Ebook The Works

This Volume contains a translation of all the writings of S. Justin Martyr now extant, of which the genuineness may be regarded as unquestionable. The other works which bear his name are most probably not written by him, though some of them belong to the same age. On the other hand, several treatises of his which were extant in the time of Eusebius are now lost. To one of these he himself refers; a work 'against all Heresies:' his treatise against Marcion is cited by S. Irenæus: and both these works are mentioned with commendation by Photius in the eighth century. What we possess of the works of S. Justin Martyr, as indeed of the Christian literature of the second century generally, are but fragments saved from the general wreck. It is important to keep this in mind, because it shews us, that the Christians of the generations next after S. Justin had ample materials for knowing and judging of the doctrines held by him and other early writers, which we do not possess. It shews also, that the Christian literature of that period was by no means exclusively Apologetic. It was also, to a great degree, doctrinal, practical, and controversial. It is from the predominant character of the few relics which have been left us, as well as the large proportion of works of an apologetic kind, that this period has been regarded as the age of Apologies.