violated. For, as they say, all men are commanded by the law of God to confess all their sins to a priest; and therefore the priest, by the same law, is obliged in no case to reveal them. For certainly God never intended to impose so hard a necessity on a sinner, as necessarily to lose one of the two, either his temporal or his eternal life; his temporal, if he confess, his eternal, if he do not. Now if it were lawful for the priest, in any case, to reveal the confession, and not lawful for the sinner not to confess, he could not obtain eternal, without manifest danger of his temporal life. O the subtilty of the doctrine! the nicety of the practice! O the great Roman asylum! the happy security in the pretence of penance to impenitent wretches! Here they may freely open their tender consciences, and by a safe consultation receive advice in the worst of their designs for the advancement of the gospel, and the propagation of the faith. they have of late so fortified this castle, that it is become impregnable, though the foundation of it be laid on a tradition of their own, wholly unknown, as they have acknowledged, to the vast number of the Eastern churches.

For

But if we grant the sacredness of confession, and the duty of secrecy in the confessor, which I shall not deny; yet reason (which can judge what designs are fit to be kept secret, and what not) will teach all men, and some of their divines have formerly taught, that a private secret ought to be revealed for a great and public good, for the prevention of a general evil, the confessor keeping the person confessing as close and safe as he may. And if this doctrine had been observed, our danger could not have long continued, which consisted in the mischief of the design, not in the number or power of the persons engaged, and consequently had vanished as soon as it was disclosed. But they were sufficiently fortified against this truth. For, that a private secret must yield to a great and public good, holds only, they say, in those countries where the prince is a Catholic, who believes the great religion of private and sacramental confession, and bears a great reverence unto it. And that too, when that Catholic prince is so pious and religious, that it may be rationally presumed that he will by no means urge the confessor with dangerous or troublesome interrogations, or in the least desire the persons of the traitors. Thus, upon an unjust supposal that our king was not a Catholic, and consequently not a Christian, both he and his kingdom were wholly excluded from the benefit of universal reason, and the doctrine of their most sober divines; and so their most pernicious counsel lay" still "in the deep," wrapt up in the conscience of the priest, who had been taught that he knew it not as man but as God, and that it was not a natural or civil, but a supernatural, secret.

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Again, it was very unreasonable to pretend the sacred power of the seal to keep the secrecy of this horrid conspiracy; because there was not any confession made of a sin committed and repented of (which only hath a proper tendency to absolution) but only of a crime intended and of a present resolution afterwards to commit it; which is not to be esteemed under penance at all (except there can be penitence where there is no penitent or pretender to be such), neither is it capable of absolution or any benefit of confession, being it is not

in itself confession, but rather consultation, and that the worst imaginable, including a resolute intention to commit the greatest crime. In this many of their doctors agree; and a Bishop of Rome hath given a full and clear resolution in the point. But in the greatest danger we could receive no benefit here, a new distinction making up the breach. For we must understand, that though it were not a formal, yet it was a virtual confession; though it were but a consultation, yet it had some reference to a sacramental confession, either already made, or in probability to be made hereafter; by virtue of which reference it was to be under the same secrecy, and to have the benefit of the same seal, being under it either directly or indirectly. Thus that grand conspiracy was consigned to take its best opportunity; as needing no repentance, but in case of a failure or non-performance. And so this "work was still "in the dark."

Moreover, we might conceive ourselves safe from such a machination of any Christians, by that divine determination, "We must not do evil that good may come of it." For if their damnation were just, who slanderously reported of St. Paul, that he said, "Let us do evil, that good may come;" who could imagine that in any case of conscience this should be admitted? And indeed a great scruple arose even in the minds of the most confident assassinates, whether the nocent and the innocent might be destroyed and perish together. "That be far from them to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from them :" (though all ought to have been accounted innocent in respect of them who had no authority to make such a discrimination, or to condemn and execute justice upon either): yet the sacred oracle could determine, that if the good to be expected were greater than the evil which was to be executed; if the destruction of the innocent might be compensated by the advantage which followed; then it was not only evidently lawful, but, so far as the good exceeded the evil, meritorious. And now let the evil be never so great, they were sure in the opinion of those whom they consulted, the propagation of the Roman faith, the advancement of the Catholic cause, the restitution of the papal jurisdiction was the greatest good imaginable, to which the ruin of the nocent or the innocent could bear no proportion.

