* XotfiSw. Of pestilences. r Bam 1 wotf.
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Sion his holy mountain, declaring the command of the Lord. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and for thy possession the extremities of the earth. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron; as vessels of a potter shalt thou dash them in pieces. And now, ye kings, be wise; be instructed, all ye that judge the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling. Receive instruction, 1 lest haply the Lord be angry, and so ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
52. And again the prophetic spirit, declaring by the same David that Christ should reign after his cruci- fixion, spake thus: “ Sing unto the Lord, all the earth, and show forth his salvation from day to day. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to ^ be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols of devils: but God made the heavens. Glory and praise are before his face; and strength and majesty* in the place of his holiness. Give glory unto the Lord, the Father of the worlds: b bring an offering, 4 and come in before his face, and worship in his holy courts. Let the whole earth fear before his face, and be established, and not be shaken. Let them rejoice among the nations. The Lord hath reigned from the wood.” d • Apdl-aade ircuSdas. This is the version of the Septuagint. Cappel- lus, ( Critica Sacra^ Lib. iv. Sect. 5, p. 243,) endeavors to show how the difference between the present Hebrew reading and the Greek may have arisen.
• Kafyv/ia.
b ir<j> rrarpl tQv alwv&v. The Sept, has al rarptaX rdv iOvuv, “ O ye kindreds of the people;” and Justin so quotes the passage in the Dialogue with Trypho, p. 299, A.
• A d(Serc x<ipiv» The passage is thus quoted by many of the Fathers. Tertullian adv. Jud. c. 11, says, “Age nunc, si legisti penes prophetam in psalrais, Decs regnavit d ligno, expecto quid intelligas, ne fort& lignarium aliquem regem significari putetis, et non Christum, qui exinde a passione Chrjsti (crucis) superata morte regnavit.” And again, c. 13, “Unde et ipse David regnaturum ex ligno Dominnm dicebat.” See also Tertullian adv. marcion. iii. c. 19. Barnabas, THE APOLOGY OP THE APOLOGY OP 53. Bat whereas the prophetic spirit speaks of future events, as if they were already past, as may have been observed in what hath been said, Wc will explain this also, that it may not perplex those who meet with it. (The spirit) speaks of things which it assuredly knows shall happen, as if they had already taken place. And that we mast so receive these writings will be evident, if ye attend to the following considerations. David spake the words which have been recited, fifteen hun- dred years 6 before Christ was made man and crucified: and yet no one, of those who lived either before David or after him, gave occasion of rejoicing to the heathen by his sufferings upon the cross. But now, in our days/ Jesus Christ was crucified, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and reigned there; and, in conseqaence of what hath been preached in all nations, by the apostles sent from him, there is great joy to those who look for the immortality, which he hath promised.
54. And that no persons may imagine, from what we have now advanced, that we conceive events to happen by fatal necessity, because, as we have said, they are foreknown, we will explain this also. We have learned from the prophets, and declare it for a truth, that punishment and torments, as well as rewards, will be given to every one according to his works. For if this is not so, but every thing takes place by irresistible necessity, then there is nothing at all in our own power. For if it is fated that one man must be good, and another bad, neither is the one to be praised, nor the other to be blamed. And again, if the human race hath ( Epist. c. 8,) is supposed to recognise the words, when he says, Sri Si rd tpiov brl rd f tfXoy; in h paciXtla riv 'Irjaoi brl rip Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with r Prypho,p. 298; accuses the Jews of having erased the words Sri rov ftfXov. There is no trace, how- ever, of the words in any Hebrew or Greek MS. of the Old Testament, or in Origen or Jerome.
* In Sect. 39, Justin appears to allude to David, when he says, in round numbers, that some of the prophets lived one thousand years before Christ. Theophilus, (ad Autolycum, p. 138,) places David eleven hundred years before Christ. The chronology of Justin seems to have been rather loose; but it is probable that the numbers here have been altered by an error of a transcriber.
