esus to be true, he was, upon the strength of it, to be
received as the promised Messiah; and, if he was, what were the
consequences, what was the object and benefit of his mission?

The general observation which has been made upon the apostolic writings,
namely, that the subject of which they treated did not lead them to any
direct recital of the Christian history, belongs to the writings of the
apostolic fathers. The epistle of Barnabas is, in its subject and
general composition, much like the epistle to the Hebrews; an
allegorical application of divers passages of the Jewish history, of
their law and ritual, to those parts of the Christian dispensation in
which the author perceived a resemblance. The epistle of Clement was
written for the sole purpose of quieting certain dissensions that had
arisen amongst the members of the church of Corinth, and of reviving in
their minds that temper and spirit of which their predecessors in the
Gospel had left them an example. The work of Hermas is a vision; quotes
neither the Old Testament nor the New, and merely falls now and then
into the language and the mode of speech which the author had read in
our Gospels. The epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius had for their
principal object the order and discipline of the churches which they
addressed. Yet, under all these circumstances of disadvantage, the great
points of the Christian history are fully recognised. This hath been
shown in its proper place. (Vide supra, pp. 48-51. [Part 1, Chapter 8])

There is, however, another class of writers to whom the answer above
given, viz. the unsuitableness of any such appeals or references as the
objection demands to the subjects of which the writings treated, does
not apply; and that is the class of ancient apologists, whose declared
design it was to defend Christianity, and to give the reasons of their
adherence to it. It is necessary, therefore, to inquire how the matter
of the objection stands in these.

The most ancient apologist of whose works we have the smallest knowledge
is Quadratus. Quadratus lived about seventy years after the ascension,
and presented his apology to the Emperor Adrian. From a passage of this
work, preserved in Eusebius, it appears that the author did directly and
formally appeal to the miracles of Christ, and in terms as express and
confident as we could desire. The passage (which has been once already
stated) is as follows: "The works of our Saviour were always
co