" Animus ad amplitudinem mysteriorum pro modulo suo dilatetur, non mysteria ad angustias animi constringantur. "— Lord Bacon. London: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27 & 31, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXV. CORRECTIONS. Title-page. For anima, read animi. Page iv. For Wann Warden, read Wann Wurden. xii. For one allowed, read one version allowed. 28 line 3. For and that Paul, read and that as for Paul. 52 line 3. For first century, read second century. 77 For He suffered martyrdom on, read He suffered m

This volume is an amplified and expanded essay read before the members of the Young Men's Society in connection with Park Church, Highbury, on the evening of the 2nd of November, 1874. The original purpose of the author was to indicate to the associates of that Christian institution how the influence of German anti-Christian literature, made plain to English readers by such books as the one under review, might be withstood and neutralised, and to supply an antidote to the poisonous insinuations

" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " Shakespeare. " When we consider further that a gift, extremely precious, came to us, which, though facilitated, was not necessitated, by what had gone before, but was due, as far as appearances go, to the peculiar mental and moral endowments of one man, and that man openly proclaimed that it did not come from himself, but from God through him, then we are entitled to say there is nothing so inherently

Nothing in these days is taken for granted. In science, philosophy, politics, and religion, the foundations of belief are fearlessly examined, and the facilities for the process are unprecedented. Criticism has new and improved instruments, and they are extensively used—often misused. It concerns us especially to know how far our religious institutions are being affected. Have devout men, during the three thousand years which history chronicles, been under a delusion in believing that "there is

"Seriously to raise this question, whether God can perform miracles, would be impious if it were not absurd." Rousseau....

In the first part of the work the following topics are discussed by the author:—"Miracles in relation to Christianity and the order of nature—Reason in relation to the order of nature—The age of miracles—The permanent stream of miraculous pretension—Miracles in relation to ignorance and superstition." In stating the main purpose of his inquiry, he says (p. 8):—"It is obvious that the reality of miracles is the vital point in the investigation which we have undertaken." "If the reality of miracle

"I consider the Gospels decidedly genuine, for they are penetrated by the reflection of a majesty which proceeded from the Person of Christ; and this is Divine, if ever Divinity appeared upon earth." Goethe....

CLEMENT OF ROME—THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS—THE PASTOR OF HERMAS. The argument based on the investigation which is carried on in the seven hundred pages of the second and third parts of our author's work, is chiefly the negative one from "silence." He examines with great minuteness the date, character, and authorship of all the four Gospels, and refers to all the writings of the early Church for traces of them; insisting upon the silence of those early writings as being of as much importance as any

"I cannot dispense with miracles as historical explanations of certain indubitable historical facts. I do not find that they make rents in history, but by their aid alone am I able to get over its gaping chasms." Rothe....

THE EPISTLES OF IGNATIUS—THE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP—JUSTIN MARTYR—HEGESIPPUS—PAPIAS—THE CLEMENTINES—THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. Next our author examines quotations in "the Epistles of Ignatius," though he says they really appertain to a very much later period, for they are "all pronounced, by a large mass of critics, spurious compositions ." He suffered martyrdom, it is said, on the 20th December, A.D. 115, when he was condemned to be cast to wild beasts in the amphitheatre, not at Rome, but at Antio

"It remains a possibility that Christ actually was what He supposed Himself to be." John Stuart Mill....

BASILIDES—VALENTINUS—MARCION—TATIAN—DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH—MELITO OF SARDIS—CLAUDIUS APOLLINARIS—ATHENAGORAS—EPISTLE OF VIENNE AND LYONS—PTOLEMÆUS, HERACLEON, CELSUS—CANON OF MURATORI. Our author says of Basilides, "He was founder of a system of Gnosticism, who lived at Alexandria about the year 125. With the exception of a very few brief fragments, none of his writings have been preserved, and all our information regarding them is derived from writers opposed to him. Eusebius states that Agrippa

"Every trace has vanished of the great nameless one." Baur. "The denial of the authenticity of John's Gospel is a source of far greater difficulties than its acknowledgment." Ritschl. "The doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity. Without it Christianity, as a theological and as a philosophical system, cannot rank above Rabbinism and Mahommedanism." Bunsen....

The evidence that to John the Apostle is to be ascribed the Fourth Gospel, is worthy of the best attention we can bestow upon it. After that apostle had been dead half a century, this book, as is acknowledged by our author and all other critics, occupied a prominent place among the manuscripts of the Christians, with the name of John, as the author, attached; and the question now arises, after nearly eighteen centuries of belief in its authorship and authority, is there reasonable ground for dou

"Hoist with his own petard."...

We now come to the question of contemporary evidence. Our author says the testimony of the New Testament in favour of the miraculous is inadequate because it is not contemporary. I have to endeavour to show that he has himself proved it to be contemporary. The "Spectator" describes him as virtually saying: It is as if you tried to prove some unheard-of facts of the civil war in the time of Charles I. by testimony not to be traced higher than the reign of George III. I say we trace the testimony

"The final and surest proof of the actuality and Divine origin of revelation is its manifestation in individuals, as a healing, sin-constraining power, diffusing everywhere light and life." Christlieb. "The most important controversies are those which a man finds in his own heart." J. A. Bengel. "The Key to Scripture is the Person and Office of Messiah."...

At the close of his work our author attempts to console his readers for having demolished their evangelical belief in the following eloquent language:— "In surrendering its miraculous element and its claims to supernatural origin, therefore, the religion of Jesus does not lose its virtue, or the qualities which have made it a blessing to humanity. It sacrifices none of that elevated character which has distinguished and raised it above all human systems; it merely relinquishes a claim which it h