" (Jer. Prol. in Lib.
de Ser. Eccl.) Of these writers, several, as Justin, Irenaeus, Clement
of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Bardesanes, Hippolitus, Eusebius,
were voluminous writers. Christian writers abounded particularly about
the year 178. Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, founded a library in that
city, A.D. 212. Pamphilus, the friend of Origen, founded a library at
Cesarea, A.D. 294. Public defences were also set forth, by various
advocates of the religion, in the course of its first three centuries.
Within one hundred years after Christ's ascension, Quadratus and
Aristides, whose works, except some few fragments of the first, are
lost; and, about twenty years afterwards, Justin Martyr, whose works
remain, presented apologies for the Christian religion to the Roman
emperors; Quadratus and Aristides to Adrian, Justin to Antoninus Pins,
and a second to Marcus Antoninus. Melito, bishop of Sardis, and
Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, and Miltiades, men of great
reputation, did the same to Marcus Antoninus, twenty years
afterwards; (Euseb. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. See also Lardner, vol.
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