THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. NO. XXXV. NEW SERIES-NO. V. NOVEMBER, 1829. ART. I.-Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr. By JOHN, Bishop of Lincoln, and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge. Cambridge and London. 1829. 8vo. pp. 219. Or the ancient Fathers of the Church, none have stronger claims on our attention than Justin, usually termed the Philosopher and Martyr. His writings are peculiarly interesting from the age in which they were produced, and the circumstances which called them forth. If we except the supposed productions of a few individuals, who have been called Apostolic Fathers, works of which the authorship of none, and the antiquity of but few, can be ascertained, they are the earliest christian writings, after those embraced in the New Testament, which have escaped the ravages of time. They carry us back to the former part of the second century; to a period not very remote from the death of the last of the little band, who saw and conversed with Jesus, and were commissioned to teach in his name. As a record of facts they furnish useful, though not very ample, materials of history. They have excited attention, too, if they do not derive importance, from the rank and early studies of their author. The primitive converts were chiefly uneducated men, and the first writers, subsequent to the apostles, obtained not the celebrity either of genius or learning. They were persons of undoubted probity, and had sincerity, courage, and ardor, worthy the best of causes. But they were destitute of human YOL. VII.-N. S. VOL. II. NO. II. 19 literature, and wrote apparently in a plain unambitious style, seldom refining on the truths they received and transmitted, and never indulging in any abstract reasoning, nor attempting any methodical arrangement of their thoughts. They were neither critics nor philosophers. We make no exception in favor either of Barnabas or Clement, Ignatius or Polycarp, and certainly not of Hermas, if he is the author of any portion of the writings which have gone about under his name, and are now extant. But Justin was a philosopher before he became a Christian, and with him the philosophical age may be said to have commenced. It is true, Quadratus and Aristides wrote Apologies before him,* and the latter especially, an Athenian, is reported to have been a learned man; yet only their fame survives, nor is it known that their philosophical opinions, whatever they were, had any influence in bringing about that corruption of the christian doctrine, which may be traced back to the time of Justin, and to the production of which his efforts and example largely contributed. Of this corruption he may in fact be considered the author, and this circumstance tends greatly to qualify the feeling of approbation and respect to which his talents and labors would seem to entitle him. That his writings have exerted a very injurious influence, there can, in our view, be no doubt. Nor were their effects temporary and transient. errors, which they, and subsequent writings of a similar character, were the means of introducing and incorporating with the simple faith of Jesus, still, after a period of nearly seventeen centuries, retain their hold in the world, though, as we trust, it is becoming daily more and more enfeebled. The There was that, however, in the character of Justin, which commands our admiration. He was in several respects a light and ornament of his age. He labored with zeal, if not with discretion, in the cause of his Master, and having obtained the honors of martyrdom, left a name which the gratitude of Christians has delighted to cherish. and Materials are wanting for an extended biographical notice of Justin. The little we know of him is culled chiefly from his own writings. They have preserved a few incidents of his life, tradition has added a little, though but little, to the stock. He was a native of Palestine, and was born, as he tells us, at Flavia *Euseb. Hist. Eccles. L. iv. c. 3. These Apologies were addressed to the Emperor Adrian, about A. D. 125 or 126, Neapolis, the ancient Sychem, or Sychar, as it is called in the New Testament, afterwards Neapolis, and now Nablous, Naplouse, or Napolose, a city of Samaria, and, as Josephus informs us,* the metropolis of that country at the time Alexander entered Judea. Here probably his ancestors had, for some time, resided, since he calls the Samaritans his nation and race, though we are authorised to infer from his own expressions, that he was of Pagan extraction. Of his father and grandfather he has told us only the names. That of the former was Priscus, and that of the latter Bacchius. The time of his birth cannot be ascertained with certainty. Tillemont adduces some arguments to prove, that it may be referred to the year 103 of our era.† That he was born very early in the second century and during the reign of Trajan, seems highly probable, though there have not been wanting those who place the date of his birth as far back as the year 89; and of this number are Fabricius and Grabe. He appears to have possessed a liberal curiosity and an ardent thirst of knowledge. He had formed an exalted conception of the object and uses of philosophy, the only treasure, in his view, worth the attainment, implying, as he conceived, a knowledge of all that pertained to God and to felicity. This had been sought by him, as he informs us, in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, and Pythagoras, but in vain. His first instructer, a Stoic, could impart little knowledge of God, nor did he seem to place any value upon it; his second, a Peripatetic, and, as he thought himself, a very astute philosopher, had the meanness, as Justin considered it, to expect a stipulated fee for teaching; and his third, a conceited Pythagorean, was unreasonable enough to demand of his pupils a previous knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry, as tending to refine and ennoble the conceptions, and thus assist the mind to comprehend abstract and mental truths, and rise at last to a contemplation of the good and