of what a mighty Concern it is to us in the business of our Salvation And for the Other Sacrament Here we are taught that the Elements of Bread and Wine are the same as to their Substance after Consecration that they were before and are only in a Spiritual Sense the Flesh and Blood of our Saviour Christ. 12. AND Lastly For that great comprehensive Point of our Religion the Foundation of our Faith the Holy Scriptures Here we may see what Opinion these Holy Men had of the Divine Inspiration of them what Deferences they paid to them and how they looked upon them to contain the true Words of the Holy Ghost 13. SUCH is the Doctrine of Faith that is here delivered to us If from thence we pass 2 dly to what concerns the Publick Order and Government of the Church in the first Establishment of it Here we may see by what Persons it was directed and how exactly our own Church do's in this particular resemble the Primitive perhaps beyond any other at this day in the World in the Apostolical Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons 14. HOW necessarily they esteem'd it their Duty to keep up a strict Communion with these Governours and how little they thought the very Name of a Church could belong to those who separated from them we are here likewise taught And how light soever some may make of the Business of Schism now yet it is plain these Holy Men had a very different Apprehension of it and hardly thought that such could be saved as continued in it 15. AND the same or rather much worse was their Opinion of Hereticks and Apostates To the latter of which as they seem even to have deny'd Repentance so 't is manifest that without it they thought the Others must perish And in the mean time they declare that we ought not to have any Communication with them Only we must pray for them that they may be converted which yet they supposed would be very hard 16. AS for those who continued in the Doctrine and Communion of the Church here we may see how zealous they were in attending all the publick Offices of it How constantly they assembled together for the Worship of God notwithstanding all the Malice and Fury of their Enemies against them upon the Account of it Here we may see how from the beginning they had their set Times and Places of Worship And how they look'd upon such Offertories both as more acceptable unto God and more prevalent with him than any Private Addresses that they could make to him 17. IN these Assemblies they not only put up their Prayers to God but received also the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper And in that part of their Service none officiated but either the Bishop himself or he who was appointed or allow'd by him 18. FOR this purpose they had in every such place of their Assembling One Table or Altar at which they perform'd this Service And they communicated after the same manner that our Saviour Christ had set them the Example of one common Loaf which was broken and distributed to them not of little separate and unbroken Wafers as some now do 19. NOR was this yet all In these Assemblies the Holy Scriptures were read to them and as I have before shewn some of the very Treatises I have here subjoyn'd together with them And the Bishop besides himself instructed the People and expounded the Doctrine of Christ to them 20. BY the Bishop were the Christians blessed and joyn'd together in the Holy State of Matrimony And indeed without him was nothing done of all that pertain'd unto Religion 21. IN those Times the Clergy were marry'd as well as Laity nor do we find it esteem'd the least Scandal for them so to be 22. HERE we may see what the ancient manner of Fasting was and what was thought requisite to render such Exercises acceptable to God and profitable to our own Souls 23. IN short Here we may perceive what their Opinion was of Repentance for Sins and how hardly they thought of those who were still Repenting and yet still continuing to sin on notwithstanding their frequent Repentance But especially here we are told that we must finish our Repentance before we die for that there is no place for Repentance after 24. AND tho' they prescribe Confession as one Act of Repentance and necessary to be perform'd in order to our Forgiveness yet we find them advising it to be done to God only and intimate to us that that alone was sufficient 25. BUT the Care of their Bishops in those first times was not confin'd within the narrow Bounds of their own Churches but extended to All the Faithful wheresoever they were And they were still ready to look to those who were at the greatest distance from them whenever they thought their Advice or Authority might be either useful to them or for the Honour and Benefit of their Religion 26. FROM this and from the general Piety and Excellence of their Lives joyn'd to the Greatness of their Character in the Church came that mighty Respect that was shewn to the Bishops in those days And which how great it was the following Treatises abundantly shew 27. BUT much greater was their Veneration for those who not only Govern'd well and adorn'd their Holy Profession by an Exemplary Life but confirm'd the Truth of it with their Blood They were indeed of Opinion that no Man ought causelesly to expose himself unto Suffering But if God called a Man to it they doubted not but that our Saviour Christ would both support him in his Conflicts and most gloriously reward him for the enduring of them Hence was it their Opinion that Martyrdom blotted out all Sins That they who suffer'd for the Faith should have a Degree of Glory peculiar to themselves above all Other Saints in God's Kingdom And when God shew'd such regard for them they concluded