Vide

them, and were fit to come into the building of the towers; and were not cut but put up entire; because they died in righteousness, and in great purity; only this seal was wanting to them. Thus you have the explanation of these things."

The original Greck of part of this extract, from the words et ipsi dederunt to the end, has been preserved, and runs as follows:

Καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔδωκαν αὐτοῖς τὴν σφραγίδα τοῦ κηρύγματος. Κατέβησαν οὖν μετ ̓ αὐτῶν εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ πάλιν ἀνέβησαν. ̓Αλλ ̓ οὗτοι ζῶντες κατέβησαν, καὶ πάλιν ζῶντες ἀνέβησαν· ἐκεῖνοι δὲ, οἱ προκεκοιμημένοι, νεκροὶ κατέβησαν, ζῶντες δὲ ἀνέβησαν. Διὰ τούτων οὖν ἐζωοποιήθησαν, καὶ ἐπέγνωσαν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Υἱοῦ Θεοῦ· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ συνανέβησαν μετ ̓ αὐτῶν, καὶ συνήρμοσαν εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ πύργου, καὶ ἀλατόμητοι συνῳκοδομήθησαν· ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ἐκοιμήθησαν καὶ ἐν μεγάλῃ ἁγνείᾳ· μόνον δὲ τὴν σφραγῖδα ταύτην οὐκ ἔσχον.

In Book III, Simil. 8, Sec. 6, Hermas, in writing on Sinning and Repenting after baptism, says

ut... qui... dissipaverunt sigillum quod acceperunt, agnitis suis factis, pœnitentiam agant, et accepto a te sigillo, &c.

In English thus :

that those who destroyed the seal which they received, gaining a knowledge of their deeds, might show repentance, receiving again the seal from you, &c.

This, in the Index to the Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, &c., cura Gallandii &c., 14 vols. fol., Venet., 1765, is supposed to mean Baptism.

In a work entitled "Codicis Apocryphi Novi Testamenti, curante J. Alberto Fabricio, Hamburg, 1719," mentioned in this Synopsis at the end of the 2nd century, are some Testimonies and Judgements on Hermas: and some Notes on his work.

VIII. POLYCARP.

Another of the Apostolical Fathers was Polycarp, a disciple, as it is said, of Saint John. He is thought to have lived to a very advanced age, and to have terminated his life by martyrdom.

He became bishop of Smyrna, and is the reputed writer of an epistle to the Philippians.

MOSHEIM, in his Ecclesiastical History, [vol. i, p. 100] says that this production

is considered by some as genuine; by others as spurious; and it is no easy matter to determine this question.

DUPIN says that Polycarp abhorred heretics: that

he took much delight in telling over the discourses he had with St John, and with others, that had seen Jesus Christ in the flesh; and related every thing, whereof he had been informed by them, concerning his doctrine and miracles.

DUPIN says that we have at present but one single epistle written by him to the Philippians, full of admirable counsels, precepts and exhortations; but he adds there are several other works atttributed to him, and some notes on the Gospels, but probably fictitious.

In the epistle to the Philippians we find no mention of Baptism but this is a fact which could not be overlooked; for the silence of Polycarp on this subject may perhaps be brought forwards, to shew how far the subject of Baptism was thought of or disputed in his time.

IX. IGNATIUS.

The next of the Apostolical Fathers to be now mentioned is Ignatius. His history and the nature of his writings may be gathered from the following notices concerning him.

DUPIN states that in the time of Eusebius

there were seven letters which were esteemed undoubtedly to be Ignatius's, and that they were the very same with those that are still extant.

DUPIN mentions the subjects of all these letters, and writes very fully on some objections made to their being all genuine. He maintains, as his own opinion, that they are genuine, and speaks in the very highest terms of them: but he does not particularly mention their relating to Baptism.

The account which MOSHEIM gives of Ignatius is as follows:

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, succeeds Clemens in the list of the Apostolic Fathers, among whom were placed such Christian doctors as had conversed with the apostles themselves, or their disciples. This pious and venerable man, who was the disciple and familiar friend of the Apostles, was, by the order of Trajan, exposed to wild beasts in the public theatre at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom with the utmost fortitude. There are yet extant several epistles, attributed to him, concerning the authenticity of which there

have been, however, tedious and warm disputes among the learned. Of these epistles, seven are said to have been written by this eminent martyr, during his journey from Antioch to Rome; and these the majority of learned men acknowledge to be genuine, as they stand in the edition that was published in the seventeenth century, from a manuscript in the Medicean library. The others are generally rejected as spurious. As to my own sentiments of this matter, though I am willing to adopt this opinion as preferable to any other, I cannot help looking upon the authenticity of the epistle to Polycarp as extremely dubious, on account of the difference of style; and, indeed, the whole question relating to the epistles of St Ignatius in general, seems to me to labour under much obscurity, and to be embarrassed with many difficulties. [vol. i, p. 99.]

The following are the only passages in the writings of Ignatius, which touch on the subject of Baptism :

Epistle to the Smyrnæans, chap. 8.

Οὐκ ἐξόν ἐστι, χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισκόπου, οὔτε βαπτίζειν, οὔτε ἀγάπην ποιεῖν·

which Archbishop WAKE translates thus :

It is not lawful, without the bishop, either to baptize, or to celebrate the Holy Communion.

But the old Latin version is more literal.

Non licitum sine episcopo neque baptizare, neque agapen facere.

The Greek words aɣáπην πoleîv allude to the love-feasts, at