had recourse, though in vain, to inchantments, and that his Dæmon had fecured him for a time; from the flames, but could not protect him from the fword. Virgil Æn. xi. 785. Summe Deum, fancti cuftos Soractis Apollo, Where Servius: Freti pietate. Ifte quidem boc dixit; fed Varro, ubique expugnator religionis, ait, cum quoddam medicamentum defcriberet: "Eo "uti folent Hirpini, qui ambulaturi per ignem, "medicamento plantas tingunt." Haud procul urbe Roma in Falifcorum agro familiæ funt pauca, quæ vocantur Hirpi: hæ facrificio annuo, quod fit ad montem Sora&tem Apollini, Super ambuftam ligni ftruem ambulantes non aduruntur. Et ob id perpetuo Senatufconfulto militiæ omniumque aliorum munerum vacationem habent. Plinius l. vii. p. 372. Ἐν τοῖς Καταβάλοις ἐςὶ τὸ τῆς Περασίας Αρτέμιδο ἱερὲν, ὅπε φασὶ τὰς ἱερείας γυμνοῖς τοῖς ποσὶ δι ̓ ἀνθρα κιᾶς βαδίζειν ἀπαθεῖς. Apud Calabala autem Pe rafia Diana fanum eft, ubi aiunt fæminas facerdotes illafis pedibus per prunas ambulare. Strabo. Le Clerc fpeaking of the water of jealoufy, Numb. v. fays, An ultio divina perjurium illico fequeretur non docet Mofes, et rara hæc videntur fuiffe exempla. Hugo Grotius exempla ex Scriptoribus Ethnicis adfert fontium, quorum aquæ perjuros arguiffe feruntur, nec rei fidem detrahit. Sed tot ficta miracula, apud Ethnicos narrabantur, ut ulli credere vix poffimus. Alia eft ratio Hebra Hebræorum, etc. Multa quoque in infimi ævi hiftoriis habemus de probationibus per ignem, per aquam, etc. quæ tam mihi nefas videatur omnia credere, quam omnia rejicere. Certe ut veri non funt fat clara in iis argumenta: ita nec mendacii indiciis manifeftis notata funt. Ideoque an vera fint, aut falfa, nos quidem fcire non poffumus. The custom of trying the innocence of fufpected perfons by fire, or boiling water, is very ancient, for it is mentioned in the Antigone of Sophocles, and it lafted till the fourteenth century in Europe, and is faid to continue ftill in fome places. But the horrible rashness and the profane impudence of appealing thus to God, without his permiffion, and of calling upon him to interpofe miraculously, and the injuries which on thefe occafions have been done to the innocent, and the favour which hath been fhewed to the guilty, incline us to think that no miracle of this kind was ever wrought at fuch trials, and that they who efcaped, used fome tricks, as well as the Hirpi. It would not be difficult to paint iron bars, fo as to make them look as if they were red-hot. It was the opinion of fome that Cræfus had escaped the flames by the help of incantations. Ἐφέσια γράμματα — ἐπῳδαὶ δ, τινὲς φασὶν, ἐκεῖνα ἦσαν, ὡς καὶ Κροῖσα ἐπὶ τῆς πυρὸς εἰπὼν ὠφελήθη Παυσανίας δέ φησιν, ότι φωναί ἦσαν τα Ἐφέσια · Ἦμεν δ ̓ ἕτοιμοι καὶ μύδρες αἴρειν χεροίν, Καὶ πῦρ διέρπειν, καὶ θεὸς ὁρκωμοῶν Eramus quoque parati et ferrum ignitum levare manibus, 270. γράμματα γράμματα φυσικὸν ἐμπεριέχεσι τὸν ἀλεξίκακον, ὡς κ Κροῖσον ἐπὶ πυρᾷς, φησὶ καὶ αὐτὸς, εἰπεῖν. Ephefa litera-dicunt enim illas fuiffe incantationes quafdam, quas et Cræfus jam rogo impofitus pronunciarit atque ita liberatus fuerit. - Paufanias verò ait - Ephefias literas fuiffe voces quafdam, qua naturalem quandam virtutem malorum depulforiam haberent; quas, ut etiam ille teftatur, Cræfus rogo impofitus pronunciaverit. Euftathius in Odyff. Suidas. Etymol. Magn. Of the fame kind with the Ephesian Letters were thefe Charms; Sifta, Pifta, Kifta, Xifta. and, Daries, Dardaries, Aftaries, Diffunapiter, Huat, Hamat, etc. to which Varro and Cato afcribe great powers. But, to return to Polycarp's martyrdom: If we may be permitted to hazard a conjecture upon this occafion, we may fuppofe