beginning Let us attend unto Prayers with all sobrierie and unto Fastings with all perseverance and in our supplications let us pray unto the Al-seeing God that he would not lead us into temptation as the Lord hath taught for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Let us endure without fainting resting our selves upon our hope and pledge of righteousness which is Jesus Christ who did bear our sins in his own body upon the tree who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth but he patiently endured all things for us that we might live through him Therefore let us be the followers of his patience and if we suffer for his Name we glorifie him for he set us such an Example in himself as we believe Therefore I exhort you all to obey the word of Righteousness and to exercise all Patience as ye have seen it exemplified before your eyes not onely in the blessed Ignatius Zosimus and Rufus but in others among you in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles For ye may be confident that all these have not run in vain but in Faith and Righteousness and having obtained the place due unto them are now with the Lord with whom also they suffered for they loved not this present world but him who died for us and was for us by God raised again from death to life Stand fast therefore in these things and follow the Pattern of the Lord Be stedfast in the Faith immutable Lovers of the brotherhood kind one to another united in Truth performing all meekness each to other and despising none When ye can do good do not deferre it for Alms delivereth from death Be subject one to another having your conversation unblameable among the Gentiles that your selves may receive praise from your good works and the Lord be not blasphemed by your means But wo to that man by whom the Name of the Lord is blasphemed Therefore teach all men sobriety and be your selves conversant in it I am very much troubled for Valens who was made a Presbyter among you because he is unmindful of his place which was committed unto him I therefore admonish you that ye abstain from Covetousness and that ye be chaste and true Keep your selves from all evil But how can he preach this to another who cannot govern himself in these matters If a man keep not himself from Covetousness he will be defiled with Idolatry and accounted an heathen But who knows not the judgement of the Lord Do we not know that the Saints shall judge the world as Paul teacheth But I have neither perceived nor heard of any such thing among you amongst whom blessed Paul laboured who are also in the beginning of his Epistle For he glories of you in all those Churches which onely knew God at that time for as yet we had not known him Therefore my Brethren I am grieved for him and for his wife to whom the Lord give true Repentance And be ye sober as to this very thing esteem not such as as enemies but restore them as frail and erring members that the whole body of you may be saved for in so doing ye build up your selves I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures and that nothing is hid from you which thing is not yet granted unto me As it is written Be angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath Blessed is he who shall believe which thing I believe to be in you Now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ the eternal High-priest and Son of God build you up in faith and truth and in all meekness that ye may be without anger and in all patience longanimity long-sufferance and chastity and give you a lot and part amongst his Saints and to us together with you and to all who are under heaven that shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead Pray for all Saints Pray also for Kings and Potentates and Princes for those who persecute you and hate you and for the enemies of the Cross that your fruit may be manifested in all and ye may be perfect in him Ye and also Ignatius have written unto me that if any man go into Syria he may carry also your Letters which I will either do my self if I have a fit opportunity or he whom I shall send upon your message also According to your request we have sent unto you those Epistles of Ignatius which he wrote unto us and so many others of his as we had by us which are subjoyned to this Epistle and by which ye may be very much profited for they contain in them faith and patience and all that is necessary for the building of you up in our Lord. Signifie unto us what ye shall certainly know concerning Ignatius himself and those who are with him I have written unto you these things by Crescens whom I formerly commended to you and do now commend for he was conversant amongst us unblameably and I believe he was the same amongst you Ye shall also have his sister commended when she shall come unto you Be safe in the Lord Jesus Christ in grace with all yours Amen The Life and Death of Holy IGNATIUS Bishop of the Church of Antioch in Syria Holy Martyr and Disciple of Saint John the Evangelist Together with a true account of these following Epistles of his 1. To the Smyrneans 2. To Polycarp 3. To the Ephesians 4. To the Magnesians 5. To the Philadelphians 6. To the Trallians 7. To the Romans All faithfully translated out of the Original Greek into English according to the most genuine Copy found in the Library of Lawrence De Medicis by the Learned Isaac Vossius and by him published at Amsterdam in the year of our Lord. 1646. THis holy man Ignatius was a man of an extraordinary Zeal vast Charity most clear Apprehensions as to Divine things devout and religious even to a Miracle He was styled Theopherus as he calls himself in all his Epistles either as is supposed by some because he was that Little Child mentioned in the Gospel which Christ took up in his arms when he would teach his Disciples Humility by the low Character of Childhood or because he did constantly bear God about with him in his holy and pure heart My purpose is in brief to shew you what he was of what esteem in the Church and how he ended his life by a glorious Martyrdom which I shall do out of those Writers of Antiquity who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons worthy of credit and of very venerable esteem in the Church of Christ Origen reports him Episcopum Antiochiae post Petrum secundum The second Bishop of Antioch after Peter Athanasius said he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made Bishop of Antioch after the Apostles and a Martyr of Christ Irenaeus hath written of him thus that
