Unparalleld varieties: or, The matchless actions and passions of mankind.: Displayed in near four hundred notable instances and examples. Discovering the transcendent effects; I. Of love, friendship, and gratitude. II. Of magnanimity, courage, and fidelity. III. Of chastity, temperance, and humility. And on the contrary the tremendous consequences, IV. Of hatred, revenge, and ingratitude. V. Of cowardice, barbarity, treachery. VI. Of unchastity, intemperance, and ambition. : Imbellished with proper figures. / By R.B. ...

XXIII. Neither ought we to forget that immovea∣ble Christian Constancy, and Courage which has appea∣red in some pious, and resolved Souls, for the true Faith and Religion in all Ages, of which Historians are not silent. The Emperor Trajan returning from the Parthian War, when he came to Antioch, he commanded a gra∣tulatory Sacrifice to be made to the Heathen Gods for his good success, at which Ignatius was required to be present, but he even before Trajans face did justly, and truly reprove his Idolatry, for which cause he was deli∣vered to ten Soldiers, by them to be carried to Rome, there to be cast to the wild Beasts; concerning which, himself thus writes; From Syria, till I came to Rome, I had a battel with Beasts, as well by Sea as by Land, night and day, being bound among ten Leopards (so he called those ten Soldiers) who the more kindness they received from me, the more cruel they were unto me; but now through exercise I am well acquainted with their injuries, and am taught every day more, and more, to bear the Cross of Christ; would to God I were once come to the Beasts that are prepared for me, and I wish that they may fall upon me with all their violence; whom also I will provoke without delay to devour me, and not to ab∣stain from me, as they have from many before me. Pardon me I pray you, I know how much this will turn to my advantage, I am Gods Corn, and when the wild Beasts have ground me with their Teeth, I shall be his Whitebread; now I begin to be a Disciple of my Master Christ, I neither regard things visible; nor invisible, so I may gain Christ, let the fire, the Cross, the breaking of my Bones, quartering of my Members, crushing of all my Body, yea, and all the Torments that the Devil and Man can invent, fall upon me so I may enjoy my Lord Jesus Christ.

This Ignatius saw Christ in the flesh, being about 12 years old, when he was Crucified, and it is recorded that when he was a Child, our Saviour would take him up in his Arms, and shew him to his Disciples, it may be he was one of those little Children that were brought to Christ, that he should touch them, or that little Child

whom Jesus took, and set in the midst of his Disciples, to teach them Humility; he saw Christ after his Resur∣rection, as himself writes in one of his Epistles, Ego vero & post Resurrectionem, &c. Truly I did see him after his Resurrection in the flesh, and do believe that it is he, &c. He used to say, There is nothing better than the peace of a good conscience; that good and wicked men are like true and counterfeit money, the one seems good, & is not, the other both seems & is good; that the Lyons Teeth are but like a Mill, which though it bruiseth yet wasteth not the good Wheat, only prepares, & fits it to be made pure Bread; let me, saith he, be broken by them, so I may be made pure Manchet for Heaven; his usual saying was, My Love is Crucified, meaning either Christ the object of his Love, or that his affections were crucified to the world, he suffered Martyrdom in the eleventh year of Trajan at Rome. 111. Acts and Mon. Vol. 1.