Vindication of the Dissertations Concerning Episcopacy, Chapter 3 · Section 2
Sect. II.
The Teſtimony of Polycarpe. That he was himſelfe a Biſhop. His mention of Ignatius's Epiſtles, fit to give authority to them, being ſo confirmed as it is by a ſeries of the Antients.
IN the next place followes their teſtimonie out of Polycarpe, introduced in this manner,
The like Record we have of Polycarpe that famous Diſciple of John the Apoſtle, who lived alſo within the firſt century, and wrote an Epiſtle to the Philippians, in which he makes alſo but two Orders of Ministery, Biſhops and Deacons, and perſwades the Philippians to be ſubject to their Presbyters and Deacons, as to God and Chriſt.
To this Teſtimony from Polycarp there is no reaſon I ſhould deny any part of my aſſent, being ſo perfectly ſuch, as the cauſe which I defend requires; If there be with him but two orders of Miniſtery, Biſhops and Deacons, and he perſwades the Philippians (i.e. that whole Province, the ſame to which Saint Paul had written, conſiſting of many Churches, all under that Metropolis of Philippi) to be ſubject to their foreign and foreign, Elders and Deacons, and ſets the former of them, in the compariſon, to anſwer God the Father the ſupream Monarch of Heaven; and the latter to be the parallel to Chriſt who came out from Heaven upon his Fathers meſſages, then what reaſon have I to doubt, but that theſe Elders and Deacons are the very ſame which Saint Paul had called Biſhops and Deacons, Phil. 1. 1. which that it belonged to the ſeverall Biſhops of that Province of Macedonia, hath before been ſufficiently vindicated.
And therefore without farther debating this Teſtimony, I ſhall adde ſome few things concerning this Polycarp, which will helpe conveniently to cleere the whole matter.
Firſt, That as it is moſt true, that is here ſaid of him, that he was a famous Diſciple of Iohn the Apoſtle, ſo this is added to his titles by the authonti…k Epiſtle of the Church of Smyrna, foreign. This was the moſt wonderfull perſon in our times, being an Apostolicall and Prophetical Doctor, and that he was a moſt glorious Martyr, is the deſigned matter of that whole Epiſtle.
Secondly, That this famous, moſt admirable Apoſtolical Doctor and Martyr, was the Biſhop of Smyrna, and ſo conſtituted by the Apoſtles, as will appeare by three Teſtimonies, each of them irrefragable. 1. By the Epiſtle of that Church of Smyrna, written on purpoſe concerning his Martyrdome, a reverend piece of Antiquity, fit to compare with any that remaines in the Church. And there we finde in the cloſe of his titles, foreign, that he was Biſhop of the Catholike Church, which is in Smyrna, i. e. both of Iewiſh and Gentile Chriſtians there.
So Polycrates (the eight Biſhop of Epheſus, borne within a while after Saint Iohn's death) in his Epiſtle to Victor, foreign, Polycarp the Biſhop of Smyrna and Martyr.
So Irenaeus, lib. 3. cap. 3. ſpeaking of him, ſaith, foreign, that he was conſtituted by the Apoſtles Biſhop of the Church of Smyrna in Aſia.
And then what poſſibility can there be, that he being thus a Biſhop, nay Metropolitane himſelfe, (as hath formerly been ſhewed) writing to another Metropolis, and commanding to obey the foreign and Deacons, ſhould meane any thing elſe but Biſhops by foreign.
Thirdly, That this Polycarp, as in this Epiſtle he acknowledgeth to have received an Epiſtle from Ignatius (foreign, You wrote to me, and to Ignatius alſo) ſo he tells them that he had ſent them a collection of the ſame Ignatius's Epiſtles. foreign—The Epiſtles of Ignatius ſent to us by him, and as many others as we had by us, we have ſent to you, as you required, which are ſubjoyned to this Epiſtle, by which you may receive great benefit.
By this paſſage it is cleare, that as Ignatius wrote one Epiſtle to Polycarpe, another to the Church of Smyrna, whereof Polycarpe was Biſhop, both contein'd under the phraſe foreign, ſent to us, (as it is explain'd by Euſebius in theſe words, foreign, Ignatius wrote to the Church of Smyrna, and ſeverally to Polycarpe the Ruler thereof) ſo he wrote divers others alſo, which at that time, before Ignatius's death were by the Philippians deſired from Polycarpe, and by Polycarpe tranſmitted to them, and ſo cannot with any ſenſe be affirmed to be forged, and affixt to his name after his death.
How theſe Epiſtles were from Polycarpe brought down to the hands of Irenaeus, who lived in Polycarp's time, and ſaw him an old man, and ſo teſtifies in his Epiſtle to Florinus; and cites a notable paſſage out of Ignatius, which we now have in his Epistle to the Romans: How, ſoone after Irenaeus, *In Luc. Hom. 6.Origen cites them again, calling him Martyr and Biſhop of Antioch, the ſecond after Peter, and ſetting down the very words which we now have in the Epiſtle to the Epheſians; How, after Origen, †L. 3. c. 35. 36.Euſebius ſets down the whole ſtory of writing them, together with a diſtinct Catalogue of ſeven, to Epheſus, to Magneſia, to the Trallians, to the Romans, to the Philadelphians, to the Smyranaeans, and to Polycarpe: Catal. Script. & ad H…lvid c. 9.And in like manner Athanaſius, citing from Ignatius words which we now finde in his Epiſtle to the Epheſians, and Theodoret in many paſſages out of that to the Epheſians, Diſſert. 2. c. 24.to the Trallians, to the Smyrnaeans; And at laſt St. Hierome (on whoſe authority the Presbyterians ſo much depend) according exactly with Euſebius, to give theſe ſeven Ep…ſtles of Ignatius a full authority with all; All this I ſay hath been at large deduced and evidenced in the Diſſertations; And this, one would thinke, might have been ſufficient to have given Ignatius ſome place among their Teſtimonies for the opinion of antiquity in this matter, eſpecially when that very Epiſtle of Polycarpe, which for the bare name of foreign Elders uſed by him, they cite, and give him his juſt honour, doth give teſtimony to the Epiſtles of Ignatius, as cleare, and as univerſally, and fully confirmed by others, as any, by which that Epiſtle of …olycarpe or Clemens, or any other antient writing ſtands in the Church.
But all this, it ſeemes, is of no weight with them, and therefore after the two teſtimonies of Clemens, and one of Polycarpe, backt with the like number of three more, a ſaying of Biſhop Bilſon (very unlikely to be to the praejudice of Biſhop…, if it were here ſeaſonable to examine it) and the like of Gratian, and the third of the Lord Digby, They are then at leiſure to remember what out of Ignatius is objected againſt them; Had he by any poſſible colour of any paſſage in him, been capable of doing them any ſervice, he might then, as his Epiſtles were written before Polycarps, have alſo been called out and cited before him; But all thoſe Epiſtles being ſo diametrally contrary to their pretenſions, as every man knowes they are, he is now to be lookt on and anſwered, as temptations are wont to be, to be mentioned only, that he may be rejected by them.