preaching Christian doctrine, confirming Christian children, ordaining
Christian ministers, without breathing a hint to the world that he felt
any misgiving of the truths which he thus avowed and taught. Yet men
talked as if, somehow or other, the cause of 'freethinking' had gained
great moral support from the conversion of a bishop, though, if the
rumour had been true, their new convert had for years past been guilty
of the basest fraud of which a man is capable.

And all the while there was absolutely nothing to recommend this
identification of the unknown author. The intellectual characteristics
of the work present a trenchant contrast to the refined scholarship and
cautious logic of this accomplished prelate. Only one point of
resemblance could be named. The author shows an acquaintance with the
theological critics of the modern Dutch school; and a knowledge of Dutch
writers was known, or believed, to have a place among the acquisitions
of this omniscient scholar. Truly no reputation is safe, when such a
reputation is traduced on these grounds.

I have been assuming however that the work entitled _Supernatural
Religion_, which lies before me, is the same work which the reviewers
have applauded under this name. But, when I remember that the St Mark of
Papias cannot possibly be our St Mark, I feel bound to throw upon this
assumption the full light of modern critical principles; and, so tested,
it proves to be not only hasty and unwarrantable, but altogether absurd.
It is only necessary to compare the statements of highly intellectual
reviewers with the work itself; and every unprejudiced mind must be
convinced that 'the evidence is fatal to the claims' involved in this
identification. Out of five reviews or notices of the work which I have
read, only one seems to refer to our _Supernatural Religion_. The other
four are plainly dealing with some apocryphal work, bearing the same