Title of Martyr to him 16. BUT whatever were the manner of St. Barnabas's Death yet famous is the Story of the Invention of his Reliques deliver'd by the same Monk and who as Baronius tells us lived at the same time under Zeno the Emperour and confirm'd by the concurrent Testimonies of Theodorus Nicephorus Cedrenus Sigebert Marianus Scotus and others With what Ceremony this was perform'd and how this Blessed Saint appear'd twice to Anthemius then Bishop of Salamis in order to the Discovery of his own Reliques and how the Emperour commanded a stately Church to be built over the Place of his Burial I shall leave it to those who are fond of such Stories to read at large in Baronius and the Monk whom I before mentioned It will be of more concern to take notice that Nilus Doxapater tells us that this very thing was the Ground of the Cyprian Privileges Where speaking of certain Provinces that depended not upon any of the Greater Patriarchats he instances first of all in Cyprus Which says he continues free and is subject to none of the Patriarchs because of the Apostle Barnabas being found in it And the same is the Account which Nicephorus also gives us of it and which was assign'd before both in the Notitia ascrib'd to Leo as I find it quoted by Monsieur le Moyne in his Preface to his late Collection of several ancient Pieces relating to Ecclesiastical Antiquity 17. TOGETHER with his Body was found says Alexander the Gospel of St. Matthew written in the Hebrew Tongue lying upon his Breast but Nilus says that of his Kinsman S. Mark Which of the two it was or whether any thing of all this were more than a mere Story contriv'd by Anthemius to get the better of Peter Patriarch of Antioch I shall not undertake to determine It is enough that we are assured that by this means he not only preserved his Priviledges against Peter but got his See confirm'd by the Emperour as an Independent See which was also afterwards again done by Justinian at the Instigation of the Empress Theodora who was her self a Cyprian 18. BUT to return to that which is more properly the Business of these Reflections It do's not appear that St. Barnabas left any more in Writing than the Epistle I have here subjoyn'd Indeed there were some heretofore who thought that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by him Tertullian confidently quotes it as his Nor do's St. Hierome censure him for it but leaves it as a doubt whether it should be ascribed to him or to St. Luke St. Clement or St. Paul tho' he seems rather to incline to St. Paul As for the present Epistle I do not know that it is deny'd by any of the Ancients to have been written by St. Barnabas Clemens Alexandrinus both mentions and commends it as his Origen calls it The Catholick Epistle of Barnabas Eusebius and St. Jerome tho' they place it among the Apochryphal Books that is to say among such as were of doubtful Authority and not admitted into the Canon of the Church for so Valesius shews we are there to understand them yet make no question but that Barnabas was the Author of it any more than that the Epistles of St. James St. Jude the Second Epistle of St. Peter and the Second and Third of St. John together with his Revelations which Eusebius places in the same rank were written by those whose Names they bear 19. WHICH being so I cannot but wonder at some in our own Times who upon such weak Grounds peremptorily pronounce it to be none of St. Barnabas's which says our Learned Bishop Pearson none of all the Ancients pretended to doubt of And of this Cotelerius seems to have been sensible Who tho' he did not care to ascribe it to the Blessed Evangelist of whom we are now discoursing yet was forced to suppose that some other Barnabas wrote it and without which he saw there could be no way of answering the concurrent Verdict of all Antiquity which has universally agreed in Barnabas as the Author of it But now who this Other Barnabas was or that in those Times there was any such Person he pretends not to tell us and they who ascribe it to Barnabas expresly speak of him as the same of whom I have hitherto been discoursing 20. BUT of all Others most unaccountable is the Fancy of Monsieur le Moyne concerning the Author of this Epistle He had observed that in several Manuscripts it was immediately continued on with that of St. Polycarp And from this Ignorance or Negligence of a few Transcribers has this Learned Man concluded the two Epistles to have been both written by St. Polycarp in which as he had none to go before him so I believe he will scarcely meet with any to follow him 21. NOR are the Arguments which they bring against the Authority of it of such Moment as to overthrow the constant Testimonies of the Ancients on its behalf They tell us first that it is evident from the XVI th Chapter of this Epistle that it was written after the Destruction of Jerusalem But why may not Barnabas have been then living as well as we are sure St. John and several others of the Companions of the