We cannot be too guarded in this particular subject, because an almost boundless license has been introduced into the present controversy. Pure creations of the imagination, which it is impossible to verify, are constantly propounded as facts in the history of the past. I by no means wish to deny that both parties must plead guilty to the charge of this species of historical forgery. The fact may be unpleasant, but we shall do no good by refusing to recognize it. When the knowledge of past events has perished, and our conjectures break down under the test of verification, we have nothing to do but to remain content with our ignorance. If these principles are correct, a considerable number of recently published lives of Jesus, and other similar compositions, have no claim to the designation of historical writings. They are mere novels evolved out of the self‐consciousness of their authors. They are nothing but simple imaginations of what, under certain conjectural circumstances, might have happened, but are destitute of all evidence that they actually occurred. If history is thus degraded, it must become devoid of all scientific value. I have pressed this point because nowhere is this license of conjectural guessing at events more largely indulged in, than in questions connected with the Bible and its criticism. CHAPTER XVIII. THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH, AND OF ST. PAUL’S EPISTLES, TO THE FACTS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. THEIR HISTORICAL VALUE CONSIDERED. I have in the preceding chapter drawn attention to the chief principles of historical evidence, and to the importance of certain classes of historical documents; also to the important bearing which the continued existence of a great institution like the Christian Church has on this subject, especially as its origin can be traced up to a definite period of history. I have further shown that as the Church gives a definite account of its origin, which, if true, is an adequate one; it is incumbent on those who reject this account to propound another which shall be able to stand the application of the principles of a sound philosophy of human nature. I must now consider the evidence which the existence of the Church as a visible institution, and the Epistles of St. Paul, afford to the great facts on which Christianity is based.