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8/3/2019 Fleming. Early Christian witnesses, or, Testimonies of the first centuries to the truth of christianity. 1878.

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PRINCETON, N. J.

BR 1705 .F6 1878Fleming, James, 1816-1879.Early Christian witnesses,or. Testimonies of the

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EARLY CHRISTIAN WITNESSES.


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WORKS BY EDWARD CLODD, F.R.A.S.Third Edition. C7-oivii 8vo. Pi ice 3s.THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD:A SIMPLE ACCOUNT OF MAN IN EARLY TIMES.A Special Edition for Schools. Price is.

"This little book is intended for the youthful reader; whoseinterest it will excite, and whose attention it will retain by thesimplicity of its style, and the legendary character of a great portionof its contents." British Qitartcj'/y Review.

Third Thoiisand. Crown 8vo. Price ^s.THE CHILDHOOD OF RELIGIONS.INCLUDING A SIMPLE ACCOUNT OF THE BIRTH ANDGROWTH OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS.A Special Edition for Schools. Price is. 6d."Marked by charming simplicity of style .... It contains the

story of creation as told by legends, and the other and more veritablestory as told by science Then we have the legends aboutmankind, and an account of the early races, more particularly theAryan or Indo-European. Following these we have an account ofthe ancient religions, a glance at the Semitic nations and atMahommedanism." Ingjiirer.

London :C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1 Paternoster Square.


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EARLY CHRISTIAN WITNESSES;OR

TESTIMONIES OF THE FIRST CENTURIES TOTHE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.

BYJAMES'^LEMING, D.D.

AUTHOR OF "christian SUNSETS," ETC.

London :C. Kegan Paul & Co., i Paternoster Square.

1878.


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The Rights of Translalion and of Rcprodiiclioii arc reserved.


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PREFACE.My object in the following papers is to givethe reader some idea of men who are fre-quently referred to by writers and speakerson the claims of Christianity. The referencesoften fail of force, from the want of allknowledge of those to whom they aremade. That knowledge I have endeavouredto furnish in the accompanying sketches.How far I have succeeded will be bestjudged of by those for whom the book isintended ; but I have aimed at so pre-senting the men, in the circumstances theyoccupied, the educational advantages theyenjoyed, the opportunities they had for gettingthe information they sought, and the character


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vi PREFACE.

they exemplified, as to show that they pos-sessed peculiar qualifications for giving thetestimony they bore, and are fully entitled tobe regarded as trust-worthy witnesses.Though anxious to meet the cases of those

who desire such knowledge as is here given, butwho, in these days of over-taxed brain andlimb, have no time to master folio volumes, Ihave yet confined myself to examples only ofearly Christian writers, and to the more pro-minent traits of their characters and events oftheir lives.My obligations for help in the preparation

of the work are due to Drs Lardner, Stanley,De Pressense, Newman, Donaldson, Scrivener,and Kennedy; also to Canon Westcott,Neander, Mosheim, Milner, Isaac Taylor,and Alford; and further to Messrs Clark'sEdition of the Anti-Nicene Fathers, and theDictionary of Christian Biography.May He who has continued His Word amid


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PREFACE, vi

all the efforts which men have, from age toage, used to destroy it, and made it the meansof light and life to as many as have believedits records and trusted in the Saviour itreveals, graciously use this small fruit ofChristian labour, to keep in the faith, andstrengthen the belief of some who speciallyneed such help

Kentish Town, 1878.


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CONTENTS.

Introduction xiSymeon IIgnatius i5polycarp 29Clement of Rome 41Papias 53Justin Martyr 61Iren^us 81Hegesippus 97HiPPOLYTUS 109Clement of Alexandria . . . . . 125Tertullian 135Origen 149Cyprian ..,,..,.. 171


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CONTENTS.PAGE

Athanasius 183Basil the Great 199Ambrose 213Chrysostom . . . 227Chrysostomcontinued 241Augustine 257Augustinecontinued 273


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INTRODUCTION.There have always been men who have heldthe Christian writers of the first centuries oflittle account, and their testimony to thegenuineness of the Gospels of no importance.Others have taken an opposite view of them,and of the value attaching to their produc-tions. The truth lies, no doubt, between theseextremes.Few will go so far as to say, that those who

followed the Apostles and Evangelists in theministry of the Word, made any approach tothem in moral and intellectual stature. Onehas only to compare the writings of the twoto see how immensely superior the authors ofthe New Testament were to those who sue-


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xii INTRODUCTION.

ceeded them as the teachers and pastors of theChurch.Yet humble as were generally the Christian

Fathers of the first two hundred years in edu-cation and birth, " It may be doubted whetherthe Church has ever since possessed a morefaithful, or a more successful band of spirituallabourers. They loved the Gospel with anintense ardour of soul, toiled day and night toextend the knowledge of it among men, and innot a few instances gave their lives in testimonyto the truth of it. Whether in action or inendurance, they sustained nobly the credit ofthe Christian name, and showed that a newpower was let down upon the world, whichdid not depend on individual men, or demandthe possession of splendid gifts as the conditionof its exercise. In Clement's epistle to theCorinthians, Pliny's letter to Trajan, andother documents relating to this period, theglimpses which are given us of the state of the


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INTRODUCTION.

Church, reflect the highest honour on thosesimple pastors to whose guidance its interestswere committed, and by whose ministry itsmembers were trained."Looked at from amid the clearer light and

higher advantages of modern times, muchmay appear in their teachings and practices,even to their greatest admirers, to be regretted,but they testified to many things which it isimportant to know, and which afford evidenceof the truth of the New Testament.

I.THE EARLY SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.The first propagators of the Gospel were notonly unlettered and obscure persons, but menwho had arrayed against them the unitedpower of secular authority and religious intol-erance. Yet they went on with the rehearsalof their simple and divine message, and sawpeople in every city and land they visited


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xiv INTRODUCTION.

welcoming their announcement, and associatingthemselves with them as the subjects andworshippers of the Son of God. Many yearsaccordingly did not elapse before myriadswere found acknowledging the claims of Christ,truth occupying the throne which error hadlong held, and the symbol of salvationadorning the capitol of the world's metropolis.But such triumphs on the part of a religion

opposed to all the natural likings of men,dependent on such advocates as it had forpropagation, and with such tremendous oddsagainst it, have ever been regarded as evidenceof its divinity and truth.

But the question will be asked, as it oftenhas been, where is the proof that such diffusionexisted } It is furnished by the pages of thewriters here referred to. There was no landas they assure us, to which the Gospel wasnot carried, and where its conquests were notnumerous and permanent.


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IiXTRODUCTION,

Jnstin Martyj' speaks of Christianity astriumphing among all naiions ; Irencetis refersto Churches in Gennany, Spain, Gaul, and thefar East, all marked for the same faith andcustoms ; Hegesippns records that zvherever hewent in his extended travels he fonnd believersin the Lord Jesus Christ ; Tertnllian says thatit was a matter of lamentation that every sexand age, and condition, and rank were passingover to the Christians, who were forming themajority of every state. The words of Origen,as given by Professor Blunt are, " that thoughat the first the kings of the day and the chiefofficers under them, the magistrates and allwho were in any post of authority, the govern-ors of cities, the military, and the populationgenerally resisted the dispersion of the Gospelover the world, it still prevailed, for it couldnot be hindered, being the Word of God, andstronger than all its antagonists ; so that ittook possession of the whole of Greece, and the


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INTRonUCTION.

greater part of the world of the barbarians, andconverted myriads of souls to the Christian formof worship . . . And if we consider how, in a veryfeiv years, whilst those who confessed Chris*tianity were plotted against, and in many in-stances were slain for it ; how others werespoiled of their property, and the teachers ofit were few, that the Word yet found meansto be proclaimed everyzvhere throiighoiit theworld, so that Greeks and barbarians, wise andfoolish were added to the religion of Jesus,we cannot hesitate to affirm that the thingwas above what was of men." The conclusionof the learned Father has generally beenaccepted,that the early and wide-spreadtriumphs of the Gospel over ignorance, andprejudice, and opposition, was an evidence ofits truthfulness and power. It was of God,and could not be suppressed or arrested in itsprogress.


