again, like that of Clemens, in all respects a close imitation of the manner and sentiments of St. Paul. The allusions which it contains to that Apostle's writings, more particularly to the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, are numerous; in addition to which, references are also made in it from time to time to passages in the four Gospels, which are quoted with all the unsuspecting confidence of a mind acknowledging them as portions of a Divine Revelation. But here, as in the former case, not one word occurs, not the slightest hint or intimation is given, which denotes the existence of any matter of faith not included in, and especially recorded by, the sacred writings. "The blessed and renowned Paul," he says, "did with all exactness and soundness teach the words of truth; and, being gone from you, wrote an Epistle to you, into which, if you look, you will be able to edify yourselves in the faith which has been delivered unto you; which is the mother of us all: being followed with hope, and led on by a general love both towards God and towards Christ, and

towards our neighbour. For if any man has these things, he has fulfilled the law of righteousness." Surely these are not the expressions of a man who looked upon the apostolical writings as containing an incomplete summary of the Divine Will, and requiring to be helped out, and made complete by incidental gleanings from the verbal communications of intermediate teachers.

The Epistles of Ignatius, which are nearly contemporary with that of Polycarp, mark the anxiety of a good and pious mind distressed by the increasing prevalence of those heresies, the Judaizing and the Gnostic, which at so early a period assailed the Christian Church, and are little more than earnest appeals to the respective parties whom he addresses, to return to what they find written ; to submit in brotherly affection to that graduated rule of Church government established by the Apostles: and to use, what he styles, "none but Christian nourishment, abstaining from pasture which is of another kind: that is to say, heresy. For they that are heretics,"

says he, “confound together the doctrine of Jesus Christ with their own poison; whilst they seem worthy of belief; as men give a deadly potion mixed with sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does with the treacherous pleasure sweetly drink in his own death.” This language again, to say the least of it, is certainly not that of a man who thinks that the recorded words of Scripture can be safely added to from the mere conjectures, however plausible, of uninspired human ingenuity. It is needless to add that he is totally silent on the subject of tradition as a rule of faith.

The relation of the respective martyrdoms of Ignatius and Polycarp come next in turn for our consideration among the records of the age immediately following that of the Apostles. As authentic narratives of two most important events in the early history of the Church, they must be read by all Christians with sentiments of the deepest interest. All, however, that I need observe of them at present, is, that there is not to be found in

them one single expression having reference to the existence of a double standard of faith, or setting up tradition as auxiliary to revelation.

The writings of Justin Martyr, the next in the order of the primitive writers, bring us down to a considerably later period. In the works of this Father, quotations from the Canonical books of the New Testament meet us almost in every page; all of them substantially correct as conveying to us the exact sentiments, and often the very words of the inspired penman; but still expressed occasionally with a degree of latitude which appears to denote citations from memory rather than that verbal accuracy, which in a more critical and refined age would necessarily accompany every reference to the inspired volume. Nothing, however, can be more certain than the fact, that it is in Scripture, and Scripture alone, that, according to the sentiments of this writer, we are to find the whole substance and foundation of our religious belief. No distinction is to be discovered

in his writings between exoteric and esoteric teaching; no reference to the oral communications of the Apostles as opposed to what they left recorded in writing for the edification of the Church; no one hint, in short, that a single dogma, obligatory upon the consciences of believers, exists not recorded in and identified with the revealed Scriptures. "On the day which is called Sunday," says he, "an assembly of the believers through town and country takes place upon some common spot, when the writings of the Apostles, or the books of the Prophets, are publicly read, so long as the time allows, after which the presiding minister in a sermon exhorts his hearers to the practical adoption of the good precepts which they have thus heard recited1." In this short account we might fancy that we are reading a description of the mode of performing divine worship in any modern Protestant congregation. Certain it is, that nothing occurs either here or in

1 Apol. i. c. 67.