that they could never almost do enough to testifie their Respect to them 28. TO this we must ascribe the Care they took to gather up their Remains the Honour which they gave to them and the Solemnities with which they deposited them into the Earth Hence came their Custom which we here find of writing down the particulars of their Conflicts and sending them abroad to the Churches round about Hence their Anniversary Meetings at their Tombs and Monuments Where they recited the Acts of their Martyrdoms and sometimes made express Discourses in Praise of their Martyrs and to exhort One Another to the like Constancy 29. BUT not to insist any longer on these Particulars There is yet a 3 d. sort of Matters contain'd in these Discourses and those of no less Use to us than either of the foregoing and that is the Practical Rules of Life that are here deliver'd to us 30. HERE we may see what Care we are to take not only not to Sin our selves but as far as in us lies not to let any that
wrote to St. Polycarp himself and to his Church of Smyrna but also by the same Person that carried the other two and that Person St. Polycarps own Deacon whom he had sent with Ignatius to Troas and by whom Ignatius wrote back that Epistle 6. St. POLYCARP then certainly knew of Ignatius's writing to the Philadelphians and very probably sent on Burrhus his Deacon from Smyrna to Philadelphia with his Letter And then I think we may very reasonably conclude that he brought back with him the Copy of it and so that St. Polycarp had that Epistle too in his Hands when he wrote to the Philippians 7. SUCH good grounds have we to believe that the Collection we now have of St. Ignatius's Epistles was no other than what St. Polycarp himself made and refer'd to in that passage of his own Epistle to the Philippians which I have before shewn to be truly his and not the Addition of any latter hand And the same is the Account which Eusebius himself has given us of this Matter He tells us that as Ignatius was on his way to Rome where he was to be cast to the Wild Beasts he not only confirm'd the Churches that were in the places through which he passed by his Exhortations but wrote to the Chiefest of those others that were near such Epistles as these of which we are now speaking And that as he goes on in this following Order First from Smyrna where he tarried some time with his Old Acquaintance and Fellow-Disciple St. Polycarp he wrote to the Ephesians Magnesians Trallians and Romans And being gone farther on his Way to Troas he from thence wrote to the Philadelphians and Smyrneans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a particular Letter to Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna 8. I SAY nothing to the Testimony of St. Hierome as to this Matter who as he exactly agrees with Eusebius in all this so I make no question but that he transcribed his Account out of him It is I think sufficiently evident from what has been already observed not only that St. Ignatius did in general write some Epistles which even Mounsieur Daillé himself thinks ought not to be any question but that he wrote to those particular Churches to which the Epistles we now have are directed and of which I am perswaded there ought to be as little doubt 9. AS for the other point proposed and in which the foregoing also will be yet more fully confirmed namely that those Epistles we now have are the same that Ignatius wrote Two things there are that seem to determine our Belief of it First that there is nothing in these Epistles as we now have them either unworthy of the Spirit of Ignatius or the Character that Antiquity has given us of them Nothing disagreeing to the Time in which he wrote or that should seem to speak them to have been the Work of any latter Author which hardly ever fails to appear in such pieces as are falsly imposed upon Ancient Authors and which not appearing in these Epistles inclines us the more readily to conclude that they were undoubtedly written by him whose they are said to be 10. BUT this is only a presumptive Argument in favour of these Epistles and which though it may serve to dispose us the more readily to receive them as true and genuine yet is not alone sufficient to prove them so to be The other Argument I have now to offer is positive and convincing namely That we find these Epistles as they now are exactly agreeing both with the Descriptions which St. Polycarp and Eusebius have left us of those which they took to be the Authentick Epistles of this Holy Man and with the numerous Quotations which the Ancient Fathers have taken out of them and which all occur in the same Words in our present Copies of them that they are cited in their Writings 11. THIS has been so fully shewn by our most Learned Bishop Pearson and indeed was so manifest of its self to any one that had ever made any Comparisons of this kind that Monsieur Daillé himself could not deny but that we have the same Epistles now that Eusebius Athanasius St. Jerome Theodoret and Gelasius had heretofore So that the only Question then to be consider'd by us is Whether those which Eusebius c. had were not counterfeit but the true Epistles of this great Martyr 12. AND here first it is evident that if those Epistles which Eusebius first and then the rest of those great Men I before mentioned took for the Genuine Epistles of St. Ignatius were none of his the true Epistles which I have just now shewn and which it is confes'd were written by him must before that time have been utterly lost or otherwise destroyed out of the World It being very improbable that had the true Epistles been still remaining neither so inquisitive a Searcher into Antiquity as Eusebius should