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INTRODUCTION. xvii

II.THE RECIPIENTS OF THE GOSTEL.That down to the middle of the second

century the Church was unable to boast ofone really learned adherent may be undeniable." But from the beginning of the third centurydown to the middle of the fifth, group aftergroup of bright ' morning stars ' came forth inrapid succession, heralded by Origen in theEast, and by Tertullian and Cyprian in theWest, until the whole breadth of the ecclesias-tical horizon was crowned with these burningand shining lights,Eusebius, Hilary, Athan-asius, Basil, the three Gregories, Ambrose,Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine,andsuch is but a selection from the roll of thegreat names which grace the annals of thisperiod."

It was not, therefore, by men, as has oftenbeen alleged, who had no power of forming acorrect judgment, and were easily persuaded to

b


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xviii LYTRODUCTION.

change their beh'ef, that the Gospel was at firstreceived. Among them, as the early Christianwriters assure us, were not a few who hadpassed years in the pursuit of knowledge, andwere familiar with all that the highest schoolsof philosophy and learning taught, and whowere, therefore, competent to weigh evidence,and reach intelligent conclusions on what wassubmitted to their judgment. "Justin Martyr,for instance, had been under the teachers ofalmost every existing school of philosophy, andfound, as he tells us, satisfaction in none ; norcould he rest, till directed to the writings of theprophets, he discovered in them a footing-placeon which he could stand. Tertullian wentthrough a like process. He too, after examin-ing the creeds of the various sects of theheathens, and meeting with disappointment inall, at length fell in with the Scriptures, andfelt that then he had arrived at the truth hehad long been in search of" But these are only


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INTRODUCTION. xix

samples of many others, equally learned anddiscriminating, who accepted the Scriptures asthe Word of God, and became the dissemin-ators and defenders of Christianity. Suchmen are strong and reliable links in the chainof the Christian evidences.

III.THE BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE.How do I know that the books that composethe Bible were written by the men to whom

they are attributed, and at the dates assignedto them t The question is a vital one, but theChristian writers of the first centuries largelysupply the answer by their references to thebooks, and their quotations from them. In thecase of the New Testament, it has come downto us in early translations that were made of itinto the Syriac, Coptic, and Latin languages,and in multitudes of passages from it, found inthe earliest ecclesiastical productions that havebeen preserved.


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XX INTRODUCTION,

Though the oldest existing Greek manu-scripts of the New Testament do not go higherthan the fourth century, the interval betweenthat and the times of the Apostles is notdifficult to bridge over, as has been successfullyshown by Isaac Taylor and Dr Scrivener.*' The condition of the inspired text," saysthe latter of these authors, " during the firstthree centuries can be readily ascertained, notindeed in complete detail, as manuscriptswould have enabled us to do, but to an extentamply sufficient for all practical ends, quiteenough to assure us of their general integrity,and of the reverence in which they were heldin the first ages of the faith :and these areprimitive versions of their text, and quo-tations made from them by ecclesiasticalwriters whose productions yet remain withus."The references made to the Scriptures of the

New Testament, all through the second


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INTRODUCTION.

century, by the Christian writers of thatperiodby Polycarp, Irenseus, Justin Martyr,Clement of Rome, and othersprove to de-monstration that the said Scriptures were thenin existence, and in wide circulation. But notonly were the Gospels largely quoted from, dur-ing the second century, but also as the produc-tions of the men whose names they bear.The argument here need not be extended.Still, such early and multiplied testimony tothe verity of Scripture is, especially in thesedays of questioning and wide-spread doubt,of the highest importance, and cannot be toowidely known.

IV.THE CHRIST OF THE FATHERS.He was emphatically the Christ of the

Apostles and Evangelists. They accordinglyspeak of Him as the Son of God, who, in thefulness of time, assumed the form of a man and


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INTRODUCTION.

took the place of a servant ; stooped to thedeepest humiliation for men's sake ; dischargedthe sinner's liability to law and justice ; died, thejust for the unjust ; rose from the dead on thethird day, ascended to the right hand of theMajesty on high, sways the Sceptre of universaldominion, and will come again to take theplace of the Judge, and give to every manaccording to his deeds. Proof of thesedoctrines, as those of the Early Church, willbe found on the following pages. No, thosewho hold unitarian and rationalistic views ofthe person and work of our Lord have nosupport for them in the writings of the menforming the subjects of the accompanyingbiographical sketches. They were other thanthe hands of the early advocates of Christianitywho sought to tear from the brow of Jesus thecrown with which Apostles had adorned it.But the attempt then, as now, was in vain.God has set Him on His holy hill of Zion, and


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INTRODUCTION.only a stronger than He can depose Him fromHis elevation. Oh no, Christ Jesus, our Lord, isnot to be deprived of His honour, and strippedof His power. All, therefore, that He has beento His people in deliverance and grace in thepast, He is to them in the present, and will be inthe future. The Father has made Him " Heirof all things ; set Him at His own right handin the heavens, far above all principality andpower, and might and dominion, and everyname that is named, not only in this world, butalso in that which is to come, and hath put allthings under His feet, and gave Him to be thehead over all things to the Church."Then there is nothing, dear reader, which

Christ has not for your enjoyment. Possessedof the fulness of the Godhead bodily, you haveno need that he cannot supply,no weaknessthat He cannot strengthen,no defilement thatHe cannot cleanse,no poverty that He cannotenrich, and no emptiness that He cannot fill.


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INTRODUCTION.

These men, like their predecessors, wenteverywhere preaching the Word, and testifyingto the grace of God, and many who heard thembeheved,the Lord adding to the Church dailysuch as were saved.

But witnessing to Jesus and the Resurrection,they were emphatically evangelical and Scrip-tural in the course of instruction they pursued.As their writings abundantly testify, " they builtupon the foundation of the Apostles and Pro-phets, Jesus Christ Himself being the ChiefCorner Stone:" their Gospel was that of ourNew Testament.


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SYMEON,

iy


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" I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that Heis able to keep that which I have committed unto Him againstthat day."2 Tim. i. 12.


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SYMEON.There are men who are proud of their relation-ships and birth. Descended from an ancestrythat numbers among its members those ofdistinguished excellence and worth, by whomimportant services have been rendered to theircountry and race, and who have walked thehighest paths of literature and philanthropy,they never tire of pointing to their pedigree,and reminding those around them of the namewhich they bear, or of the blood that flowsin^their veins. Symeon sustained higher rela-tionships than these. He belonged to thefamily circle of Jesus, was the son of Cleopasthe brother-in-law of Mary, and, therefore, afirst cousin of our Lord. He succeeded James


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SYMEON.

the Just as bishop or chief pastor of the Churchat Jerusalem, about thirty years after the cruci-fixion. His qualification for such a positionwas amply justified by his personal acquaint-ance with Christ, the devotion he had shown toHis service, and the Christian consistency oflife he had long maintained.As the families of Joseph and Cleopas were

closely connected, and held each other inaffectionate respect, they were often together,and the cousins had every opportunity ofthoroughly knowing one another. During suchseasons of intercourse, Symeon received im-pressions of Jesus, which, as may well bebelieved, had not a little to do with his afteracceptance of His Messiahship. He had, nodoubt, stories to tell of Christ, and testimoniesto bear to the beauty of his character, and Hisfar-reaching knowledge and power, which fewothers possessed.At what particular time, in the ministry of


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SYMEOM.

the Saviour, Symeon openly and fully acknow-ledged His claims we are not told. Theprobability however is, that it was at an earlyperiod, and that he was one of the Seventywho were sent forth to preach and heal, and toprepare the way of the Lord among men. "Itmay reasonably be supposed that, intendingSymeon to occupy a conspicuous and difficultposition in His Church, Christ would supplyhim with the opportunity of gaining a practicalacquaintance with its duties, and thus alsonotify to those around him the esteem in whichHe held him.

