in the heavens, is Lord of the two angels? For when [the
angels] proceeded to Sodom He remained behind, and communed with
Abraham in the words recorded by Moses; and when He departed after
the conversation Abraham went back to his place. And when He came
[to Sodom] the two angels no longer converse with Lot, but Himself,
as the Scripture makes evident; and He is the Lord Who received
commission from the Lord Who [remains] in the heavens, i.e. the
Maker of all things, to inflict upon Sodom and Gomorrah the
[judgments] which the Scripture describes in these terms: 'The Lord
rained upon Sodom sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.'"
(Ch. lvi.)

It is clear from all this that Justin Martyr looked upon prophecy as a
supernatural gift, bestowed upon men in order to prepare them to receive
that Christ whom God would send. Instead of regarding it as the natural
surmising of far-seeing men who, from their experience of the past, and
from their knowledge of human nature, could in some sort guess what
course events are likely to take, he regarded it as a Divine influence
emanating from Him Who knows the future as perfectly as He knows the
past, and for His own purposes revealing events, and in many cases what
we should call _trifling_ events, which would be wholly out of the power
of man to guess or even to imagine.

I am not, of course, concerned to show that Justin was right in his
views of prophecy; all I am concerned to show is, that Justin regarded
prophecy as the highest of supernatural gifts.

Such, then, was the view of Justin respecting Christ and the Religion He
established. Christ, the highest of supernatural beings, His Advent
foretold by men with supernatural gifts to make known the future, coming
to us in the highest of supernatural ways, and establishing a
supernatural kingdom for bringing about such supernatural ends as the
reconciliation of all men to God by His Sacrifice, the Resurrection of
the body, and the subjugation of the wills of all men to the Will of
God.

SECTION IV.

THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS.--THE SOURCES OF HIS KNOWLEDGE RESPECTING THE BIRTH
OF CHRIST.

The question now arises, and I beg the reader to remember that it is the
question on which the author of "Supernatural Religion" stakes
all,--From what source did Justin derive this supernatural view of
Christianity?

With respect to the Incarnation, Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection of
C