life which is set before you Why are we not all wise having received the knowledge of God that is Jesus Christ Why are we foolishly destroyed being ignorant of that Grace which the Lord hath truly sent amongst us My spirit is the Off-scouring of the Cross which is a scandal to unbelievers but to us Salvation and Life eternal Where is the wise where is the disputer where is the boasting of wise men so called For our God Jesus Christ was conceived by Mary according to the Oeconomie of God of the seed of David by the holy Ghost who was born and baptized that he might through sufferings cleanse the water And the Virginity of Mary the Child born of her and the Death of the Lord were hid from the prince of this world being three crying Mysteries yet wrought up by God in silence How came he then to be manifested to ages A Star in Heaven appeared which out-shined all the other stars and the light of it was ineffable and the Noveltie of it did contain a strangeness in it All the other stars together with the Sun and Moon were a Chorus to this Star which did carry in it a brightness and splendour above them all The world was troubled about it to find out how this New-Star should appear amongst the other stars so unlike unto them hereupon all Magick was dissolved and every bond of wickedness dis-appeared ignorance was taken away the old kingdom was destroyed when God appeared as man for the renewing of Life eternal But that which was perfect with God took a beginning and thereupon all things worked together to bring about the destruction of death If Jesus Christ through your Prayers shall make me worthy and it be his will in a second little Book which I am about to write unto you I will lay open unto you how I began my Oeconomie in the New man Jesus Christ both in his Faith Love Passion and Resurrection and I shall the rather do this if the Lord shall reveal it unto me Because all of you man by man through the grace of his Name concur together in Jesus Christ of the stock of David according to the flesh the son of man and the Son of God and ye are all obedient to the Bishop and to the Presbyterie with an undivided mind breaking one bread which is the Medicine of Immortalitie an Antidote against death preserving to Life eternal in Jesus Christ I could give my life for you and for him whom ye have sent to Smyrna for the honour of God whence also I write unto you giving thanks unto the Lord loving both Polycarp and you Remember me as Jesus Christ also remembers you Pray for the Church which is in Syria whence I am led away a Prisoner unto Rome being the last of the faithful there if I may be accounted worthy to be found to the honour of God Farewel in God the Father and in Jesus Christ our common hope To the Ephesians To the Magnesians Ignatius who is also Theophorus to the Church blessed in the Grace of God the Father through Jesus Christ our Saviour which is at Magnesia neer to Maeander which I salute in him and wish it very much joy in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. KNowing your most excellent Order of Love which is according to God I joyfully made it my choice to speak unto you in the faith of Jesus Christ For being accounted worthly of the Name most becoming God in these bonds wherein I carry it about I celebrate the Churches praying that they may be united in the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ who is our endless life by Faith and Love before which nothing is preferred but chiefly of Jesus and the Father through whom having patiently endured every injury from the prince of this world and escaping them we shall enjoy God For I was accounted worthy to see you by Damas your Divine Bishop and the worthy Presbyters Bassus and Apollonius and Sotion the Deacon my Fellow-servant whom I would enjoy because he is subject to the Bishop as to the Grace of God and to the Presbyterie as to the Law of Jesus Christ And it becomes you not to make any use to your selves of the age of the Bishop but to give him all Reverence according to the power of God the Father as I have known holy Presbyters not presuming upon that juvenile order which appears but as wise men in God concurring with him yet not with him but with the Father of Jesus Christ the Bishop of all Therefore for his honour who wills it it is meet we perform obedience without hypocrisie For a man doth not deceive this Bishop whom we see but puts a fallacie upon him who is invisible This is not spoken in reference to the flesh but to God who knoweth secrets Therefore it is meet not onely to be called Christians but to be so For some indeed there are who own the Bishop in name but do all things without him Such men appear to me to be men of no good Conscience because they hold meetings not established by commandment All works have some end two are propounded Death and Life and every man shall go to his proper place As there are two sorts of Coyn one of God another of the world and each Coyn hath its proper stamp set upon it Infidels have the stamp of this world Believers in love have the stamp of God the Father by Jesus Christ whose life cannot be in us unless we can through him voluntarily die into his Passion But seeing I have in the persons prescribed taken a view of your whole multitude in Faith and Love I admonish you to do all things in the unanimity of God your Bishop being President over you in the place of God and the Presbyters in place of the Council of the Apostles and the Deacons most pleasant to me having the Diaconie of Jesus Christ committed to them who was with the Father before ages and in the end appeared Having therefore all received manners like unto God reverence one another and let no man defraud his neighbour according to the flesh but love one another always in Jesus Christ Let nothing be amongst you which may possibly divide you but be united to the Bishop and to those who are Presidents over you according to the Type and Doctrine of incorruption Therefore as the Lord being united to him did nothing without the Father neither by himself nor by the Apostles so neither do ye act any thing without the Bishop and the Presbyters Neither attempt any thing upon your own account however reasonable it may appear unto you When ye come together into one place let there be One Prayer One Supplication one mind one hope in Love and in immaculate joy There is one Jesus Christ than whom nothing is better Therefore all concur together as into the Temple of God as to one Altar to one Jesus Christ who came from one Father and being
