In an epistle of Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, though only a brief
hortatory letter, we have the humility, patience, sufferings,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, together with the apostolic
character of St. Paul, distinctly recognised. (Pol. Ep. Ad Phil. C. v.
viii. ii. iii.) Of this same father we are also assured, by Irenaeus,
that he (Irenaeus) had heard him relate, "what he had received from
eye-witnesses concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles and his
doctrine." (Ir. ad Flor. 1 ap. Euseb. l. v. c. 20.)

In the remaining works of Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, larger
than those of Polycarp, (yet, like those of Polycarp, treating of
subjects in nowise leading to any recital of the Christian history,) the
occasional allusions are proportionably more numerous. The descent of
Christ from David, his mother Mary, his miraculous conception, the star
at his birth, his baptism by John, the reason assigned for it, his
appeal to the prophets, the ointment poured on his head, his sufferings
under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, his resurrection, the
Lord's day called and kept in commemoration of it, and the Eucharist, in
both its Parts,--are unequivocally referred to. Upon the resurrection,
this writer is even circumstantial. He mentions the apostles' eating and
drinking with Christ after he had risen, their feeling and their
handling him; from which last circumstance Ignatius raises this just
reflection;--"They believed, being convinced both by his flesh and
spirit; for this cause, they despised death, and were found to be above
it." (Ad Smyr. c. iii.)

Quadratus, of the same age with Ignatius, has left us the following
noble testimony:--"The works of our Saviour were always conspicuous, for
they were real; both those that were healed, and those that were raised
from the dead; who were seen not only when they were healed or raised,