faces, by those things for which we justly love him.

16. Be not deceived, my brethren. Those who corrupt houses (by adultery) shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If therefore they who do this according to the flesh, have suffered death; ' how much more shall he die, who by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Christ was crucified? He that is thus defiled, shall depart into unquenchable fire; and in like manner he that hearkens to him.

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17. For this cause did the Lord receive ointment upon his head, that he might breathe (the breath of) immortality into his Church. Be not ye therefore anointed with the evil savour of the doctrine of the Prince of this world. Let him not take you captive from the life that is set before you. And why are ye not all wise, seeing ye have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ. Why do we perish in our folly, ignorant of the gift which the Lord hath truly sent us?

18. Let my life be sacrificed for the doctrine of the cross, which is a stumbling block to them that believe not, but to us is salvation and life everlasting. Where is the wise? Where is the disputer?" Where is the boasting of those who

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are called men of understanding? For our God Jesus Christ was borne in the womb of Mary, according to the dispensation of God, of the seed of David, yet by the Holy Ghost. He was born, and was baptized, that through his passion, he might purify water (to the washing away of sin).

19. And the Prince of this world knew not the virginity of Mary, and him who was born of her, and the death of the Lord: three mysteries every where noised abroad, yet done by God in silence. How then was he manifested to the world? A star shone in heaven above all other

It was a favourite notion with the early Christian writers, that Mary was espoused to Joseph before the birth of Jesus, that his being born of a virgin might escape the knowledge of Satan. Thus Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch, in the Latin version of his commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel, i. 18. has this observation. "Quare non ex simplici virgine, sed ex desponsatâ concipitur Christus? Primò, ut per generationem Joseph origo Mariæ monstraretur: secundò, ne lapidaretur à Judæis ut adultera: tertiò, ut in Ægyptum haberet solatium viri: quartò, ut partus ejus falleret diabolum, putantem Jesum de uxoratâ, non de Virgine natum." Jerome ascribes this very reason to Ignatius, "Martyr Ignatius etiam quartam addit causam cur à desponsatâ conceptus sit, ut partus, inquiens, ejus celaretur à diabolo, dum eum putat non de virgine sed de uxore generatum." Basil, in his Sermon on the Nativity of Christ, quotes the same opinion. These passages appear to be allusions to this Epistle of Ignatius. Origen, in his sixthhomily on St. Luke, translated by Jerome says, "Eleganter in cujusdam Martyris Epistolâ scriptum reperi, Ignatium dico, Episcopum Antiochiæ post Petrum secundum, qui in persecutione Roma pugnavit ad bestias, Principem sæculi hujus latuit virginitas Maria." Pearson l'indicia Ignatiana, Par. 1. cap. 2.

stars; and its light was inexpressible; and its novelty struck terror. All the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon, were the chorus to this star; and that sent forth its light above all. And there was trouble, whence this novelty came, so unlike to all the others. Hence all (the power of) magic was dissolved; and every bond of wickedness was destroyed: ignorance was taken away; the old kingdom was abolished; God being made manifest in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life. Thence began what God had prepared. From thenceforth all things were disturbed, forasmuch as he designed to abolish death.

20. But if Jesus Christ shall give me grace through your prayers, and it be his will, I purpose in a second Epistle, which I am about to write to you, to declare more fully to you the dispensation of which I have now begun to speak, unto the new man, which is Jesus Christ: both in his faith and charity; in his suffering, and in his resurrection, especially if the Lord shall make it known unto me by revelation: since ye all individually come together in common in one faith, and in one Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David according to the flesh, the Son of man, and the Son of God: obeying your Bishop and the Presbytery with an entire affection: breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality; our antidote, that

Compare 1 Cor. xiv. 30.

we should not die, but live for ever in Jesus Christ.

21. My soul be for yours, and for those whom ye have sent, for the glory of God, to Smyrna, whence also I write unto you, giving thanks unto the Lord; and loving Polycarp, even as I do you. Remember me, even as Jesus Christ doth remember you. Pray for the Church which is in Syria, whence I am being carried bound to Rome, being the least of all the faithful that are there, as I have been deemed worthy to be found to the glory of God. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, our common hope.

Ignatius was bound in chains, at Antioch in Syria, and there delivered to the soldiers to be carried to Rome, as he expresses in his Epistle to the Romans.

THE

EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS

TO THE

MAGNESIANS.

IGNATIUS, who is also called Theophorus, to the (Church) blessed by the grace of God the Father, in Jesus Christ our Saviour; in whom I salute the Church which is at Magnesia, near the Mæander; and wish it all joy, in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ.

1. HAVING heard of your well ordered love and charity in God, I determined, with much joy, to speak unto you in the faith of Jesus Christ. For having been thought worthy to obtain a most excellent name, in the bonds which I carry about, I salute the churches, wishing in them an union both of the body and spirit of Jesus Christ, our eternal life; (as also) of faith and charity, to which nothing is to be preferred; but especially of Jesus and the Father, in whom if we undergo all the injuries of the Prince of this world, and escape, we shall enjoy God.