The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious Part 3

"4. I write to all the Churches, and I bid all men know that of my own free will I die for G.o.d, unless ye should hinder me. I exhort you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, that through them I shall attain to G.o.d. I am the wheat of G.o.d, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts that they may become my sepulchre, and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not so much as see my body. Supplicate the Lord for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to G.o.d. I do not enjoin you as Peter and Paul did. They were apostles, I am a convict; they were free, I am a slave to this very hour. But, when I suffer, I shall be a freed-man of Jesus Christ, and shall rise free in Him. Now I am learning in my bonds to put away every desire.

"5. From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts; by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only become worse when they are kindly treated. Howbeit through their wrong-doings I am become more completely a disciple, yet am I not hereby justified. May I have joy of the beasts that have been prepared for me; and I pray that I may find them prompt; nay, I will entice them that they may devour me promptly, not as they have done to some, refusing to touch them through fear. Yea, though of themselves they should not be willing while I am ready, I myself will force them to it. Bear with me, I know what is expedient for me. Now am I beginning to be a disciple. May nought of things visible and things invisible envy me, that I may attain unto Jesus Christ. Come fire and cross, and grapplings with wild beasts, cuttings and manglings, wrenching of bones, hacking of limbs, crus.h.i.+ngs of my whole body, come cruel tortures of the devil to a.s.sail me, only be it mine to attain to Jesus Christ.

"6. The farthest bounds of the universe shall profit me nothing, neither the kingdoms of this world. It is good for me to die for Jesus Christ, rather than to reign over the farthest bounds of the earth. I seek Him who died on our behalf, I desire Him who rose again for our sake. My birth-pangs are at hand. Pardon me, brethren, do not hinder me from living. Do not wish to keep me in a state of death, while I desire to belong to G.o.d; do not give me over to the world, neither allure me with material things. Suffer me to obtain pure light; when I have gone thither, then shall I be a man. Permit me to be an imitator of the pa.s.sion of my G.o.d. If any man has Him within himself, let him consider what I desire, and let him have sympathy with me, as knowing how I am straitened.

"7. The prince of this world would fain seize me, and corrupt my disposition towards G.o.d. Let not any of you, therefore, that are near abet him. Rather be ye on my side, that is, on G.o.d's side. Do not speak of Jesus Christ and set your desires on the world. Let not envy dwell among you. Even though I myself, when I am with you, should beseech you, obey me not, but rather give credit to those things which I now write.

My earthly pa.s.sion has been crucified, and there is no fire of material longing in me; but there is within me a water that lives and speaks, saying to me inwardly, 'Come to the Father.' I have no delight in the food of corruption, or in the delights of this life. I desire the bread of G.o.d, which is the flesh of Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for a draught I desire His blood, which is love incorruptible.

"8. I desire no longer to live after the manner of men; and this shall be, if ye desire it. Be ye willing, then, that ye also may be desired.

In a brief letter I beseech you, do ye give credit to me. Jesus Christ will reveal these things to you, so that ye shall know that I speak the truth--Jesus Christ the unerring mouth by which the Father has spoken truly. Pray for me that I may attain the object of my desire. I write not unto you after the flesh, but after the mind of G.o.d. If I shall suffer, it was your desire; but if I am rejected, ye have hated me.

"9. Remember in your prayers the Church which is in Syria, which has G.o.d for its shepherd in my stead. Jesus Christ alone shall be its bishop, He and your love; but for myself, I am ashamed to be called one of them; for neither am I worthy, being the very last of them and an untimely birth; but I have found mercy that I should be some one, if so I shall attain unto G.o.d. My spirit salutes you, and the love of the Churches which received me in the name of Jesus Christ, not as a mere wayfarer; for even those Churches which did not lie on my route after the flesh, went before me from city to city.

"10. Now I write these things to you from Smyrna, by the hand of the Ephesians, who are worthy of all felicitation. And Crocus also, a name very dear to me, is with me, with many others besides.

"11. As touching those who went before me from Syria to Rome, to the glory of G.o.d, I believe that ye have received instructions; whom also apprize that I am near, for they all are worthy of G.o.d and of you, and it becomes you to refresh them in all things. These things I write to you on the 9th before the Kalends of September. Fare-ye-well unto the end in the patient waiting for Jesus Christ."

This letter is a strange mixture of silly babblement, mysticism, and fanaticism; but throughout it wants the true ring of an honest correspondence. Why does the writer describe himself as the _Bishop of Syria_, and why does he never once mention _Antioch_ from beginning to end? When an apostle was imprisoned, his brethren prayed for his release (Acts xii. 5); but this Ignatius forbade the Christians at Rome to make any attempt to save him from martyrdom. Paul taught that he might give his body to be burned, and yet after all be a reprobate (1 Cor. xiii.

3); but this Ignatius indicates that all would be well with him, if he had the good fortune to be eaten by the lions. His letter is pervaded, not by the enlightened and cheerful piety of the New Testament, but by the gloomy and repulsive spirit of Montanism. Bishop Lightfoot tells us that it had "a wider popularity than the other letters of Ignatius"

(vol. ii, -- i. p. 186). It was accommodated to the taste of an age of deteriorated Christianity. Polycarp would have sternly condemned its extravagance. But, in the early part of the third century, the tone of public sentiment in the Christian Church was greatly changed, and the writings of Tertullian contributed much to give encouragement to such productions as the Ignatian Epistles. Tertullian, however, in his numerous writings, never once names Ignatius. It would appear that he had never heard of these letters.