" Since the kinsmen of Christ were held inhonour after His ascension, Symeon was pro-bably called upon to assist at the Council atJerusalem, and then entrusted with the care ofone of the Congregations into which the numer-ous Christian community there was divided."

It was not long before he was advanced to ahigher and much more responsible position.


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SYMEON.

In one of the popular and furious outbreaks ofthe Jews against the disciples of Christsocommon in those timesJames, the then Bishopof Jerusalem, was put to a violent death.Symeon was chosen as his successor. The cir-cumstances of the times made it no easy thingto maintain the honour of such a position andsuccessfully discharge its duties. A cruel andextended persecution of Christian believers wasraging at the time in Palestine, while the armiesof Rome were razing city after city of the landto their foundations, and spreading desolationfar and wide. Jerusalem, in fulfilment ofChrist's prediction, was now besieged, and un-paralleled misery afflicted its crowded multi-tudes, gathered from all parts to celebrate thePassover. They were torn and wasted bymutual animosities and conflicts, and destroyedby the assaults and missiles of the encompass-ing foe. Their wretchedness exceeded all thatwords can express. " Then," said Christ, when


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SYMEON.

pointing forward to such a moment in the his-tory of the people, "shall be great tribulation,such as was not since the beginning of theworld to this time ; no, nor ever shall be,"The city was pillaged and sacked by its own

sons ; that which one faction spared, fell intothe hands of another, and the contendingparties agreed only in crime. " Such was theterror among the people," says Josephus, " thatno one dared to mourn for their dead or burythem. Tears must flow in secret, and groansbe stifled, for such tokens of lamentation werevisited by death. A little earth was hastilythrown over the corpses by night. . . . Owretched city, what cause of reproach hast thouagainst the Romans, who have but purged theefrom thine abominations ! Thou wast nomore the city of God, and thou could'st neveragain be such, since thou wast become thetomb of thy slaughtered children."

But where, meantime, were Symeon and the


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8 SYMEON.

Christian people who constituted the Churchover which he presided ?The course prescribed by Christ for His

servants, at such a time, was in these words ;" Then let them which are in Judea flee to themountains ; and let them which are in themidst of the city depart out ; and let not themthat are in the countries enter thereinto. Forthese be the days of vengeance, that all thingsthat are written may be fulfilled," adding," There shall not an hair of your head perish."At an early period of the siege, a pause in

the military operations taking place, andaffording an opportunity for escape, Symeonand his fellow Christians left the city, andsought and found a home in Pella, a town inthe mountainous country east of the Jordan.How long they remained there is not related.The probability is that the opportunity of re-turning was no sooner afforded them than theyembraced it. But what a scene must have


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SYMEON.

presented itself to them when they reached thespot on Olivet, at which men had so oftenpaused, and wondered, and admired ! Insteadof the Temple standing as a mountain ofsnow on Moriah, the palaces which crownedthe heights of Zion, the market places andsquares which thousands daily thronged, busystreets and varied industries, they saw blackenedruins, universal desolation, and here and therea wailing form. What their emotions at themoment were, we are not informed, but thevery dust of the city was dear to them, andthey passed on, and pitched their tents amidthe desolations. Their condition was sadenough, but their numbers increased, and withthe Temple no longer to worship in, nor an altarupon which to lay offerings, their hold ofJudaismrelaxed, and they became more truly a Christiancommunity, and better prepared for the fulfil-ment of the Saviour's purposes in regard tothem.


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10 SYMEON.

A new city at length arose on the ruins ofthat which had been destroyed, and for a whileSymeon and his people were allowed to worshipin peace. But days of trouble soon overtookthem, brought on by the attempt of the Jews tothrow off the yoke of Rome, and resume theirindependence. Those who excited and ledsuch rebellions encouraged their countrymenin them by the promise of the coming of theSon of David to lead them to victory andfreedom.As one of the means of checking or prevent-

ing such outbreaks, the Romans resolved to seekout and put to death all who claimed connexionwith the family of Jesse. Symeon was accusedof such relationship, and was in consequenceapprehended, and dragged before the tribunalappointed for the trial of such cases. Refusingto desist from the course he pursued, and giveup his faith in Christ, he was subjected, thoughone hundred and twenty years old, and very


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SYMEON. II

feeble, to the severest tortures. But neither hisfaith nor his courage failed him under theordeal. Day by day, amid intolerable sufferingsand under the eyes of many onlookers, hetestified to the claims of his Divine Master andLord, preached the Gospel he believed, andshowed that faith is above circumstances, andthat the supports and comforts found in thepresence and approval of Christ are not tobe destroyed by any indignities and crueltiesto which men may expose. Unable to drawfrom him anything to incriminate, or to movehim from the confidence he maintained, hisenemies nailed him to a cross, and thus, asthey imagined, destroyed the testimony he hadborne. But they sadly miscalculated. Theevidence he had given in torture and death ofthe power of the Gospel to support, in anycircumstances, its disciples, continued to beremembered, and to favourably dispose men'sminds towards Christianity. The very means


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12 SYMEON.

which his persecutors employed to destroy hisinfluence only deepened and extended it.And has it not always been so ? " The blood

of the martyrs has ever been the seed of theChurch." As was the case with the peopleof Israel in Egypt, so with Christianity,the more it has been hated and opposed, themore it has grown in the earth. What is ofGod is not to be extinguished. What His handsets up and maintains is not to be put down byany power of man.

But not only did Symeon bear a testimonythat survives until the present hour, but atestimony, clear and full, to the Messiahship ofChrist, the atoning sacrifice of His death. Hisresurrection from the dead and mediatorialreign ; the truthfulness of the gospels, and ofthe facts and doctrines of the Evangelical faith.And what man had ever better opportunity

of forming a correct judgment of such factsand doctrines } He not only passed the years


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SYMEON. 13of his public life on the very ground wherethe great events which the pages of the NewTestament narrate occurred, but was personallyacquainted with the Lord Jesus, and, at least,with the chief of the apostles. He thereforespoke of that which he knew, and testified towhat he had heard and seen, and too high anestimate cannot be put upon his testimony.


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IGNATIUS.


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'* From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, whichare able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith whichis in Christ Jesus."2 Tim. iii. 15.


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IGNATIUS.Tradition says, that Ignatius was the Httlechild whom Jesus employed on a memorableoccasion to rebuke the ambitious spirit dis-played by His disciples. Placing him in theirmidst He said unto them, " Except ye be con-verted and become as little children ye shall notenter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoevertherefore shall humble himself as this little child,the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.And whoso shall receive one such little childin My name receiveth Me ; but whoso shalloffend one of these little ones which believe inMe, it were better for him that a mill-stonewere hanged about his neck, and that he weredrowned in the depths of the sea."Whether or no, reliance is to *-be placed on the


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i8 IGNATIUS.

" tradition," this much, is, at least, certain, thatIgnatius was a disciple of the Apostle John,passed the years of his boyhood with those whohad seen and heard the Lord, and at an earlyperiod of life yielded himself to Christ. He mayhave been pious from even childhood. Multi-tudes are. The lambs of the flock of "the GoodShepherd " constitute a large proportion ofHis redeemed ones. And it is His joy that theydo so. The love of any heart is grateful to Him,but that of little children is especially so. Hecarries the lambs in His bosom. They lie verynear to His heart, and have much of His attentionand regard. Not a little, therefore, of the timeand energy of winners of souls ought to begiven to the salvation of the young. Younever more honour and please the Lord thanby bringing to Him such. Nowhere, moreover,is Christian labour so productive as in this fieldof service. The harvests gathered from amongthe old are limited and poor. Few are con-


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IGNA TIUS. 19

verted after twenty-five years of age. Thenwith what prayerful earnestness ought decisionfor Christ, with those under that age, to besought ? If really bent on the fulfilment of thepurpose which they profess to seek, and wise inits pursuit, ministers and teachers will speciallyaim at this object.Though we have no account of the ancestry

and country of Ignatius' birth, the probabilityis, that he was a native of the lake region ofGalilee, and continued in attendance on S.John, as Timothy did on S. Paul, until suchtime as he was prepared to enter on a life ofpublic usefulness.