fair. Of this preparatory information Justin was destitute, and was therefore compelled to leave him, which he did, he says, with the more regret, as he had conceived a high opinion of his merit. He seems now for a time to have resigned him Eccles. Mem. II. pp. 528-9. Lon. 1735. § Spicilegium Patrum, II. 156, 7. || Dial. cum Tryph. p. 102, Ed. Par. 1742, to which all our references are made, unless Thirlby's is specified. self to grief and melancholy, ignorant whither next to turn. The lofty pretensions of the Platonists, at length, awoke him from his dream of suspense. This sect was then in great repute, and excelled, particularly, as it was thought, in a knowledge of the divine nature and operations, upon which subjects its founder had discoursed with a copiousness and eloquence, which charmed the imagination, though his obscurity and mysticism might occasionally baffle the understandings, of his followers. To one of these, who had recently taken up his abode at Neapolis, where it seems Justin continued to reside, he joined himself, and his fondest hopes appeared now about to be realized. His attention was directed to subjects congenial with his tastes and feelings. Plato's incorporeal essences delighted him. The contemplation of ideas, or intelligible forms, the patterns and archetypes of things visible, added wings to his imagination. He thought himself already wise, and was foolish enough to believe, that if he persevered, he should soon be able to behold God himself, for this, he adds, 'is the end of Plato's philosophy.' * Justin appears to have been a genuine lover of the marvellous. He was ardent, imaginative, and strongly inclined to mysticism, and hence the most extravagant dreams of the Platonists found a ready reception with him, and his mind soon acquired a taint from this source, which was never removed. He retained after his conversion his former partiality for the doctrine of ideas, as taught in the Platonic schools, which he considered too difficult and sublime a doctrine to have originated in the subtilest human genius, and he therefore concluded that Plato must have stolen 'so great a mystery' from Moses. That he might suffer no interruption, and be enabled the better to engage in those contemplations by which he expected, in a short time, to rise to a vision of the Divinity, he now resolves to fly from the society of men, and bury himself in the depths of solitude. For this purpose, he selected a retired spot near the sea. As he approached this spot, he observed, he tells us, an aged man of a venerable aspect, and grave, though apparently gentle demeanour, following him at a little distance, and turning he entered into conversation with him. The conference was a long one; and the old man, adopting somewhat of the Socratic method, appears often to have perplexed his youthful antagonist. He exposed the absurd pretensions of the philosophers, pointed *Dial. cum Tryph. pp. 102-104. 6 out the futility of their speculations, and concluded by directing his attention to the Hebrew Prophets, who alone, he affirmed, saw and taught the truth, and, moved by a divine impulse, unfolded visions of the future. But, Pray,' says he, that the gates of light may be opened to thee, for none can perceive and. comprehend these things, except God and his Christ grant them understanding.' Justin was impressed. He had previously witnessed the constancy of the martyrs. He had observed the tranquillity and fortitude with which they encountered death, and all other evils which appear terrible to man, and he justly inferred, that they could not be profligate, who could so patiently endure.* He had long believed them innocent of the crimes imputed to them. He was now prepared to think that they held the truth. He reflected on the words of the venerable stranger, and was convinced that they inculcated the only safe and useful philosophy.'+ Such is his own account of the manner in which he became a Christian, or, as he expresses it, a philosopher; for he was fond of retaining the name, as he also continued to wear the * Apol. ii. p. 96. Dial. pp. 101-108. This account, as we have said, is given in his Dialogue with Trypho, and must therefore be received, we suppose, as a genuine history of his conversion, unless the Dialogue is a fictitious composition after the manner of Plato's Dialogues. This species of writing, in which imaginary personages are introduced as engaged in real discourse or argument, appears to have been a favorite one with the ancients. Plato had adopted it with success, and the charms of his Dialogues were universally felt and acknowledged, and Cicero and others employed it after him. It is not improbable that Justin, who, as we know, was a warm admirer of Plato, might have been influenced by his example to attempt a style of composition which possessed so many attractions. That this was actually the case, we think the pervading tone, in fact the whole air and costume of the dialogue, if we may be allowed so to express ourselves, afford abundant evidence. We can never persuade ourselves that Justin's meek and supple Jew was a real personage. He is too patient of abuse, and concedes too much to his antagonist. Nor, had he been a learned Jew as is supposed, whether Rabbi Tarphon, as some will have it, or any other Rabbi, would he have allowed Justin's gross blunders in Hebrew chronology, history, and criticism to have passed without censure. That he might have held a dispute or disputes with the Jews, is highly probable, for he was not accustomed to shrink from a trial of his strength in debate; and that the substance of one or more of these interviews may have been retained in the dialogue, or at least have furnished hints of which he made some use, is quite as probable. From these, and other materials suggested by conversation and reading, the piece was no doubt made up; but the style and dress, the rhetorical embellishment, the whole form and structure, are Justin's. It is no more a real dialogue, we are persuaded, than similar compositions of Cicero or of Bishop Berkley. He borrowed, unquestionably, like the authors of fictitious |