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■lW no power, by its free-will, to avoid the evil and to choose the good, it is not responsible for any actions of any kind. But that men do stand and fall by free-will is thus shown. We see that the conduct of the same man is different at different times. But if it was fated, that he should be either bad or good, he could never act so differently, nor change so frequently. Neither indeed would some be good, and some bad: siuce q« in that case, we should represent fate as the cause of evil, and at variance with itself: or else we must profess that opinion to be true, which we have before mentioned/ that virtue and vice are, nothing, but actions are reckoned to be good or bad by opinion only; which, as true reason plainly shows, is the greatest impiety and injustice.
55. But we say that this only is irreversibly deter- mined, that they who choose what is good shall be pro- portionably rewarded, and in like manner, they who choose the reverse shall be punished as they deserve. For God did not make man like the other creatures, such as trees and four-footed beasts, incapable of doing any thing by free choice; since he would not be a fit object of reward or praise, if he did not himself choose the good, but were so made; nor, if he were bad, would he deserve punishment, if he were not such by his own act, but were unable to become in any respect different from what he was made.
56. Now the holy prophetic Spirit taught us this, •aying by Mo$es« that God thus spake to the man who 'was first created: “Behold, before thy face is good and evil; choose the good.” h Again it is thus spoken by another prophet, Isaiah, as in the name of God the Father and Lord of all things “ Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil from your souls; learn to do well: do justice to the fatherless, and avenge the widow; and come and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Even if your sins should be as scarlet, I will make them as white as wool: and if they should be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. And if ye * Section 36.
fa Dent xzx. 15, 19. Justin Martyr erroneously attributes to Moses an application made in Ecclesiasticus xv. 14-17.
166 THE APOLOGY OF [§57,58,59.
will, and will hearken unto me, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye will not hearken unto me, the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.”! - Now that which is said above, “ The sword shall devour you,” implies not, that they who are disobedient shall perish by the sword; but the sword of the Lord is the fire, by which those shall be consumed who choose to do evil. Wherefore he saith, “The sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” But if he had spoken of the sword which cuts, and immediately ceases, he would not have said, * it shall devour.’ k 57. Wherefore also when Plato said, 1 “The fault lies with him who chooses, but God is blameless he took it from the prophet Moses, who was more ancient than all the writers of the Greeks. And in all, which philosophers or poets have said concerning the immortality of the soul, or punishments after death, or the contemplation of heavenly things, or the like opin- ions, they could conceive and explain such notions only as they first derived from the prophets. Whence there appear to be the seeds of truth among them all: but they are proved not to have thoroughly understood them, since they so speak as to contradict themselves.
58. When therefore we say, that prophecies have been delivered respecting future events, we assert not that they were foreseen, because they happened by a fatal necessity; but that God, well knowing what the actions of all men would be, and having determined that he would reward every man according to his deeds, declared by his prophetic spirit, that his dealings with them would correspond with those actions, thus always leading the human race to reflection and repentance, and showing his care and providence for them.
59. But the evil spirits denounced death against those who read the books of Hystaspes, or the Sibyl, or the prophets, that they might deter them from improving * Justin's interpretations are sometimes fanciful enough. The mouth of the sword,:nmi> is a common Hebrew expression. Jer. xxi.
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such an opportunity of learning what was for their real good, and retain them in slavery to themselves. But ' this purpose they could not entirely effect. For we not only fearlessly study these books, but as ye per- ceive, offer them for your consideration, being assured that they will be well-pleasing to all men. And even if we persuade but a few, our gain will be great: for as good husbandmen we shall receive the reward from our Master.
60. Hear also what was spoken by David the prophet, to show that God the Father of all things would receive Christ into heaven, after having raised him from the dead, and retain him there, until he should tread under foot his enemies the devils, and the number of those should be fulfilled, who, as He foreknew, would be good and virtuous; for whose sake also the final de- struction® of all things by fire is yet delayed. The words are these: “ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Jerusalem: and rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. With thee shall be the rule in the day of thy power, in the splendors of thy saints. From the womb, before the day-star, have I begotten thee.” ■ The words, “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Jerusalem,” are a prophecy of that gg powerful word, which the apostles of Christ, who went out from Jerusalem, preached every where, although death was threatened against those who taught, or even confessed the name of Christ, and which we now every where embrace and teach. And if ye too receive what we now offer, in a' hostile manner, ye can do no more, as we have already said, 0 than slay us: which brings, in fact, no evil upon us, but will procure everlasting punishment by fire upon yourselves, and all those who hate us without reason, and repent not.