to God will perfect me that I may obtain that Lot to which I was chosen flying to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus and to the Apostles as to the Presbyterie of the Church We love also the Prophets because they preached the Gospel and did hope in him and expect him in whom also believing they were saved in the Unitie of Jesus Christ being holy men worthy to be beloved and most worthy of admiration born witness of by Jesus Christ being his Martyrs and numbred up together in the Gospel of the common hope But if any man preach Judaism to you hear him not For it is better to hear Christianism from one circumcised than Judaism from one uncircumcised But if both of them speak not of Jesus Christ they are to me as Pillars and Monuments of dead men whereon the names of men onely are written Flie therefore evil arts and the frauds of the prince of this world lest being troubled with his opinion ye be weakned in charitie Be all of you made up into one with an undivided heart I thank my God that I have a good Conscience as concerning you and that no man hath wherof to glory either privately or publikely that I have been burdensom to any either in little or much And I beseech all to whom I have spoken that they possess not this as a Testimonie And although some would seduce me according to the flesh yet my spirit which is from God is not seduced He knows whence it comes and whither it goes and is a reproover of secrets I have cried in the midst of you I have spoken it with a loftie voice Attend unto the Bishop and the Presbyterie and the Deacons And though some have suspected me to have spoken these things as foreknowing the Division of some yet he is my witness for whom I am a Prisoner that I have not been taught it by man but the Spirit preached it saying these things Do nothing without the Bishop Keep your flesh as the Temple of God Love Vnitie Flie divisions Be ye followers of Jesus Christ as he himself is of the Father Therefore I did what was proper for me as a man perfected unto Unitie But where there is division and wrath God dwelleth not Therefore the Lord pardons all Penitents if they shall return by Repentance to the Vnitie of God and the Council of the Bishop I believe the Grace of Jesus Christ who will loose every bond from you And I exhort you to do nothing with contention but according to the Discipline of Christ For I have heard some speaking in this wise That if I find it not amongst the Antients I do not believe the Gospel And when I replied to them That it is written They answered me It lies before us But Jesus Christ is to me Antiquitie and the Records not to be touched are his Cross and his Death and his Resurrection and the Faith which is by him in which things I would be justified through your Prayers Honourable are the Priests but more honourable the High-priest to whom are committed the Holies of Holies and with whom alone are deposited the hidden things of God He is the Door of the Father by whom Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets and Apostles and Church of God have entered All these things are for the Unitie of God But the Gospel hath something in it chiefly valueable and that is The Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ his Passion and Resurrection For the beloved Prophets preached of him but the Gospel is the Perfection of incorruption All things together are excellent if ye believe in Love But seeing that through your Prayers according to the bowels which ye have in Christ Jesus the Church which is at Antioch of Syria as is told to me is at peace it becomes you as the Church of God to ordain a Minister to go thither as an Embassadour upon the Embasie of God to joy together with them that they are made one and to glorifie his Name Blessed in Jesus Christ shall that man be who shall be accounted worthy of such a Ministery and ye your selves shall be glorified This is not impossible for the Name of God if ye have but a will to it as some neighbour Churches also have sent Bishops others Presbyters and Deacons As for Philo the Deacon of Cilicia he is a man that hath given a good Testimonie and now ministers to me in the Word of God together with Rheus Agathopus a choyce man who accompanies me from Syria having renounced this life these also bear testimonie to you and I give thanks to God for you because ye have received them as the Lord you But they who have dishonoured them may obtain Redemption by the Grace of Jesus Christ The Love of the Brethren who are at Troas saluteth you whence also I write unto you by Burrus who was sent along with me from the Ephesians and the Smyrneans for the Word of honour The Lord Jesus Christ will honour them in whom they hope in flesh soul faith love and unanimitie Farewel in Christ Jesus our common Hope Ignatius to the Philadelphians To the Trallians Ignatius who is also Theophorus to the holy Church beloved of God the Father of Jesus Christ which is in Trallis of Asia elect and divine having obtained peace in the flesh and bloud by the Passion of Jesus Christ our hope and the Resurrection grounded upon him which I salute in fulness in an Apostolical Style wishing much joy I Have known you to have a blameless understanding not to be severed in Patience and that not by use but by nature as Polybius your Bishop hath manifested to me who by the will of God and of Jesus Christ was at Smyrna and did so congratulate me a Prisoner for Jesus Christ that I did view over your whole multitude in him Therefore receiving from him that good disposition of mind which is according to God I gloried finding you as I had known you the followers of God For in regard ye are subject to the Bishop as to Jesus Christ ye appear to me not to live as men but to live according to Jesus Christ who died for us that believing in his death ye may escape death Therefore it is necessary as ye do to do nothing without the Bishop but that ye be subject to the Presbyterie as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ our Hope in whom we should be found having our conversation It behooves the Deacons also being the Mysterie of Jesus Christ to please all men every manner of way For they are not the Ministers of meats and drinks but Ministers of the Church of God Therefore it is necessary for them to avoid accusations as fire Let all in like manner reverence the Deacons as Jesus Christ and the Bishop being the Son of the Father and the Presbyters as the Council of God and companie of the Apostles Without these a Church is not called Of whom I am perswaded