Apostles were And if he may have been living after it why shall not we suppose that he was as well as they that he was not Seeing it does not appear from the Testimony of any Antient Writers when he died 22. BUT 2 dly They argue yet farther against it For if this say they be the Genuine Epistle of St. Barnabas how comes it to pass that it is not received as Canonical Certainly had the Primitive Christians believed it to have been written by such a Man they would without Controversie have plac'd it among the sacred Writings and not have censured it as of doubtful Authority This is indeed a very specious Pretence but which being a little examined will be found to have no strength in it It being certain that the Primitive Fathers did own this for St. Barnabas's Epistle and yet not receive it into their Canon and therefore that it do's not follow that had they believed it to have been his they must have esteem'd it Canonical 23. WHAT Rules they had or by what Measure they proceeded in those First Times in judging of the Canonical Scriptures of the New Testament it is not necessary for me here to enquire It is enough that we know what Books the Church did at last agree in as coming under that Character And for the rest as we cannot doubt but that there was a due care taken in examining into a matter of such Importance and that those Primitive Fathers did not without very good reason distinguish what were written by Divine Inspiration from what were not So we are very sure that all was not admitted by them into the rank of Canonical Scripture that was written by any Apostolical Man and therefore that it
their Judgments concerning it Some there are and those the nearest to the time when this Book was written that treat it almost with the same Respect that they would do the Canonical Scriptures Irenaeus quotes it under the very Name of the Scripture Origen tho' he sometimes moderates his Opinion of it upon the account of some who did not it seems pay the same Respect with himself to it yet speaking of Hermas being the Author of this Book in his Comments on the Epistle to the Romans gives us this Character of it That He thought it to be a most useful Writing and was as he believed Divinely Inspired Eusebius tells us that tho' being doubted of by Some it was not esteem'd Canonical yet was it by Others judged a most necessary Book and as such read publickly in the Churches And St. Hierom having in like manner observed that it was read in some Churches makes this Remark upon it That it was indeed a very profitable Book and whose Testimony was often quoted by the Greek Fathers Athanasius places it in the same rank with the Books of Scripture and calls it a most useful Treatise And in another place tells us That tho' it was not strictly Canonical yet was it reckon'd among those Books which the Fathers appointed to be read to such as were to be instructed in the Faith and desired to be directed in the Way of Piety 11. HENCE we may observe as a farther Evidence of that Respect which was paid to this Book heretofore that it was not only openly read in the Churches but in some of the most ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament is joyned together with the other Books of the Holy Scriptures An Instance of this Cotelerius offers us in that of the Monastry of St. Germans in France in which it is continued on at the End of St. Paul's Epistles And in several of the Old Stichometries it is put in the same Catalogue with the Inspired Writings As may be seen in that which the same Author has published out of a Manuscript in the King's Library in his Observations upon St. Barnabas and in which St. Barnabas's Epistle is placed immediately before the Revelations as the Acts of the Apostles and Hermas's Shepherd are immediately after it 12. AND yet after all this we find this same Book not only doubted of by Others among the Ancient Fathers but slighted even by some of those who upon other Occasions have spoken thus highly in its Favour Thus St. Jerome in his Comments Exposes the Folly of that Apochryphal Book as he calls it which in his Catalogue of Writers he had so highly applauded Tertullian who spake if not honourably yet calmly of it whilst a Catholick being become Montanist rejected it even with Scorn And most of the other Fathers who have spoken the highest of it themselves yet plainly enough insinuate that there were those who did not put the same Value upon it Thus Origen mentions some who not only deny'd but despis'd its Authority And Cassian having made use of it in the Point of Free-Will Prosper without more ado rejected it as a Testimony of no Value And what the Judgment of the Latter Ages was as to this matter especially after Pope Gelasius had ranked it among the Apochryphal Books may be seen at large in the Observations of Antonius Augustinus upon that Decree 13. HOW far this has influenced the Learned Men of our present Times in their Censures upon this Work is evident from what many on all sides