Chapter III
1 Greets Polycarp on the peace of the church at Antioch:
2 and desires him to write to that and other churches.
NOW forasmuch as the church
of Antioch in Lyria is, as
I am told, in peace through your
prayers; I also have been the more
comforted, and without care in
God; if so be that by suffering, I
shall attain unto God; and through
your prayers I may be found a
disciple of Christ.
2 It will be very fit, O most
worthy Polycarp, to call a select
council, and choose some one
whom ye particularly love, and
who is patient of labour: that he
may be the messenger of God;
and that going unto Syria, he may
glorify your incessant love, to the
praise of Christ.
3 A Christian has not the power
of himself; but must be always
at leisure for God’s service.
Now this work is both God’s and
our’s; when ye shall have
perfected it.
4 For I trust through the grace
of God that ye are ready to every
good work that is fitting for you
in the Lord.
5 Knowing therefore your
earnest affection for the truth,
I have exhorted you by these short
letters.
6 But forasmuch as I have not
been able to write to all the
churches, because I must suddenly
sail from Troas to Neapolis;
(for so is the command of those
to whose pleasure I am subject;)
do you write to the churches that
are near you, as being instructed
in the will of God, that they also
may do in like manner.
7 Let those that are able send
messengers; and let the rest send
their letters by those who shall be
sent by you: that you may be
glorified to all eternity,
of which you are worthy.
8 I salute all by name; particularly
the wife of Epitropus with all her
house and children. I salute Attalus
my well-beloved.
9 I salute him who shall be
thought worthy to be sent by you
into Syria. Let grace be ever
with him, and with Polycarp who
sends him.
10 I wish you all happiness in
our God, Jesus Christ; in whom
continue, in the unity and
protection of God.
11 I salute Alce my well-
beloved. Farewell in the Lord.
REFERENCES TO THE SEVEN EPISTLES OF IGNATIUS.
[The Epistles of Ignatius are translated by Archbishop Wake from the text of Vossius. He says that there were considerable difference in the editions; the best for a long time extant containing fabrications, and the genuine being altered and corrupted. Archbishop Usher printed old Latin translations of them at Oxford, in 1644. At Amsterdam, two years afterwards, Vossius printed six of them in their ancient and pure Greek; and the seventh, greatly amended from the ancient Latin version, was Printed at Paris, by Ruinart, in 1689, in the Acts and Martyrdom of Ignatius, from a Greek uninterpolated copy. These are supposed to form the collection that Polycarp made of the Epistles of Ignatius, mentioned by Irenaes, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Athanasius, Theodoret, and other ancients: but many learned men have imagined all of them to be apocryphal. This supposition, the piety of Archbishop Wake, and his persuasion of their utility to the faith of the church, will not permit him to entertain: hence he has taken great pains to render the present translation acceptable, by adding numerous readings and references to the Canonical Books.]