XXI. MELITO, BISHOP OF SARDIS.

Melito, bishop of Sardis, [according to Dr Mosheim, vol. i, p. 168] is said to have written several treatises, one concerning faith, another on the creation, a third respecting the Church, and a fourth for the illustration of truth; but it does not appear from the titles of these writings, whether they were of a doctrinal or controversial nature.

The editor of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History adds the following

note :

Melito, besides his Apology for the Christians, and the treatises mentioned by Dr Mosheim, wrote a discourse upon Esther, and several other dissertations, of which we have only some scattered fragments remaining; but what is worthy of remark here, is that he is the first Christian writer who has given us a catalogue of the books of the Old Testament. His catalogue, also, is perfectly conformable to that of the Jews, except in this point only, that he has omitted in it the book of Esther.

The fragments of Melito are given in the first volume of Gallandii Bibliotheca, and in Routh's Reliquiæ Sacræ, vol i,

pp. 111-154. The following, in Routh [p. 121], is headed : Ex libro iii de Incarnatione Christi, adversus Marcionem scripti.

Οὐδεμία ἀνάγκη τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσιν, ἐξ ὧν μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ὁ Χριστὸς ἔπραξε, παριστᾶν τὸ ἀληθὲς καὶ ἀφάνταστον τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ σώματος τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως. Τὰ γὰρ μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα, φησὶν [Melito,] ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ πραχθέντα, καὶ μάλιστα τὰ σημεῖα, τὴν αὐτοῦ κεκρυμμένην ἐν σαρκὶ θεότητα ἐδήλουν καὶ ἐπιστοῦντο τῷ κοσμῷ. Θεὸς γὰρ ἂν ὁμοῦ τε καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος ὁ αὐτὸς τὰς δύο αὐτοῦ οὐσίας ἐπιστώσατο ἡμῖν· τὴν μὲν θεότητα αὐτῷ διὰ τῶν σημείων ἐν τῇ τριετίᾳ τῇ μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα· τὴν δὲ ἀνθρωπότητα αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς τριάκοντα χρόνοις πρὸ τοῦ βαπτίσματος, ἐν οἷς διὰ το ἀτελὲς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ἀπεκρύβη τὰ σημεῖα τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος καίπερ Θεὸς ἀληθὴς προαιώνιος ὑπάρχων.

The Latin is as follows:

Non est necessarium his, quos ratio non fugit, ex actionibus Christi post baptismum adstruere, et demonstrare animæ et corporis ejus, et humanæ naturæ nobiscum convenientis, veritatem, et ab omni fictione remotionem. Nam quæ post baptismum a Christo gesta sunt, inquit, maxime miracula, latentem ejus divinitatem potissimum mundo comprobabant et confirmabant: quum enim idem Deus simul et homo perfectus esset, duas naturas suas nobis patefecit; divinitatem quidem per miracula triennio illo post baptismum patrata: humanitatem vero suam triginta illis annis baptismum antegressis, quibus carnis vilitas tegebat et abscondebat divinitatis signa, tametsi revera Deus esset sempiternus.

In English thus:

It is not necessary, in the case of those who are not devoid of reason, to prove to them, from Christ's

actions after his baptism, that his soul and body and human nature like our own was true and entirely void of fiction. For he says, the things which were done by Christ after his baptism, especially his miracles, most plainly prove and confirm to the world his latent divinity; for since the same being was at the same time God and perfect man, he revealed to us his two natures; his divinity by the miracles performed in the three years after his baptism; and his human nature in the thirty years preceding his baptism, during which the vileness of the flesh concealed the signs of his divine nature, although he was indeed the eternal God.

XXII. THEOPHILUS.

Theophilus was bishop of Antioch, to which see he was ordained about A. D. 168. His works, it is said, display the earliest example of the use of the word Trinity, as applied to the three persons of the Godhead.

DUPIN does not directly state that Theophilus wrote on Baptism; he notices that, besides the three books on the Christian Religion, addressed to Autolycus, a heathen, there is another book in Latin, attributed to Theophilus, of allegorical commentaries on the four Gospels which is in the Bibliotheca Patrum.

The works of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, [says Dr Mosheim in his Ecclesiastical History, vol. i, p. 163] are more remarkable for their erudition than for their order and method; this, at least, is true of his three books of defence of Christianity, addressed to Autolycus.

In a note to which passage the editor observes:

Theophilus was the author of several works, beside those mentioned by Dr Mosheim, particularly of a commentary upon the Proverbs, another upon the four evangelists, and of some short and pathetic discourses, which he published from time to time for the use of his flock. He also wrote against Marcion and Hermogenes, and, in refuting the errors of these

heretics, he quotes several passages of the Revelations.

In the second volume of Gallandii Bibliotheca veterum Patrum is the title "S. Theophili ad Autolycum, et ejusdem fragmenta." The following separate editions of his works occur.

1. Theophilus episcopus Antiochenus ad Autolycum, Gr. et Lat., cum Justino Martyre, folio, Hage comit. 1782. (a copy is in the Royal Institution).

2. Theophilus archiep. Antiochenus, ad Autolycum libri tres, Gr. et Lat., Oxon., 12mo, 684. (a copy is in the British Museum).

3. Cum notis Jo. Chr. Wolfii, 8vo, Hamb., 1724. (a copy is in the British Museum).

4. Theophilus Franc. Catechismus seu Fundamentum Christianæ fidei, Bruxel., 8vo., 1626. (The Bodleian library has a copy).

5. The three books against Autolycus were published in Latin by Conrad Gesner, at Zurich in 1546. They were annexed, in Greek and Latin, to the supplement of the Bibliotheca Patrum A. D. 1624.

CARY, in his "Testimonies of the Fathers," gives from Theophilus "ad Autolycum" the following,-both the English and the Greek:

that this might be a sign that men were to receive repentance and remission of sins by water, and the laver of regeneration, even as many as come to the truth, and are born again, and receive the blessing of God.

As follows in Greek:

AD AUTOLYCUM, LIB. ii, c. 16.

Οπως ἡ καὶ τοῦτο εἰς δεῖγμα τοῦ μέλλειν λαμβάνειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους μετάνοιαν καὶ ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν διὰ ὕδατος καὶ