have freely spoken concerning it Who not only deny it to have been written by Hermas the Companion of St. Paul but utterly cast it off as a Piece of no Worth but rather full of Error and Folly Thus Baronius himself tho' he delivers not his own Judgment concerning it yet plainly enough shews that he ran in with the severest Censures of the Ancients against it And in effect charges it with favouring the Arrians tho' upon a mistaken Authority of St. Athanasius and which by no means proves any such Errour to be in it But Cardinal Bellarmine is more free He tells us that it has many hurtful things in it and particularly that it favours the Novatian Heresie which yet I think a very little Equity in interpreting of some Passages that look that way by others that are directly contrary thereunto would serve to acquit it of Others are yet more severe They censure it as full of Heresies and Fables Tho' this Labbe would be thought to excuse by telling us that they have been foisted into it by some later Interpolations and ought not to be imputed to Hermas the Author of this Book 14. NOR have many of those of the Reform'd Churches been any whit more favourable in their Censures of the present Treatise But then as the Chiefest of the most Ancient Fathers heretofore tho' they admitted it not into the Canon of Holy Scripture yet otherwise paid a very great Deference to it so the more moderate part of the Learned Men of our present Times esteem it as a Piece worthy of all Respect and clear of those Faults which are too lightly charged by some Persons upon it Thus Petavius none of the most favourable Critics upon the Ancient Fathers yet acknowledges as to the present Book that it was never censured by any of the Ancients as guilty of any false Doctrine or Heresie and especially as to the Point of the Holy Trinity Cotelerius one of the latest Editors of it esteems it as an Ecclesiastical Work of good note and a great Defence of the Catholick Faith against the Errors of Montanism Whose Judgment is not only follow'd by their late Historian Natalis Alexander but is made good too in the Defence of it against those Objections which some have brought to lessen its Reputation And for those of our own Communion I shall mention only two but They such as will serve instead of many to all judicious Persons who have at large justified it against the chief of those Exceptions that have been taken at it the One the most Excellent Bishop Pearson in his Vindication of St. Ignatius the Other the Learned Dr. Bull in his Defence of the Nicene Faith in the Point of our Blessed Saviour's Divinity and which he largely shews our present Author to have been far from doing any Prejudice unto 15. SUCH then have been the different Judgments of Learned Men both heretofore and in our present Times concerning this Book It would be too great a Presumption for me to pretend to determine any thing as to this matter and having subjoyn'd the Work it self in our common Language every one may be able to satisfie himself what Value he ought to put upon it That there are many useful things to be found in it but especially in the Second and I think the best part of it cannot be deny'd And for the other Two it must be considered that tho' such Visions as we there read of being
Offices were by the Spirit enabled to make of them So 3 dly If we look to those Accounts which still remain to us of them they will plainly shew us that they were endued and that in a very singular manner with this Power and Gift of the Blessed Spirit 19. OF Barnabas the Holy Scripture it self bears Witness that He was a good Man full of the Holy Ghost and of Faith Acts xi 24 Hermas is another of whom St. Paul himself makes mention Rom. xvi 14 as an early Convert to Christianity And what extraordinary Revelations he had and how he foretold the Troubles that were to come upon the Church his following Visions sufficiently declare 20 CLEMENT is not only spoken of by the same Apostle but with this advantageous Character too that he was the Fellow-Labourer of that great Man and had his Name written in the Book of Life Phil. iv 3 And when we shall consider to how much lesser and worser Men these Gifts were usually communicated at that time we can hardly think that so excellent a Man and the Companion of so great an Apostle employed first in the planting of the Gospel with him and then set to govern one of the most considerable Churches in the World should have been destitute of it 21. AS for St. Ignatius I have before observed that he had this Gift and by the help of it warned the Philadelphians against falling into those Divisions which he fore-saw were about to rise up amonst them 22. POLYCARP not only Prophecy'd of his own Death but spake often times of things that were to come And has this Witness from the whole Church of Smyrna that nothing of all that he foretold ever failed of coming to pass according to his Prediction 23. IT remains then that the Holy Men whose Writings are here subjoyn'd