sure
to cultivate the acquaintance of these older teachers, even if
circumstances did not throw him directly in their way.

Thus Melito is a significant link of connection with the past. At the
same time he holds an equally important position with respect to the
succeeding age. It can hardly be doubted that among the Asiatic elders,
whose authority Irenaeus invokes so constantly, Melito must have held a
prominent place. It may be suspected that he was the very Ionian whom
Clement of Alexandria mentions among his earlier teachers [224:2]. It is
quite certain that his writings were widely known and appreciated in the
generations next succeeding his own. He is quoted or referred to by
Polycrates at Ephesus, by Clement and Origen at Alexandria, by
Tertullian at Carthage, by Hippolytus at Rome.

I have already mentioned that he was a very voluminous writer. Eusebius
gives a catalogue of his works, which however he does not profess to be
complete. The historian's knowledge was obviously limited by the
contents of the library which his friend Pamphilus had gathered together
at Caesarea. The titles of these works are as follows:--_On the Paschal
Festival_ (two treatises) [225:1], _On the Life of the Prophets_, _On
the Church_, _On the Lord's Day_, _On the Nature of Man_, _On Creation_,
_On the Obedience of Faith and on the Senses_, _On the Soul and Body
[and Mind]_, _On Baptism_, _On Truth_, _On the Creation and Generation of
Christ_, _On Prophecy_, _On Hospitality_, _The Key_, _On the Devil and
on the Apocalypse of John_, _On a Corporeal Deity_, _An Apology to
Antonius_, _Selections from the Law and the Prophets_ [225:2]. Besides
these works here enumerated, other writings of Melito axe quoted
elsewhere under the titles, _On the Incarnation of Christ_, _On the
Passion_, _On the Cross_, _On the Faith_ [225:3], though some of these
may perhaps represent the same works to which Eusebius refers under
other names. Comprising this wide range of subjects, doctrinal,
exegetical, practical, and controversial, the works of Melito must have
furnished the next succeeding generations with ample data for
determining his exact theological position. To them it must have been
clear, for instance, whether he did or did not accept the Gospel of St
John or the Epistles of St Paul. It was hardly possible for him to write
on the Paschal question without indicating his views on the Fourth
Gospel. It is almost inconceivable that he should have compo