have heard of them nor such great and learned Men as those that followed after have had any Suspition of such a Deceit But now whether this be probable Whether it can be supposed that such Epistles as these directed to so many great and eminent Churches collected by so Venerable a Man as St. Polycarp and written by so glorious a Martyr as St. Ignatius should within so little time be utterly lost out of the Church I shall leave it to any one who considers how great a Reverence the Primitive Christians had for every thing that came from the Hands of such Holy and Excellent Men and such glorious Martyrs of Christ to determine 13. WE read in the Acts of the Martyrdom of this Blessed Saint with what a mighty Care those who went with him to Rome and were the Eye-Witnesses of his Sufferings gathered up the few hard Bones of his Body which the Lions had left and how they brought them back in a kind of Triumph to his Church at Antioch And we are told with what Pomp they were many Ages after taken up from the place where they were first buried and carried by the Command of the younger Theodosius within the City Insomuch that as our Historians observe there was a Festival Solemnity established upon that Occasion and Annually observed to the very time in which they wrote in remembrance of it But was the Church then so careful of a few dead Bones of such a Saint as this and did they esteem them as so great a Treasure and yet had they so little regard to his Writings the last Testimonies of his Affection to the Churches to which he wrote as to suffer them within Two Hundred Years to be so utterly lost as not to be once known or heard of by the greatest and most curious Searchers into Antiquity This is I confess to me so very improbable that I could almost as easily believe the Holy Scriptures themselves to have been upon a suddain changed into some other Epistles than what St. Peter or St. Paul wrote as that such
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
it And this I say not to magnifie any thing that I have done which I have too much reason to fear will be far from deserving any great Commendation but to suggest an Apology for whatever Defects those of greater Leisure more Health and better Abilities shall chance to find in it notwithstanding all the Care I have taken to guess aright at the Intention of my Authors and to deliver what upon the best Examination I could make I then took to be their Meaning 7. I NEED not say any thing to convince those who are at all acquainted with these Matters and who are alone the competent Judges of the present Performance How hard oftentimes it is with the help of the best Copies to hit upon the true Meaning of an Author that lived so many Ages since as those I have here collected And what great Defects in many places there are in the Copies I have here been forced to make use of is not unknown to them Had I whilst I was about this Work been in another place where I could have had recourse to the Assistance of a very Learned Friend than whom none could have afforded me a better help in this particular or would more readily have done it I should have had much less reason to apprehend any Defects in it But however as it is I am not aware of any great Errors that I have committed and am in some hope that I have no where very much nor at all very dangerously mistaken the Meaning of those Holy Men whose Sense I have undertaken to represent 8. THIS I am sure of that my Design in this whole Undertaking was to minister the best I could to the Interests of Truth and Piety And I thought my self at this time the rather obliged to do it from the Press in that it has pleased God in some measure to take me off from the Ability of doing it from the Pulpit 9. IF it shall be ask'd how I came to chuse the Drudgery of a Translator rather than the more ingenuous part of publishing somewhat of my own Composing it was in short this Because I hop'd that such Writings as these would find a more general and unprejudiced acceptance with all sorts of Men than any thing that could be written by any One now living Who if esteem'd by some is yet in danger of being despis'd by more whose Prejudice to his Person will not suffer them to reap any Benefit by any thing tho' never so useful that can come from him Whilst such Tracts as these may possibly receive a general Respect from all sorts of Persons and meet not only with an Entertainment but an Esteem too from All. 10. THESE were the Motives that first induced me to set about this Work and in the Reasonableness of which should I chance to be mistaken yet I cannot but persuade my self that the Honesty of my Intentions shall excuse me to all indifferent Persons Let Others then to whom God has given better Opportunities and greater Abilities serve the Church in better and higher Performances It shall suffice me in any way to minister to the Souls of Men. And if by this present Undertaking I shall but in any measure have contributed to the reviving a true Sense of Piety and Devotion among us but especially to the disposing of any number of Men to consider more seriously the fatal Consequences of our present Divisions and to labour what in them lies to the Composing of them I shall heartily bless God both that he first prompted me to undertake this troublesome Task and has since enabled me tho' amidst many Infirmities to go through with it The First EPISTLE OF St. CLEMENT TO THE Corinthians THE CONTENTS Ch. I II. HE commends them for their excellent Order and Piety in Christ before their Schism brake out III. How their Divisions began IV V VI. Envy and Emulation the Original of all Strife and Disorder Examples of the Mischiefs they