that the Jews and Pagans, full of rage, brought together wood enough to burn ten perfons, and heaped it all round the Martyr, and fet fire to it in many places, which blazed up, as at the pile of Cræfus, we gala, at the extremities on all fides, and arched over Polycarp. Upon this * See the ftory in Herodotus. น t Something not unlike this was feen at the martyrdom of Porphyrius, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀφθείσης ἔξω ἀπὸ μακρό Σποςή μας κύκλῳ τεὶ αὐτὸν τῆς πυρᾶς, ἐνθένδε κακεῖθεν ἀφαρπάζοντα Tậy sóμalı Tηv próya. Quin etiam cum rogus fatis longo ab ipfo intervallo circumquaque accenfus fuiffet, ipfe hinc inde flam mam ore attrahebat. Eufeb. Mart. Pal. 11. fome fome of the Chriftians began to cry a miracle; his enemies faid that the man was a Magician, and fearing perhaps left fomething extraordinary should appear in his favour, called for the executioner to dispatch him quickly. There was no withstanding the giddy impatience of an irritated populace. The executioner complied, and ran Polycarp through, when he was almoft dead and fuffocated with the flames, and when perhaps his lower parts had been fcorched; and thus he perished partly by fire, and partly by the fword. In order to reconcile the whole account, and to remove useless prodigies, it seems reasonable to suppose that there was nothing miraculous in the arching of the flames, that the fire had almost killed the Martyr when he was wounded, and that the blood which iffued from him quenched or damped the fire only on one fide, and where it burned weakest. " The writer of the Epiftle obferves, that Polycarp food in the fire, ὡς χρυσὸς καὶ ἀργυρο, ἐν xaμívą avęśμw, ficut aurum et argentum in fornace candens, alluding poffibly to those paffages of Scripture where the righteous are compared to gold and filver tried in the furnace, or to what is faid of Chrift, Revel. i. oi wódes auto oμolos χαλκολιβάνῳ, ὡς ἐν καμίνῳ πεπυρωμένοι. Eufebius ufes the fame kind of expreffion concerning Peter, who fuffered martyrdom at the stake, in Diocletian's perfecution: 21 wugo's dia xeuro's πυρὸς οἷα χρυσὸς ἀκραιφνέςατα -velut aurum puriffimum per ignem probatus-Mart. Pal. 10. VOL. I. Ꮓ The The ftory of the dove coming out of Polycarp's body, which is in the Epistle, but not in Eufebius, or Rufinus, or Nicephorus, or two Mff. of the Latin tranflation of the Epiftle, arofe poffibly from a corruption of the text. The executioner ftabbed him, and then λe weisend i waño & aiual, a dove came out, and abundance of blood. It is not likely that the Author would have related fo marvellous a circumstance so concifely and coldly, in one fingle word seed, juft as if he were ashamed of it, and wanted to get over it as faft as he could: but he might have written, with a very small alteration, ἐξῆλθεν ἐπ ̓ ἀριστερὰ πλῆθο αἵματα, σε κατασβέσαι τὸ τοῦρ, a great quantity of blood iued out on, or to the left fide, and put out the fire (on that fide): after which, the commanding officer ordered his body to be laid upon the wood and confumed, and the Chriftians had leave to gather up his bones. Or we might read, with an alteration ftill fmaller, and without ftriking out the, évéπ'ápisɛegi ý wañ• aiμal, fuppofing to mean even there iffued out even fo much blood, as to extinguish the fire. The dove could fcarcely be mentioned defignedly by the Author, who would have faid fomething more, or nothing at all. The firft conjecture is propofed by Le Moyne, but he writes it, ' ' apsega. I fhould prefer alev, to avoid poetic numbers; and befides, the accufative plural e' dusted, joined to a verb of motion, would be better than the dative or ablative |