Anf-01 viii.ii.xlvi Pg 2
μετὰ λόγου, “with reason,” or “the Word.” [This remarkable passage on the salvability and accountability of the heathen is noteworthy. See, on St. Matt. xxv. 32, Morsels of Criticism by the eccentric but thoughtful Ed. King, p. 341. London, 1788].
are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be tedious. So that even they who lived before Christ, and lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably. But who, through the power of the Word, according to the will of God the Father and Lord of all, He was born of a virgin as a man, and was named Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, an intelligent man will be able to comprehend from what has been already so largely said. And we, since the proof of this subject is less needful now, will pass for the present to the proof of those things which are urgent.