were not only instructed by such as were Inspir'd but were themselves Inspir'd too And therefore we must conclude that they have not only not mistaken the Mind of the Apostles in what they deliver to us as the Gospel of Christ but were not capable of doing of it By consequence that we ought to look upon their Writings tho' not of equal Authority with those which we call in a singular manner The Holy Scriptures because neither were the Authors of them called in so extraordinary a way to the writing of them nor endued with so eminent a Portion of the Gifts of the Blessed Spirit for the doing of it Nor have their Writings been judg'd by the common Consent of the Church in those inspir'd Ages of it when they were so much better qualified than we are now to judge of the Divine Authority of those kind of Writings to be of equal Dignity with those of the Apostles and Evangelists yet worthy of a much greater Respect than any Composures that have been made since however Men may seem to have afterwards written with more Art and to have shewn a much greater Stock of humane Learning than what is to be found not only in the following Pieces but even in the Sacred Books of the New Testament it self 24. I SHALL add but One Consideration more the better to shew the true Deference that ought to be paid to the Treatises here collected and that is Sixthly That they were not only written by such Men as I have said instructed by the Apostles and judg'd worthy by them both for their Knowledg and their Integrity to govern some of the most eminent Churches in the World and lastly endued with the extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost and upon all these Accounts to be much respected by us But were moreover received by the Church in those First Ages as Pieces of a very great value which could not be mistaken in its Judgment of them 25. THE Epistle of St. Clement was a long time read publickly with the Other Scriptures in the Congregations of the Faithful made a part of their Bible and was numbred among the Sacred Writings however finally separated from them And not only the Apostolical Canons but our most ancient Alexandrian Manuscript gives the same place to the Second that it do's to the First of them And Epiphanius after both tells us that they were both of them wont to be read in the Church in his Time 26. THE Epistle of St. Polycarp with that of the Church of Smyrna were not only very highly approved of by particular Persons but like those of St. Clement were read publickly too in the Assemblies of the Faithful And for those of Ignatius besides that we find a mighty Value put upon them by the Christians of those Times they are sealed to us by this Character of St. Polycarp That they are such Epistles by which we may be greatly profited For says he They treat of Faith and Patience and of all things that pertain to Edification in the LORD 27. THE Epistle of Barnabas is not only quoted with great Honour by those of the next Age to him but as I have before shewn is expresly called Catholick and Canonical And in the ancient Stichometry of Cotelerius we find it placed the very next to the Epistle of St. Jude and no difference put between the Authority of the One and of the Other 28. AND for the Book of Hermas both Eusebius and St. Jerome tell us that it was also used to be read in the Churches In the same Stichometry I before mentioned it is placed in the very next Rank to the Acts of the Holy Apostles And in some of the most ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament we find it written in the same Volume with the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists as if it had been esteem'd of the same Value and Authority with them 29. SO that now then we must either say that the Church in those days was so little careful of what was taught in it as to allow such Books to be publickly read in its Congregations the Doctrine whereof it did not approve Or we must confess that the following Pieces are deliver'd to us not only by the Learned Men of the First Ages of the Church but by the whole Body of the Faithful as containing the pure Doctrine of Christ and must be look'd upon to have nothing in them but what was then thought worthy of all Acceptation 30. NOW how much this adds to the Authority of these Discourses may easily be concluded from what I have before observed For since it is certain that in those Times the Extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed not only upon the Bishops and Pastors of the Church tho' upon them in a more eminent degree but also upon a great many of the common Christians too Since One particular Design of these Gifts was for the Discerning of Prophecies to judg of what was proposed by any to the Church or written for the Use and Benefit of it We cannot doubt but what was universally approved of and allow'd not by a few Learned Men but by
