The "Spectator" designates it a "masterly but prejudiced examination of the evidences for the antiquity of the Christian Scriptures."
"The Literary World" says: "This is, beyond all question, an important book. The one grand pervading fault we find with it is its partisanship. The writer plays the part of special pleader against what he calls Ecclesiastical Christianity, and fails to represent what could be said on the other side. It is a partisan production, a piece of clever, ingenious, plausible, special pleading. The author has got up his case with marvellous exclusiveness. He makes it an absolute rule, so far as we perceive, to regard his opponents as having no case at all."
The quarterly reviews, "Edinburgh," "Quarterly," and "British Quarterly," have not yet pronounced an opinion on its merits.
My purpose is to show that the author of this anonymous work has not been successful in accomplishing the two things he has attempted, viz., to prove the incredibility of miracles by—
First, a recast of the often-exploded syllogistic fallacies of Hume; and, secondly, by an elimination of the miraculous from the Gospels; but that he has been successful, without intending it, in showing that Supernatural Religion rests upon substantial contemporary evidence.
The work consists of three parts. The first is upon miracles, treating the subject as an abstract question. The second, upon the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The third, upon the Fourth Gospel. And there is a summary of the supposed results of the reasoning and the investigation. The inference arrived at is premature, for as the New Testament does not consist only of the four Gospels, but contains other writings of equal importance, the argument is incomplete, and the latter will have to be dealt with before our author can reasonably expect any reader to entertain his anti-miraculous hypothesis. Another volume is promised, but we may safely venture to anticipate that it will prove no more formidable than the other great waves of scepticism which have surged against, but have not undermined, the rock upon which our faith is built.
CHAPTER I.
MIRACLES.
"Seriously to raise this question, whether God can perform miracles, would be impious if it were not absurd."