are set aside as spurious. Tlie difference of style from the other Ignatian writings will strike
him even in perusing the English version which we have given, while it is of course much more
marked in the original. And other decisive proofs present themselves in every one of the
Epistles. In that to the Tarsians there is found a plain allusion to the Sabellian heresy, which
did not arise till after the middle of the third century. In the Epistle to the Antiochians
there is an enumeration of various Church officers, who were certainly unknown at the period
when Ignatius lived. The Epistle to Hero plainly alludes to Manichaean errors, and could
not therefore have been written before the third century. There are equally decisive proofs of
spuriousness to be found in the Epistle to the Philippians, such as the references it contains to
the Patripassian heresy originated by Praxeas in the latter part of the second century, and the
ecclesiastical feasts, etc., of which it makes mention. The letter to Maria Cassobolita is of a
very peculiar style, utterly alien from that of the other Epistles ascribed to Ignatius. And it is
sufficient simply to glance at the short Epistles to St. John and the Virgin Mary, in order to see
that they carry the stamp of imposture on their front ; and, indeed, no sooner were they pub-
lished than by almost universal consent they were rejected.