The Genuine EPISTLES OF THE Apostolical Fathers S. BARNABAS S. IGNATIUS S. CLEMENT S. POLYCARP THE SHEPHERD of HERMAS And the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp Written by Those who were present at their Sufferings Being together with the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament a compleat Collection of the most Primitive Antiquity for about CI Years after Christ. Translated and Publish'd with a large Preliminary Discourse relating to the several Treatises here put together By W. Wake D.D. Chapl. in Ordinary to their 〈◊〉 and Preacher to the Honorable Society of Grays-Inn LONDON Printed for Ric. Sare at Grays-Inn Gate next Holborn 1693. Imprimatur Apr. 11. 1693. Carolus Alston R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à sacris A CATALOGUE OF THE Several PIECES contain'd in this Book and the Order of them A Discourse concerning the Treatises here collected and the Authors of them PART I. The First Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians The Epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philippians The Genuine Epistles of St. Ignatius A Relation of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius written by those who were present at his Sufferings The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp PART II. The Catholick Epistle of St. Barnabas The Shepherd of Hermas in Three Books The Remains of St. Clement's Second Epistle to the Corinthians An INDEX to both Parts A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The several Treatises contain'd in the following Collection and the Authors of them The INTRODUCTION 1. HAD I designed the following Collection either for the Benefit or Perusal of the learned World I should have needed to say but very little by way of Introduction to it The Editors of the several Treatises here put together having already observed so much upon each of them that it would I believe be difficult to discover I am sure be very needless to trouble the Reader with any more 2. BUT as it would be Ridiculous for me to pretend to have design'd a Translation for those who are able with much more Profit and Satisfaction to go to the Originals so being now to address my self to those especially who want that Ability I suppose it may not be amiss before I lead them to the Discourses themselves to give them some Account both of the Authors of the several Pieces I have here collected and of the Tracts themselves and of that Collection that is now the first time made of them in our own Tongue Tho' as to the first of these I shall say the less by reason of that excellent Account that has been already given of the most of them by our Pious and Learned Dr. Cave Whose Lives of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers with his other Admirable Discourse of Primitive Christianity I could heartily wish were in the hands of all the more judicious part of our English Readers 3. NOR may such an Account as I now propose to my self to give of the following Pieces be altogether useless to some even of the Learned themselves who wanting either the Opportunity of Collecting the several Authors necessary for such a search or leisure to examin them may not be unwilling to see that faithfully brought together under one short and general View which would have required some Time and Labour to have search'd out as it lay diffus'd in a Multitude of Writers out of which they must otherwise have gather'd it CHAP. II. Of the First Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians Of the Value which the Ancients put upon this Epistle Of St. Clement himself who was the Author of it That it was the same Clement of whom S. Paul speaks Phil. iv 3 Of his Conversion to Christianity When he became Bishop of Rome as also whether he suffer'd Martyrdom uncertain Of the Occasion of his Writing this Epistle and the two main Parts of it Of the Time when it was written That there is no reason to doubt but that the Epistle we now have was truly written by S. Clement The Objection of Tentzelius against it of no force How this Epistle was first published by Mr. Patrick Young and translated by Mr. Burton into English Of the present Edition of it 1. THE first Tract which begins this Collection and perhaps the most worthy too is that Admirable or as some of the Ancients have called it that wonderful Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians and which he wrote not in his own Name but in the Name of the whole Church of Rome to them An Epistle so highly esteem'd by the Primitive Church that we are told it was wont to be publickly read in the Assemblies of it And if we may credit one of the most ancient Collections of the Canon of Scripture was placed among the Sacred and Inspired Writings Nor is it any small Evidence of the Value which in those days was put upon this Epistle that in the only Copy which for ought we know at this day remains of it we find it to have been written in the same Volume with the Books of the New Testament And which seems to confirm what was before observed concerning it that it was heretofore wont to be