All this was 66 sought in the deep to hide their rounsel;" all this was wrought" in the dark ;" and they said often among themselves, "Who seeth it? who knoweth it?" Wherefore if, notwithstanding all this contrivance of secrecy to hide their counsel, the horrid conspiracy was revealed, the snare discovered, and "their turning of things upside down esteemed as the potter's clay," God did then proceed to do a marvellous work" for this people and nation, "even a marvellous work and a wonder." "This is that which the Lord hath done," and it were the greatest wonder if it were not "marvellous in our eyes." Which is the first part of our case.

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Secondly, The wonderful work of this day is never to be forgotten. "God hath saved our lives by a great deliverance," as Joseph said; and can we ever be ungrateful to him who hath given us "such a deliverance as this?" as Ezra speaks. What can we ever expect to

make us mindful, if upon "such a deliverance as this" we prove forgetful? The text teacheth us, that it is the design of him who wrought it, that we should remember it; and shall we fulfil the design of our enemies, whom he defeated? Let them deny it, who may be ashamed of the intended cruelty; let not us forget it, who ought to rejoice in the mercy; lest we be unmindful of him whose the mercy was, and for which he expecteth to be honoured by us. God made the memory of his wonderful works to be part of the religion of his ancient people; such were the passover and the sabbath: let us think it a part of our religion to remember this wonderful work. Let this day never fail from among us, nor the memorial of it perish from our seed." May we never live to see those times, in which the memory of this day shall be blotted out, or rather cast out with indignation: may we never hear of such an act of oblivion.

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Nor is it our duty only to desire, but also to endeavour the perpetuity of this recognition: and consequently to use the just and proper means to perpetuate it. It was our religion, the settled religion of the Church of England, which was then aimed at; and nothing will preserve the due memory of this day, but the preservation of that. Nothing but that procured the enmity; nothing but that obtained the mercy. We know no other reason why men of the same nation, but of a different persuasion in matters of religion, should so combine against us; we are conscious of no other motive on our part to incline the infinite goodness of God to be so propitious to us; nor can any other consideration without this set a sufficient value upon the mercy received. Let us therefore " earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints:" let us keep that which was then preserved, if we expect the generations to come should praise the Lord for this deliverance. The persons are now dead whose lives were then preserved; if we suffer the same religion to perish which was then so signally owned, there will be little left for which the memory should be continued. Thus let us endeavour to perpetuate the memorial of this day, as the most just and innocent revenge.

But these things are in the hand of God; that God who saved our late sovereign alive upon this day, and suffered him to be cruelly murdered upon another. When I consider the present condition of our Church and nation, and fear that our sins begin to be full; I cannot but think the enemies of our religion, the papal emissaries, have now much an easier way to destroy it. They shall not need to seek so far into the deep, or to lay so vast a work in the dark but then I cannot choose but remember those words which I read so frequently in the Scriptures, "Cod save the King: God save the King." save him from the open rebellion of the schismatical party, the ruin of his father. God save him from the secret machinations of the papal faction, the danger of his grandfather. "God save the King;" and let all the people say, Amen.

God

MISCELLANEOUS.

ON THE EARLY FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

No. VIII.

FATHERS OF THE SECOND CENTURY.

PAPIAS, QUADRATUS, ARISTIDES.

Τὴν πρώτην τάξιν τῆς τῶν ̓Αποστόλων ἐπέχοντες διαδοχής.—Euseb. Hist. Eccl. III. 37.

In descending from the Apostolical, to that which may be called the Ecclesiastical Age of Patristical Theology, the first writer, whose works have survived to any considerable extent the ravages of time, is Justin Martyr. But there were others before him, in the commencement of the second century, who had employed their pens in the support and defence of Christians and Christianity. Some of these indeed are known only by name, as John the Elder and Aristion, mentioned in a fragment of Papias,-of others, not even the name remains, being referred to by general appellations only, such as ỏ кpɛioowv huv, disciples of the Apostles, Presbyters who had seen the Apostles, and the like (See Irenæus, passim);-of others again, only a few minute passages are extant, scattered here and there by way of quotation, in the writings of subsequent authors. There are three individuals, however, who have attained to a degree of comparative celebrity PAPIAS, QUADRATUS, and ARISTIDES; to whom it may therefore be advisable to devote a brief consideration.

