The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Ignatius
IGNATIVS
The Life of Ignatius, who dyed Anno Christi 111.
IGnatius saw Christ in the flesh, being about 12 years old at his Crucifixion: The occasion of his apprehension was this, Trajan returning from the Parthian war, commanded gratulatory sacrifices to be offered in every City; and himself comming to Antioch, Ignatius was required to be present at those Sacrifices;His courage but he before Trajans face did justly and sharply reprove their Idolatry, for which cause he was delivered to ten Souldiers to be carried to Rome. He was Pastor at the Church at Antioch next after the Apostle Peter.
As he passed through Asia strictly guarded with that troop of Souldiers,His zeal. he confirmed the Congregations through every City where he came, Preaching the Word of God to them, and giving them wholsome exhortations; especially charging them to avoid the heresies lately sprung up, and at that time overflowing the Church: Requiring them stedfastly to cleave to the Traditions of the Apostles, and to their Doctrine. When he came to Smy…na where Polycarp was Bishop, he wrote an Epistle to the Church at Ephesus, making mention of Onesimus their Pastor; and another he wrote to the Church of Magnesia on the River Meander, wherein he forgetteth not Doema their Bishop: Another he wrote to the Church at Trallis whose Pastor at that time he mentioneth to be Polybius, to which Epistle he prefixed an exhortation to them not to refuse Martyrdom, least thereby they should lose the hope that was laid up for them:His sufferings. For which end he useth these expressions, From Syria saith he, even till I came to Rome, I had a battel with Beasts, as well by Sea as by Land, night and day, being bound amongst ten cruel Leopards, (so he called the 10 souldiers that guarded him) which, the more benefits they received at my hands, became so much the worse to me: His patience.But I being exercised, and now well acquainted with their injuries, am taught every day more and more to bear the Cross, yet hereby am I not justified. Would to God I were once come to the Beasts that are prepared for me, which I wish also to fall upon me with all their violence: whom also I will provoke, that without delay they may devour me, and not abstain from me, as they have from some others whom for fear they have left untouched: and if they be unwilling to it, I will compel them to fall upon me: Pardon me I pray, I know well how much this will avail me. Now do I begin to be a Disciple of my Master Christ, His invincible courage.I neither regard things visible, nor invisible, so I may gain Christ, Ignis, crux, bestiarum conflictationes, ossium destractiones, &c. i. e. Let Fire, Cross, breaking of my bones, quartering of my members, crushing my body, and all the torments that man and the Divel can invent fall upon me, so I may enjoy my Lord Jesus Christ, &c.
Writing to Polycarp, whom he knew to be a holy man,A faithful Pastor. he commends to him the Congregation at Antioch, praying him to be careful of the business there, and especially for the election of a godly Bishop in his room, thereby proving himself to be a sincere and right Pastor, taking such care of his flock, not only whilest he lived, but even after his death. When his Martyrdom approached, he said, Frumentum Dei sum; dentibus ferarum molar, & mundus Dei panis inveniar: I am God's corn; when the wilde beasts have ground me to powder with their teeth, I shall be his white-bread.His humility. He was so humble, that he disdained not to learn of any: He suffered Martyrdom the eleventh year of Trajan at Rome, Anno Christi, III. His usual saying was A, mor meus crucifixus est: His sayings.My Love is crucified, meaning either Christ the Object of his love: or that his affections were crucified to the world, as Gal. 6. 14.
Nicephorus reports that when Ignatius was a child, our Saviour would take him up in his arm, and shew him to his Disciples. It may be he was one of those little children that were brought to Christ that he should touch them; or that little child whom Jesus took, and set in the midst of his Disciples to learn them humility: He saw Christ after his Resurrection, as himself writes in one of his Epistles,He saw Christ in the fl…sh. Ego vero, & post resurrectionem in carne eum vidi &c. Truly I did see him after his Resurrection in the flesh; and do beleive that it is he, &c.
He used to say, Nihil praestantius est pace bonae conscientiae: that there is nothing better then the peace of a good conscience.
That good and wicked men are like true and counterfeit mony, the ones seems to be good, and is not, the other both seems and is good.
That the Lyons teeth are but like a …ll, Which though it bruiseth, yet wasteth not the good Wheat, only prepares and fits it to be made pure Bread: Let me (saith he) be broken by them, so I may be made pure Manchet for Heaven.
Parents ought to afford these three things to their children;Parents duty. Correction, Admonition, and Instruction, both in humane Arts, and Gods Word: all which preserves them from idleness and folly, gives them Wisdom, and learns them subjection and obedience to their Superiours.
Other Graces are but parts of a Christians armour: as the shield of Faith, the sword of the Spirit, &c. But Patience is the Panoply or whole Armour of the man of God: The enemy foils us without it: but we foil him by it.
Grace slowing from the blessed Spirit of God, makes the Soul like a Fountain whose water is pure, wholesom and clear: For Grace beautifies, cleanseth, and so saveth the whole man.
He wrote divers Epistles: His works,To St. John: To the Ephesians: To the Magnesians: To the Trallians: To the Romanes: To the Philadelphians: To Polycarp, &c. Concerning which the learned Scultetus saith: Inter dubia & incerta numero Epistolas Ignatii, & Polycarpi. Nondum enim inter Orthodoxos convenit sintne Epistolae istae celeberrimorum Martyrum Ignatii & Polycarpi, an aliorum: For which he gives his reasons.