Chapter I: Preface

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 respecting Christianity which many of the periodicals of the day disseminate in noticing works of this character. Those that are not professedly hostile to religion have a way of treating Truth and Error as if nothing had been proved, and as if the question were quite an open one whether Divine Revelation is, or is not, a reality. The present design of the author has a wider range than he first intended. He desires to induce, not only young men, but those nearer his own age, and placed, much as himself, in the great centres of business, who have not much time for research into such matters, to bring their intelligence fairly alongside the bold pretensions of the cavillers and quibblers who presume to _know_ that there is no God, or that He has not spoken. He desires to remind those who are doubting that "there is a knowledge that creates doubts which nothing but a larger knowledge can satisfy," and that he who stops in the difficulty "will be perplexed and uncomfortable for life." Having investigated for himself, the author indicates the result, and would like, if he can, to facilitate the inquiry which it is, unquestionably, the duty and interest of every one to make. If to rest on a foregone conclusion on a matter of such momentous importance is not altogether justifiable on the Christian side of the question, how much less so on the other! For it should be remembered that, on the one side, looking at the question from a _primâ facie_ point of view, we have a faith which has the endorsement of the highest civilisation, the best morality, the truest culture, the noblest aspirations, and the greatest happiness which humanity has ever experienced; in contrast with a negation which has nothing to offer as a substitute, taking away the light that illumines the path of life, and leaving it in utter darkness.

As to the book under review, the anonymous author seems to regard the evidences of Supernatural Religion as a region of swamp or sand, in which solid rock is nowhere to be found upon which faith may obtain a firm footing. He takes us in his survey here and there, and says that what seems to be solid stone is only slightly congealed sand, which, at the touch of his criticism, dissolves and falls away. We fix our attention on one of these masses, and the result is, that it is not what he alleges, but, verily, granite. If the reader who is not prejudiced against Christianity will attentively peruse this volume to the end, he will probably incline to this opinion. If any whose views in regard to Christianity are hostile should be at the trouble to read it, it is the hope of the author that the result will be to stimulate inquiry and research, for "that which is true in religion cannot be shaken, and that which is false, no one can desire to preserve." In so far as the writer of "Supernatural Religion" and others have, by their reference to early Patristic literature, shown how certain it is that Jesus lived and taught, they have done service to the cause of Christianity; for the writings, the traditions, and the history of the Church are too closely identified with the Sermon on the Mount to admit of the probability that He who could thus teach was less than "He believed Himself to be." On such a foundation the superstructure is so appropriate, that the "possibility" which John Stuart Mill conceived is near to _probability_, and _probability_ to a _full assurance of faith_.

82, ST. MARK'S SQUARE,
WEST HACKNEY, LONDON.
_11th December, 1874._

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER I.

_MIRACLES._

Miracles the vital point in the investigation--Their modification to
suit scientific theologians--Antecedent credibility--Miracles not
super-Satanic--Profane oaths--Counterfeits--Christianity
misrepresented--J. S. Mill--Appeal to reason--The Fourth Gospel
ignored--Intellectual condition of the age when miracles
occurred--Royal College of Physicians--French Academy--Priests
ordained to forgive sins--Paul the only educated man of his
generation--Perfection and invariability of the order of Nature in
contrast with the wickedness of mankind--Abstract question as to the
credibility of miracles--Matthew Arnold and J. S. Mill reject Hume's
argument--Recent German criticisms in favour of Christianity--Dr.
Christlieb's "Modern Doubt and Christian Belief"--Baur and the
Tübingen School 11

CHAPTER II.

_THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS._

The argument from the silence of early writers--Limits of the
inquiry--Quotations from unknown sources and tradition--The summary of
what the author of "Supernatural Religion" alleges his investigation
produces--His plausibility, special pleading, and boldness of
assertion--His line across history--Verbal testimony in the first two
generations--Inscription over the cross--Clement of Rome--Verbatim
quotations--Tischendorf and early translations of the New Testament
into Latin and Syriac--Pretensions on behalf of the Synoptics--Rénan's
views of the Gospels--Uniform plenary and verbal inspiration--
Perversion of Scripture--Epistle of Barnabas--The ninth chapter of
Matthew dissected and the miraculous eliminated--Tischendorf's
opinion ridiculed--Quoting unfairly--The Pauline and Petrine
contention--The Second Epistle of Peter--The Pastor of Hermas 41

CHAPTER III.

_THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS--continued._

The Epistles of Ignatius--One Version allowed to be genuine--The Epistle
of Polycarp to the Philippians: its acceptance as genuine by
Irenæus--Hegesippus--Fragments only preserved of his writings--The
impossibility of knowing what was in the portions notextant--
Papias--His evidence respecting Mark's Gospel--His assertion
that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, and Tischendorf's opinion that he wrote
in Greek--Justin Martyr--His reference to the Memoirs called
Gospels--The Clementine Homilies--Important quotation from
Matthew--Paul's Epistle to the Church at Laodicea--Construction of
Matthew's Gospel--The Epistle to Diognetus 75

CHAPTER IV.

_THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS--continued._

Basilides--The Gospel to the Hebrews--Special pleading in regard to
Hippolytus and the pronouns HE and THEY--Coincidence resorted
to--Events HAPPEN to occur as predicted--Valentinus--Marcion, a critic
of the modern sceptical sort--J. S. Mill--Tatian: his harmony of the
four Gospels--Dionysius of Corinth--The word Scripture applied to the
New Testament writings--The Gospel of Peter--Serapion's explanation
why it was read at Rhossus--Melito of Sardis--The word _old_ applied
to the Old Testament implying the existence of a New Testament--
Claudius Apollinaris and his reference to the four Gospels--
Athenagoras--Opposite opinions as to his quotation from Matthew--The
Epistle of Vienne and Lyons--Ptolemæus and Heracleon--Celsus--The
Canon of Muratori 99

CHAPTER V.

_THE FOURTH GOSPEL._

The evidence of Irenæus--Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
genuine--"The Refutation of all Heresies" by Hippolytus--Justin
Martyr--The internal evidence--Philo's philosophy--The doctrine of the
triune nature of Jehovah--The Divinity of Christ--The Holy Spirit--The
nameless, unknown author--Rénan's views in favour of the Johannine
authorship--Linguistic difficulties--William Penn--The raising of
Lazarus from the dead--John's memory--The Duke of Wellington--Mode of
authorship--Men separated from their writings, and books without
authors--The second century non-classical compared with the
first--Facts make history, not history facts--The living voice rather
than books the instrument for proclaiming the Gospel in the first
century--The folly of ignoring Divine Revelation 135

CHAPTER VI.

_CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE._

The Apostle John the author of the Apocalypse--Importance of the
admission--The precise date of its composition--Its allegorical
character--"Pilgrim's Progress" and "Paradise Lost and Regained"--The
doctrines indicated in the Apocalypse--Rome the mystical Babylon--
Nero Cæsar--The number of the beast--The Lord's day--Prominence
of the allusion to the Lamb slain to take away sin--Paul's epistles
identical in doctrine with the Apocalypse--Professor Owen--Quotation
from "The Merchant of Venice" 163