Possessed of more than ordinary talents andqualifications for teaching and governing, he wasappointed to the office of bishop or chief pastorof the Church at Antioch, in Syria. Here helaboured for half a century with zeal and success.The position was one of difficulty and responsi-bility, but he fulfilled the duties of it with


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20 IGNA riUS.

growing efficiency, and exerted an influence forgood which extended far beyond the city wherehe resided.

Antioch was founded three hundred yearsbefore Christ by Seleucus, one of the generals ofAlexander the Great, called by the name of hisfather and son, and constituted the capital of

his vast dominion. Situated in the fruitful andbeautiful valley of the Orontes, with the Taur-ian range of mountains as a back-ground on thenorth, and the Lebanon-ridge as its shelter onthe east, " there was everything in its situationand circumstances to make it a place of con-course for all classes and kinds of people. By itsharbour of Seleucia it was in communication withall the trade of the Mediterranean; and, throughthe open country behind the Lebanon, wasconveniently approached by the caravans fromMesopotamia and Arabia. It united theinland advantages of Aleppo with the mari-time opportunities of Smyrna. It was almost


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IGNATIUS. 21

an oriental Rome, in which all the forms of thecivilized life of the Empire found some repre-sentation. Through the first two centuries ofthe Christian era, it was what Constantinoplebecame afterwards, * the Gate of the East.' " Itthus soon became a place of magnificence andsplendour. "Its special beauty was a great widestreet four miles long, and on each side adornedwith colonnades of pillars, beautiful in them-selves and supporting roofs that gave shelterfrom the noon-day sun. Under the Romans itbecame more magnificent than ever, and wasconsidered as the third city of the EmpireRome itself, and Seleucia on the Tigris,being its only superiors in wealth, splendour,and population. Beautiful gardens borderedthe river, and the delicious breezes from themountains and the sea made it a favourite resortof the Romans, who regarded the station thereas the most 'delightful that could be assignedto officer or soldier.'


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22 IGNA TIUS.

Many years did not elapse from the firstpreaching of the Gospel to its inhabitants till alarge Christian community was gathered withinits walls. The hand of the Lord was with theearlier heralds of salvation there, and a greatJiumber believed, and turned unto the Lord. Thenews of this reaching Jerusalem, Barnabas wassent to aid in the work so encouragingly begun,and again inueh people ivere added to the Lord.A field so productive and inviting drew toitself many labourers, among whom were" prophets and teachers," " Simeon surnamedNiger," "Lucius of Cyrene," "Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch," and the apostlesPaul and Peter. From the ministry of suchmen much was to be expected, and muchaccrued. The Church at Antioch became agreat power for good, and the mother churchof the Christian communities of many lands.

Whilst persecution under the cruel edicts ofNero, Decius and Diocletian was thinning the


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iGNA rius. 23ranks of believers in many quarters, and arrest-ing- the progress of evangelistic efforts in alldirections, the Christians at Antioch appear tohave lived and worshipped in peace for manyyears. The opportunities for usefulness whichsuch a time of quiet afforded, were, no doubt,fully availed of by Ignatius. Fired as hewas with love to the Saviour, and impressedwith men's need of the Gospel as God's remedyfor their woes, he would spend the energy hewas at liberty to employ in proclaiming salva-tion to men, and in seeking to lead the perish-ing to Jesus. And large success, as is evidentfrom the charges ultimately brought againsthim by the enemies of Christianity, and theeagerness with which they sought to put anend to his existence and influence, attended hislabours.The Emperor Trajan on his way to the East

to engage in war with the Parthians, haltedwith his legions at Antioch. During his stay


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24 IGNATIUS.

there an earthquake shook the city to itsfoundations. Houses, palaces, temples andtheatres were thrown to the ground, and manyof the inhabitants perished. The Consul diedof the injuries he received, and the Emperorhimself barely escaped with his life. Thecatastrophe was laid at the door of the Chris-tians, and Ignatius, as the leading spirit amongthem and the most active propagator of thenew faith, was apprehended and led before theEmperor. Trajan condemned him to death,ordering him to be taken to Rome, and castto the wild beasts. Ignatius' reply to thesentence was, " I thank Thee, O Lord, who hastcondescended thus to honour me with Thylove, and thought me worthy as Thine ApostlePaul, to go to Rome in chains."

It was with a sorrowful heart and manyexpressions of grief and regret that his peoplewitnessed his departure, at his advanced ageof eighty, from Antioch. But he himself was


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calm and even joyous. He knew in whomwas his confidence, and what awaited him atthe end of the journey he was commencing,and he began it with a firm step, and the feehngof one who longed to see his Lord.The vessel in which he sailed halting at

Smyrna, he had the privilege of spending somedays, if not weeks, in the company of Polycarp,and other Christians, who gathered around him,and in writing the letters which are now knownto be genuine, and in which we have not only theexpression of his feelings at the moment, but histestimony to the truth of Christianity, and thepower of the Gospel he had so long proclaimed.

Speaking of what he endured in his journeyfrom Antioch to Rome, and especially at thehands of those who were charged with his safedelivery to the Governor of the latter city, hesays : " And now, in my chains, I learn that Ihave nothing more to desire. I have alreadybegun to fight with wild beasts ; from Smyrna


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26 IGNATIUS.

to Rome, across sea and land, I was chained toten leopards whom kindness rendered onlymore cruel. Their outrages make me only themore the disciple of Him who was crucified ;but it is not this which justifies me." "Wordsthus written," says Dr De Pressense, " are thesacred testimony of martyrdom. His threeepistles, in their genuine form, are the farewellsof a Christian hero. They have that terseconciseness which belongs to the languageof action. It is clear they were written inhaste, by a man who desired to put all his Chris-tianity into the few words hurriedly penned,in moments when the vigilance of the fiercegaolers was relaxed. A strange fire flashesfrom those broken words as from fretted flints."The language he employs in his three letters

which were addressed to Polycarp, and to theChurches at Ephesus and Rome, is expressivenot only of ardent Christian love, and earnestdesire for the highest good of those to whom


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IGNA TIUS. 27

he writes, but of full and intelligent faith in thecharacter and mission of Christ, and in thetruth of the gospels which reveal Him. Whathe believed, and at last entered Rome to die intestimony for, was what he had so long andfully taught, that Jesus is the Messiah, andmen's only hope for eternity ; that He diedfor men's sins according to the Scriptures,and rose again for their justification ; thatHe fills heaven and earth with His pres-ence, and dwells as their life and strengthin the hearts of all who believe. He was em-phatically the disciple both of S. John andS. Paul, in the faith that he exercised and thespirit that he evinced.

Arriving in Rome, towards the end of thepublic games held at the close of theyear, he was hurried to the Amphitheatre,where the wild beasts, let loose upon him, soondid their work,leaving nothing of him but afew of his larger bones. These his friends


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28 IGNA TIUS.

reverently gathered together and sent toAntioch where they were buried.

Such was Ignatius in character, and positionin the Church ; and such the testimony hebore to the verity of the Scriptures and thedoctrines he taught.


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POLYCARP.


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'' We went through fire and through water ; but Thou

broughtest us out into a wealthy place."Ps. Ixvi. 12.