According to Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. III. 39), and Jerome (De Vir. Ill. § 18), PAPIAS was the author of a work, in five books, entitled, "An Exposition of our Lord's Discourses." He was an Asiatic by birth; probably a native of Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia; of which he was afterwards Bishop. The time in which he flourished cannot be accurately ascertained; but from the order in which he is mentioned by Eusebius, he was in all probability contemporary with the Emperor Trajan. Chronologists vary between the years 110 and 116. Irenæus (Hær. V. 33) speaks of him as a hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp :" but whether St. John the Evangelist is intended, or John the Presbyter, has been much disputed. Eusebius is in favour of the latter opinion; but Irenæus would unquestionably have added the distinctive appellation, had not the Evangelist been present to his mind. Now Irenæus being the disciple of Polycarp, his authority must be allowed to possess considerable weight; in full reliance upon which Jerome has not hesitated to reckon Papias among the hearers of St. John the Divine, and in this decision he is followed by the generality of ecclesiastical writers. It is true, indeed, that Papias, in the fragment already alluded to, observes, that he never failed to inquire of those who had conversed with John, and the rest.

of the Apostles, what they were wont to say; but he expresses himself in the same terms in regard to John the Presbyter; and these inquiries are by no means conclusive against his own immediate acquaintance with the disciples of our Lord. He was anxious, no doubt, to add to his own personal knowledge of these eminent teachers whatever information he could collect from others; and thus he may have been, and in all probability was, a hearer, not only of St. John, but also of the other Apostles and their successors, as well as a diligent inquirer into the several particulars of their lives and ministries, with which he was individually unacquainted.

In an old commentary on the second chapter of Revelations, by Blond, Papias is affirmed to have been Bishop of Pergamus; and a conjecture is added, that he was the angel of that church, to whom the Epistle is there directed to be sent.* Both the affirmation, however, and the conjecture, are set aside by the universal consent of antiquity, which is unanimous in fixing him in the see of Hierapolis. His qualifications for this important trust can only now be estimated by the encomium which is passed upon him by Eusebius, that he was a man of considerable eloquence, and well acquainted with the Scriptures. Valesius is indeed of opinion, that the character here given did not proceed from Eusebius, but bears evident marks of an interpolation. The passage is wanting in several MSS. as well as in the version of Rufinus; and seems to contradict the judgment which Eusebius himself has given in a subsequent chapter, that the writings of Papias are clearly the productions of a man of very slender capacity. Be it observed, however, that in this latter instance, Eusebius is speaking with reference to certain opinions which Papias had advocated, respecting the millennial reign of Christ upon earth after the resurrection; and though in this particular case he unquestionably betrayed a singular want of judgment, it does not follow that his attainments are on that account to be generally underrated. absence of the passage in some MSS. may possibly be owing to a mistaken zeal on the part of the copyists, to remove an apparent contradiction, as it is found entire in the very correct copy upon which the edition of Stephens was built. At all events, that Papias was amply entitled to the encomium, is abundantly manifest from the terms in which his writings are mentioned by Jerome in his Epistle to Lucinius :-Sanctorum PAPIE et POLYCARPI volumina falsus ad te rumor pertulit a me esse translata; quia nec otii mei, nec virium est, tantas res eadem in alteram linguam exprimere venustate.

The

Photius has recorded a tradition, that Papias died a martyr, and others have stated that he was a fellow-sufferer with Onesimus, the

We omitted to mention, in our last article, that Polycarp is generally supposed to have been the angel of the Church of Smyrna, to whom the Epistle is directed to be sent, in Rev. ii. 8. The contents of that letter accord precisely with the history of the venerable Bishop, and the state of the Church during his time; and the part which the Jews took in his martyrdom, was a natural result of the conduct there ascribed to them. + Hist. Eccl. III. 36. Ανὴρ τὰ πάντα ὅτι μάλιστα λογιώτατος, καὶ τῆς γραφῆς εἰδήμων.

* Eccl. Hist. III. 39. Σφόδρα γάρ τοι σμικρὸς ὢν τὸν νοῦν, ὡς ἂν ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ λόγων, τεκμηράμενον εἰπεῖν, φαίνεται.