In his Epistle to the Trallians, he expresses himself in words to which no Anglican Catholic would hesitate to respond:  “Ye ought to comfort the bishop, to the honour of God, and of Jesus Christ, and of the Apostles.” [Page 25.  Sec. 12.] He speaks in this Epistle with humility and reverence of the powers and hosts of heaven; but he makes no allusion to any religious worship or invocation of them.

The following extract is from his Epistle to the Philadelphians:  “My brethren, I am altogether poured forth in love for you; and in exceeding joy I make you secure; yet not I, but Jesus Christ, bound in whom I am the more afraid, as being already seized[30]; but your prayer to God will perfect me, that I may obtain the lot mercifully assigned to me.  Betaking myself to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus, and to the Apostles as the presbytery of the Church; let us also love the prophets, because they also have proclaimed the Gospel, and hoped in him, and waited for him; in whom also {89} trusting, they were saved in the unity of Jesus Christ, being holy ones worthy of love and admiration, who have received testimony from Jesus Christ, and are numbered together in the Gospel of our common hope.” [Page 32.  Sec. 5.]

    [Footnote 30:  This clause is very obscure, and perhaps
    imperfect.]

I am induced to add the paraphrase on this passage also.  “My brethren, I am very much poured out in loving you, and with exceeding joy I make you secure; not I, but by me, Jesus Christ, in whom bound I am the more afraid.  For I am yet not perfected, but your prayer to God will perfect me; so that I may obtain that to which I was called, flying to the Gospel as the flesh of Jesus Christ, and to the Apostles as the presbytery of the Church.  And the prophets also I love, as persons who announce Christ, as partaking of the same spirit with the Apostles.  For just as the false prophets and false apostles have drawn one and the same wicked and deceitful and seducing spirit, so also the prophets and the apostles, one and the same holy spirit, good, leading, true, and instructing.  For one is the God of the Old and the New Testament.  One is Mediator between God and man, for the production of the creatures endued with reason and perception, and for the provision of what is useful, and adapted to them:  and one is the Comforter who wrought in Moses and the prophets and the apostles.  All the saints therefore were saved in Christ, hoping in him, and waiting for him; and through him they obtained salvation, being saints worthy of love and of admiration, having obtained a testimony from Jesus Christ in the Gospel of our common hope.” [Page 81.  Sec. 5.]