■ iwrfipwffiv for IxiKipueiv, as in Sect. 28, 74, 77, and Second Apel.
n P§. cx. 1-3. This is the reading of the Septuagint. See Cappbllus, Critica Sacra, Lib. iv. c. 2, 8, c. 11, 3.
* Sections 2, 13.
VoL. IV.—15 170 THE APOLOGY OF [$61,62.
61. But, lest any one should unreasonably object to what is taught by us, saying that Christ was born but a hundred and fifty years since, in the time of Cyrenius, and taught what we ascribe to him still later, under Pontius Pilate, and should accuse us of maintaining that all men, who lived before that time, were not accountable for their actions, we will anticipate and solve the difficulty. ' We have learned, and have before explained, that Christ was the first-begotten of God, being the Word, or Reason, of which all men were partakers. p They then who lived agreeably to reason, were really Christians, even if they were considered Atheists, such as Socrates, Heraclitus, and the like among the Greeks; and among other nations Abraham, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, and Elias, and many others, the actions and even the names of whom we at present omit, knowing how tedious the enumeration would be. Those therefore who of old lived without right reason, the same were bad men,* and enemies to Christ, and the murderers of those who lived agreeably to reason. Whereas they who ever lived or now live, in a manner which reason would approve, are truly Christians, and free from fear or trouble. From what we have already so fully stated, any intelligent man may understand, for what cause He was made man, and born of a virgin, by the power of the Word' and the counsel of God the Father and Lord of all things, and was named Jesus, and died on the cross, and rose again, and went up again into heaven. But since any further disquisition for the explanation of this point is not now necessary, we will 04 proceed to the proof of that which is more closely connected with our present purpose.
62. Hear, then, what, was spoken by the prophetic p Justin’s notion was, that every degree of intelligence which men possessed, respecting the nature of the Deity, and their relation to him, was derived from a portion of the Divine reason, Adyos, commu- nicated to them; but that the true believer in Christ only possesses this quality in perfection. He uses the word \6yos in different senses. Sometimes it denotes the Second person of the Trinity, the Word; ✓ sometimes reason or intelligence; and sometimes word or speech. This necessarily creates ambiguity in determining the sense of the term in any particular passage.
S iXptlVTOti Kal t\9pol r£ Xpurrf Jjaav.
r See note (r) on Sect. 43. Compare Phil ii. 7.
Google JUSTIN MARTYR.
spirit, declaring that the whole land of Judea should also be laid waste. The words, it will be observed, are spoken in the person of the people themselves wonder- ing at what was done; and they are these. “ Sion is become a wilderness; Jerusalem is become as a wilder- ness: the house, our holy place, is accursed; and the glory, which our fathers blessed, is burned with fire. And all its glories are fallen down. And in these things thou didst refrain thyself, and didst hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore.” • r Now that Jerusalem is laid waste, as it was predicted it should be, ye have good proof. It was also thus spoken by Isaiah the prophet, concerning its desolation, and that no one should return thither to dwell: “ Their land is desolate: their enemies devour it before their face: 1 and none of them shall dwell therein.”** Ye well know also that ye have forbidden any man to dwell there: and that the punishment of death is denounced against any Jew who shall be found within the place.* 63. Hear also in what manner it was predicted that our Christ should heal all manner of diseases, and raise the dead. Thus it is said, “At his coming the lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stam* merer shall be eloquent, the blind shall receive their sight, and the lepers shall be cleansed, and the dead shall arise and walk.”? And that Christ did these things ye may learn from the records of what was done under Pontius Pilate.* Hear again what was said by Isaiah, foretelling by the prophetic spirit that Christ should be slain, together with those men who hoped in him. The words are these. “Behold, how the just man perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, and no one considereth.
u Justin adds what is spoken, Jer. 1. 3, respecting Babylon. z Tertullian (Apol. Sect. 21,) speaks of the Jews as banished from their country; and not even permitted as strangers to set foot upon their own land. He repeats the same assertion, adv. Judceos, c. 15. Eusebius, {Hist. Eccles. Lib. iv. c. 6, and in his Chronicon,) states that an edict was made, in the eighteenth year of the Emperor Adrian, forbidding any Jew to approach within sight of Jerusalem. Valesius, in his notes on Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. shows that there was one day in the year, on which the restriction was removed, r Isa. xxxv. 5, 6.? Sea Section 45.