that ye are so informed For I have received the Exemplar of your love and have it by me in your Bishop whose behaviour is a great Disciplination and his meekness power whom I think that very Atheists do reverence being satisfied that I spare not my self Formerly though I might have matter to write I thought not fit for this cause lest being a condemned person I might seem to command you as an Apostle I am wise in God as to many things yet do I measure my self that I may not be destroyed by boasting For now it behooves me to be very much affraid and not to give heed to those who would puff me up For when such speak unto me they scourge me Truly I love to suffer but know not whether I am worthy For my zeal appears not to many but I have the greater war within I have need therefore of meekness that by it the prince of this world may be defeated Cannot I write unto you of things celestial but I am affraid lest I should give you some offence being yet but babes Therefore pardon me for I would not perplexe you with those things which ye are not able to bear For it is not for a slightie matter that I am a Prisoner being acquainted with things celestial and the Angelical Orders and their governing Constitutions things visible and invisible and besides this I am now a Disciple For many things are wanting to you that we may not fall short of God Therefore I exhort you not I but the love of Jesus Christ to use only the Christian nutriment and to abstain from that strange herb which is heresie For the times are such that persons worthy of credit seemingly do fold in heresie with Jesus Christ like those who administer deadly poison and temper it with a drink made of honey and sowre wine which the ignorant receives with pleasure and so dies by an evil delectation Therefore preserve your selves from such and so it shall be if ye are not puffed up being inseparable from God Jesus Christ and the Bishop and the Orders of the Apostles He who is within the Altar is pure that is he who does any thing without the Bishop Presbyterie and Deacons is of an impure Conscience Not that I have known any such thing among you but foreseeing the subtilties of the devil I take care of you before hand being my beloved Do ye therefore re-assuming your mild disposition build up your selves anew in the faith which is the flesh of the Lord in love which is the bloud of Jesus Christ Let none among you have any quarrel against his Neighbour Give no offences to the Gentiles that the Multitude which is in God be not blasphemed by a few foolish men For Wo to him through whose foolishness my Name is blasphemed amongst some Therefore be deaf to him who speaks to you without Jesus Christ who was of the stock of David and of Mary who was truly born eat and drank was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate was truly crucified dead things in heaven on earth and under the earth beholding him And was truly raised again from the dead his Father raising him up according to his likeness as his Father will raise up us also if we believe in him through Jesus Christ without whom we have no true life But if as some Atheists that is Infidels sâ—y He suffered only in appearance as they themselves are only in appearance why am I in bonds and why do I pray that I may fight with beasts therefore do I not die without reward and am I not a lyar against the Lord Fly therefore evil plants which bring forth deadly fruit which if a man taste of he dies presently For these are not the Plantation of the Father if they were they would appear branches of the Cross and their fruit would be incorruptible Through which Cross by his Passion he Advocates for you being his Members The Head therefore cannot be born without the Members God having promised the Vnion of them who is himself I salute you from Smyrna together with the Churches of God which are present with me who have every way refreshed me both in flesh and spirit My bonds which I carry about for Jesus Christ do admonish you that I desire to enjoy God Continue in your Vnanimitie and in Prayer one for another For it becomes you all one by one exceedingly and the Presbyters to comfort up the Bishop for the honour of the Father of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles I beseech you in love to hear me that writing unto you I may not be a witness within you Pray also for me out of that Charitie which is in you for I need the mercy of God that I may be accounted worthy of the Lot which I labour to enjoy and may not be found Reprobate The love of the Smyrneans and Ephesians saluteth you Remember in your prayers the Church which is in Syria whence I am not worthy to be called being the last of them Farewel in Jesus Christ being subject to the Bishop as to the Commandement and likewise to the Presbyterie And love one another man by man with an undivided heart My Spirit shall be an expiation for you not onely now but when I shall enjoy God For as yet I am in danger but the Father who is faithful will fulfil my Petition and yours in Jesus Christ in whom may ye be found unblameable To the Trallians To the Romans Ignatius who is also Theophorus to the Church which hath obtained Mercy through the Magnificence of the most high Father and Jesus Christ his onely begotten Son sanctified and enlightned by him who willeth all things which are according to the love of Jesus Christ our God which is President over the Churches about in the Region of the Romans as over a Quire being divine comely most blessed worthy of praise in a becoming order eminently chaste and set up for a President of Charitie having the Law of Christ and bearing the Name of the Father which I also salute in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of the Father according to the flesh and spirit united in every command of his filled with all the Grace of God without any difference and purged from every strange tincture wishing very much joy in our Lord Jesus Christ our God immaculately HAving beseeched God I happened to see your divine faces as I much desired to receive you And being in bonds for Jesus Christ I hope to salute you if it be his will that I may be accounted worthy to continue to the end For the beginning is well ordered if thereby I may obtain Grace so as to obtain my Lot unto the end without impediment For I fear your charitie lest it prove injurious to me For to you it is easie to do what ye will but to me it is a difficult thing to enjoy God unless ye are the more sparing to me I would not have you to please men
