[276:1] Origen, “Contra Celsum,” i.  Sec. 67.  See also i.  Sec. 26.

[276:2] Origen, “Contra Celsum,” iii.  Sec. 29.

[277:1] Justin Martyr, “Apol.” ii. 61.  Edit, Paris, 1615.

[277:2] The Peshito, or old Syriac version, is supposed to have been made in the first half of the second century.—­Westcott “On the Canon,” pp. 264, 265.  There are traces of the existence of a Latin version in the time of Tertullian, or before the close of the second century.—­Ibid., p. 275.  “Two versions into the dialects of Upper and Lower Egypt—­the Thebaic (Sahidic) and Memphitic—­date from the close of the third century.”—­Ibid. pp. 415, 416.

[278:1] See Middleton’s “Inquiry,” pp. 3, 9.

[278:2] See Kaye’s “Tertullian,” pp. 98-101.  Edition, Cambridge, 1826.

[278:3] Tertullian states that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius became friendly to the Christians, in consequence of a remarkable interposition of Providence in favour of his army, in a war with the Marcomanni and the Quadi.  It was alleged that, in answer to the prayers of a body of Christian soldiers, afterwards known as the Thundering Legion, the imperial troops were relieved by rain, whilst a thunderstorm confounded the enemy.  It is quite certain that the Roman army was rescued from imminent peril by a seasonable shower; but it is equally clear that the emperor attributed his deliverance, not to the God of the Christians, but to Jupiter Pluvius, and that a certain section of the Roman soldiers was known long before by the name of the Thundering Legion.  There is no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever became friendly to the Christians.  See Lardner.  “Heathen Testimonies,” “Works,” vii. 176-188.

[279:1] See Middleton’s “Inquiry,” p. 84.  Edition, Dublin, 1749.  Bishop Kaye has remarked that, in the writings of Tertullian, “the only power of the exercise of which specific instances are alleged, was that of exorcising evil spirits.”  “Kaye’s Tertullian,” p. 461.  From the symptoms mentioned it would appear that the individuals with whom the exorcists succeeded were epileptics.

[279:2] Irenaeus, who seems to have been not unfavourable to the Montanists, speaks of the gift of tongues as possessed by some in his age, and yet he himself, as a missionary, was obliged to struggle with the difficulties of a foreign language.  “Adv.  Haeres,” v., c. 6, and “Praef.” ad. 1.

[279:3] When Theophilus of Antioch, towards the end of the second century, was invited by Autolycus to point out a single person who had been raised from the dead, he did not accept the challenge.  See Kaye’s “Justin Martyr,” p. 217.

[279:4] Middleton’s “Inquiry,” Preface, p. iv.

[279:5] Middleton, pp. 22, 23.

[280:1] Plinii, “Epist.” lib. x. epist. 97.

[280:2] Tertullian, “Ad Scapulam,” c. 5.

[280:3] “Spicilegium Syriacum” by Cureton, p. 31.  The correspondence between Abgar and our Lord, given by Eusebius, is manifestly spurious.