And besides the Creator of all, and likewise another son. this man many have believed as if he alone knew the truth, and they laugh at us, though they have no proof of what they say, but are carried away irrationally as lambs by a wolf, and become the prey of atheistical doctrines, and of devils." He offers texts from the Jewish scriptures as valid testimony to the truth of doctrines. His ethical ideas are in no way profound or expansive. "Every race," he remarks, "knows that adultery is an evil, and fornication, and the killing of man, and other suchlike things." Righteousness has two aspects, in conduct towards God and towards man. When he says, "We are brothers by nature" (Trypho, 134), he merely alludes to the kinship between Jews and Christians; and he does not evince a warm sense of the brotherhood of the race. He rebukes polygamists, and condemns the exposure of children. Of slavery he says nothing. Justin's Apology, addressed in or about 150 to Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, the Senate, and the Roman people, covers two sections, the so-called Second Apology being a continuation or appendix. The language used is Greek. The Apologist beseeches for calm consideration of the claims of Christians. "We are accused of being Chrestians, and to hate what is Chrestos (excellent) is unjust." Impelled by devils, the persecutors called Christians atheists, just as the enemies of Socrates stigmatised him as such. But Christians, replies Justin, are not atheists; they worship the Father and Creator; they abhor idols; they look for a heavenly kingdom; they live soberly under God's eye. "We who formerly delighted in fornication now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts now dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need......and pray for our enemies ;" and he cites Christ's words in favour of patience, non-swearing, and civil obedience. Justin goes on to point out analogies between Christian tradition and classic mythology. "When we say that the Logos, who is the first birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that he, Jesus Christ our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you [pagans] believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter "—e.g., Mercury, Æsculapius, Bacchus, Hercules, the Dioscuri, Perseus, Bellerophon. Justin gravely assures his readers that Christ's incarnation was predicted by various Hebrew prophets before he appeared "first 5,000 years before, and again 3,000, then 2,000, then 1,000, and yet again 800;" and he gives a series of alleged prophecies from the Old Testament. From the prophet Moses even Plato had not disdained to borrow ideas, as when, following the hint of the cross-like brazen serpent, he told how God impressed the soul-mark of a X upon the cosmos (see p. 107). Near the close of his treatise Justin describes the Christian customs of Baptism, Eucharist, and Sunday worship, and roundly declares that the wicked devils had induced the followers of Mithra tot imitate these Christian rites. The second part of the Apology relates the martyrdom of several Christians, and Justin contends that such Stoic martyrs as Heraclitus and Musonius were hated because they had apprehended part of the truth of the Logos. In Christ, however, the whole truth was revealed. After repeating Xenophon's story of the choice of Hercules between luxurious Vice and unadorned Virtue, Justin affirms that the Christians have also made their choice in behalf of an innocent life, and have demonstrated their innocence by their contempt of death. The Dialogue with Trypho, a few, tells first how Justin, arrayed in his academic cloak, was accosted one morning by the cry of "Hail, O philosopher." The new-comer was Trypho, a Hebrew. Trypho and his companions engage in conversation with Justin, and fall to discussing the relative merits of Judaism and the Christian faith. Trypho willingly concedes that the rumours which speak of Christians' midnight meetings and lewd promiscuousness after the extinction of the lamps are but the idle gossip of the mob; but he grieves at the Christian disobedience to the law prescribing circumcision. Justin eagerly answers that salvation does not come through the Mosaic law, but through the New Law, even Christ himself. The ordinances which God gave the Jews with respect to food, Sabbaths, sacrifices, and the like, were intended to regulate a sinful race. Enoch and other saints who lived before the age of Moses practised no circumcision. Naturally this paves the way for a long disputation (in which the voice of Justin is heard at much greater length than that of his opponent) on the observances of the Law considered as types of the coming Christ, and on the prophecies uttered by Isaiah and other seers-the fine-flour of the old Hebrew oblations prefigured the Eucharist; the bells on the Highpriest's robe the twelve apostles; the virgin wife of Isaiah foreshadowed the virgin Mary, etc.; and that God could take bodily form was demonstrated from the appearances of the divine being at the Burning Bush, etc. The true Israelites are the Christians, since they have accepted the gospel of Christ; and Justin appeals to his Jewish listeners to " assent, therefore, and pour no ridicule on the Son of God; obey not the Pharisaic teachers, and scoff not at the King of Israel, as the rulers of your synagogues teach you to do after your prayers." Notwithstanding his occasionally harsh words, Trypho and his friends politely thank Justin, and wish him good fortune on the voyage he is about to undertake. Justin manifestly supports the Logos doctrine, the divine. Logos having been present at the creation of man, presided over the history of the Jews, and assumed human shape in Jesus; but, though Christ is God, he occupies a