read in the Congregations together with the Holy Scriptures of the Apostles and Evangelists 2. BUT of the Epistle it self I shall take occasion to speak more particularly by and by It will now be more proper to enquire a little into the Author of it and consider when and upon what occasion it was written by him 3. AND first for what concerns the Person who wrote this Epistle it is no small Commendation which the Holy Ghost by S. Paul has left us of him Phil. iv 3 Where the Apostle mentions him not only as his Fellow-Labourer in the Work of the Gospel but as one whose Name was written in the Book of Life A Character which if we will allow our Saviour to be the Judg far exceeds that of the highest Power and Dignity And who therefore when his Disciples began to rejoyce upon the account of that Authority which he had bestow'd upon them insomuch that even the Devils were subject unto them Luke x. 17 tho' he seem'd to allow that there was a just matter of Joy in such an extraordinary Power yet bade them not to Rejoyce so much in this that those Spirits were subject unto them but rather says he Rejoyce that your Names are written in the Book of Life 4. IT is indeed insinuated by a late very Learned Critick as if this were not that Clement of whom we are now discoursing and whose Epistle to the Corinthians I have here subjoyn'd But besides that he himself confesses that the Person of whom S. Paul there speaks was a Roman both Eusebius and Epiphanius and S. Hierome expresly tell us that the Clement there meant was the same that was afterwards Bishop of Rome Nor do we read of any Other to whom either the Character there mentioned of being the Fellow-Labourer of that Apostle or the Elogy given of having
own Ashes which is not only a thing false in its self but unworthy of such a Person as St. Clement to mention 24. NOW not to say any thing as to this Matter 1st That Photius a severe Critick of the ancient Fathers who first started it as a fault in St. Clement that he made use of this as a true Observation which it seems the Other look'd upon as a meer Fable yet did not think it any Objection against the Authority of this Epistle which he nevertheless acknowledg'd to be St. Clements To pass by 2dly That the Generality of the Ancient Fathers have made use of the very same instance in proof of the same Point as the learned Junius has particularly shewn in his Notes upon this Passage and the Authority of whose Works no one yet ever called in question upon that account I would only ask 3dly What if St. Clement really believed the Account which he here gives us of this Matter That there was such a Bird and that he did revive out of the Cinders of the Body before burnt Where was the great harm either in giving Credit to such a Wonder or believing it to make such a use as he here do's of it 25. THE Truth is Whosoever shall consider both the general Credit which this Story had in those days and the particular Accident which fell out not long before the time that this Epistle was written to confirm their Belief of it And of which one of the most judicious of all the Roman Historians has given us a large Account I mean of the Phoenix that was said to have come into Egypt a little after the Death of Christ and to have given occasion of much Discourse to the most Learned Men both of the Greeks and Romans concerning the very Miracle of which St. Clement here speaks Will find it to have been no such strange thing in this Holy Man to have suffer'd himself to be led away with the Common Opinion and to have believed what so many learned Men did among the Jews and Gentiles no less than among the Christians viz. That God was pleased to give to the World this great Earnest and Type of a future Resurrection and to silence thereby the Cavils of such as should pretend what we know the generality of the wise Men of the World did that it was impossible for God to effect such a Restitution 26. BUT I insist too long on so trifling an Objection however magnified by some Men and may I think from what I have already said conclude that if this be indeed as they confess it is the greatest ground they have to call in question the Credit of this Epistle there is then nothing that ought to move any considering Man to entertain the least Doubt or Scruple concerning it 27. THERE are indeed two other Exceptions which Photius has made against St. Clement upon the Account of the Epistle before us which yet he look'd upon as unquestionably his the One for that he speaks in it of the Worlds beyond the Ocean the Other in that he seems not to have Written so honourably as was sitting of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour But as the latter of these is but a meer Cavil against this Holy Man who in his Other Epistle expresly asserts his Divine Nature and even in this speaks in such a manner of him as shews him to be much more than a meer Creature So in the former he said nothing but what was agreeable both to the Notions and Language of the times