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POLYCARP.Smyrna, where Polycarp passed his days, andwhere, for a long period of years, he exercisedhis ministry as a Christian pastor, was in histimes an important and flourishing city, andcontinues to be so still. Standing at the headof the gulf of the same name, and possessed ofa fine harbour, it commanded the trade ofproconsular Asia and of the yEgean Sea.Situated in the midst of a fertile region, en-closed on three sides by mountains, and withthe sea in front, it was declared to be the mostbeautiful city of all Asia, and possessed greaterattractions than most towns as a place of resi-dence.As it exists, at present, it is one of the largest

and finest cities of the Turkish Empire, is said


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32 POL YCARP.

to be better built than Constantinople itself,and to be ever undergoing improvements.That the Gospel was preached at an early-

period to its inhabitants, and with wide-spreadsuccess, may be concluded from the Churchthere being one of the seven addressed by therisen Lord through the Apostle John, as re-corded in the second and third chapters of theApocalypse.

Polycarp was a native of the city, and afterhis conversion was, for some time, employedby the then bishop of the place as a Catechistand Evangelist. Whilst thus engaged he be-came acquainted with the apostle John, andhad the privilege of receiving from him muchinstruction and encouragement in his work.Finding him an apt scholar, and likely to dogood service to the Church, it was the delightof the beloved disciple to make him familiarwith the doctrines of Christ, and the facts ofHis life. Referring to this period of Polycarp's


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life, Irenseus who was his disciple writes thus toa friend,''I could point out the spot wherethe blessed Polycarp sat to teach. I coulddescribe his gait, his countenance, all his habits,even the clothes he was accustomed to wear.I could repeat the discourses which he deliveredto the people, and recall all that he said of hisintimacy with S. John, and the narratives heused to relate about those who had seen theLord upon earth. His memory was constantlydwelling on that which they had told him ofthe words, the miracles, the doctrines of Christ."" This valuable testimony," adds De Pressense," shows how eminently qualified Polycarp wasfor effecting the transition from the Apostolicto the following age. He delighted to be thedocile, almost passive, echo of the apostles.It is not surprising, therefore, that he shouldnot have displayed much originality, thoughcommanding universal respect. He was theliving tradition of the Church. His letter to

c


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34 POLYCARP.

the Philippians is quite in harmony with theidea Irenseus gives us of him. He appealsperpetually to the memory of the apostles, andas he is addressing a Church founded by S.Paul he invokes especially the name of theapostle of the Gentiles."On the death of Bucolas, Bishop of Smyrna,

Polycarp was chosen to be his successor, and,for a long period of years, discharged with faith-fulness and zeal the duties of the importantpastorate. But his labours were not confinedto Smyrna. "The care of all the Churches,once borne by S. Paul, and then byS. John, was, on the death of Ignatius,bestowed upon Polycarp ; and he wroteletters to them, as need served, of whichone only, that to the Church at Philippi, isextant."God often raises men from the lowest social

position to occupy places among the princes ofHis kingdom. If tradition speaks truthfully,


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POL YCARP. J5Polycarp was born not only of parents of thehumblest circumstances of life, but was himselfin early life a slave. Led by the pious lady inwhose service he was, to understand andbelieve the Gospel, he rose under its transform-ing and elevating power from the conditionin which it found him to occupy the positionhe so long and honourably filled as chief pastorof the Church at Smyrna. " He puts thetreasure into earthen vessels, that the excellencyof the power thereof may be of God and not ofmen."The truths to which he bore testimony, both

as catechist and bishop, were those he hadlearned from the lips of the apostle, on whichhe daily meditated and lived, and which he feltto be the very life and nourishment of the soul.These truths may be summarized thus :He

spoke of God^ as Almighty, Omniscient, andthe Author of Salvation ; as raising Christ fromthe dead, and, finally, all men from their graves


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36 POL YCARP.

to receive in reward or punishment as theyseverally deserve,Of Christ, as the Son of theFather, the Saviour of sinners, and the Judge ofthe quick and the dead,Of Salvation, asdeliverance from the guilt and power of sin,provided by God in Christ, and realized byfaith,Of the Scriptures, as true, and able tomake men wise unto salvation.He thus testified to all that is essential toChristianity, and thereby to the verity of the

Word of God from which he frequentlyquotes.

I adduce him, therefore, as a witness to thegenuineness and authenticity of the Gospel,and a witness, on whose testimony, from thehonesty of his convictions, the school in whichhe had been taught, and the earliness of theage at which he lived, every reliance may beplaced.

After fulfilling for many years, and to thebenefit of multitudes, the ministry he had


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POL YCARP, 37received of the Lord Jesus, he sealed with hisblood the testimony he had borne.

In the midst of a furious and popular out-break, both of Gentiles and of Jews, against thedisciples of Christ, as the cause, as it wasalleged, of the calamities afflicting the state,Polycarp was apprehended, charged with beingthe leader of the hated community, and con-demned to be burnt. But the stake had nofear for him. He believed that He whom hehad served eighty and six years, and whomnothing could lead him to deny, would be withhim in the fire, as He was with the threeHebrew youths, and enable him to glorify Himin death as he had done in life. Nor was hedisappointed in this. Jesus was never so con-sciously with him as during his last earthlymoments. He therefore ascended the pile,aged and infirm as he was, as a prince the stepsof his throne, and found the flames a chariot towaft him to the skies. Yes, Jesus can make


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38 POL YCARP.

not only *' dying beds feel soft to His ser-vants as downy pillows are," but even burn-ing fagots and seven-times heated furnaces.Hence the frequency with which He has madetheir prison cells to be to them mansionsof bliss, their scaffolds of martyrdom scenesof triumph, and their hours of torture times ofcoronation.

So it was with Polycarp. As soon as hisexecutioners set light to the pile, on which hestood, he "broke forth with a loud voice ofthanksgiving, with almost the same opening thatis found in a Eucharistic hymn in the oldestrecords of the worship of the Eastern Church,and in substance, as well as words, muchresembling our highest act of praise at theHoly Communion. Those Christians whomtheir venerable bishop had led to sing it attheir holiest moments for so many years, andwho would naturally have sung it with him onthe next day at their Easter Communion, must


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POL YCARP. 39have thrilled with rapture, as well as grief, whenthey heard his voice thus uplifted :"Lord God Almighty, Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ, Thy blessed and beloved Son,through whom we have received the grace ofknowing Thee, God of angels and powers,God of all things created, and of the just wholive in Thy presence, I bless Thee for havingbrought me to this hour that I may be amongThy martyrs and drink of the cup of my LordJesus Christ, to rise to eternal life in theincorruption of the Holy Ghost. Receive methis day into Thy presence together with them,being found in Thy sight as a fair andacceptable sacrifice prepared for Thyself, thatso Thou mayst accomplish what Thou, O trueand faithful God, hast foreshown. Where-fore I praise Thee for all Thy mercies, Ibless Thee, I glorify Thee, through the eter-nal High Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy belovedSon, with whom, to Thyself, and to the Holy


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40 POLYCARP.

Ghost, be glory both now and for ever.Amen." Thus passed Polycarp to the re-ward of his faithfulness, and the crown of hismartyr's love.


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CLEMENT OF ROME.


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*' For I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are atRome also." Rom, i. 15.


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CLEMENT OF ROME.By whom the Church at Rome was founded isnot related. It is possible, and even probable,that the first preachers of the Gospel in thecity of the Csesars were some of those" strangers from Rome " who were witnessesand partakers of the Pentecostal effusion of theHoly Ghost, and who learnt from S. Peter,and others of the apostles, the story of the lifeand death of the Lord Jesus.

It is at all events certain that it was notfounded by an apostle ; " for in that case,"as Dean Alford observes, " the fact of S. Pauladdressing it by letter and expressing his inten-tion of visiting it personally, would be incon-sistent with his own declared resolution of not


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44 CLEMENT OF ROME.working where another had previously laid thefoundation."But whilst the introduction of the Gospel to

Rome may be referred, with some degree ofcertainty, to some who had been hearers of S.Peter's great Sermon, and receivers of theBaptism of Power which accompanied it, it maybe concluded from the interest which S. Paulmanifested in the well-being of the RomanChurch that some one or more of his convertshad something to do with its early growth.