172 THE APOLOGY OF [$ 64.
The just man is taken away from before injustice: and his grave shall be in peace: he is taken away from the midst.”* And again, how is it declared by the same Isaiah that the people of the Gentiles who expected him not, should worship him; but the Jews, who con- stantly expected him, should know him not when he came. The words were spoken as in the person of Christ; and are to this effect. “ I was made known to them that looked not for me; I was found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold, here am I, to a people who called not upon my name. I stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and gain-saying people: to those that walked in a way which was not good, but after their own sins: a people that provoketh to anger before me.” b For the Jews, who had the prophecies, and always expected the Christ to come, not only knew him not, but evil entreated him. But they of the Gentiles, who had never heard any thing of Christ, until the apostles who went forth from Jeru- salem declared what he had done, and delivered the prophecies respecting him, were then filled with joy; and renounced their belief in idols; and dedicated themselves to the unbegotten God through Christ. 0 Hear also what was briefly spoken by Isaiah, to show that these harsh accusations should be brought against those who confessed Christ; and how wretched those should be who spoke ill of him, and maintained that the ancient customs ought to be preserved. His words are these: “Wo unto them that call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet.” d 64. Hear also in what manner it was prophesied, that he should be made man for us; and submit to suffer, and be set at naught; and should come again with glory. The words are these. “ Because e he hath given up his soul unto death, and was numbered with 0 Grabe observes, that this is a formula in which Catechumens* who were subsequently to be baptized, were dismissed from the Church. Such a formula is given by the author of the Apostolical Constitutions, (Lib. viii. c. 6,) as part of the bidding prayer, [directions how to pray,] which the Deacon was to use for the Catechumens. Compare similar expressions in Sections 17, 33, 79.
* Isa. v. 20. • Compare Epistle qf Clement, Sect. 16.
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the transgressors; he hath borne the sins of many, and shall make intercession for the transgressors. For behold my Son shall understand, and shall be exalted, and shall be exceedingly glorified. As many shall be astonished at thee; so shall thy appearance be without honor, more than any men, and thy glory more than any men: so shall many nations wonder at thee; and kings shall shut their mouths at thee; for they to whom nothing had been told of thee, and who had not heard, shall un- derstand. Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared before him, as (if he' were) a child; as a root in a thirsty ground. There is no form in him, nor glory. Yea we saw him; and he had no form nor comeliness: but his form was without honor, and marred more than men. He was a man in stripes, and knowing how to bear infirmity. For his face was turned away, he was despised, and esteemed not. He beareth our sins and for us is he afflicted. And we con- sidered him to be in trouble, in stripes, and in affliction. But he was wounded for our iniquities, and bruised for our sins. The chastisement of peace was upon him: by his stripes we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Man hath erred from his way.
And (the Lord) gave him for our sins: and he opened not his mouth through his suffering. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. In his affliction his judgment was taken away.” f Where- fore after his crucifixion even all his disciples forsook him, and denied him. But afterward, when he arose from the dead* and appeared to them, and taught them that they should read the prophecies in which all these events* were predicted, and when they had seen him going back into heaven, they believed, and received power which was thence sent down upon them from him, and went into all the world, and preached these things, and were themselves called apostles.
65. Again, these are the words of the prophetic spirit, declaring to us that he, who suffered thus, hath an origin which cannot be expressed, and rules over f lea. lii. liii. Septuagint.