in which he lived when it was common to call our British Isles another World or as St. Clement here stiles them the Worlds beyond the Ocean 28. AND these I think are the chief Exceptions that have been at any time raised against the following Epistle and which however insisted upon in these latter days yet did not hinder the first and best Ages of the Church when Men were less curious but much more pious from putting a very great Value upon it Nor will they I suppose have any more weight with any serious and ingenuous Mind now Or hinder him from esteeming it a very great Blessing to our present Times that a Work so highly esteemed among the Ancient Fathers but so long and as it was justly feared irrecoverably lost to these latter Ages was at last so happily found out for the Encrease and Confirmation both of our Faith and Piety 29. NOW the manner of its Discovery and Publication was this It happen'd about the beginning of the present Age that Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria being removed from thence to Constantinople brought along with him a great Treasure of Books to that place Among the rest he had a very ancient Manuscript Copy both of the Septuagint Old and of the New Greek Testament written but little more than three hundred years after Christ. This he sent as the most valuable Present that he was Master of to our late Royal Sovereign King Charles the First by Sir Thomas Roe his Majesty's Ambassadour at that time at the Port. Being thus brought into England and placed in the Royal Library at St. James's Mr. Patrick Young the learned Keeper of the King's Library at that time discover'd this Epistle with part of another at the End of the New Testament and was thereupon commanded by his Majesty to publish it for the benefit of the World This he accordingly did with a Latin Translation and Notes at Oxford Anno 1633 It was not long after that a very learned Man and a great Master of the Greek Tongue Mr. William Burton translated it into English and publish'd it very accurately and with new Annotations of his own upon it This I had not seen till the first Sheets of the present Edition were sent to the Press Nor had I any other knowledge either of that or of the Author than what I found in the Accounts given by our Reverend Dr. Cave and the late Monsieur Colomesius of the One and by our laborious Antiquary Mr. A. Wood of the Other in his useful Collection of the Lives and Writings of our Modern Authors And though I believe whosoever shall take the pains to compare the two Translations together will find them generally agreeing as to the Sense yet there will otherwise appear such manifest Differences between them as may abundantly satisfie any indifferent Person that I have tuly translated it from the Original Greek and not Revised only Mr. Burton's Edition of it CHAP. III. Of the Epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philippians Of the Time when St. Polycarp wrote this Epistle The Reason of its being placed before the Epistles of Ignatius That St. Polycarp wrote several other pieces Yet nothing of his now remaining but only this Epistle Whether this Epistle has been interpolated as those of Ignatius were The latter part of it vindicated against the Exceptions of Monsieur Daillé and some Others Of the Translation of it into our own Language by Dr. Cave
Authority But then as Du Pin well observes it is certain that the Ancients knew nothing of it nor are the Acts we now have quoted by any before the time of Etherius before-mentioned And yet how they could have escaped the Search of the Primitive Fathers had they been extant in their days it is hard to imagin 34. BUT much less is the Credit that ought to be given to the pretended Works of Dionysius the Areopagite Which as Alexander confesses two very great Criticks of his own Communion to have deny'd to have been written by that Holy Man so has a third very lately given such Reasons to shew that the Writings now extant under his Name could not have been composed by him as ought to satisfie every considering Man of their Imposture For not to say any thing of what occurs every where in those Discourses utterly disagreeable to the State of the Church in the time that that Dionysius lived Can it be imagin'd that had such considerable Books as these been written by him none of the Ancients of the first IV Centuries should have heard any thing of them Or shall we say that they did know of them as well as the Fathers that lived after and yet made no mention of them tho' they had so often occasion to have done it as Eusebius and St. Jerome not to name any Others had 35. IN short one of the first times that we hear of them is in the Dispute between the Severians and Catholicks about the Year D. XXX.II When the Former produced them in favour of their Errours and the Latter rejected them as Books utterly unknown to all Antiquity and therefore not worthy to be received by them 36. IT is therefore much to be wondered that after so