* *

The reader will judge for himself what is the weight of the kind
of evidence produced in this chapter. I give a chapter to it
because the author of 'Supernatural Religion' has done the same.
Doubtless it is not the sort of evidence that would bear pressing
in a court of English law, but in a question of balanced
probabilities it has I think a decided leaning to one side, and
that the side opposed to the conclusions of 'Supernatural
Religion.'

CHAPTER X.

MELITO--APOLLINARIS--ATHENAGORAS--THE EPISTLE OF VIENNE AND LYONS.

We pass on, still in a region of fragments--'waifs and strays' of
the literature of the second century--and of partial and indirect
(though on that account not necessarily less important)
indications.

In Melito of Sardis (c. 176 A.D) it is interesting to notice the
first appearance of a phrase that was destined later to occupy a
conspicuous position. Writing to his friend Onesimus, who had
frequently asked for selections from the Law and the Prophets
bearing upon the Saviour, and generally for information respecting
the number and order of 'the Old Books,' Melito says 'that he had
gone to the East and reached the spot where the preaching had been
delivered and the acts done, and that having learnt accurately the
books of the Old Covenant (or Testament) he had sent a list of
them'--which is subjoined [Endnote 244:1]. Melito uses the word
which became established as the title used to distinguish the
elder Scriptures from the younger--the Old Covenant or Testament
([Greek: hae palaia diathaekae]); and it is argued from this that
he implies the existence of a 'definite New Testament, a written
antitype to 'the Old' [Endnote 245:1] The inference however seems
to be somewhat in excess of what can be legitimately drawn. By
[Greek: palaia diathaekae] is meant rather the subject or contents
of the books than the books themselves. It is the system of
things, the dispensation accomplished 'in heavenly places,' to
which the books belong, not the actual collected volume. The
parallel of 2 Cor. iii. 14 ([Greek: epi tae anagnosei taes palaias
diathaekaes]), which is ably pointed to in 'Supernatural Religion'
[Endnote 245:2], is too close to allow the inference of a written
New Testament. And yet, though the word has not actually acquired
this meaning, it was in process of acquiring it, and had already
gone some way to acquire it. The books were already there, and, as
we see from Iren