ays, Dr. Lightfoot has shown the most
complete misapprehension of the purpose for which the examination of the
evidence regarding the Gospels in early writings was undertaken in
_Supernatural Religion_, and consequently he naturally misunderstands
and misrepresents its argument from first to last. This becomes
increasingly evident when we come to writers, whom he fancifully
denominates: "the later school of St. John." He evidently considers that
he is producing a very destructive effect, when he demonstrates from the
writings, genuine or spurious, of such men as Melito of Sardis, Claudius
Apollinaris and Polycrates of Ephesus, or from much more than suspected
documents like the Martyrdom of Polycarp, that towards the last quarter
of the second century they were acquainted with the doctrines of
Christianity and, as he infers, derived them from our four Gospels. He
really seems incapable of discriminating between a denial that there is
clear and palpable evidence of the existence and authorship of these
particular Gospels, and denial that they actually existed at all. I do
not suppose that there is any critic, past or present, who doubts that
our four Gospels had been composed and were in wide circulation during
this period of the second century. It is a very different matter to
examine what absolute testimony there is regarding the origin,
authenticity, and trustworthiness of these documents, as records of
miracles and witnesses for the reality of Divine Revelation.

I cannot accuse myself of having misled Dr. Lightfoot on this point by
any obscurity in the statement of my object, but, as he and other
apologists have carefully ignored it, and systematically warped my
argument, either by accident or design, I venture to quote a few
sentences from _Supernatural Religion_, both to justify myself and to
restore the discussion to its proper lines.

In winding up the first part of the work, which was principally
concerned with the antecedent credibility of miracles, I said:--

"Now it is apparent that the evidence for miracles requires to
embrace two distinct points: the reality of the alleged facts, and
the accuracy of the inference that the phenomena were produced by
supernatural agency ... In order, however, to render our conclusion
complete, it remains for us to see whether, as affirmed, there be
any special evidence regarding the alleged facts entitling the
Gospel miracles to exceptional atte