ogies are addressed. In
these appeals to Imperial justice the calumnies against the Christians
are refuted, whilst the simplicity of their worship and the purity of
their morality are impressively described.

Justin, even after his conversion, still wore the philosopher's cloak,
and continued to cherish an undue regard for the wisdom of the pagan
sages. His mind never was completely emancipated from the influence of a
system of false metaphysics; and thus it was that, whilst his views of
various doctrines of the gospel remained confused, his allusions to them
are equivocal, if not contradictory. But it has been well remarked that
_conscience_, rather than _science_, guided many of the fathers; and the
case of Justin demonstrates the truth of the observation. He possessed
an extensive knowledge of the Scriptures; and though his theological
views were not so exact or so perspicuous as they might have been, had
he been trained up from infancy in the Christian faith, or had he
studied the controversies which subsequently arose, it is beyond doubt
that his creed was substantially evangelical. He had received the truth
"in the love of it," and he counted not his life dear in the service of
his Divine Master.

The _Epistle to Diognetus_, frequently included amongst the works of
Justin, is apparently the production of an earlier writer. Its author,
who styles himself "a disciple of apostles," designed by it to promote
the conversion of a friend; his own views of divine truth are
comparatively correct and clear; and in no uninspired memorial of
antiquity are the peculiar doctrines of the gospel exhibited with
greater propriety and beauty. Appended also to the common editions of
the works of Justin are the remains of a few somewhat later writers,
namely, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Hernias. Tatian was a
disciple of Justin; [367:1] Athenagoras was a learned man of Athens;
Theophilus is said to have been one of the pastors of Antioch; and of
Hermas nothing whatever is known. The tracts of these authors relate
almost entirely to the controversy between Christianity and Paganism.
Whilst they point out the folly and falsehood of the accusations so
frequently preferred against the brethren, they press the gospel upon
the acceptance of the Gentiles with much earnestness, and support its
claims by a great variety of arguments.

The tract known as the _Epistle of Barnabas_ was probably composed in
A.D.135. [367:2] It is the pr