the
general considerations which have been already discussed, partly on
special grounds. It has been said, for instance, that Anastasius must
here be reproducing the general substance, and not the exact words, of
Melito's statement; but he at all events gives it as a direct quotation.
It has been urged again, that linguistic reasons condemn this fragment,
since the use of 'seasons' or 'times' for 'years' betrays a later age;
but abundant instances of the use are found in earlier writers, even if
so very natural a device for avoiding the repetition of the same word
([Greek: etos]) needed any support at all. It has been suggested that
there may possibly be some confusion between Melito and Meletius. But
the work from which this passage comes is distinctly stated by
Anastasius to have been written against Marcion, who by his docetism
attacked the true humanity of Christ. Now Melito lived in the very thick
of the Marcionite controversy, and must have taken his part in it. On
the other hand, Meletius, who held the see of Antioch in the latter part
of the fourth century, was one of the principal figures in the Arian
controversy and, as such, far too intimately involved in the questions
of his own day to think of writing an elaborate work on a subject so
comparatively dead as the docetism of Marcion. Moreover, there is no
instance in any Greek writer, so far as I have observed, of a confusion
between the names Melito and Meletius. Again it is suggested that the
Christological views of the writer are too definite for the age of
Melito, and point to a later date; but to this the distinct statement of
Hippolytus respecting Melito's opinions, which has been already quoted,
is a complete answer; and indeed the Ignatian Epistles, which (even if
their genuineness should not be accepted) cannot reasonably be placed
later than the age of Melito, are equally precise in their doctrinal
statements.

But if this be a genuine fragment, the inference is obvious. The author
of _Supernatural Religion_ will no doubt be ready here, as elsewhere, to
postulate any number of unknown apocryphal Gospels which shall supply
the facts thus assumed by Melito. The convenience of drawing unlimited
cheques on the bank of the unknown is obvious. But most readers will
find themselves unable to resist the inference, that for the thirty
years of our Lord's silence this father is indebted to a familiar
passage in St Luke [231:1], while, in fixing three years as