have occasion'd VII VIII He exhorts them to look up to the Rules of their Religion and repent of their Divisions and they shall be forgiven IX X. To encourage them whereunto he sets before them the Examples of Holy Men whose Piety is recorded in the Scriptures XI XII And particularly such as have been eminent for their Kindness and Charity to their Neighbours XIII What Rules our Religion has leâ—t us to this purpose XIV XV. Which he applies to the Case of the Corinthians exhorting them to put an End to their Contentions so contrary to their Duty XVI XVII XVIII In order to this he advises them to be humble and that from the Examples of our Saviour and of Holy Men in all Ages XIX XX. He returns to the business of their Divisions which he by more Arguments persuades them to compose XXI He exhorts them to Obedience from the Consideration of the Goodness of God and of his Presence in every place XXIII XXIV Of Faith And particularly what we are to believe as to the Future Resurrection XXIV c. to XXVII This Article at large proved XXVIII He again exhorts them to Obedience That it is impossible to escape the Vengeance of God if we continue in Sin XXIX This farther enforced from the Consideration of their Relation to God as his Elect. XXX How we must live that we may please God XXXII We are justified by Faith XXXIII â—et this must not lessen our Care to live well nor our Pleasure in it XXXIV This enforc'd from the Examples of the Holy Angels and from the exceeding greatness of that Reward which God has prepared for us XXXV XXXVI We must attain unto this Reward by Faith and Obedience XXXVII Which we must carry on in an orderly pursuing of the Duties of our several Stations without Envying or Contention XXXVIII The necessity of different Orders among Men. We have none of us any thing but what we received of God Whom therefore we ought in every Condition thankfully to obey XXXIX c. From whence he exhorts them to do every thing orderly in the Church as the only way to please God XLII The Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church establish'd by the Apostles according to Christ's Command XLIII And after the Example of Moses XLIV Therefore they who have been duly placed in the Ministry according to their Order cannot without great Sin be put out of it XLV c. He exhorts them to Peace from Examples out of the Holy Scriptures XLVII Particularly from St. Paul's Exhortation to them XLIX The Value which God puts upon Love and Unity The Effects of a true Charity L. Which is the Gift of God and must be obtain'd by Prayer LI. He exhorts such as have been concern'd in these Divisions to repent and return to their Unity confessing their Sin to God LIII Which he infers from the Example of Moses LV. Nay of many among the Heathen and of Judith and Esther among the Jews LVI The benefit of mutual Advice and Correction LVII He
can be no good Argument that Barnabas was not the Author of this Epistle because it is not placed among the Sacred Writings of the New Testament 24. BUT there is yet one Objection more and that much insisted upon by those who are Enemies to this Epistle They tell us it is full of a strange sort of Allegorical Interpretations of Holy Scripture and therefore unworthy to be father'd upon so Evangelical an Author And yet notwithstanding this we find Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen Eusebius and St. Jerome some of the greatest and most learned Criticks of those Ages that were the nearest to the time in which it was written not doubting to ascribe it to St. Barnabas and to think it worthy too of such an Author 25. I NEED not say how general a way this was of interpreting Scripture in the time that St. Barnabas lived To omit Origen who has generally been noted as excessive in it and for whom yet a Learned Man has very lately made a reasonable Apology Who has ever shewn a more diffusive Knowledg than Clemens Alexandrinus has done in all his Composures And yet in his Works we find the very same Method taken of Interpreting the Holy Scriptures and that without any Reproach either to his Learning or to his Judgment What Author has there been more generally applauded for his admirable Piety than the other Clement whose Epistle to the Corinthians I have here inserted And yet even in that plain piece we meet with more than one Instance of the same kind of Interpretation which was never the less admired by the best and most Primitive Christians 26. EVEN St. Paul himself in his Epistles received by us as Canonical affords us not a few Instances of this which is so much found fault with in St. Barnabas As I might easily make appear from a multitude of Passages out of them were it needful for me to enlarge my self on a Point which every one who has read the Scriptures with any care cannot chuse but have observed 27. NOW that which makes it the less to be wonder'd at in St. Barnabas is that the Jews of which Number he was himself originally one and to whom he wrote had of a long time been wholly addicted to this way of Interpreting the Law and taught Men to search out a Spiritual Meaning for almost all the Ritual Commands and Ceremonies of it This is plain from the Account which Aristeas has left us of the Rules which Eleazar the High Priest to whom Ptolomy sent for a Copy of the Mosaical Law gave him for the understanding of it When it being objected to him That their Legislator seem'd to have been too curious in little Matters such as the Prohibitions of Meats and Drinks and the like for which there appeared no just reason He shew'd him at large that there was a farther hidden Design in it than what at first sight appear'd and that these Outward Ordinances were but as so many