For the flame forming the appearance of an arch, as the fail of a veffel filled with wind, was as a wall round about the body of the martyr. And it was in the midft, not as burning flesh, but as gold and filver refined in a furnace. We received alfo in our noftrils fuch a fragrance, as of frankincenfe, or fome other precious perfume. At length the impious obferving that his body could not be confumed by the fire, ordered the Confector to approach, and to plunge his fword into his body. Upon this a quantity of blood gufhed out, fo that the fire was extinguished, and all the multitude were aftonifhed to fee the difference thus providentially made between the unbelievers and the elect; of whom the admirable perfonage before us was doubtless one, in our age an apoftolical and prophetical teacher, the Bishop of the Catholic church of Smyrna. For whatever he declared was fulfilled and will be fulfilled. But the envious, malignant, and spiteful enemy of the juft, obferving the honour put on his martyrdom, and his blamelefs life, and knowing that he was now crowned with immortality, and the prize of unquestionable victory, ftudied to prevent us from obtaining his body, though many of us longed to do it, and to communicate with his facred flefh. For fome fuggefled to Nicetes, the father of Herod, and the brother of Alce, to go to the Proconful, and intreat him not to deliver them

the

* An officer, whose business it was in the Roman games to difpatch any bealt that was unruly or dangerous.

I fee no ground for the well-known Papistical inference from hence of the virtues afcribed to relics. To express an affectionate regard to the deceased by a decent attention to the funeral rites, is all that is neceffarily meant by the expreffion.

† Alce is fpoken of with honour in Ignatius's Epistle to the Smyrneans. She, it feems, had found, in her nearest relations, inveterate foes to whatever the held dear.

the body, left, fay they, leaving the Crucified One, they should begin to worship him. And they faid these things upon the fuggestions and arguments of the Jews, who alfo watched us, when we were going to take his body from the pile; unacquainted indeed with our views, that it is not poffible for us to forfake Chrift, who fuffered for the falvation of all who are faved of the human race, nor ever to worship any other*. For we adore him as being the Son of God; but we juftly love the martyrs as difciples of the Lord, and followers of him, on account of that diftinguished affection which they bore towards their King and their Teacher, and may we be ranked at last in their number! The Centurion, perceiving the malevolence of the Jews, placed the body in the midft, and burnt it. Then we gathered up his bones, more precious than gold and jewels, and depofited them in a proper place; where, if it be poflible, we shall meet, and the Lord will grant us, in gladness and joy, to celebrate the birth-day of his martyrdom, both in commemoration of those who have wrestled before us, and for the inftruction and confirmation of those who come after. Thus far concerning the bleffed Polycarp. Eleven brethren from Philadelphia fuffered with him, but he alone is particularly celebrated by all; even by Gentiles he is fpoken of in every place. He was, in truth, not only an illuftrious teacher, but also an eminent martyr, whofe martyrdom all defire to imitate, because it was regulated exactly

by

*The faith of Chrift, and a juft honour paid to true chriftians, abstracted from fuperftition and idolatry, appear in this paffage, &c.

If we were in our times fubject to fuch fufferings, I fufpect these anniverfary-martyrdoms of antiquity might be thought ufeful to us alfo. The fuperftition of after-times appears not, I think, in this epiltle.

by Evangelical principles. For by patience he conquered the unjust magistrate, and thus receiving the crown of immortality, exulting with Apostles and all the righteous, he glorifies God, even the Father, and bleffes our Lord, even the Ruler of our bodies, and the Shepherd of his Church dispersed through the world. You defired a full account; and we, for the present, have fent you a compendious one by our brother Mark. When you have read it, fend it to the brethren beyond you, that they alfo may glorify the Lord, who makes selections from his own fervants, who shall thus honour him by their deaths, and who not. To him who is able to conduct us all by his grace and free mercy into his heavenly kingdom, by his only-begotten Son Jefus Chrift, to him be glory, honour, power, majefty, for ever. Amen. Salute all the Saints; thofe with

s falute you, particularly Evaristus the writer, with all his houfe. He fuffered martyrdom the fecond day of the month Xanthicus, the feventh day before the Calends of March, on the great fabbath, the eighth hour. He was apprehended by Herod, under Philip the Trallian Pontifex, Statius Quadratus being Proconful, but Jefus Christ reigning for ever, to whom be glory, honour, majesty, an eternal throne from age to age. We pray that you may be ftrong, brethren, walking in the Word Jefus Chrift, according to the Gofpel, with whom be glory to God, even the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, for the falvation of his elected Saints, among whom the bleffed Polycarp hath fuffered martyrdom, with whom may we be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, having followed his steps!

These things Caius hath tranfcribed from the copy of Irenæus, the difciple of Polycarp, who alfo

lived with Irenæus. And I Socrates of Corinth have transcribed from the copy of Caius. Grace be with you all. And I Pionius have transcribed from the fore-mentioned, having made search for it, and received the knowledge of it by a vifion of Polycarp, as I fhall fhew in what follows, collecting it when now almoft obfolete. So may the Lord Jefus Chrift collect me with his elect, to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit to the ages of ages. Amen."

I thought it not amifs for the English reader to see the manner in which books were then fucceffively preserved in the church. Of Irenæus we fhall hear more hereafter. Nor ought Pionius's account of his vifion to be haftily flighted, by thofe who confider the scarcity of useful writings in those days. Whether the cafe was worthy of fuch a divine interpofition, we, who indolently enjoy books without end, can fcarce be judges. However, if any chufe to add this to the number of pious frauds, which certainly did once much abound, the authenticity of the whole account remains unimpeached, as very near the whole is in Eufebius. This hiftorian mentions Metrodorus, a Prefbyter of the fect of Marcion, who perished in the flames among others who fuffered at Smyrna. It cannot be denied that Heretics alfo have had their martyrs. Pride and obftinacy will in fome minds perfift even to death. But as all who have been claffed among heretics have not been fo in reality, Metrodorus might be a very different fort of a man from Marcion.

A comparative view of a chriftian fuffering, as we have seen Polycarp, with a Roman Stoic or untutored Indian undergoing afflictions, where we have an opportunity to furvey all circumstances, might fhew, in a practical light, the peculiar ge

nius and spirit of chriftianity, and it's divine fuperiority. At the fame time thofe who now content themselves with a cold rationality in religion, may ask themselves how it would have fitted them to endure what Polycarp did, and whether fomething of what is falfely called enthusiasm, and which the foregoing epiftle breathes so profufely, be not really and folidly divine.

CHAP. VI.

THE MARTYRS OF LYONS AND VIENNE.

"T

HE flame of Antoninus's perfecution reached a country which hitherto has afforded us no ecclefiaftical materials, I mean that of France, in those times called Gallia. Two neighbouring cities, Vienne and Lyons, appear to have been much favoured with evangelical light and love. Vienne was an ancient Roman colony; Lyons was more modern, and her prefent bishop was Pothinus. His very name points him out to be a Grecian. Irenæus was a Prefbyter of Lyons, and feems to have been the author of the epiftle which Eufebius has preserved, and which the reader fhall fee presently. Other names concerned in the fubject are evidently of Greek extraction, and it is hence most probable that fome Afiatic Greeks had been the founders of these churches. Whoever cafts his eye on a map of France, and fees the fituation of Lyons, at prefent the largest and most populous city in that kingdom, next to Paris, may obferve how favourable the confluence

Eufeb. IV. 1 C.

of