264 ESSAYS LV PHILOSOPHY 



This tacit assumption is displayed, in a way espe- 

 cially noticeable, in the history of that part of 

 Christian theology called Apologetics, or the Evi- 

 dences of Christianity. The silent but irresistible 

 influence of this discernment of the supremacy of 

 reason is the explanation, and, as it seems to me, 

 the only explanation, of the steadfast change we 

 observe in the method employed to exhibit these 

 Evidences. At first, in the earlier stages of the 

 Church, the method was to insist almost exclusively 

 on the evidences known as External, to rely upon 

 supposed authoritative declaration, supported by the 

 testimony of present witnesses, with the claim of an 

 unbroken transmission of the testimony from gen- 

 eration to generation. The whole force of the evi- 

 dential argument was spent in the endeavour to 

 establish this unbroken transmission as a fact, and 

 thence the fact of the original declarations, and 

 the fact of the miracles supporting them. The 

 argument was made to turn upon showing the 

 testimony to be that of eye-witnesses, and upon 

 proving the witnesses to be trustworthy both in 

 faculties and in spirit. When, later, notice began 

 to be taken of Internal Evidence, — of the char- 

 acter of the precepts conveyed in the declarations, 

 — this was at first kept in thorough subordination 

 to the External Evidences, and used merely as 

 a corroboration. It marked an epoch — in fact, a 