Clement was its chief pastor, towards theclose of the first century, and rendered it nosmall service by his watchfulness, instructionsand influence. Little is known of his personalhistory beyond these facts,that he was bornand bred in pagan idolatry ; was converted inearly manhood to the faith of Christianity ; wasas celebrated for his learning as afterwards forhis piety, and was held in the highest esteemby all who personally knew him. It was from


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CLEMENT OF ROME. 45his being held in such repute ; and possessed ofmore than ordinary endowments that he wasraised to the post that he filled, with suchcredit to himself and benefit to others.

It is generally believed that he possessed apersonal acquaintance with some of theapostles, and received from inspired lips muchthat he knew of the character and mission ofJesus Christ.The times in which he lived were such as

made the fulfilment of his official duties any-thing but easy. During part of the period inwhich he sustained the pastoral relation to theChurch of the Capital, one of the worst of theRoman Emperors occupied the throne. Domi-tian was in all respects a worthy successor ofNero. There was no form of evil of which hewas not guilty, nor any description of crueltyand oppression that he did not inflict. Hemurdered his Christian subjects by hun-dreds, and drove from Rome men of learning


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46 CLEMENT OF ROME.and virtue. With such an impersonation ofcorruption and tyranny on the throne, andwickedness rampant in the palace, and in allhigh places, no surprise can be felt at the extentto which iniquity abounded everywhere else.Rome might be a city of palaces, and thecentre of worldly splendour and attraction, butwas, at the same time, a sink of iniquity andhot-bed of crime. But in the midst of allClement maintained the profession of his faith,fulfilled with zeal the duties of his vocation,and testified, with unfailing Christian courage,against the evils that prevailed.

His piety was, however, anything but of thatsevere and sombre cast, "which under the pre-text," as has been said, " of doing honour tograce, despises nature." He was as cheerfulas he was sincere, and as hopeful as he wasearnest. " That which strikes us in Clement,"says De Pressense, "is his serenity. We feel thathe himself enjoys that deep and abiding peace,


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CLEMENT OF ROME. 47which he urges upon others. It is impressedon every page he writes, while his thoughtsflow on like a broad and quiet stream, neverswelling into a full, impetuous tide. Thecommandments of God are, to use his own im-pression, inscribed in the breadth and depth ofhis heart. Hence the fulness of expressionwhich he gives to them. We feel that thisman has a great love for Jesus Christ, and calmas is his nature, he finds words full of loftinessand of fire when this is his theme. * Behold,'he says, 'the way of our salvation, Christ Jesus,the High Priest of our sacrifice, the Comforter,and Strength of our weakness. Through Himwe rise to sit in heavenly places. He unveilsto us His face, glorious in holiness ; by Him theeyes of our heart are opened, our barren anddarkened understanding expands beneath Hisshining into marvellous light. God has beenpleased to reveal to us in Him the excellentglory of His majesty, He being so much higher


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48 CLEMENT OF ROME.than the angels, as He hath by inheritance amore excellent name than they.'"

Clement is best known by the letter ascribedto him, and addressed by the Church of Rometo that at Corinth. " Though his name is notmentioned either in the address, or the body ofthe epistle, there can be no reasonable doubtabout the authorship. . . The direct proofs ofClement being the writer are numerous, andwere early and widely admitted."The object of the letter was to heal divisions

that had arisen in the Corinthian Church,secure the restoration of the pastors who hadbeen unrighteously driven from their posts, andeffect the reformation or the expulsion ofunruly members.The letter was widely known and highly

valued from the earliest times. It is referred toby writers of the first and second centuries, andby Polycarp, only a few years after its date.

In the course of it Clement refers to the


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CLEMENT OF ROME. 49leading doctrines of Christianity, and is to bereceived, from the time at which he lived, andthe character he possessed, as an importantwitness to their truth. He speaks of God as"the Framer and Creator of the world;" "theLord and Father of the ages ; " " the true andonly God;" "the Maker of man in His ownimage;" and "the Pervader by His energy ofall the operations of nature."He speaks ofChrist as "the Manifestation, Power, and Son ofGod ;" as " pouring out His blood for man'ssalvation ;" as "rising from the dead, and beingin His resurrection the first fruit of them thatsleep;" and as " reappearing to give to everyman according to His work."He speaks ofthe Spirit as poured out upon man, and asinfluencing and guiding the minds of thewriters of Holy Writ.

But thus testifying to the principal doctrinesof Scripture he testifies, at the same time, tothe truth of Scripture itself, and to the fact, thatD


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50 CLEMENT OF ROME.the sacred writings being then in existence andcirculation were not the production of a laterage.

" The kind of testimony to the New Testa-ment which is obtained (from his writings) is,"says Canon Westcott, '' beyond all suspicion ofdesign : and, admitting the authenticity of therecords, above all contradiction. The ChristianChurch as Clement describes it, exhibits afusion of elements which must have existedseparately at no distant period. Traditionascribes to him expressly the task of definitelycombining what was left still disunited by theApostles ; and we find that the very elementswhich he recognized are exactly those, withoutany omission or increase, which are preservedto us in the New Testament, as stamped byApostolic authority. The other Fathers of thefirst age, as will be seen, represent more or lessclearly, perhaps, some special form of Christianteaching ; but Clement places them all side by


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CLEMENT OE ROME. 51Side. They witness to the independent weightof parts of the Canon, he ratifies generally theclaims of the whole," and so forms a strong andimportant link in the chain of early Christianevidence.


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PAPIAS.


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"Ye learned (the Gospel) of Epaphras our clear fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ."Col. i. 7.


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PAPIAS.HiERAPOLIS, where Papias exercised hisministry at the beginning of the secondcentury, was one of the three cities whichoccupied the valley of the Lycus in Phrygia,and to which S. Paul refers in his Epistle to theColossians. It stood on the north side of thevalley, facing Laodicea six miles to the south,with the river flowing between them. Colossaestood at a distance of ten or twelve mileshigher up the stream. Thus situated theinhabitants would necessarily hold much inter-course with one another, and all the more sothat they were occupied with the same trade indyed woollen goods.

" Like Laodicea, Hierapolis," says Lightfoot,


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56 PAPIAS.

" was in the days of the Apostles and onward animportant and growing city, though notlike Laodicea holding metropolitan rank.Besides the trade in dyed wools, it had anothersource of wealth and prosperity peculiar to it-self. The streams to which the scenery aroundowes its remarkable features, are endowed withvaluable medicinal qualities, while at the sametime they are so copious that the ancient city isdescribed as full of self-made baths .... Tothis fashionable watering place, thus favouredby nature, seekers of pleasure and seekers ofhealth alike were drawn. "

It was at Hierapolis that Epictetus thegreatest of heathen moralists was born. Thoughthe son of parents who occupied the veryhumblest position in life, and many years theslave of a master who treated him with thegreatest harshness and cruelty, he yet rose tooccupy the foremost place of the heathenmoralists and teachers of his day. Born about


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the date of the Crucifixion, he was growing up tomanhood, and unfolding his great natural powers,at the time the Gospel was first introduced intohis native city. Whether he ever came into con-tact with the first heralds of salvation there, orwith the Apostle Paul when he visited the place,we have no means of knowing. It is not impro-bable that he did, as there is often a markedresemblance in his language to the words ofScripture.Of the early history of Papias little can be

said. The probability is that he was a Phrygianby birth and a native of Hierapolis.By whom he was first taught the truth of

the Gospel and led to make Christ his trust isnowhere related. It might be by Epaphras, thepastor of the church at Colossae and the earnestpropagator of the Faith in all the region round,or by some zealous evangelist from Ephesus,or by Philip of Bethsaida, the early friend andfellow-townsman of S. John, and the first


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S8 PAPIAS.

Apostle who is recorded to have held com-munication with the Gentiles. Here he diedand was buried ; and here after his deceaselived his two virgin daughters, who survived toa very advanced age, and thus handed down tothe second century the traditions of the earliestdays of the Church.