but to please God as ye do please him I shall never have such an opportunity to enjoy God neither shall ye be intituled to a better work if ye can but be silent For if ye be silent and let me alone I shall be of God but if ye love my flesh I shall be but a voice and to run again Ye cannot do better than to let me be sacrificed unto God in regard the Altar is already prepared That ye being made up a chorus in love may sing to the Father in Jesus Christ because God hath accounted the Bishop of Syria worthy to be found and to be sent from the East unto the West to set and go down gloriously from the world unto God that I may rise again in him Ye have never bewitched me in any thing ye have instructed others and I would that those things may be firm which ye as teachers have commanded Onely pray for me to be inabled inwardly and outwardly that I may not onely say it but will it and not only be called a Christian but be found so For if I shall be found so I may also be so called and then be a Believer when I appear not to the world Nothing is good which is onely in appearance For our God Jesus Christ being in the Father appeareth the more A Christian is not a work of persuasion but of greatness especially when he shall be hated of the world I write to all the Churches and lay my commands upon them all that I may willingly die for God if ye shall not hinder me I intreat you that ye would not be unseasonably kind unto me Suffer me to be the meat of beasts that by them I may enjoy God I am the wheat of God and shall be ground by the teeth of beasts that I may be found the pure bread of God Allure those beasts the rather to become my sepulchre and to leave no reliques of my body that when I am fallen asleep I may not be burdensom to any Then shall I be the true Disciple of Jesus Christ when the world shall not see my body Pray to the Lord for me that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God I do not give you commands as Peter and Paul they were Apostles but I am a condemned person they were free but I am a servant even until now yet if I suffer I shall be made the Freeman of Jesus Christ and shall rise again free and being now a Prisoner I learn to desire nothing From Syria even to Rome do I fight with beasts both by Land and by Sea by night and by day being bound to ten Leopards which are my military guard which are the worse for being kindly treated But by their injurious dealings I am the more made a Disciple yet am I not therefore justified I would enjoy the beasts which are prepared for me and I pray that they may be found sharply set nay I would entise them greedily to devour me and not fearfully to decline the touching of me as they have avoided some But if they shun me and will not I shall provoke them Pardon me I know what is convenient for me Now I begin to be a Disciple in that I have a zeal to nothing visible or invisible but that I may gain Jesus Christ Let the fire the cross the violence of beasts scattering of bones concision or chewing of members grinding of the whole body buffetings of the devil come upon me so that I may but enjoy Jesus Christ The ends of the world will profit me nothing nor the kingdoms of this age It is good for me to die for Jesus Christ rather then to rule over the ends of the earth I seek him who died for us I will him who rose again for us He is the Gain set before me Pardon me brethren do not hinder me to live do not separate me by the world who am willing to be of God nor seduce me by that which is material Suffer me to receive the pure light when I approach to that I shall be a man of God Suffer me to imitate the Passion of my God If any man hath him within him he may understand what I will and sympathize with me knowing what things have taken possession of me The prince of this world would spoil me and corrupt my judgement which is according to God Therefore let none of you being present contribute any assistance to him but rather be for me that is for God Do not speak Jesus Christ and covet the world Let no fascination be amongst you Neither do I exhort you being present to believe me rather believe the things which I write unto you for I write unto you being alive yet withal willing to die My Love is crucified and the fire which is in me desires no water But there is one living and speaking in me who saith to me inwardly Come to the Father I take no pleasure in the meat of corruption nor in the pleasures of this life I will the bread of God which is the flesh of Jesus Christ of the seed of David and the drink which I will is his bloud which is incorruptible love I would live no longer according to men and this shall be if ye will Will it therefore that ye also may be accepted I intreat you by a few writings believe me but Jesus Christ shall manifest these things to you that I speak truth That is no lying mouth by which the Father hath truly spoken Pray for me that I may obtain For I have not written unto you according to the flesh but according to the mind of God If I suffer ye have loved me but if I prove Reprobate ye have hated me Remember in your Prayers the Church in Syria which in my stead hath God for its Pastour Jesus Christ himself shall watch over it and your Love But I am ashamed to be named from them for I am not worthy being the last of them and an abortive But I may through mercy be something if I obtain God My Spirit saluteth you and the love of the Churches which have received me for the Name of Jesus Christ not as one passing by them for they did not meet me onely on the way according to the flesh but conducted me to the Citie These things I write unto you from Smyrna by the Ephesians worthy to be most blessed Crocus also is with me a Name desireable together with many others who came from Syria to Rome to the glorie of God I believe they are known to you to whom ye may make manifest the things approaching me For they are all worthy of God and of you and it becomes you to refresh them in all things I have written unto you these things upon the day before the ninth of the Calends of September Be strengthened to the end in the Patience of Jesus Christ FINIS The Life of Saint BARNABAS the Apostle SAint Barnabas was a man of
