for ever and ever. Amen.-Salute all the saints; they that are with us salute you; and Evarestus, who wrote this epistle, with his whole house.

XXI. Now the suffering of the blessed Polycarp was the second day of the present month Xanthicus, viz. the seventh of the calends of May;" being the great Sabbath, about the eighth hour. He was taken by Herod, Philip the Tralian being highpriest; Statius Quadratus, proconsul; but our Saviour Christ reigning for evermore. To him be honour, glory, majesty, and an eternal throne, from generation to generation. Amen.

XXII. We wish you, brethren, all happiness, by living according to the rule of the gospel of Jesus Christ; with whom, glory be to God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of his chosen saints; after whose example the blessed Polycarp suffered; at whose feet may we be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

a

Rather of April.-See Annot. Usser. n. 105. et Pearson. Chron. Diss. 11. c. 18. n. 4. Asiarch. As the blessed, &c.

с

CONTENTS

OF THE

CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF ST. BARNABAS.

I. THE salutation and preface to the following epistle.

II, III. That God has abolished the legal sacrifices, to introduce the spiritual righteousness of the Gospel.

IV. The prophecies of Daniel concerning the ten kings, and the coming of Christ.

V, VI. That Christ was to suffer proved from the prophecies concerning him.

VII. The scape-goat an evident type of this.

VIII. The red heifer another type of Christ.

IX. Of the circumcision of the ears; and how, in the first institution of circumcision, Abraham mystically foretold Christ by name.

X. That the commands of Moses, concerning clean and unclean beasts, &c., were all designed for a spiritual signification. XI, XII. Baptism and the cross of Christ foretold in figures under the law.

XIII. The promise of God not made to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles also.

XIV. And fulfilled to us by Jesus Christ.

XV. That the Sabbath of the Jews was but the figure of a more glorious Sabbath to come

XVI. Their temple of the spiritual temples of God.

XVII. The conclusion of the former part of this epistle.

XVIII. He goes on to the other part, which relates to practice: this he divides into two considerations; the former, of the way of light; the latter, of the way of darkness.

XIX. Of the way of light; being a summary of what a Christian is to do, that he may be happy for ever.

XX. Of the way of darkness; that is, what kind of be for ever cast out of the kingdom of God.

persons shall

XXI. The close of all; being an earnest exhortation to them to live so that they may be blessed to all eternity.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE

OF THE CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF ST. BARNABAS.

Why the pieces that follow are put in a Second Part, separate from the foregoing-The history of St. Barnabas, chiefly from the Acts of the Apostles Of his name, education, and travels, especially with St. Paul-How he came to be separated from that apostle-What he did afterwards-Of his death, and the invention of his relics; and of the Cyprian privileges established on that account-Of the present epistle; that it was truly written by St. Barnabas-The principal objections against it answered-An apology for its allegorical interpretations of Scripture The latter part of it originally belonging to this epistleThat it was written after the destruction of Jerusalem-The design and usefulness of it.

1. WHEN I first entered upon the design of publishing the present collection, I intended to have here put an end to it; the following pieces, under the names of Barnabas and Hermas, together with the Second Epistle of St. Clement, (however undoubtedly very ancient, and confessed by all to come but little, if any thing, short of the apostolical times,) having yet neither been so highly esteemed among the ancients, nor so generally received by many of the present times, as those I have already mentioned. But when I considered the deference which others among the primitive fathers have paid to them, and the value which is still put upon them by many not inferior either in learning or piety to those who speak against them, I thought I could not better satisfy all, than by adding them in a second part to the foregoing epistles; that so both they who have