rit, temper, and walk of Ignatius, who was well aware of the insufficiency of words, and the necessity of reality, as he says to the Ephesians, "It is better for a man to hold his peace, and be, than to say he

is a Christian, and not to be. It is good to teach, if what he says he does likewise." And again, he saith, "No man professing a true faith, sinneth; neither does he who has love, hate any. The tree is made manifest by its fruits: so they, who profess themselves to be Christians, are known by what they do." We cannot discover his character and conduct as a bishop, better than by the advice which he gives his beloved brother, co-disciple, and afterwards fellow martyr, Polycarp; as a sketch of the tenor of his own temper and walk in that important function, he writes:

"I beseech thee, by the grace of God, with which thou art clothed, to press forward in thy course, and to exhort all others that they may be saved. Maintain thy place with all care, both of body and spirit: make it thy endeavour to preserve unity, than which nothing is better. Bear with all men, even as the Lord with thee. Support all in love, as also thou dost. Pray without ceasing. Ask more understanding than what thou already hast. Be watchful, having thy spirit always awake. Speak with every one according as God shall enable thee. Bear the infirmities of all, as a perfect combatant. If thou shalt love the good disciples what thanks is it? but rather do thou subject in meekness those that are mischievous. Every wound is not healed by the same plaster: if the accessions of the disease be ve

hement, mollify them with soft remedies: be in all things wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove. Be sober as a combatant of God. Let not those that seem worthy of credit, but teach other doctrines, disturb thee. Stand firm and immoveable as an anvil

when it is beaten upon. It is the part of a combatant to be wounded, and yet to overcome."

Here we may see the picture of Ignatius as a bishop. He exhorts all the churches to whom he wrote, to love, honour, and obey their bishops, presbyters, and deacons, as highly necessary for their own edification, the maintaining of unity, and preventing the machinations of Satan.

He had a foreboding and earnest desire to become a martyr, and wished for nothing more than to seal with his death the truth of the Gospel, to which he had borne such a loud and convincing testimony for so many years. However, he escaped the storms of the various persecutions under Domitian, although he withstood the raging flood, by supporting and strengthening those who were ready to sink in these times of trial, and such who were not as yet well grounded in the faith.

Though the church at Antioch, and throughout all Syria, certainly rejoiced at his being still left among them, as one who fed the church of God which he had purchased with his own blood; and he rejoiced greatly himself, when the persecution abated, at the tranquillity of his church; yet he was troubled as to himself, that he had not been thought worthy to suffer for his Lord, as though he had not attained to a true love of Christ, nor was come up to the pitch

of a perfect disciple. Continuing therefore some years longer with his church, as a faithful and approved shepherd, he at length attained to the summit of his wishes.

Trajan, in the nineteenth year of his empire, coming from his conquest of the Scythians and Dacians, and many other nations, looked upon it as needful to the rendering his dominion absolute and universal, to subdue the spirit of the Christians, and oblige them" to worship the devil, with all other nations." The persecution was renewed; and fear came upon the Christians, as they must either sacrifice or die. On this account our valiant soldier of Jesus Christ, being in fear for the church of Antioch, and hoping thereby to avert the storm, was voluntarily brought before Trajan, who was then at Antioch in his way to Armenia and the Parthians, against whom he was hastening.

Being come into the presence of Trajan, the emperor said unto him,

What a wicked wretch art thou, thus to endeavour to transgress our commands, and to persuade others also to do the like, to their destruction!

Ignatius answered: No one ought to call Theophorus after such a manner: forasmuch as all wicked spirits are departed far from the servants of God. But if because I am a trouble to these evil spirits, you call me wicked, with reference to them, I confess the charge: For having within me Christ the heavenly King, I dissolve all the snares of those devils.

TRAJAN replied: And who is Theophorus ?

IGNATIUS. He who has Christ in his breast.

TRAJAN. And do not we then seem to thee to have the gods within us, who fight for us against

our enemies?

IGNATIUS. You err in that you call the evil spirits of the heathen gods; for there is but one God, who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that are in them and one Jesus Christ his only begotten Son; whose kingdom may I enjoy!

TRAJAN. His kingdom you say, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate?

IGNATIUS. His, who crucified my sin, with the inventor of it, and has put all the deceit and malice of the devil under the feet of those who carry him in their heart.

TRAJAN. Dost thou then carry him that was crucified within thee?

IGNATIUS. I do; for it is written, "I will dwell in them and walk in them."

Then Trajan pronounced this sentence against him:

"Forasmuch as Ignatius has confessed that he carried about within himself Him that was crucified, we command that he be carried bound by soldiers to Great Rome, there to be thrown to the beasts, for the entertainment of the people."

When the holy martyr heard this sentence, he cried out with joy, "I thank thee, thou hast vouchsafed to honour me,

O Lord, that

with a perfect love towards Thee, and hast made me to put on iron bonds with thy apostle Paul."

Having said this, he with joy put on his bonds:

and having first prayed for the church, and commended it with tears unto the Lord, he was hurried away, by the brutish soldiers, in order to his being carried to Rome, there to be devoured by the bloodthirsty beasts.

Many have expressed their surprise, and sought for the reasons which induced the emperor to send this person, loaded with years, such a long and irksome journey, to meet a death which could have been inflicted upon him at Antioch. Whether this was done out of a kind of humanity (for Trajan was in general not inhuman) that he might have time to consider of the terrible death he was to die, and through fear, and by being harassed by the inconveniences and afflictions he should be exposed to on the road, he might be induced to renounce the faith, and to sacrifice to idols; by which means also Trajan would have obtained a complete victory, and be enabled to lead in triumph, to the temples of the idols, a man, a bishop, who had been so many years one of the brightest ornaments, and a pillar of the church. Or whether, as it is said, he was advised by the senate to pass this sentence, lest, by his being put to death at Antioch, he should be rendered still dearer to the people there. Whatever may have been the reason, there seems evidently a hand of divine providence in it, as he became a living witness and monument of the grace and salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ wherever he came; encouraging the bishops and ministers, and giving the most lively exhortations, and administering consolation to the churches, not only to those through which he passed,