Love failing in no good gift most becoming God and fruitful in holiness which is at Smyrna in Asia be very much joy in the immaculate Spirit by the Word of God I Glorifie the God Jesus Christ who hath filled you with Wisdom For I understand that ye are perfected in an immoveable faith and are as persons fastened with nails to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ both in flesh and in spirit and well-grounded in love by the bloud of Christ having a full assurance in our Lord who was truly of the stock of David according to the flesh the Son of God according to the will and power of God truly born of a Virgin baptized by John that he might fulfil all righteousness and who truly suffered for us in the flesh under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch From the fruit of whom we are even from his divinely blessed Passion that he might by his Resurrection lift up an ensign to all ages to the Saints and to all who do believe in him whether they be Jews or Gentiles in one body of his Church For he suffered all these things for us that we might be saved And he truly suffered as also he truly raised up himself neither did he suffer onely in appearance as some infidels affirm who themselves are onely in appearance and according to their wisdom shall it happen unto them being incorporeal and daemoniacks For I my self saw him in the flesh after his Resurrection and do believe that he is risen And when he came to those who were with Peter he said unto them Take hold of me handle me and see me for I am not an incorporeal spirit And straightway they touched him and believed in him being convinced by his flesh and by his spirit And hereupon they contemned death for they found themselves to be above it And after his Resurrection he eat and drank with them as one in the flesh though he was in spirit united to the Father Touching these things Beloved I admonish you however I know ye are already of this perswasion I do it to preserve you from beasts in the shape of men whom it is necessarie for you not to entertain but to avoid as much as possible Onely pray for them if happily they may repent which is a thing very difficult But Jesus Christ who is our true life hath the power of this But if these things were done by our Lord onely seemingly then am I also seemingly in bonds And why have I yielded up my self to be put to death why to the fire to the sword to the beasts but because to be nigh to the sword is to be nigh to God and to be inclosed with beasts is to be compassed about with God Only in the Name of Jesus Christ do I endure all things that I may suffer with him who is himself made a perfect man and now strengtheneth me Whom some ignorant men denie but they are rather denied by him being more the Preachers of death than of truth whom neither the Prophets have perswaded nor the Law of Moses nor yet the Gospel hitherto nor those suffrings of ours which are according to man For they are of the same mind concerning us But what would it advantage me should any man speak in my praise and yet blaspheme my Lord denying him to have taken flesh upon him For he who confesseth not this hath perfectly denied him and puts him to death But I am unwilling to write down their infidel names neither may I make any particular remembrance of them until they shall happily repent into a belief of the Passion which is our Resurrection Let no man be deceived For if things in heaven and the glory of Angels and Rulers visible and invisible believe not in the bloud of Christ it will be even unto them condemnation He who receiveth it may receive it Let place puff up no man for Faith and Charity is All and nothing is to be preferred before them But observe those who are otherwise opinioned of the grace of Jesus Christ which came unto us how contrary they are to the judgement of God They have no regard at all of Charity they neither care for the Widow nor Orphan nor any afflicted person be he bond or free hungry or thirstie They absent themselves from the Eucharist and Prayer because they will not confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins and which the Father by his goodness raised from death to life Therefore contradicting this gift of God and disputing about it they die but it would be better for them to Love it that they may rise again It is very convenient that ye abstain from such persons and that ye have no converse with them neither privately nor publikely But that ye give heed unto the Prophets and chiefly to the Gospel wherein the Passion is made manifest unto us and the Resurrection is completed But avoid Divisions as the beginning of evils And be all of you observant of the Bishop as Jesus Christ was observant of the Father and observe the Presbyterie as the Apostles and Reverence the Deacons as the command of God Let no man presume to do any thing belonging to the Church without the Bishop And let that Eucharist onely be accounted firm which is either performed by the Bishop himself or by his Licence Where the Bishop shall appear there let the multitude be for where Jesus Christ is there is the Catholique Church It is neither lawful to baptize nor to keep the Love-feast without the Bishop but whatever he shall approve of that is well-pleasing to God that so every thing which is done may be firm and established Furthermore it is a blessed thing to grow sober and whilst we have opportunity to return to God by repentance It is a becoming thing to know God and the Bishop He who honoureth the Bishop is honoured of God but he who doth any thing without the Bishops approbation performs a service to the Devil Therefore let all things abound among you in grace for ye are worthy Ye have every way refreshed me and Jesus Christ will refresh you Ye have loved me both when I was absent and present God will requite you and if ye patiently endure all things for his sake ye shall enjoy him Ye did well in that ye gave an honourable reception to Philon Rheus and Agathopus as the Ministers of God-Christ who have accompanied me for the Word of God They also give thanks unto the Lord for you because ye have every way refreshed them Nothing which ye have done to them shall be lost as to you I could offer up this my spirit upon the service of your Souls and upon the same account carry about these my bonds which ye have neither despised nor been ashamed of neither will Jesus Christ the perfect faith be ashamed of you Your Prayer reached as far as to the Church which is in Antioch
