production consists altogether in its close adherence to the spirit of the New Testament. Here are no displays of learning, no flights of rhetoric, no bold essays to assume the tone and style of inspiration. The chastened and humble mind of its author had no other ambition than to sit at the feet of the apostles, and to write to the church át Philippi, not as they wrote, but that which they delivered; and, therefore, he did not disdain frequently to adopt their own language. Many other proofs of the same blessed frame and temper are to be found in it, some of which I cannot refrain from laying before the reader. Ignatius and others had shortly before passed through Smyrna bound, condemned by the irreversible decree of the emperor, on their way to Rome, the place of their martyrdom, and rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of the Lord. We can find no scripture sanction for their mode of rejoicing, and, therefore, can bestow no commendation upon it. But though the entire church of Christ was, as we have seen, carried away by the force of an example so illustrious as that of Ignatius, the deep humility with which Polycarp was invested, seems effectually to have defended him from their specious and seductive error. I gather this from the following passage:—“ Brethren, watch unto prayer, and strengthen yourselves therein with fasting: with supplication beseeching the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation; for the Lord himself hath said, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.' Let us, therefore, without ceasing, hold unto him who is our hope and the pledge of our righteousness, even Jesus Christ: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree :' who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth :' but suffered all for us that we might live through him. Let us, therefore, imitate his

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patience and if we suffer for his name, let us glorify him; for this example he himself hath set before us, that believing in him we might follow it. Wherefore, I exhort all of you, that obeying the word of his righteousness, ye exercise yourselves unto all the patience which ye yourselves have beheld, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zozimus, and Rufus, but in Paul also, and the rest of the apostles; being confident of this, that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness; and are gone to the place which was prepared for them of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world; but him who died and was raised again by God for us.

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The meek and lowly spirit of this passage contrasts very beautifully with the lofty assuming tone of Ignatius. While he is courting persecution, eager for the crown of martyrdom, forbidding his friends from preventing him of it by supplication to God or man, writing boastful letters to various churches, calling upon them to observe his zeal for his master, and, to the utmost of his power, making his progress towards martyrdom a triumphal procession of which he was himself the hero; his humbler friend and brother in the Lord, Polycarp, who was exposed to the same danger, and, doubtless, expected every hour to be in the same condition, is fervently praying not to be led into temptation, bemoaning his own weakness and inability to endure the fiery trial, and staying himself, in the exercise of faith, upon Jesus Christ and him crucified, and upon him alone.

The prudent and guarded manner also, in which, while speaking of Ignatius and his companions with all the affection and respect he so evidently felt for them, he,

38 Poly. ad Philip. cc. 8, 9.

at the same time, gently draws off his readers from the then very recent event of their martyrdom, to the contemplation of the soberer and safer examples of our Lord and his apostles, is greatly to be commended.

If any reliance whatever is to be placed upon the highly embellished account of this holy man's martyrdom, preserved by Eusebius, the God who had begun a good work in him also perfected it in the day of trial. For while Ignatius, upon the same authority, rushed into the presence of the emperor Trajan to avow himself a Christian, Polycarp gave better evidence of his fitness to glorify his Lord in the flames of martyrdom, by exactly fulfilling his commandments. "When they persecuted him in one city, he," in obedience thereto, "fled to another:” though at the last, no one in the annals of the church professed the faith of Christ more nobly, or submitted to his tormentors more cheerfully than St. Polycarp..39

39 Eusebius, lib. 4. With respect to miraculous martyrdoms, I may perhaps be permitted to observe that I have read too many of such narratives not to feel the utmost hesitation in giving credence to them. It was not the occasion upon which miraculous interference ordinarily took place; and when it was exerted at all, the interposition was invariably an effectual one; as in the cases of Daniel, of the three Holy Children, and of St. Peter. I, therefore, hold it to be incredible that, by a miraculous agency, the flames should enshrine the person of Polycarp without injuring it, swelling from him on all sides like the distended sails of a ship, and yet that the confector should be allowed to dispatch him: for when God will work, who shall let it? Had the divine energy been there, doubtless it would also have unnerved the executioner's arm, or rendered innocuous the point of his lance. If we are to include narrations like these among the verities of Christianity, with what show of reason can we reject the fables of the martyrologists under the Dioclesian persecution, not more than a hundred years after; as for instance, of the Egyptian saint Apa Til, who, according to an eye-witness, suffered martyrdom, after being cut to pieces ten times in the course of as many days, by the tyrant Maximin, and every night put together again by the archangel Gabriel? See Georgi. Acta S. Coluthii.

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There is another evidence of the depth and sincerity of St. Polycarp's humility, which has occurred to me as even still more remarkable. He had just before received the highest honour that Christianity could confer upon him. While all the churches of Asia were contending for the privilege of a missive from Ignatius on his way to martyrdom, and deemed them sufficiently important to dispatch special messengers for the purpose of obtaining them, that eminent personage not only wrote an epistle to Smyrna, the church over which he presided, but also addressed one of the same public character to Polycarp himself; wherein he commends his Christian graces in the following terms :-" Having known that thy mind towards God is fixed, as it were, upon an immoveable rock, I exceedingly give thanks that I have been counted worthy to behold thy guileless countenance, wherein may I always rejoice in God:" he also exhorts him " by the grace of God, with which he is clothed, to press forward in his course:" nay, he points him out as a chosen and appointed instrument whereby great good was to be accomplished to the church.40 "We look unto thee in these times, even as the ship that is tossed in a tempest to the haven of rest :" and the purpose of his address is to commission Polycarp to answer some of the many churches who had applied for epistles from Ignatius, but which his guard prevented him from sending, by suddenly determining to sail from Troas.41 It is not easy to conceive of a severer test for the humility of any man, than the praise to this extent, from him whom all were praising: for whatever may be asserted to the contrary, Christianity, in its highest style, was not intended to annihilate, either the proper love of approbation, or any other generous and exalting sentiment of which our 40 Ign. ad Polyc. cc. 1, 2. 41 Idem., c. 8.

nature is capable: but even from this trial the humble spirit of Polycarp came forth unblemished. In addition to the proofs of this we have already given, it is not in words to express more unfeigned humility than the conclusion of his opening address to the Philippians :-" These things concerning righteousness, my brethren, I should not have taken the liberty of myself to write unto you, had not you yourselves before encouraged me to it."42 And we find in another passage, 43 that full of the same blessed spirit, this was the only pastoral letter he presumed to indite. He complied with the last request of Ignatius, by transmitting to the churches which had applied for missives, copies of all the epistles he wrote before his departure from Troas.

In what but the pure doctrines of the New Testament, could this beautiful exemplification of the spirit of Christianity have originated? Upon the subjects we are now considering, they dwelt in the heart of St. Polycarp undefiled with the slightest admixture of error. We require no other evidence of this than the passage with which his epistle commences. "Polycarp and the presbyters that are with him in the church of God, which is at Philippi: mercy unto you, and peace from God Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, be multiplied. I rejoiced greatly with you in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the root of the faith which was preached from the beginning remains firm in you, and brings forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered himself to be brought even to the death for our sins. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death.' 'Whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full