The first writer from whom we shall quote is Ignatius. This father stood at the head of the church at Antioch at the close of the first century and the beginning of the second. After occupying that position for many years, he was condemned to death, as a Christian, by Trajan, transported in chains to Rome, and there thrown to lions in the Coliseum for the amusement of the populace, probably in the year 107. On his way to Rome, he wrote seven epistles to various churches. Eusebius and Jerome arrange these writings as follows (1) To the Ephesians; (2) to the Magnesians; (3) to the Trallians; (4) to the Romans; (5) to the Philadelphians; (6) to the Smyrneans; (7) to Polycarp, bishop, or presbyter, of Smyrna. These seven epistles, in connection with a number of others confessedly spurious, have come down to us in two Greek copies, a longer and a shorter. A Syriac version of three epistles has recently been found. Without entering into the controversy concerning these Ignatian Epistles, we give the conclusion reached by Dr. Schaff, which is very generally accepted: “The question lies between the shorter Greek copy and the Syriac version. The preponderance of testimony is for the former, in which the letters are no loose patch-work, but were produced, each under its one impulse, were well known to Eusebius, probably even to Polycarp, and agree also with the Armenian version of the fifth century.” (History of the Christian Church, vol. i. p. 466.) It is admitted, even by those who do not accept the Greek copy as genuine, that it is the work of the close of the second century, or a little later. In any event, then, it is important testimony. In the epistles to the Magnesians occurs the following language: “Be not deceived with false doctrines, nor old, unprofitable fables. For, if we still live in accordance with Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace. For even the most holy prophets lived according to Jesus Christ.... If, then, they who were brought up in ancient things arrived at a newness of hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but living according to the Lord’s life, ... how can we live without him?... Since we have been made his disciples, let us learn to live according to Christianity.”[9]—_Ad Magnes._ capp. 8, 9; Coteler’s Edition, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20. Amsterdam, 1724.