many Arguments as have been brought to prove how little Right these Treatises have to such a Primitive Antiquity nevertheless not only Natalis Alexander but a Man of much better Judgment I mean Emanuel Schelstrat the late Learned Keeper of the Vatican Library should still undertake the Defence of them When they were written or by what Author is very uncertain But as Bishop Pearson supposes them to have been first set forth about the latter end of Eusebius's Life so Dr. Cave conjectures that the Elder Apollinarius may very probably have been the Author of them Others there are who place them yet later and suspect Pope Gregory the Great to have had a hand in the Forgery And indeed the Arguments which our very Learned Mr. Dodwell brings to prove that they were originally written by one of the Roman Church are not without their just Weight But whatever becomes of this thus much is certain that these Books were not written before the middle of the IV th Century and therefore are without the Compass of the present Undertaking 37. AND now having taken such a View as was necessary for the present Design of all those other Pieces which have been obtruded upon the World for Apostolical Writings besides what is either here collected or has been before publish'd in the Sacred Books of the New Testament I suppose I may with good Grounds conclude that the little I have now put together is all that can with any Certainty be depended upon of the most Primitive Fathers And therefore that from these next to the Holy Scriptures we must be content to draw the best Account we can of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church for the first Hundred Years after the Death of Christ. CHAP. X. Of the Authority of the following Treatises and the Deference that ought to be paid to them upon the account of it This is shewn from the following Considerations 1st That the Authors of them were Contemporary with the Apostles and instructed by them 2dly They were Men of an eminent Character in the Church and therefore to be sure such as could not be ignorant of what was taught in it 3dly They were very careful to preserve the Doctrine of Christ in its Purity and to oppose such as went about to corrupt it 4thly They were Men not only of a perfect Piety but of great Courage and Constancy and therefore such as cannot be suspected to have had any Design to prevaricate in this Matter 5thly They were endued with a large Portion of the Holy Spirit and as such could hardly err in what they deliver'd as the Gospel of Christ. And 6thly Their Writings were approved by the Church in those days which could not be mistaken in its Approbation of them BUT Secondly and to proceed yet farther The following Collection pretends to a just Esteem not only upon the account of its Perfection as it is an Entire Collection of what remains to us of the Apostolical Fathers but yet much more from the Respect that is due to the Authors themselves whose Writings are here put together 2. IF First we consider them as the Contemporaries of the Holy Apostles Some of them bred up under our Saviour Christ himself and the rest instructed by those Great Men whom he commissioned to go forth and preach to all the World and endued with an extraordinary Assistance of his Blessed Spirit for the doing of it We cannot doubt but that what they deliver to us must be without Controversie the pure Doctrine of the Gospel What Christ and his Apostles taught and what they had themselves received from their own Mouths This is the least Deference we can pay to them to look upon them as faithful Deliverers of the Doctrine and Practice of the Church in those most early Times When Heresies were not as yet so openly broke out in it Nor the true Faith so dangerously corrupted with the Mixture of those erroneous Opinions which afterwards more fatally infected the Minds of Men and divided the Church into so many Parties and Factions So that here then we may read with Security and let me add with Respect too And not doubt but what these Holy Men deliver to us is as certainly the true Doctrine of Christ as if we had received it like them from our Saviour and his Apostles 3. BUT Secondly The Authors of the following Pieces had not only the Advantage of living in the Apostolical Times and of hearing the Holy Apostles and conversing with them but they were of a very Eminent Character in the Church too Men raised up to the highest pitch of Honour and Authority in some of the most famous Churches of the World Chosen by the Apostles to preside in their own proper Sees at Rome at Antioch at Smyrna One of them set apart by the express Command of the Holy Ghost to be the Companion of the Great St. Paul in his Work of the Ministry and the rest for the most part commended for their rare Endowments in the inspired Writings of the Holy Scriptures delivered to us And therefore we may be sure that such Men as these must needs have been very carefully instructed in the Mystery of the Gospel and have had