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
conspicuous, for they were real: both they that were healed, and they
that were raised from the dead, were seen, not only when they were
healed or raised, but for a long time afterwards; not only whilst he
dwelled on this earth, but also after his departure, and for a good
while after it; insomuch as that some of them have reached to our
times," (Euseb. Hist. I. iv. c. 3.) Nothing can be more rational or
satisfactory than this.
Justin Martyr, the next of the Christian apologists, whose work is not
lost, and who followed Quadratus at the distance of about thirty years,
has touched upon passages of Christ's history in so many places, that a
tolerably complete account of Christ's life might be collected out of
his works.
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