Cautions to them against such Vices as were principally meant to be forbidden by them And then goes on to explain this part of the Law after the same manner that Barnabas has done in the following Epistle 28. BUT this is not all Eusebius gives us yet another Instance to confirm this to us viz. of Aristobulus who lived at the same time and gave the same Account of the Spiritual Meaning of the Law that Eleazar had done before And that this was still continued among the Hellenistical Jews is evident from the Account that is left us by one of them who was con-temporary with St. Barnabas and than whom none has been more famous for this way of Writing I mean Philo in his Description of the Theraputae Whether the same whom in the beginning of his Book he calls by the Name of Essenes as Scaliger supposes Or a particular Sect of Jews as Valesius will have it Or lastly a kind of Monkish Converts from Judaism to Christianity as Eusebius heretofore described them and as some other Learned Men seem rather to conjecture But whatever becomes of this herein they all agree that they were originally Jews and therefore we may be sure they follow'd the same Method of Interpreting Scripture that the Alexandrian Jews were wont to do 29. NOW the Account which Eusebius from Philo gives us of them is this Their Leaders says he left them many ancient Writings of their Notions clothed in Allegories And again They interpret the Holy Scriptures viz. of the Old Testament Allegorically For you must know continues he that they liken the Law to an Animal the Words of which make up the Body but the hidden Sense which lies under them and is not seen that they think to be the Soul of it And this was that which a late Learned Author supposes render'd their Conversion to Christianity the more easie For being wont to seek out the Spiritual Meaning of the Law they more readily embraced the Gospel than those who looked no farther than the outward Letter and were therefore the harder to be persuaded to come over to so Spiritual an Institution 30. AND I suppose it was from hence that the most early Hereticks were so wedded to their Mystical Interpretations of Scripture and so much valued themselves upon the account of them And against whose false and impure Doctrines our late great Critick Dr. Hammond supposes St Barnabas to have principally design'd his Epistle And therefore that being to deal with Men who valu'd nothing but such kind of Expositions he was forced to confute them in their own way both as most suitable to their Manners and as most proper either to convince them of their Errors or at least to prevent others especially the Jewish Converts from falling into them 31. BUT whether this were so or no thus much is evident from what has been said that the Hellenistical Jews to whom it is most probable St. Barnabas address'd his Epistle were altogether used to this way of Interpreting the Holy Scriptures And therefore that howsoever it may appear to others who are so utterly unaccustomed to it yet we ought not to wonder that St. Barnabas who was himself a Jew should at such a Time and upon such an Occasion as this make use of it or suppose it at all unworthy of him so to do 32. NOR indeed were they the Jews only that led the Holy Men in those days into these Mystical Expositions of the Sacred Scriptures Even the Gentile Philosophers too conduced towards it Whilst the better to cover over the fabulous Stories of their Gods and which they saw were too ridiculous to be maintain'd they explain'd the whole System of their Idolatry by Allegorical Analogies and shew'd all the Poetical Accounts of them to be only the out-side Shadows of a sort of Natural Theology included under those Fictions Thus Heraclides of Pontus wrote a whole Book of the Allegories of Homer And Metrodorus of Lampsacus is fallen foul upon by Tatian in his Oration against
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
saying He trusted in the LORD that he would deliver Him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in Him Ye see Beloved what the Pattern is that has been given to Us. For if the Lord thus humbled himself what should we do who are come under the Yoak of his Grace XVII LET us be Followers of those who went about in Goat-skins and Sheep-skins preaching the Coming of Christ. Such were Elias and Elisaeus and Ezekiel the Prophets And let us add to these such others as have received the like Testimony Abraham has been greatly witnessed of having been called the Friend of God And yet He stedfastly beholding the Glory of God says with all Humility I am Dust and Ashes Again of Job it is thus written That he was Just and without Blame True One that served God and abstained from all Evil. Yet he despising himself says No man is free from Pollution no not tho' He should live but one day Moses was called Faithful in all Gods House and by his Conduct God determined to deliver the Israelites from their Stripes and Pains And yet even this Man tho' thus Greatly Honoured spake not greatly of Himself but when the Oracle of God was delivered to him out of the Bush he said Who am I that thou dost send me I am of a slender Voice and a slow Tongue And again He saith I am as the smoak of the Pot. XVIII AND what shall we say of David so highly testified of in the Holy Scriptures To whom God said I have found a Man after my own heart David the Son of Jesse with my Holy Oil have I anointed Him But yet he Himself saith unto God Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness According unto the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin For I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before Me. Against Thee only have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest and be clear when Thou judgest Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother Conceive me Behold Thou desirest Truth in the Inward parts and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know Wisdom Purge me with Hysop and I shall be Clean wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow Make me to hear Joy and Gladness that the Bones which Thou hast broken may rejoyce Hide thy face from my sins and blot out All mine Iniquities Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within Me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from Me. Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Then will I teach Transgressors thy ways and Sinners shall be converted unto Thee Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation and my Tongue shall sing aloud of thy Righteousness O LORD open thou my Lips and my Mouth shall shew forth thy Praise For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a Contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise XIX THUS has the Humility and Godly Fear of these great and excellent Men recorded in the Scriptures through Obedience made not only Us but also the Generations before us Better even as many as have received his Holy Oracles with Fear and Truth Having therefore so many and such Great and Glorious Examples let us return to that Peace which was the Mark that from the Beginning was set before Us Let us look up to the Father and Creator of the whole World and let us hold fast to his Glorious and Exceeding Gifts and Benefits which are of Peace Let us consider and behold with the Eyes of our Understandings his Long-suffering Will and think how Gentle and Patient he is towards his whole Creation XX. THE Heavens holding fast to his Appointment are subject to Him in Peace Day and Night accomplish the Courses that he has allotted unto them not disturbing one another The Sun and Moon and all the several Companies and Constellations of the Stars run the Courses that he has appointed to them in Concord without departing in the least from them The Fruitful Earth yields its Food plentifully in due Season both to Man and Beast and to all that is upon it according to His Will not disputing nor altering any thing of what was order'd by Him So also the untrodden and unsearchable Floods of the Deep are kept in by his Command And the Conflux of the vast Sea being brought together at the Creation into its several Collections passes not the Bounds that He has set to it but as he then appointed it so it remains For he said Hitherto shalt thou come and thy Flouds shall be broken within Thee The Ocean unpassable to Mankind and the Worlds that are beyond it are govern'd by the same Commands of their great Master Spring and Summer Autumn and Winter give place peaceably to Each other The several Quarters of the Winds fulfil their work in their Seasons without offending one Another The Ever-flowing Fountains made both for Pleasure and Health never fail to reach out their Breasts to support the Life of Men. Even the smallest Creatures live together in Peace and Concord with Each other All these has the Great Creator and Lord of all commanded to observe Peace and Concord being Good to all But especially to Us who flee to his Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom be Glory and Majesty for Ever and Ever Amen XXI TAKE heed Beloved that his many Blessings be not to us to Condemnation except we shall walk worthy of Him doing with One Consent what is Good and Pleasing in his Sight The Spirit of the LORD is a Candle searching all the inward parts of the Belly Let us therefore consider how near he is to us and how that none of our Thoughts are hid from him nor any of our Conversation which we have with one Another It is therefore Just that we should not forsake our Rank by doing contrary to his Will Let us chuse to offend a few foolish and inconsiderate Men lifted up and Glorying in their own Pride rather than God Let us Reverence our Lord Jesus Christ whose Bloud was Given for us Let us Honour Those who are set over us let us respect the Aged that are amongst us and let us instruct the younger Men in the Discipline and Fear of the LORD Our Wives let us direct in Doing that which is Good Let them shew forth a lovely Habit of Purity in all their Conversation with a sincere Affection of Meekness Let the government of their
that wait for him that so we may receive the Reward which he has promised But how Beloved shall we do this We must fix our Minds by Faith towards God and seek those things that are pleasing and acceptable unto Him We must act conformably to his Holy Will and follow the way of Truth casting off all Unrighteousness and Iniquity together with all Covetousness Strife Evil Manners Deceit Whispering Detractions all Hatred of God Pride and Boasting Vain-glory and Ambition For they that do these things are Odious to God and not only they that do them but also all such as approve of those that do them For thus saith the Scripture But unto the Wicked God said What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy Mouth Seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee When thou samest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been Partaker with Adulterers Thou givest thy Mouth to Evil and thy Tongue frameth Deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother Thou slanderest thine own Mothers Son These things hast thou done and I kept Silence Thou thoughtedst that I was altogether such a one as thy self But I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Whoso offereth Praise Glorifieth me And to him that disposeth his way aright will