ases out of fifty, or probably more, it is
found to be satisfactory, and _a priori_ probabilities are very strongly
against the assumption that any particular case is this fiftieth
exception. If there is substantial ground for suspicion, the suspicion
has its weight, but not otherwise. A man who would act on any other
principle is as unreasonable as a visitor to London, who refuses to
believe or trust any one there, because the place is known to harbour
thieves and liars.

2. We come therefore to the positive grounds of our author's suspicions,
and here he tells us that--

The whole style and thought of the fragments are unlike anything
else of Melito's time, and clearly indicate a later stage of
theological development.

It is to be regretted that he has not explained himself more fully on
this point. I have already pointed out that the theology and the style
of these fragments generally are exactly what the notices of Hippolytus
and Tertullian would lead us to expect in Melito. And this is especially
true of the passage under consideration. What the 'later stage of
theological development' indicated may be, I am unable to say. On the
contrary, the leading conception of this passage, which sees all
theology through the medium of the Logos, and therefore identifies all
the theophanies in the Old Testament with the Person of Christ, though
it lingers on through the succeeding ages, is essentially characteristic
of the second century. The apologists generally exhibit this phenomenon;
but in none is it more persistent than in Justin Martyr, who wrote a
quarter of a century before Melito. Even the manner in which the
conception is worked out by Melito has striking parallels in Justin.
Thus Justin states that this Divine Power, who was begotten by God
before all creation, is called sometimes 'the glory of the Lord,
sometimes Son, sometimes Wisdom, sometimes God, sometimes Lord and Word,
while sometimes He calls Himself Chief-captain ([Greek:
archistrategos]), appearing in the form of man to Joshua the son of Nun
([Greek: to tou Naue Iesou])' [235:1]. Elsewhere he states that Christ
is 'King and Priest and God and Lord and Angel and Man and Chief-captain
and Stone,' etc., and he undertakes to show this 'from all the
Scriptures' [235:2]. And again, in a third passage he says that the same
Person, who is called Son of God in the memoirs of the Apostles, went
forth from the Father before all created things thro