excellent and divine Qualifications beautified and adorned with singular gifts and graces for the propagating of Christianitie and promoting the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus being one of the secundary Apostles which were in that age made choice of in imitation of the twelve and chosen together with Paul to this honourable imployment by God himself Act. 13. 2. All were not Apostles 1 Cor. 12. 29. Hoc magnum erat per paucorum privilegium This was a great Privilege and onely of some few Christ was the Apostle of God Heb. 3. 1. the Twelve the Apostles of Christ Joh. 20. 21. and they as the Spirit gave direction did constitute others in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There being many Apostles besides the Twelve after their similitude Of this number was Barnabas who needs not any humane Character in regard he abounded with so much of Divine Approbation for honourable mention is frequently made of him in the Acts of the Apostles written by Saint Luke He and Paul were tanquam jugati boves as Gods chief yoke of Oxen ploughing over much ground and manuring the field of Christianitie He was a person of very great Eminencie and Integritie in his Place and Office often imployed upon honourable Services for the Church sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with holy and blessed Paul and when he had done the Church all honest and faithful Service he possibly could and had improved his talents to his Masters glorie the Churches benefit and his own he finished the course of his natural life by a glorious Martyrdom and under the power of Nero the first of Persecutors and worst of men was burnt at the stake for his Religion upon the eleventh of June which day is Annually observed by our Church to perpetuate his memory and to advance Gods glorie This briefly concerning the Author his following Epistle indeed may not prove so very acceptable to some in regard of his strange Explications of Scripture which are not after the modern and more refined mode But it is to be noted that when he wrote Christianity was but in the Cradle and scarce advanced into her morning Dress then God made choice of the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and of rude and illiterate men to confound the learned Since that time Christianity hath made a conquest over the world heathen learning is become subservient to divine Truths the rudeness and first Draught of Christianity hath been polished over and adorned by the most able and learned Pens The following Translation of this Epistle is according to the Original Greek Copy set forth by Mr Isaac Vossius and printed at Amsterdam Anno Dom. 1646. who himself gives this following account of it in his Annotations upon it Some years have passed over since it was my resolution to publish this Epistle of Barnabas which I received from the incomparable Salmasius but being prevented by a journey I could not then perfect what I intended When I went for England to make my self acquainted with that Nation another opportunity offered it self unto me whereby I was encouraged speedily to make publike the Epistle before mentioned which had merited long before to be sent forth to the publike view For the Right Reverend Dr Vsher Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland was then preparing to publish a new Edition of Ignatius and when he made it both his request and offer that this Epistle of Barnabas might be printed with his Ignatian Epistles I not onely freely consented to it but was very glad that so very Antient a Monument should fall into those hands from which I was assured it would borrow not a little splendour And had not a great fire consumed a great part of the Citie of Oxford and destroyed all Exemplars we had had long since a very fair Edition of this Author However there were not wanting in France some learned men who thought it a very unworthy thing that such a writing as this should be so long concealed Thereupon Claudius Menardus of the Order of Saint Maurus lately fitted out for us a new Edition and that he hath very well deserved of the publike for this act of his no man can deny Yet he had merited more had it been his good fortune to see more Copies For seeing that Edition of his was wholly taken out of one only book it could not possibly come forth any other then very faulty Though fortune hath not so much favoured me as to minister occasion to any mans envie yet this happiness hath been afforded me to have the use of three Manuscripts whereby to correct that Edition The Medicaean Librarie of Florence supplyed me with the first and that of Theatins at Rome furnished me with the other two and Lucas Hostenius an eminent man who cannot be praised according to his deserts is the person to whom I am indebted for the use of them What help these three Manuscripts have afforded me he will be best able to judge who can think it worth his while to compare this with the other Edition before mentioned But I cannot imagine upon what grounds some men should think that this is not the Epistle of Barnabas whereas Clement Origen and others ascribe it to him Learned men I believe may take offence at some unusual Expositions of his made upon some places of Scripture but they can have nothing whereon to ground a perswasion that those places should be misinterpreted by a man of so great authority whom the holy Scriptures make so frequent mention of and who was always an inseparable Companion of the Apostle Paul and himself one of the Minor Apostles But who could expect all kind of Science and Learning from those first Christians and think that they might not as well be mistaken as their Relatives especially in things not appertaining to Faith Do we not meet with many things as strange in the Epistle of Clement which Epistle was published by Patricius Junius the Kings Library Keeper and an eminent man to whom I am so much a debtor that he cannot possibly oblige me more For who can well digest that fable of Clement about the Phoenix and his many worlds beyond the Ocean neither do I believe that some will easily admit of that Exposition about the Scarlet thred of the Harlot Rahab that it should be a Type of the bloud of Christ and other things of this nature which I could reckon up but they are not so proper for this place yet was this Clement called an Apostle by as good right as Barnabas was Therefore no persons ought to find fault with that in the one which they excuse in the other It is known to every one how very mystically superstitiously and almost impertinently those first Christians did interpret the Scriptures Therefore if some things should be met with in this Author which may displease the Learned let them rather impute it to the manner of expression used by those ancient Christians