I shew the Salvation of God XXXVI THIS is the way Beloved in which we may find our Saviour even Jesus Christ the High Priest of all our Offerings the Defender and Helper of our Weakness By him we look up to the Highest Heavens and behold as in a Glass his spotless and most excellent Visage By him are the Eyes of our Hearts opened by him is our foolish and darkned Understanding enabled to behold his wonderful Light By Him would God have us to taste the Knowledge of Immortality who being the Brightness of his Glory is by so much greater than the Angels as he has by Inheritance obtain'd a more excellent Name than they For so it is Written Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a Flame of Fire But to the Son thus saith the LORD Thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for thy Possession And again he saith unto him Sit thou on my Right Hand untill I make thine Enemies thy Footstool But who are his Enemies even the Wicked and such who oppose their own Wills to the Will of God XXXVII LET us therefore go on Men and Brethren with all Earnestness in his Holy Laws Let us consider those who Fight under our Earthly Governours How orderly how readily and with what exact Obedience they perform those things that are commanded them All are not Generals nor Colonels nor Captains nor inferior Officers But every one in his respective Rank does what is commanded him by the King and those who have the Authority over Him They who are Great cannot yet subsist without Those that are Little nor the Little without the Great But there must be a Mixture in all things and then there will be Use and Profit too Let us for Example take our Body The Head without the Feet is nothing neither the Feet without the Head And even the smallest Members of our Body are yet both necessary and useful to the whole Body But all conspire together and are subject to one common Use namely the Preservation of the whole XXXVIII LET therefore our whole Body be saved in Christ Jesus And let every one be subject to another according to the Order in which he is placed by the Gift of God Let not the strong Man neglect to take care of the Weak and let the Weak see that he reverence the Strong Let the Rich Man distribute to the Necessity of the Poor And let the Poor bless God that he has given one unto him by whom his Want may be supplied Let the Wise Man shew forth his Wisdom not in Words but in Good Works Let him that is Humble not bear Witness to himself but let him leave it to another to bear Witness of him Let him that is pure in the Flesh not grow proud of it knowing that it was from another that he received the Gift of Continence Let us consider therefore Brethren whereof we are made who and what kind of Men we came into the World as it were out of a Sepulchre and from outer Darkness He that made us and formed us brought us into his own World having prevented us with his Benefits even before we were Born Wherefore having Received all these things from Him we ought upon all Occasions to give thanks unto Him To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen XXXIX FOOLISH and Unwise Men who have neither Prudence nor Learning may perhaps Mock and Deride us being willing to set up themselves in their own Conceits But what can a Mortal Man do Or what Strength is there in him that is made out of the Dust For it is written There was no Shape before mine Eyes only I heard a Sound and a Voice For what Shall Man be Pure before the LORD Shall he be blameless in his Works Behold he trusteth not in his Servants and his Angels he charged with Folly Yea the Heaven is not clean in his Sight how much less they that dwell in Houses of Clay of which also we our selves were made He smote them as a Moth and from Morning even unto the Evening they endure not Because they were not able to help themselves they Perish'd He breath'd upon them and they dy'd because they had no Wisdom Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Angels wilt thou look For Wrath killeth the Foolish Man and Envy slayeth him that is in Error I have seen the Foolish taking Root but lo their Habitation was presently consumed Their Children were far from Safety they Perished at the Gates of those who were lesser than themselves And there was no Man to help them For what was prepared for them the Righteous did Eat And they shall not be delivered from Evil. XL. SEEING then these things are manifest unto us it will behove us to take care that looking into the Depths of the Divine Knowledge we do all things in order whatsoever our Lord has commanded us to do And particularly that we perform our Offerings and Service to God at their appointed Seasons For these he has commanded to be done not rashly and disorderly but at Certain Determinate Times and Hours And therefore he has ordained by his Supreme Will and Authority both where and by
