It is of importance to note that the writings which record the deaths of some of the principal persons, such as John the Baptist, James the Apostle, and Stephen, would, probably, have mentioned the decease of others if they had died before the books were composed. Supposing they originated at a later date, the writers would have had no motive for omitting any such particulars. Surely, the Acts of the Apostles would have told us of the death of Paul and Peter, Matthew and Barnabas, and the other men whose doings it records. If we imagine the book a fiction, then, we ask, where are the stories which apocryphal books contain, such as the crucifixion of Peter, which would, certainly, have been included? This must be accounted for before we set aside the book as not history, but fiction. This anonymous sceptical work has to encounter the damaging objection that it enters a verdict before the case is complete. The judge, that is, impartial criticism holding the balance evenly, may justly say, How can the verdict be pronounced in the absence of witnesses of such importance as the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of Paul? The final reflections at the conclusion of the second volume are premature. Instead of it being "right not to delay a clear statement of what the author believes to be the truth and its consequences," it is the opposite; and we venture to predict that, when he has done his worst, when he has made the most of the silence of primitive writers whose works time has reduced to fragments; when he has fully exposed the irrelevancy of many of the assertions of over-sanguine apologists (such as Tischendorf and Canon Westcott); when he has magnified to the utmost the difficulties inseparable from the investigation of matters eighteen centuries distant, between which period in history and the present time there have intervened revolutions in nations, invasions of barbarians, cities burned, libraries destroyed, and all that is conceivable of obliteration, falsification, fraud, and superstition, in what are called the dark ages--his ability, learning, research, and logic will not have convinced the majority of his readers that Christianity is to be placed in the category of the world's religious delusions and impostures. His complete work will be fully replied to by critics of his own calibre and acumen, and the highest honour it will ultimately attain will be to be relegated to the unenviable position in literature in which are placed Spinoza, Hume, Baur, Strauss, Rénan, Mill, and all those able doubters who have boldly but unsuccessfully assailed the truth as it is in Jesus.