hath not stood in the way of sinners as persons seemingly reverencing their lord and yet transgressing like swine And hath not sat in the seat of pestilent men Like unto birds which sit watching for prey Thus have you a perfect knowledge of Moses his Constitutions about meats But Moses saith Thou maist eat of whatever hath a cloven hoof and cheweth the cud Wherefore saith he it because every such creature having received food doth seem to acknowledge his feeder and being refreshed to rejoyce in him He spake it well seeing the Commandment therefore what said he He gave in Commandment that they should be joyned to those who fear the Lord and who meditate in the heart upon the Command of the Word which they have received and to associate with those who speak the judgements of the Lord and keep them and to those who knowing that Meditation is a work of joy do ruminate upon the word of the Lord. But what means the beast with a cloven foot This shews that a just man though he walks in this world yet he expects and lays hold upon another Observe how excellently Moses gave his laws But they could not know or understand these things Yet we rightly understanding the Commands do speak as the Lord would therefore hath God circumcised our ears and our hearts that we might understand these things We shall now enquire whether it was the Lord's care to manifest any thing before hand touching the Water and the Cross As concerning the Water it is written to Israel how they should not receive Baptism which should bring remission of sins but should build up to themselves Therefore the Prophet saith Be astonished O heaven and let the earth very much tremble at it for this people hath committed two great evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out to themselves broken cisterns Is my holy mount Sion a desert rock Ye shall be as the young ones of a bird fluttering about the forsaken nest And again the Prophet saith I will go before thee and will level the mountains and will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that they may know that I am the Lord God And he shall dwell in the deep cave of the strong rock afterwards what saith he His water shall be sure through the Son Ye shall see the king with glory and your soul shall meditate on the fear of the Lord. And again he saith in another Prophet He who doth these things shall be as a tree planted by the water-courses which shall give its fruit in its season and his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doth it shall prosper not so the ungodly not so but they shall be as the dust which the wind scattereth before the face of the earth Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement nor sinners in the counsel of the just For the Lord knoweth the way of the rightcous and the way of the ungodly shall perish Be ye sensible how he hath appointed Water and the Cross for the same thing For this he saith Blessed are they who hoping in the Cross have descended into the Water And whereas he saith he will give a reward in its season This he saith I will retribute to them The leaves shall not wither This he saith That every word which shall proceed out of your mouth in faith and love shall be for the conversion and hope of many Again another Prophet saith And the land of Jacob was praised above all lands This he speaks of the Vessel of his spirit which he will glorifie Afterwards what saith he And there was a river drawing from the right hand and trees in their season grew up out of it and whosoever shall eat of them shall live for ever This he saith Because we descend into the water full of sin and filth and we ascend out of it bearing fruit in the heart having fear and hope in the Son Jesus through the spirit And whereas he saith Whosoever shall eat of these shall live for ever This he saith Whosoever saith he shall hear the things that are spoken and shall believe he shall live for ever He determines in like manner concerning the Cross by another Prophet speaking thus And when these things shall be consummate and when the wood shall be bowed saith the Lord and shall rise again and when blond shall distit from the wood Thou hast something again touching the Cross and him who should be crucified For he saith again in Moses When Israel was warred against by strangers and that they were to be put in remembrance that they were warred against that they might be delivered up to death for their sins the spirit spake to the heart of Moses That he should make a type of the Cross and of him who should suffer to shew that unless they hoped in him they should be warred against for ever Therefore Moses laid the armour one piece upon another in the middle of a fountain and standing higher than all stretched out his hands and so Israel prevailed and when he drew in his hands again they were put to death Why was this That they may know that they cannot be saved unless they hope in him And in another Prophet he saith All the day long have I stretched forth my hands to a people that will not be perswaded contradicting my just way Moses again makes a type of Jesus because it was necessary that he should suffer and give life when they supposed to have destroyed him in the sepulchre For when Israel fell he made every serpent to bite them and they died because the transgression in Eve was by the serpent that he might reprove them and convince them that for their transgression they were delivered up to the anguish of death In the end though Moses had commanded that there should be no molten nor graven image amongst them for a God he made one to shew the type of Jesus For Moses made a serpent of brass and placed it gloriously and by Proclamation called the people They coming together intreated Moses that he would pray and make an offering for them that they might be healed Then Moses said unto them When any of you shall be bitten let him come to this serpent set upon a pole and let him hope believing that though it is dead it is able to give life and he shall be immediately healed and they did so In this thou hast the glorie of Jesus for all things are in him and to him What saith Moses again to Jesus the Son of Naue giving him being a Prophet this Name That all the people should hear him only because the Father would reveal all things touching his Son Jesus to the Son of Naue And when he gave him this Name and sent him to search the Land He said Take a little