Note 68 — LECTURE II. THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, AND THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCRIPTURES.

This statement is hazarded, notwithstanding the recent reply of the author of Supernatural Religion to Bishop Lightfoot’s Essays. It will be generally conceded that he has adopted an untenable position, and that, though his rejoinder to the learned Bishop may be a vigorous assault, it is weak criticism. Sanday’s work on The Gospels in the Second Century is on the whole a better reply than the Bishop’s to the allegations of the author of Supernatural Religion, whose extreme scepticism of literary evidence is quite equalled by his dogmatic extravagance of statement.