174 THE APOLOGY OF [$ 66- his enemies: “ Who shall declare his generation; for his life is taken from the earth. For their transgres- sions he comes to death. And I will give the wicked for his tomb, and the rich for his death. Because he did no iniquity, neither was guile found in his mouth: and the Lord will cleanse him from his stripes. If he shall be given an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord is pleased to take his soul out of travail, to show him light, and to form him in understanding, to justify the just one who ministereth well to many. And he himself shall bear our sins. For this cause he shall inherit many; and shall divide the spoil of the strong. Because his soul was given up to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sins of many, and he himself was given for their transgressions.” e Hear also in what manner it was predicted that he should ascend up to heaven. For thus it was spoken: “ Lift up the gates of heaven; be ye opened, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord mighty, even the Lord powerful.” h Hear also what was spoken by Jeremiah 1 the prophet, to show that he should also come again from heaven with glory. His words are these: “ Behold how the Son of man cometh upon the clouds of heaven, and the angels with him.” gj 66. Since, then, we have shown that all things which have already happened were foretold by the prophets, before they came to pass, we must necessarily believe with full faith, that those things, which are in like manner foretold, but are still to happen, will assuredly come to pass. For in the same manner as past events, which were predicted and not known, did come to pass, so events which are yet to happen, even if they be unknown and disbelieved, will come to pass. For the prophets foretold two comings of Christ; the first, which hath already taken place, as of a man with- out honor and exposed to suffering; and the second, when it is declared he will come with glory from heaven, with his angelic host; when also he shall raise again the bodies of all men who have ever lived, and shall i The passage alluded to is in Dan. vii. 13. See Matt. xxv. 31.
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clothe with incorruption the bodies of those who so deserve, but shall send those of the wicked into ever- lasting fire, there to dwell in endless consciousness with the evil spirits.
67. Now that these things also are foretold, we will proceed to show. Thus, then, was it spoken by Ezekiel the prophet: “ There shall be brought together joint to joint, and bone to bone: and flesh shall grow upon them.” k And, “ Every knee shall bow to the Lord, and every tongue shall confess to him.” 1 Hear also what is in like manner foretold, to show in what degree of sensibility and punishment the wicked shall be. The words are these: “ Their worm shall not cease, and their fire shall not be quenched.”" 1 And then shall they repent, when it will avail them nothing. More- over what the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see him coming in glory, is foretold in these words by the prophet Zechariah:" “I will command the four winds to bring together my children that are scattered: I will command the north to bring and the south to oppose not. And then in Jerusalem shall there be great wailing; not the wailing of the mouth or of the lips, but wailing of the heart. And they shall rend not their garments but their consciences. One tribe shall mourn to another: and then shall they look on him whom they pierced, and shall say, Wherefore, Lord, hast thou caused us to wander from thy way? The glory, which our fathers blessed, is turned to our reproach.”
68. Although we might mention also many other prophecies, we here pause, persuaded that these are sufficient to convince such as have ears to hear, and hearts to understand; and nothing doubting that they will perceive, that we are not like those, who devise fables concerning the supposed sons of Jupiter, asserting what we are unable to prove. For how should we believe of a man who was crucified, that he was the first-born of the unbegotten God, and should himself be the judge of all the human race, unless we k See Ezek. xxxvii. 6-8. 1 Isa. xlv. 23. See Rom. xiv. 11.
■ Isa. lxvi. 24. Mark be. 44.
" See Zech. it 6; xil 2, 10, 12. Isa. xi. 12; xliii. 5, 6; Ixiii. 17; lxiv. 11. Joel ii. 13.
176 THE APOLOGY OF [$ 69.
found testimonies of him foretold, before he came and was made man, and saw also that it so came to pass? For we hare witnessed the desolation of the land of the Jews, and have seen such men, as we ourselves are, men out of every nation, persuaded by the teaching of his apostles, and renouncing their former manner of life, in which they had gone astray; and that Christians more numerous and more true have been made from the Gentiles, than from the Jews and Samaritans. For all other nations of mankind are called Gentiles, by the prophetic spirit; but the tribes of Judea and Samaria are denominated Israel and the house of Jacob.
69. And to show that it was foretold that there should be a greater number of believers from the Gentiles, than from the Jews and Samaritans, we will produce the prophecies, which are these. “ Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, break out and cry, thou that travailest not: for the children of the barren are more than those of her which hath a husband.” 0 For all the nations were barren of the knowledge of the true God, worshipping the works of their own hands: but the Jews and Samaritans, who by the prophets had the word delivered to them from God, and continually looked for the Christ, knew him not when he came, except a certain few, who should be saved; even as the prophetic spirit foretold, by Isaiah. For he said, in their name, 44 Except the Lord had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrha.” p These are related by Moses to have been cities of wicked men, which God overthrew, and burned with fire and brimstone, so that no one who was in them was saved, except one man of another nation, a Chaldean by birth, named Lot, with whom his daughters also were saved. And any who wish, may now see the whole of that country desolate and burnt up, and still remaining unproductive. Moreover to show that it was foreseen that they of the Gentiles should be more true and more gg faithful, we will state what was thus spoken by the prophet Isaiah: q “ Israel is uncircumcised in heart, but the Gentiles (are uncircumcised) in the flesh.”
