ianity is a delusion.
The work is divided into three parts. The first part undertakes to prove
that miracles are not only highly improbable, but antecedently
incredible, so that no amount of testimony can overcome the objections
to them. As a subsidiary aim, he endeavours to show that the sort of
evidence, which, under the most favourable circumstances, we should be
likely to obtain in the early Christian ages, ought not to inspire
confidence. The second and third parts are occupied in examining the
actual witnesses themselves, that is, the four Gospels; the second being
devoted to the Synoptists, and the third to St John. The main contention
is that the four Gospels are entirely devoid of evidence sufficient to
satisfy us of their date and authorship, considering the momentous
import of their contents. These portions of the work therefore are
chiefly occupied in examining the external testimonies to the
authenticity and genuineness of the Gospels. In the case of St John the
internal character of the document is likewise subjected to examination.

Obviously, if the author has established his conclusions in the first
part, the second and third are altogether superfluous [27:1]. It is
somewhat strange, therefore, that more than three-fourths of the whole
work should be devoted to this needless task. Impressed, as it would
seem, by the elaboration of these portions, reviewers have singled them
out for special praise, even when they have condemned the first as
unsatisfactory. With this estimate of their value I find myself
altogether unable to agree; and in the articles which will follow I hope
to give my reasons for dissenting. Regarded as a handbook of the
critical fallacies of the modern destructive school, _Supernatural
Religion_ well deserves examination.

For this reason I shall hereafter occupy myself solely with the two
latter portions of the work, and more especially with the external
evidences of the Gospels; but there is one point, affecting the main
question at issue, which it is impossible to pass over in silence.
Anyone who, with the arguments of the first part fresh in his memory,
will turn to the final chapter, in which the author gives a confession
of faith, must be struck with the startling dislocation between the
principles from which the work starts and the manifesto with which it
concludes. Our author has eliminated, as he believes, the miraculous or
supernatural element from the Gospel. He will have n