the whole Church in those days what was permitted to be publickly read to the Faithful for their Comfort and Instruction must by this means have received a more than Humane Approbation and ought to be look'd upon by us tho' not of Equal Authority with those Books which they have deliver'd to us as strictly Canonical yet as standing in the first Rank of Ecclesiastical Writings and as containing the true and pure Faith of Christ without the least Error intermix'd with it CHAP. XI Of the Subject of the following Discourses and of the Use that is to be made of Them That in the following Treatises there is deliver'd to us a good account both of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church in the Apostolical Times This shewn in several particulars What they taught concerning God the Father our Saviour Christ and the Holy Ghost Of Angels and Spirits Of the rest of the Articles of the Apostles Creed Concerning the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Of the Holy Scriptures and the Divine Authority of them What we meet with in these Treatises concerning the Government of the Church Of the Necessity of Communicating with the Bishops and Pastors of it Of Schismaticks Hereticks and Apostates Of their publick Assembling for the Service of God and what was done by them in those Meetings Of several other Instances of their Discipline particularly of their Fasting and Confession of Sins Of the Care which their Bishops had of the whole Church Of the Respect that was paid to them Of their Martyrs and the Veneration which they thought due to them Of their Practical Instructions and how severe their Morality was shewn in several particulars That upon the whole we may here see what the State of Christianity then was and still ought to be 1. AND now having shewn in the foregoing Chapter what Deference we ought to pay to the Authority of those Holy Men whose Writings I have here collected it may not be amiss in the Third place to enquire What it is which they deliver to us what account we find in them of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church in those Times in which they lived 2. IT would be endless for me to go about to make a just Catalogue of all the Particulars of this kind that occur in the following Pieces and I have already in a great measure perform'd it in the Index which I have for that purpose subjoyn'd to them I shall therefore here consider only a few particulars in such Points as may seem most worthy to be remarked and by them as by a short Specimen shew How the Judicious Reader may himself improve it into a more particular History of the Faith and Practice of the Church in the best and most ancient State of it 3. AND 1 st for what concerns the Doctrines of those Times there is hardly any Point that is necessary to be believed or known by us that is not very plainly delivered in Some or Other of the following Pieces 4. HERE we may read what we are to believe concerning the first Article of all of our Creed God the Father That he is One Almighty Invisible the Creator and Maker of all things That he is Omniscient Immense Neither to be comprehended within any Bounds nor so much as to be perfectly conceived by us That his Providence is over all things And that we can none of us flee from him or escape his Knowledg That we are to believe in him to fear him to love him And fearing him to abstain from all Evil. 5. IF from thence we go on to the next Person of the Blessed Trinity Our Saviour Jesus Christ here we shall find all that either our Creed teaches us to profess concerning him or that any Christian need to believe That he Existed not only before he came into the World but from all Eternity That he is not only the Son of God but is himself also God That in the fulness of Time he took upon him our Nature and became Man Was born of the Virgin Mary was crucified under Pontius Pilate That he suffer'd for our Salvation and was raised again from the dead not only by the Power of the Father but by his Own also That he is our High-Priest and Protectour now and shall come again at the End of the World to judge the whole Race of Mankind That there is no coming unto God but by him Insomuch that even the Ancient Fathers who died before his Appearing are yet saved by the same means that we are now 6. AS for what concerns the Holy Spirit the Third Person in the Glorious Godhead he is here set out to us not only as a Person but as distinct from the Father and the Son And to shew what kind of Spirit he is We may here see him joyn'd together in the same Worship with the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 7. AND now I am mentioning the Holy Spirit let me add that we may here see what is needful to be known concerning all the Other Spirits of an inferiour Nature How the Holy Angels minister unto us but especially then when we have most need of them at the time of our Death And that tho' the Devil may attacque us and use all his Arts to draw us away from our Duty yet it must be our own Faults if we are overcome by him and therefore that we ought not to be afraid of him 8. BUT to return to our Creed and the Articles of it Here we may farther see both what a great Obligation there lies upon us to keep up a Communion of Saints in the Unity of the Church on Earth and what is that true Fellowship that we ought to have with those who are gone before us to Heaven That it consists not in the Worship of any tho' never so gloriously exalted by God but in Love and Remembrance in Thanksgiving to God for their Excellencies and in our Prayers to him joyn'd with hearty Endeavours of our own to imitate their Perfections 9. AND whilst we do this we are here assured of the Forgiveness of our Sins too through the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ. And that not only of those which we committed before our Baptism but of all such as we shall chance to fall into after if we truly repent of them 10. AS for the next Point the Resurrection of the Body it is not only asserted but at large proved too in the following Discourses There we may see not only that there shall be a future Resurrection but that we shall be raised in the very same Bodies in which we go down into the Grave And that being raised we shall be judged by Christ according to our Works and be either unspeakably rewarded or exceedingly punished and that to all Eternity 11. IF from the Articles of our Creed we go on to the Sacraments of the Church Here we have set out to us the great Benefit of our Baptism and