* This quotation is from Jer. ix. 26.
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70, What, then, hath now been so fully seen may reasonably produce conviction and faith in those who embrace the truth, and are not vain-glorious, nor governed by their passions. Whereas they who teach the fables which have been invented by the poets, offer no proof to the young men who learn them: and we have shown that such tales are spoken, by the influence of evil demons, to deceive the human race, and lead them astray. For having heard that it was declared by the prophets that Christ should come, and that wicked men should be punished by fire, they put forward many, whom we have already mentioned/ to be called the sons of Jupiter; supposing that thus they might per- suade men to consider what was related respecting Christ to be merely fabulous prodigies, of the same nature with those related by the poets. And these inventions were circulated both among the Greeks and all other nations, where they understood the prophets to declare that the belief in Christ should most pre- vail. We shall show, however, that when they thus heard what was spoken by the prophets, they did not perfectly understand it, but erroneously imitated what was really performed by Christ, in whom we believe.
71. Moses, then, the prophet, was, as we have before stated/ more ancient than all other writers; and he delivered this prophecy, which hath been ( already quoted: * “ A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a ruler from between his feet,® until He shall come for whom it is reserved: and He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles, binding his colt to a vine, washing his garment in the blood of the grape.”* The demons then, hearing these prophetic words, asserted that Bacchus was born the son of Jupiter; they ascribed to him also the invention of the vine, and in the celebra- tion of his mysteries led an ass 7 in procession, anil taught that Bacchus was torn in pieces, and taken up u Ik rtSv firjpuv. See also the note (g) on Sect. 40, p. 156. x Gen. xlix. 10.
7 olvov (dvov) lv rats pvarrjplais alrov avaypd<povai (ivafipov ft.) Compare Dial, with Trypho, p. 295, where the same argument is used, and the same instances adduced. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxiv. 1, says that the ass was sacred to Pacchys, 178 THE APOLOGY OP [$ 72.
into heaven. And since, in the prophecy of Moses, it was not plainly expressed, whether he who should come was to be the Son of God, (or of man,) and whether, thus riding upon a colt, he should remain upon earth, or ascend into heaven; since also the word, colt, might imply the foal either of an ass or of a horse, and they doubted whether he who was pre- dicted should lead an ass’s colt, or that of a horse, as the sign of his coming, and whether he should be the Son of God or of man, they said that Bellerophon also, a man born of a human parent, went up to heaven* 0 Q upon the horse Pegasus. When also they heard that it was said by another prophet, Isaiah, that Christ should be born of a virgin, and should ascend to heaven by himself, they devised the story of Perseus. Knowing, again, that it was said, as hath been already shown by reference to the prophets, “He shall be strong as a giant to run a race,” a they told of Hercules, who was strong, and wandered over the whole earth. And when again they learned that it was prophesied, that Christ should heal all manner of disease, and raise the dead, they introduced Esculapius. b 72. But in no instance, nor in the history of any of those who were called the sons of Jupiter, did they imitate his crucifixion: for since all that was spoken respecting this was figuratively expressed, as we have shown, it was unintelligible to them. Now the cross, as the prophet hath predicted, is the greatest sign of his might and dominion; as is plain from what falls under pur own observation. For observe how im- possible it is that any thing in the world should be regulated, or any mutual intercourse carried on, without employing this figure. The sea cannot be navigated, unless this symbol, as the mast and yard-arm of the sail, remains firm in the ship. Without an instrument in this form, the land cannot be ploughed: neither can they who dig exercise their labor, nor handicraft-men pursue their occupations, without implements which are fashioned in like manner. The human figure also differs from those of irrational animals in no respect but this, that it is erect, and hath the hands extended: JUSTIN MARTYR.