_Melito_, who flourished next after _Justin_, [38]
wrote a commentary upon this Prophecy; and he, being Bishop of _Sardis_ one
of the seven Churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about
it, nor impose upon them. _Irenaeus_, who was contemporary with _Melito_,
wrote much upon it, and said, that _the number 666 was in all the antient
and approved copies; and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who
had seen _John_ face to face_, meaning no doubt his master _Polycarp_ for
one. At the same time [39] _Theophilus_ Bishop of _Antioch_ asserted it,
and so did _Tertullian_, _Clemens Alexandrinus_, and _Origen_ soon after;
and their contemporary _Hippolytus_ the Martyr, Metropolitan of the
_Arabians_, [40] wrote a commentary upon it. All these were antient men,
flourishing within a hundred and twenty years after _John_'s death, and of
greatest note in the Churches of those times. Soon after did _Victorinus
Pictaviensis_ write another commentary upon it; and he lived in the time of
_Dioclesian_. This may surely suffice to shew how the _Apocalypse_ was
received and studied in the first ages: and I do not indeed find any other
book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early
as this. The Prophecy said: _Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear
the words of this Prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein._
This animated the first _Christians_ to study it so much, till the
difficulty made them remit, and comment more upon the other books of the
New Testament.
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