against the main position, has in many cases been insidiously directed
against notes and passing references, and a plentiful sprinkling of such
words as "misstatements" and "misrepresentations" along the line may
have given it a formidable appearance and malicious effect, which render
it worth while once for all to meet it in detail.


The first point to which I shall refer is an elaborate argument by
Dr. Lightfoot regarding the "SILENCE OF EUSEBIUS." [45:1] I had called
attention to the importance of considering the silence of the Fathers,
under certain conditions; [45:2] and I might, omitting his curious
limitation, adopt Dr. Lightfoot's opening comment upon this as
singularly descriptive of the state of the case: "In one province more
especially, relating to the external evidences for the Gospels, silence
occupies a prominent place." Dr. Lightfoot proposes to interrogate this
"mysterious oracle," and he considers that "the response elicited will
not be at all ambiguous." I might again agree with him, but that
unambiguous response can scarcely be pronounced very satisfactory for
the Gospels. Such silence may be very eloquent, but after all it is only
the eloquence of--silence. I have not yet met with the argument anywhere
that, because none of the early Fathers quote our Canonical Gospels, or
say anything with regard to them, the fact is unambiguous evidence that
they were well acquainted with them, and considered them apostolic and
authoritative. Dr. Lightfoot's argument from Silence is, for the present
at least, limited to Eusebius.

The point on which the argument turns is this: After examining the whole
of the extant writings of the early Fathers, and finding them a complete
blank as regards the canonical Gospels, if, by their use of apocryphal
works and other indications, they are not evidence against them, I