Wilson, Rev. W., Curate of St. Chad's, Rochdale.
Wolley, Rev. T. L., Rector of Portishead, and Prebendary of Wells.
Woodhouse, Rev. G. W., Vicar of Albrighton, Salop.
Wright, Rev. T. P., Hackney, 2 copies.
Chapter I. Life of S. Irenæus, and General Account Of His Writings.
If Polycarp is an object of great interest, as the disciple of St. John, and the hearer both of him and of other contemporaries of our Lord; if Justin is so, as having been the first man of eminent learning who came over from the walks of heathen philosophy to submit his mind to the doctrine of Christ; Irenæus, again, has claims upon our attention scarcely less, as having been brought up in the Christian faith under the eye of Polycarp; having, therefore, no previous tinge of Judaism or heathen philosophy, but imbued with Christian principles almost, if not quite, from his cradle, and at the same time displaying equal vigour of mind, if not equal knowledge of heathen learning, with either Justin or Clement of Alexandria[2]. To these circumstances we are no doubt to attribute it, that there appear in his writings a [pg 002] greater justness of reasoning, and a more unexceptionable use of scripture, than is to be found in the writers of the Alexandrian school.
With regard to the time of his birth we know nothing certain. We find him still a lad, παῖς ὢν ἔτι[3], listening to the Christian instruction of Polycarp, not long, as it would appear, before the death of that martyr. For, after saying[4] that he had seen Polycarp [pg 003] in the early part of his life, ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ ἡλικίᾳ,—in order to account for what might appear improbable, viz., his being the contemporary of that martyr at all,—he says, that Polycarp lived to a very advanced age; ἐπιπολὺ γὰρ παρέμεινε, καὶ πάνυ γεραλέος ... ἐξῆλθε τοῦ βίου. This makes it evident that it must have taken place towards the very close of Polycarp's life; and yet not so near to it but that he had had time to mark[5] his manner of life, and the discourses he made to the people, and remembered his account of his familiar intercourse with the apostle John, and the survivors of those who had seen the Lord, and his rehearsals of their sayings, and of their accounts of the discourses and miracles of the Lord. All this would require, one should suppose, at least five or six years. Then, again, we are to bear in mind that he would not have been capable of marking things of such a nature, (so as to remember them, as he tells us he did, perfectly,) when a young child, nor until his mind had in some degree begun to expand. So that we can scarcely suppose him younger than sixteen at the time of Polycarp's martyrdom, and the expression παῖς would admit of his being some years older.
Dodwell[6], indeed, has endeavoured to arrive at greater accuracy, and thinks that, by another casual expression of Irenæus, in his letter to Florinus, he is enabled to fix the date absolutely. Irenæus remarks [pg 004] that he had seen Florinus, when himself still a lad, in the company of Polycarp, in Lower Asia; when at the same time Florinus was getting on very prosperously at the court of the emperor: λαμπρῶς πράττοντα ἐν τῇ βασιλικῇ αὐλῇ. Taking it for granted that Irenæus intends to say that he was an actual witness of the prosperity of his friend, and consequently that the imperial court must have been at that very time sojourning in Lower Asia, and having ascertained that Adrian is the only emperor who appears to have remained any time there, he fixes upon the year 122 as the probable year in which Adrian might have been there, and thus imagines that he has established at least one date with certainty. Now the stress of the observation of Irenæus does not lie upon the success of Florinus at court, but upon his having associated with Polycarp, and having endeavoured to gain his good opinion; that, so far as appears, is the only thing which Irenæus witnessed. The imperial court may therefore have been at some other place, and Florinus may have been only on a visit at Smyrna, at the time when Irenæus saw him there.