The State of the firfi Churches, &c. a or Contefts of Learned Men about thof Epiftles which re- main , whether they are genuine, or the fame that were writtenby him : for,that he did write Epi(iles unto fundry Churches, is acknowledged by-all. And whereas there have in this Age been two Copies found and publifhed of there Epiftles wherein very many things that were ob. noxious unto juft exception in thole before publifhed do not at all appear , yet men are not agreed which ofthem ought to be preferred ; and many yet deny that any of them were thole written by .Ignatius. I {hall not interpole in this conteft ; only I muft.fay, that if any of his genu- ine Writings do yet remain, yet the Corruption and In- terpolation of them , for many Ages , muff needs mach impair the Authority of what is reprefented in them as his ; nor am I delivered from there thoughts, by the late either more found , or more maimed Editions of them. And the truth is, the corruption and fiction of Epiftolical Writings in the firft Ages was fo intolerable, as that very little in that kind is preferved fincere and unqueftionable. HenceDionyfius theBifhop of Corinth complained that in his own time his own Epiftles were fo corrupted by ad- ditions and detraftions, foas that it Teems he would have them no more efteemed as his. Eafeb. Ecclefafl.Hif. lib. ,.. cap. 22. But yet becaufe thefe Epiftles are fo earneftly conten- ded for by many Learnedmen, as the genuine Writings of Ignatius, I (hall not pals by the confideration of them, as unto the Argument in hand. .I do therefore affirm that in there Epiftles, (in any Edition of them,) there is no mention made , or Defcription given of any Church or Churches Rate, but only of that which is Congregational, that is , fuch a Church as all the Members whereof did meet and were obliged to meet for Divine Worfhip and Difcipline in the fameplace. What was the Diftin&ion they
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