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PREFACE.

VING, in the second edition of the Apostolical rs, so far improved the translation I before pubof them, as to render it almost a new work; be necessary for me to give some account of the es that have been made in it, and what advanI have had for the making of them.

e Epistles of St. Clement had been so correctly rth from the Alexandrian manuscript, by the ed Mr. Patrick Young, that having no other copy ur to, there are no considerable alterations to be eted in the present edition of them. And yet in these, I have not only carefully reviewed my ation, and compared it with the original Greek, orrected whatsoever I thought to be less exact in ut by help of a new, and more accurate collation r. Young's copy, with that venerable manuscript which it was taken, I have amended some places e text itself, which had hitherto escaped all the rs of these Epistles. For this I was beholden to riendly assistance of the very learned, and pious, Grabe; to whose ready help these Apostolical ers owe a great part of that exactness, with which, esume, they will appear in this edition of them. me Epistles of St. Ignatius having been lately pubd at Oxford, by our Reverend Dr. Smith, not

only with a much greater correctness in the text than ever they were before, but with the advantage of his own, and Bishop Pearson's observations upon the difficult places of them; it cannot be thought, but that I must have very much improved my translation of those Epistles, from the learned labours of two such eminent masters of antiquity; and who had taken such great care, not only to restore those venerable pieces to their primitive purity, but to render them clear, and intelligible, to the meanest capacities. One of those Epistles had never been set forth, from any good manuscript in its original Greek, when I published my first edition of them. This, together with the martyrdom of that blessed Saint, has since been printed by Monsieur Ruinard at Paris, and from thence by . Dr. Grabe at Oxford. I have compared my translation of both with their copy; and not only corrected it where it disagreed with that, but have noted in the margin, the chief variations of this last edition, from those which had been published by Archbishop Usher, and Isaac Vossius before.

Of the epistle and martyrdom of St. Polycarp, and the epistle of Barnabas, I have little to say more than that I have revised the translation of them, with all the care I could, and rendered it much more correct (especially the epistle of Barnabas) than it was before. But as for the books of Hermas, I may without vanity affirm that they are not only more exact in the translation than they were before, but that the very books themselves will be found in greater purity in this, than in any other edition that has ever yet been published of them. The old Latin version has been entirely ed with an antient manuscript of it in the Lamlibrary; and from thence amended in more than could well have been imagined. And that version itself has been farther improved from a ude of new fragments of the original Greek, before observed; and for the most part taken the late magnificent edition of the works of St. nasius; though that piece be none of his, but the of the younger Athanasius, patriarch of the church, who lived about the 7th century.Tom. ii. p. 251. doctrin. ad Antioch Ducem.]— these advantages I do likewise owe to the same ed person (Dr. Grabe) I before mentioned, who nly purposely collated the one for me, but readily unicated to me the extracts he had made for his ase out of the other.

ving said thus much concerning the several 5 themselves here set forth, and the translation of I shall not trouble the reader with any long acof my own introductory discourse; in which I added some things and corrected others. I hope ow stands, it may be of some use to those who have my better opportunities of being acquainted with matters, and convince them of the just regard s due to the discourses which follow it, upon this Le account, both that they were (for the most part) written by those whose names they bear; and Chose writers lived so near the Apostolical times, t cannot be doubted, but that they do indeed rent to us the doctrine, government and discipline e church as they received it from the Apostles; Apostles from Christ, and that blessed Spirit, who