'The rock is old because the Son of God is older than the whole of His creation; so that He was assessor to His Father in the creation of the world; the gate is new, because He was made manifest at the consummation of the last days, and they who are to be saved enter by it into the kingdom of God' (Sim.

ix.
12).

Here too we have the doctrine of pre-existence; and considering the juxtaposition of these three points, the pre- existence, the gate (which is the only access to the Lord), the identification of the gate with the incarnation of Jesus, we may say perhaps a _possible_ reference to the fourth Gospel; _probable_ it might be somewhat too much to call it.

We must leave the reader to form his own estimate.
* * * * * A somewhat greater force, but not as yet complete cogency, attaches to the evidence of the Ignatian letters.

A parallel is alleged to a passage in the Epistle to the Romans which is found both in the Syriac and in the shorter Greek or Vossian version.