Upon their first appearing in the world, what is the entertainment they receive? One who was dead before either the doctor or either of his antagonists was born, and whose renown among the people of God will live when they are all dead, gives them this welcome into the world: " Ignatium quod obtendunt, si velint quicquam habere momenti; probent apostolos legem tulisse de quadragesima, et similibus corruptelis. Nihil nseniis istis quse sub Ignatii nomine editse sunt putidius. Quo minus tole- rabilis est eorum impudentia qui talibus larvis ad fallendum se instruunt," Calv. Inst., lib. i. cap. xiii. sect. 2d.
Whatever be the judgment of our doctor concerning this man (as some there are of whom a leai-ned bishop in this nation long ago complained, that they are still opening their mouths against Calvin, who helped them to mouths to speak with. Abbot, ad Thom.), he will in the judgment of some be so far accounted somebody as to take off" from the confident asser- tion that Salmasius and Blondellus were " mortalium primi" that rejected these epistles.
The Centuriators of Magdeburg were esteemed to be somebodies in their days, and yet they make bold to call these epistles into question, and to tender sundry arguments to the impairing of their credit and authority. This then they, Cent. ii. cap. x., De Episcop. Antioch. ac primum de Ignatio : —
" Lectori pio et attento considerandum relinquimus quantum sit illis epistolis tribuendum. Non enim dubitamus quin in lectione earum cuilibet ista in mentem veniant ; primum quod fere in omnibus epistolis, licet satis copiosis, oceasio scribendi prajtermittitur, nee vel divinare licet, quare potissimum ad banc vel illam ecclesiam literas voluerit mittere. Deinde ipsius peregrinationis ratio non parvum injicit scrupulum considerantibus, quod multo rectiore et breviori itinere, Romam potuerit navigare, ut tes- tatur vel ipsius Pauli exemplum. Expende quam longum sit iter, Antiochia ad littus ^gjei pelagi se recipere, ibique recta sursum versus Septentrionem ascendere, et prsecipuas civitates in littore sitas usque ad Troadem perlus-
32 A PREFACE TO THE READER.
trare, cum tamen Romanum iter sit dcstinatum versus occasum, Tertio res ejusmodi in istas literas inspersa; sunt ut ad eas propemodum obstu- pescat lector, etc. Hajc cum alias non somnolento lectori incidant, non existimavevimus," etc.
Thus they, at the world's first awaking as to the consideration of things of this kind.
To them add the learned Whitaker, Cont. prima, De Perfect. .Script. quajst. sext. c. 12, where, after lie hath disputed against the credit of lliese epistles, jointly and severally, with sundry arguments, at length he con- cludes, " Sed de his epistolis satis multa, et de hoc Ignatio quid judican- dum sit, satis ex iis constare potest qure diximus. Ista Papista; non audent tueri," etc. To whom sundry others might be added, convincing Sal- inasius and Blondellus not to have been " mortalium primi" that called them into question.
I have not insisted on what hath been spoken as though I were wholly of the mind of them who utterly condemn these epistles as false and coun- terfeit; though I know no possibility of standing before the arguments levied against them, notwithstanding the forementioned doctor's attempt to that purpose, without acknowledging so much corru])tion in them, addi- tions and detractions from what they were when first written, as will ren- der them not so clearly serviceable to any end or purpose whereunto their testimony may be required, as other unquestionable writings of their an- tiquity are justly esteemed to be. That these epistles have fallen into the hands of such unworthy impostors as have filled the latter ages with labour and travail to discover their deceits, the doctor himself granteth. Dissert, ii. cap. ii. sect. G. " Nulla," saith he, " quidem nobis incumbit necessitas, ut in tanta exemplarium et editionum varietate et inconstantia, nihil uspiam Ignatio interpolatura aut adsutum aflirmemus."
And, indeed, the foisted passages in many places are so evident, yea shameful, that no man who is not resolved to say any thing, without care of proof or truth, can once appear in any defensative about them. Of this sort are the shreds and pieces out of that branded counterfeit piece of Clemens, or the Apostles' Constitutions, which are almost in every epistle packed in in a bungling manner, oftentimes disturbing the sense and co- herence of the place ; yea, sometimes such things are thence transcribed as in them are considerable arguments of their corruption and falsehood : so is that period in the Epistle to the Magnesians, taken from Clemens. Constitut., lib. vi. cap. ii., ' AZiddadav ojffavTug rng x£paX^$ a^pai^iTrai di' 6/Moiav aiTiav. This Abeddadan being mentioned next after Absalom's dying by the loss of his head is therefore sup2)osed to be Sheba, the son of Bichri; but whence that counterfeit Clemens had that name is not known. That the counterfeit Clemens by Abeddadan intended Sheba is evident from the words he assigns unto him in the place mentioned. Abeddadan said, Oux sStj aoi /x'soog h AaQid, ov8s zXri^ovofiia sv v'luj 'Isaaai. And he joins him witli Absalom in his rebellion. Such passages as these they are suj»posed to have received from that vain and foolish impostor; but if it be true, which some have observed, that there is not the least mention made of any of tliese fictitious Constitutions in the first three ages after Christ, and that the hihay^ri aToffroXwi/ mentioned by Eusebius and Athanasius, as also that 6/ara^/$ in Epiphanius, are quite other things than those eight books of Constitutions we now have, it may rather be supposed that tliat sottish deceiver raked up some of his filth from the corruption of tlicse epistles tlian that any thing out of him is crept into them. Other instances might be given of stuffing these epistles with the