ivial and ridiculous comparisons.
But, when treating of a grave subject, what can be more silly or
indecorous than such language as the following--"Ye are raised on high
by the engine of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, and ye are drawn by
the rope, which is the Holy Ghost, and your pulley is your faith."
[422:1] Well may the Christian reader exclaim, with indignation, as he
peruses these words, Is the Holy Ghost then a mere rope? Is that
glorious Being who worketh in us to will and to do according to His own
good pleasure, a mere piece of tackling pertaining to the ecclesiastical
machinery, to be moved and managed according to the dictation of Bishop
Ignatius? [422:2] But the frivolity of this impostor is equalled by his
gasconade. He thus tantalises the Romans with an account of his
attainments--"I am able to write to you heavenly things, _but I fear
lest I should do you an injury_." .....

"I am able to know heavenly things, and the places of angels, and the
station of powers that are visible and invisible." Where did he gather
all this recondite lore? Certainly not from the Old or New Testament.
May we not safely pronounce this man to be one who seeks to be wise
above what is written, "intruding into those things which he hath not
seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind?" [422:3] He seems, indeed,
to have himself had some suspicion that such was his character, for he
says, again, to his brethren of the Western metropolis--"I know many
things in God, but I moderate myself that I may not _perish through
boasting_; for now it is becoming to me that I should fear the more
abundantly, and should not look to _those that puff me up_." Let us now
hear a specimen of the mysticism of this dotard. "There was hidden from
the Ruler of this world the virginity of Mary, and the birth of our
Lord, and the three mysteries of the shout, which were done in the
quietness of God by means of the star, and here by the manifestation of
the Son magic began to be dissolved." [423:1] Who can undertake to
expound such jargon? What are we to understand by "the quietness of
God?" Who can tell how "the three mysteries of the shout" were "done by
means of the star?"

VI. The unhallowed and insane anxiety for martyrdom which appears
throughout these letters is another decisive proof of their fabrication.
He who was, in the highest sense, the Faithful Witness betrayed no
fanatic impatience for the horrid tragedy of crucifixion; and, true to
th