in both these significations, we find this name to have been given to this holy man.

4. For 1st. as to the former signification, we are told by some of the writers of his life, that St. Ignatius, was the child whom our blessed Saviour took in his arms, and set before his disciples as a pattern of humility, when he told them, "that unless they should be converted, and become as little children, they should in no wise enter into the kingdom of God:" and that from thence he took the name of Theophorus; one who was born, or carried by God. And thus not only Metaphrastes i Metaphrast. and Nicephorus among the Greeks; but as our learn- p. 991. ed Bishop Usher tells us, some Syriac writers more ancient than they, both interpret this name, and give an lib. i. cap.35. account of its being attributed to this blessed martyr.

apud Coteler.

* Niceph. Hist. Eccl.

! Usher. Annot. in Act. Mart. Ignat.

5. But as stories of this kind seldom lose in the rela- num. iv.

not. in Con

viii. Concil.

viii. p. 994.

tion, so we find the Latines making a farther improve- Vid. Anment of the present fable. For having confirmed the cil. Oecum. truth of what these men had before observed, of St. Ig-Lab. tom. natius' being taken up by our Saviour into his arms, they D. add, that for this reason, the Apostles, when they made him Bishop of Antioch, durst not lay their hands upon him, "he having been before both commended by our Saviour Christ, and sanctified by his touching him."

6. There is so much of romance in all the latter part of this story, and so little ground for the former, that I shall not need to spend any time in the confuting of either. It is enough that St. Chrysostome n has assured us, that this holy man never saw the Lord, and that all the other ancient writers are silent as to this particular, 506. B. C.

Homil. in

St. Ignat. to.

1.

Fevar

dent. p. 499,

• Montac.

Origin. Ec211, 212.

nat. Part. ii

Which makes me wonder at the endeavour of a late learned writer of our own country, to give countenance cles, to il. P. to such a fable; which if not destitute of all probability, yet at least wants some good authority to support it; P Vind. Ig and as our learned Bishop Pearson P very reasonably c. xii. p. 149 conjectures, was first started about the time of the 8th General Council, by the party of that Ignatius who was then set up in opposition to Photius; and from thence derived both to Anastatius among the Latines, and to Metaphrastes among the Greeks.

7. To pass then from this fabulous account of this title, let us come to the consideration of the true import of it. Now as we cannot have any better, so neither need Acts of Ig- We desire any other account than what this holy man q nat. num. v. himself gave the Emperor of that name. When being asked by him, who was Theophorus? he replied, he who has Christ in his breast. And in this sense was this name commonly used among the ancients, as has been shewn in a multitude of examples by Bishop PearVind. Ig- son, in his elaborate vindication of Ignatius' epistles. I shall offer only one of them, that of St. Cyrill, who anathematizes those who should call our Saviour Christ, Theophorus; lest, says he, he should thereby be understood to have been no other than one of the Saints.

nat. Part. ii. p. 144.

8. It remains then that Ignatius was called Theophorus, for the same reason that any other divine, or excellent person, might have been so called; namely, upon the account of his admirable piety: because his soul was full of the love of God, and sanctified with an extraordinary portion of the divine grace; as both his life shewed, and the earnest desire he had to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and his joy when he saw himself approaching towards it; and (to mention no more) his constancy in his last, and most terrible conflict with the wild beasts, will not suffer us to doubt.

9. But though the story of our Saviour's taking St. Ignatius into his arms is of no credit, yet so much St.

Ignat. pag.

vardent.

Tentzel. Ex

iii. num. ii.

Dr. Grabe

Chrysostome tells us, that he was intimately acquaint- Homil. in ed with the holy Apostles, and instructed by them in the 499. to. 1. Fe full knowledge of all the mysteries of the Gospel. What was the country that gave birth to this blessed Saint, or who his parents were, we cannot tell. Indeed as to the former of these, his country, a late author has Ernest. endeavoured from a passage in Abulfaragius, set out by ercit. Select. our incomparable Dr. Pocock, to fix at Nora in Sardinia, p. 47. Comp. a place which still retains its ancient name with very Spicileg. little variation. This is certain, that growing eminent both in the knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, and in a life exactly framed according to the strictest rules of it; he was, upon the death of Euodius, chosen by the Apostles that were still living, to be Bishop of Antioch, the metropolis of Syria; and whatever Anastasius pretends" received imposition of hands from them.

tom. ii. p. 1.

u Vid. Chrysost. Orat. in

Laud Ignat.

Theodoret.

Dial. 1.

ser. Annot.

Antioch, p.

Vind. Ignat.

Acts of Igi.

ii. iii.

10. How he behaved himself in this great station, though we have no particular account left to us, yet we to. iv. p. 33. may easily conclude from that short hint that is given us Comp Us of it, in the relation of his martyrdom. * Where we are in Epist. ad told that he was 66 a man in all things like unto the 107. Pearson. Apostles; that as a good governor, by the helm of pray- part. ii.p.107. er and fasting, by the constancy of his doctrine and nat. num. spiritual labour, he opposed himself to the floods of the adversary that he was like a divine lamp illuminating the hearts of the faithful by his exposition of the holy Scriptures; and lastly, that to preserve his church, he doubted not freely, and of his own accord, to expose himself to the most bitter death." This is in general the character of his behaviour in his church of Antioch; a greater than which can hardly be given to any man. Nor indeed can we doubt but that he who, as Eusebius y Hist. Ectells us, and as his epistles still remaining, abundantly cap. 36. testify, was so careful of all the other churches, to confirm them in a sound faith, and in a constant adherence to their holy religion; was certainly much more vigilant to promote the interests of piety within his own dio

cles. lib. iii.