But not only from the two daughters ofPhilip did Papias learn much that he committedto paper, but also, as he tells us, from Aristionand John the presbyter, two personal disciplesof Christ. " He made it his business (so far ashis pastoral and evangelistic labours wouldallow,) to gather traditions respecting thesayings of the Saviour and His Apostles.These he published in a work of five booksentitled An Exposition of the Oracles of theLord, using the information thus collected toillustrate the discourses, and perhaps the doings,of Christ as recorded in the Gospels."

Things are related by him, as received from


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PAPIAS. 59

others, which many have regarded as im-probable and without warrant. But grantedthat it is so, and that he was not alwayssufficiently careful to sift the evidence for thetruth of what was told him, his testimony to thetruth of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John,and of other books of the New Testament pos-sesses no small value. Unless he had been a manof credibility and power, and also of soundnessin the faith, he would never have been receivedby tolycarp as a companion, nor spoken of byIrenseus as he was, and occupied the responsibleposition in the Church to which he had beenraised. I therefore feel justified, from the earlytestimonies that exist with regard to him, theplace that he occupied among the Christian menof his day, his nearness to the times of theApostles, and the pains he was at to furnishadditional evidence of the truth of the gospel,to make him a link in the chain of early testi-mony to Christianity here given.


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JUSTIN MARTYR.


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Unblameable in word and thoughtA man arises, God Himself hath taught,To prove that without Christ all gain is loss,All hope despair that stands not on His Cross.'


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JUSTIN MARTYR.

The sufficiency of the Gospel for men's require-ments has been proved by the victories it haswon. It has triumphed in palaces as well as incottages, and been the instrument of life andlight to the learned as well as to the untaught.It is the power of God for salvation to all whobelieve it. Hence the classes from which themembership of the Church is derived. Thelanguage of S. Paul to the Corinthians may be :"Ye see your calling brethren, how that notmany wise men after the flesh, not manymighty, not many noble are called ;" and Jamesmay ask of those he addresses : " Hath notGod chosen the poor of this world rich in faith,and heirs of the kingdom which He hath


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64 yUSTIA MARTYR.

promised to them that love Him?"Yet phil-osophers as well as peasants are found at thefeet of Jesus, and men of learning and of noeducation among the most ardent of Hisadorers, and the most zealous of the advocatesof His claims. And thus it has ever been.We accordingly find among the early wit-

nesses to the truth of Christianity, men of highbirth and men of low birth ; a Justin thephilosopher and a Blandina the slave.

Justin was born at Flavia Neapolis, near thespot in Samaria where stood the ancient townof Shechem. This was at the beginning of thesecond century of the Christian era. He wasof Greek descent, and his parents, as may beinferred from the education they gave him, andthe means he had for travel on reaching man-hood, were persons of easy circumstances.The scenes amid which he passed the years

of his childhood and youth were the fairest inPalestine and as fruitful as they were beautiful.


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JUSTIN MARTYR. 65They were also rich in historic associations. Itwas here that Abraham pitched his tent andreared his altar when he first entered the landof Promise ; that Jacob sojourned for sometime on his return from Padan-aram ; thatJoseph had his portion and, ultimately, hisgrave ; and that Jesus held his memorableconversation with the woman of Samaria.

" It was here also, upon the sloping sides ofthe neighbouring confronting hills, that theblessing and the curse were so solemnly pro-nounced in the days of Joshua. Six of thetribes of Israel were stationed on the sides ofGerizim and six on the sides of Ebal ; while inthe valley between was placed the ark of God,with the priests and Levites standing round.When all was thus arranged, and every man ofIsrael held in his breath in anxious suspense,the Levites in a clear loud voice uttered thecurses in the name of Jehovah. At everypause, the six tribes on Ebal responded 'Amen.'

E


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66 yUSTIN MAR TYR.Then the blessings were uttered with the samedeep solemnity, and the six tribes on Gerizimresponded to every blessing ' Amen.' It is notdifficult to understand how the united voices ofthe band of Levites in the valley would beheard by the multitudes that lined the hills oneither side, when it is remembered that thesound floated upwards amid the stillness ofan assembly awed into deepest silence. Thelovely valley would form a noble sanctuary,with the rocky mountains for its walls, andheaven alone for its canopy. The mind canscarcely conceive of a scene of truer sublimitythan would be witnessed at the moment acovenanted nation bowed their heads beforethe Lord, in such circumstances, and utteredtheir loud Amen, alike to His promises andHis threatenings."Amid such scenes then Justin passed his

earliest days, often climbing the heights ofsuch sacred memories and visiting Jacob's well,


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JUSTIN MARTYR. 67sitting beneath the walls of Joseph's tomb andlearning from pilgrims thither the facts whichthe places commemorated.The travels referred to were made by Justin

in quest of truth. Many years, however, passedbefore the object of his pursuit was attained.He studied system after system of philosophybut failed to gain what he sought for. Histhirst remained unappeased, and the restfulnesshe longed to experience as remote from him asever. Meeting at length with one who pos-sessed what he was anxious to know, he wasled by him to the study of the Scriptures, andfound at the feet of Jesus what all the schools ofphilosophy he had entered had been unable tosupply. But he did not keep to himself whatnow satisfied and delighted him. He went every-where preaching the Word. Though retaininghis place among the scholars of the age, andcontinuing the use of the philosopher's cloak,he passed his time much more in teaching


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68 JUSTIN MARTYR.Christian truth than what had been learned byhim in the School of Pythagoras or Plato.He was henceforth a witness for Jesus. Butis not this what every one is intended to bewho bears His name "i Yet there are manysuch who lift no testimony for Him. Menaround them, and associated with them, learnnothing of Christ from them. Nor is theabsence of vocal testimony compensated forby the divine likeness they manifest in theirtemper and walk. They differ little, if anything,in form and speech from the men of the worldabout them. Is it so, dear reader, with you ?Are you bearing no testimony for Him whosedisciple and servant you profess to be } Thenfor what are you living .? You are Christ'sonly so far as you act for Him. Hence Hisown words ; " Not every one that saith untome, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king-dom of heaven ; but he that doeth the willof my Father who is in heaven." But all


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yUSTIN MAR TYR. 69who are in real union with Him live for Him,and represent Him. "He that abidcth in me,and I in him, the same bringeth forth muchfruit." No, you cannot be Christ's, by thefaith which worketh by love, and the indwel-ling of His Spirit, and not show resemblanceto Him, and be the light of the world, and thesalt of the earth.But Justin not only spoke for Christ,

he lurote of Him. Many works proceededfrom his pen. Of these, two Apologies orDefences of Christianity addressed to theRoman Emperors of his time, and a Dia-logue he held with Trypho, a Jew, in whichhe proved from the Old Testament thatJesus was the Christ, survive. The dates ofthese were about the middle of the secondcentury.The testimony of Justin to the genuineness

of the Gospels and the truth of Christianitypossesses peculiar value, from the time at which


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worsliipped Him, and offered Him gold andfrankincense and myrrh, and by revelation werecommanded not to return to Herod, to whomthey had first comethat He was called Jesusas the Saviour of His peoplethat by thecommand of God His parents fled with Himto Egypt, for fear of Herod, and remained theretill Archelaus succeeded himthat Herod,being deceived by the wise men, commandedthe children of Bethlehem to be put to death, sothat the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, whospoke of Rachel weeping for her childrenthatJesus grew after the common manner of men,working as a carpenter, and so waited inobscurity thirty years, more or less, till the com-ing of John the Baptist.