subordinate rank to the Father. In the biography of Christ he states nothing new except that Jesus was born in a cave, that Jesus made yokes and ploughs, and that, at the baptism, a fire flashed over the river Jordan. Of the Holy Spirit he only speaks indefinitely and casually. A very prominent place in his scheme of the world is occupied by the devils, the army of Satan, who deceive and seduce, and pervert the truth and encourage heresy. He believes in the resurrection, anticipates a life with God for the Saints, and everlasting fire for sinners. While referring to the Jewish scriptures as the "holy writings," "the word of God," etc., and accepting the Sibyl and the book of Hystaspes as inspired, he names no New Testament book except the Apocalypse. He makes no mention of Paul-a remarkable silence which is very difficult to explain. Nor does he quote the gospels by any more exact title than the Memoirs," or the "Memoirs of the Apostles ;" and even then his citations do not tally verbatim with the gospels as we now possess them; nor does he allude to these Memoirs in the reverential manner that he assumes when quoting from the Old Testament.* 31.-The Stream of Christian Literature to the Close of the Second Century.-After taking leave of Justin Martyr we experience less need for separate descriptive sections on early Christian authors. The first obscurities we have more or less successfully penetrated. Emerging now into a more open field of history, we may follow the stream of literature which conducts to the well-developed Church of the third century. As hitherto, our course will, as far as possible, follow the chronological line. Papias was the episkopos of the Christians at the Phrygian city Hierapolis, the birthplace of Epictetus the Stoic. He is said to have died a martyr in Rome in the decade 160-170. He wrote in five books an 'Exposition of the Lord's Oracles." Only fragments remain in the works of Eusebius and others. Of these several have attained a classic fame in the pages of Biblical criticism One passage (see p. 121) alludes to Mark, another (see p. 125) to Andrew, James, John, Aristion, etc. Papias broached an idea which occurs in the Apocalypse of Baruch, to the effect that in the happy future the vines shall grow, each with ten thousand shoots, each shoot with ten thousand branches, and so on, in bewildering subdivision. His fourth book contained an absurd picture of the retribution which befel Judas the traitor: "Judas walked about in this world a terrible example of impiety; his flesh swollen to such an extent that, where a waggon can pass with ease, he was not able to pass, no, not even the mass of his head merely. They say that his eyelids swelled to such an extent that he could not see the light at all, while as for his eyes they were not visible even by a physician looking through an instrument, so far had they sunk from the surface."t Quadratus, an apologist for the Christian faith, addressed his plea to the emperor Hadrian. The work has disappeared. Quadratus is said to have made the amazing * Justin Martyr's works, vol. ii. of the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library;" Johnson's "Antiqua Mater," chapter iii.; Donaldson's "History of Christian Literature and Doctrine," vol. ii. + Donaldson's "History of Christian Literature," vol. i.; Lightfoot's "Apostolic Fathers;"" Supernatural Religion," vol. i. statement that, in his days, persons raised from the dead by Jesus still survived. Aristides, "a philosopher of Athens," wrote a pamphlet inscribed to the emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161). A Syriac translation of the composition came to light in 1889. "I, O King, by the grace of God came into this world," the argument opens, and the Christian philosopher considers the question of God's existence and nature, his might and majesty. "Adversary he has none." Four theologies are described those of (1) the Barbarians, who have found God in the forms of earth, water, fire, air, sun, and ancestors; (2) the Greeks, who created deities in male and female shapes -Kronos, Rhea, Zeus, Hephaistos, Dionysus, Apollo, etc.; deities whose gross amours and vices and weaknesses make them unworthy of worship; though worse than “all peoples on the earth" are the Egyptians, who adore the slain Osiris and reverence pigs, hawks, fishes, and even onions. After this digression touching the Egyptians, Aristides again upbraids the Greeks for their anthropomorphic religious ideas; (3) the Jews, who worship God, and not his works, and "have compassion on the poor, and ransom the captive, and bury the dead......things which are acceptable to God and are well-pleasing also to men ;" but who devote a mistaken piety to sabbaths, new moons, and passovers; (4) the Christians, who observed the precepts of the Decalogue, who abstain from the meats of idol sacrifices, who do good to enemies, who are pure in wedlock, and are kind to servants, widows, and orphans, who provide for the burial of the poor brethren, and provide for the needs of such as are imprisoned for conscience' sake; and who "labour to become righteous as those that expect to see their Messiah, and receive from him the promises made to them with great glory." So holy do the Christians live that their examples oft-times convert the lewd Greeks to the true faith. Of this faith Aristides gives a summary : "The Christians reckon the beginning of their religion from Jesus Christ, who is named the Son of God most high; and it is said that God came down from heaven, and from a Hebrew virgin took and clad himself with flesh, and in a daughter of man there dwelt the Son of God. This is taught from that gospel which a little while ago was spoken among them as being preached; wherein, if you also will read, you will comprehend + |