SOME ACCOUNT

OF

ST. IGNATIUS.

FROM what parents Ignatius sprung, is not told us; nor is it certain where he was born, but this honour has been ascribed to Nora in Sardinia.

There is a tradition that he was the little child whom our blessed Lord and Saviour set before the disciples, when he told them, that "Except they were converted, and became as little children, they should not enter into the kingdom of heaven." But as the proofs handed down to us are not sufficient to authenticate this relation, we cannot deliver it as a fact; nor is it material to our purpose, as the intention is only to give, from the best authorities, some account of what the grace of God made Ignatius to be as a Christian, a bishop, and a martyr.

This appears certain, that he was contemporary and particularly acquainted with the apostles of our Lord, and received instructions from those first and inspired messengers of God our Saviour, and that he and Polycarp were more especially disciples of St. John.

Having approved himself as a Christian indeed, and as a devoted and anointed servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was, upon the decease of Euodius, chosen by the apostles bishop of Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, and was consecrated thereunto by them with imposition of hands.

Thus he must have continued many (it is said forty) years in this important function; and we are told, by those who attended him to his martyrdom at Rome, and who gave an account of his death, that "he was a man in all things like unto the apostles;" so that he must have been, in all respects, a worthy and venerable bishop, approving himself in the sight of all men as a faithful steward over the household of God; and that he was, as is said of him, "like a divine lamp illuminating the hearts of the faithful by his exposition of the Holy Scriptures."

That he was clothed with humility, appears from all his epistles; for though so highly esteemed as a faithful shepherd and bishop, and on the way to receive that which was, in those days, esteemed the highest possible honour that a human creature and an heir of grace could possess, the crown of martyrdom; yet, in writing to the Romans, Smyrnæans, and others, concerning the church of Syria, he says of himself, "I am even ashamed to be reckoned as one of them; for neither am I worthy, being the least among them, and as one born out of due seaBut through mercy I have obtained to be

son.

somebody, if I shall get to God."

That the love of God was shed abroad in his

heart by the Holy Ghost, is evident from all he has written. The work of redemption by the incarnation, life, suffering, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his resurrection for our justification, being deeply impressed on his heart by the Holy Ghost, made him a living witness of the power of the great salvation to all around him, and a constant inculcator of the redemption in Christ's blood.

We must not expect to find in those of his epistles which are extant, a regular system of divinity. He wrote letters to several churches, and to Polycarp, when he was hurried to Rome under a guard of rude soldiers: we therefore find, that although the great and fundamental truths of the Gospel are asserted throughout his epistles, yet he only wrote about such cases as related to their and his own circumstances at that time.

As the spirit of Jesus infuses love, meekness, forbearance, and the most real concord and union, so he, as a disciple of St. John, who learned it on the breast of his gracious Master, earnestly exhorted the churches to remain in brotherly love and union of heart. Thus, in his epistle to the Magnesians, he writes, "I salute the churches: wishing in them an union both of the body and spirit of Jesus Christ, our eternal life." Again, "I exhort you to do all things in a divine concord.-Let no one look upon his neighbour after the flesh; but do you all mutually love each other in Jesus Christ." Again, "Being come together in the same place, have one common prayer; one supplication; one mind; one hope; in love, and in joy undefiled. There is one Lord

Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better. Wherefore come ye all together as unto one temple of God; as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who proceeded from one Father, and exists in one, and is returned to one." The Trallians he exhorts to "love every one his brother with an unfeigned heart." To the Philadelphians he writes, "Come altogether into one place with an undivided heart;" and he speaks out of the same spirit in all his epistles.

As this was a subject which he urged agreeable to the mind of his Lord and Master, so he was fired with holy indignation against all those who sought to foment dissensions, by introducing doctrines contrary to the mind of Christ. He tells the Ephesians, "There are some who carry about the name of Christ in deceitfulness, but do things unworthy of God; these ye must flee, as ye would so many wild beasts: for they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly against whom you must guard yourselves as men hardly to be cured. Wherefore let no one deceive, as indeed neither are ye deceived, being wholly the servants of God. For inasmuch as there is no contention among you, which can trouble you, ye must needs live according to God's will." To the Trallians he writes, "Stop your ears, therefore, as often as any one shall speak contrary to Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, of the virgin Mary." To the Philadelphians, " As becomes the children both of the light and of the truth, flee divisions and false doctrines: but where your shepherd is, there do ye, as sheep, follow after. For there are many wolves who seem worthy of

belief, that, with a false pleasure, lead captive those that run in the course of God; but in your concord they shall find no place. Be not deceived, brethren: if any one follows him that maketh a schism in the church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If any walks after any other opinion, he agrees not with the passion of Christ. Love unity: flee divisions: be the followers of Christ as he was of the Father. Where there is division and wrath, God dwelleth not."

From hence, and many other passages in his epistles, it appears evident that there were in his days, as there had been even in the time of the apostles, men of corrupt minds, who sowed seeds of dissension among the children of God, and who turned the grace of God into licentiousness; and that he saw, beforehand, reason to caution the Christians against such who should arise, perverting the truth, or holding it in unrighteousness; touching whom, he tells the Trallians, "That such confound together the doctrine of Jesus Christ with their own poison, whilst they seem worthy of belief, as men give a deadly poison mixed with sweet wine, which he, who is ignorant of it, does, with the treacherous pleasure, sweetly drink in his own death." He adds, "Wherefore guard yourselves against such persons; and that ye will do, if ye are not puffed up."

Of such deceivers he says, in his epistle to the Ephesians, "Those that corrupt families 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,