'* He tells us, moreover, that this John, the sonof Elizabeth, came preaching by the Jordan thebaptism of repentance, wearing a leathern girdleand a raiment of camel's hair, and eating onlylocusts and wild honeythat men supposed he


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was the Christ, to whom he answered, */ amnot the Christy but a voice of one crying : for Hethat is mightier than I will soon come (v^^'), whosesandals I am not tvorthy to bear'that whenJesus descended into the Jordan to be baptisedby him a fire was kindled in the river, and whenHe came up out of the water the Holy Spiritas a dove lighted upon Him, and a voice camefrom heaven, saying, * Tho2L art my Son ; thisday have I begotten Thee'that immediatelyafter His baptism the devil came to Jesus andtempted Him, bidding Him at last to worshiphim. He further adds that Christ Himselfrecognised John as the Elias who should precedeHim, * to whom men had done whatsoever theylisted ; ' and thus he relates how Herod put Johninto prison, and how the daughter of Herodiasdanced before the King on his birthday andpleased him, so that he promised to grant heranything she wished, and that she, by hermother's desire, asked for the head of John to


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JUSTIN MAR TYR. 73be given her on a charger, and that so John wasput to death.

"Henceforth, after speaking in general termsof the miracles of Christ, how He healed allmanner of sickness and disease^ Justin says littleof the details of His life till the last great events.Then he narrates Christ's triumphal entry intoJerusalem from Bethphage, as a fulfilment ofprophecy, the (second) cleansing of the Temple,the conspiracy against Him, the institution ofthe Eucharist for the remembrance of Hiniy thesinging of the psalm afterwards, the agonyat night on the Mount of Olives, at which threeof His disciples were present ; the prayer, thebloody sweat, the arrest, the flight of theApostles, the silence before Pilate, the remandto Herod, the crucifixion, the division of Christ'sraiment by lot, the signs and words of mockeryof the bystanders, the cry of sorrow, the lastwords of resignation, the burial on the eveningof the day of the Passion, the Resurrection on


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Sunday, the appearance to the Apostles anddisciples, how Christ opened to them theScriptures, the calumnies of the Jews, the com-mission to the Apostles, the Ascension.

"(2) It is beyond controversy that Justin seemsto quote from our Gospelsthat is, that manypassages in his writings are identical or nearlyidentical with passages in our Gospels. Forexample : in his first Apology we read, {a) ' Atthe same time an angel was sent to the samevirgin, saying. Behold, thou shalt conceive inthy womb by the Holy Ghost, and thou shaltbring forth a son, and he shall be called the Sonof the Highest. And thou shalt call His nameJesus, for He shall save His people from theirsins, as they have taught who have written thehistory of all things concerning our Saviour JesusChrist. And we believe them.' (Matt. i. 20, 21 ;comp. Luke i. 31.) (l?) In his Dialogue'And itis written in the Gospel that He said : All thingsare delivered to Me of the Father. And no man


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knoweth the Father, but the Son : neither theSon save the Father and they to whom the Sonwill reveal Him.' (Matt. xi. 27.) {c) 'And theVirgin Mary, having been filled with faith andjoy when the angel Gabriel brought her goodtidings, that the Spirit of the Lord should comeupon her, and the power of the Highest over-shadow her, and therefore that holy thing bornof her should be the Son of God, answered. Beit unto me according to thy word.' (Luke i. 35,1%) {d) Speaking of John the Baptist, 'Theysuspected him to be the Christ : to whom hesaid, I am not the Christ, but the voice of onecrying : there will come One mightier than me,whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to bear.'(John i. 20, 23, 27; comp. Matt. iii. 11, Lukeiii. 16.)

" (3) It is beyond controversy that Justin doesquote from some written Gospels, or appeals tothem as the source of his information. Thusspeaking of the Lord's Supper, he says, * For


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the apostles in the memoirs composed by them,which are called Gospels, have thus delivered it,that Jesus commanded them to take bread, andgive thanks.' (Comp. Matt. xxvi. 26, Mark xiv.22, Luke xxii. 19, 20.) Again 'For in thecommentaries which, as I have said, were com-posed by the apostles and their followers (orcompanions), it is written, that His sweat felllike drops of blood as He prayed, saying. If itbe possible, let this cup pass from me.' (Comp.Luke xxii. 42, and Matt. xxvi. 39.)

" Giving an account of the Christian worshipto the Emperor, in the first Apology, he says,* The memoirs of the apostles, or the writingsof the prophets, are read according as the timeallows ; and when the reader has ended, thePresident makes a discourse exhorting to theimitation of so excellent things.' Trypho, theJew, is represented by Justin as saying, ' I amsensible that the precepts in your Gospel, asit is called, are so great and wonderful that


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JUSTIN MARTYR. 77I think it impossible for any man to keepthem. For I have been at the pains to readthem.'

" Now looking at these facts," adds DrKennedy, "and at the fact that the gospelsreferred to by Justin are described by him aswritten by Apostles and their followers or coin-panionsa description corresponding exactlywith the authorship of our Four Gospelsthequestion that is open to debate is, whether ourgospels are the very gospels that were inJustin's hands, and which were read publicly inthe Christian assemblies in his times. Thisquestion has been threshed out so completelythat nothing new can be said upon it. On theone side, it is maintained that the variationsfrom the text of our gospels are such as cannotbe accounted for on the supposition thatJustin had these gospels before him. On theother side, it is maintained that these variationsare only such as may easily be accounted for on


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the supposition that Justin quoted from memoryand that he often put together into one, even aswriters and preachers do still, the substanceof various passages ; especially when it is re-membered that he was addressing HeathenEmperors, for whom chapter and verse, and aliterary transcript of words, were of no con-sequence."

Justin was at last called upon to suffer amartyr's death for the doctrines he believed, andwhich, for many years he had taught and de-fended with more than ordinary ability and zeal.Summoned, with six companions, before Rus-ticus, the Prefect of the city of Rome, he madea noble confession of the Truth, triumphantlyanswered every objection brought against it,and refused to be drawn or driven from hisloyalty to Christ. The sentence was at lastpronounced in these words ; " Let those whohave refused to sacrifice to the gods, and toyield to the command of the Emperor, be


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JUSTIN MARTYR. 79scourged and led away, suffering the penalty ofdecapitation according to the laws;" but neitherJustin nor his fellow confessors were moved byits utterance. They left the bar of their judgefor the place of execution neither with heavysteps nor down-cast look, but with mutualcongratulations and joy, in that they werecounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus,and to perfect their testimony to His claims ina way that would give impetus to His cause,and heighten men's estimate of His graceand truth.


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IREN^US.


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** From new-born Lyons oft thy memory turn'dUnto the earHer East, and fondly yearn'dFor Polycarp and Smyrna, and the youthOf grave Religion fair."Rev. J. Williams.


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IREN^US.LVONS, where Ireneeus passed the greater partof his life, and which became at an early periodthe seat of a Christian bishopric, is one of thelargest and finest cities of France. Situated atthe junction of the Saone and Rhone, in themidst of a rich and fruitful region, and where itcommands the trade of the Mediterranean andof the interior of the land, it soon rose to im-portance as a centre of commerce, and the seatof a Roman colony, and drew to itself men frommany lands.From its position and influence it early

attracted the attention of the Churches thatwere spreading the gospel in different directions.The result was the commission, by the Christian


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community at Smyrna, of a number of its mem-bers with Pothinus at their head, to make asettlement there. The light thus kindled on thebanks of the Rhone spread with rapidity,illuminated the darkness of many minds, andrevealed to multitudes the hollowness ofidolatry.

Irenseus was subsequently sent by the samechurch to co-operate with Pothinus, andstrengthen the mission of Western Gaul.Born about the year 130 A.D., and of Greek

extraction, Irenseus had the privilege of enjoy-ing the instructions of the holy Polycarp, and ofbeing taught by him the knowledge of divinetruth, and the character of the heresies that weretroubling the churches. He was thus preparedfor the position of usefulness and power heafterwards held.How long he enjoyed the privilege of listen-

ing to Polycarp, and hearing from him whathad been learnt from the Apostle John, we are

8/3/2019 Fleming. Early Christian witnesses, or, Testimonies of the first cen

fleming. early christian witnesses, or, testimonies of the first centuries to the truth of...

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