deluge; of the arbitrary choice of one people, as the favourites of heaven, and that people the countrymen of the author; of their deliverance from bondage by prodigies the most astonishing imaginable: I defire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and, after a serious confideration, declare, whether he thinks that the falfehood of fuch a book, fupported by fuch a teftimony, would be more extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it relates; which is, however, necessary to make it be received according to the measures of probability above established.

What we have faid of miracles, may be applied, without any variation, to prophecies; and indeed, all prophecies are real miracles; and, as fuch only, can be admitted as proofs of any relevation. If it did not exceed the capacity of human nature to foretel future events, it would be abfurd to employ any prophecy as an argument for a divine miffion or authority from heaven: fo that, upon the whole, we may conclude, that the Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be be lieved by any reasonable perfon without one. Mere reafon is infufficient to convince us of its veracity; and, whoever is moved by faith to affent to it, is confcious of a continued miracle in his own perfon, which fubverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.

I

SECTION XI.

Of a Particular Providence, and of a Future State.

WAS lately engaged in converfation with a friend who loves fceptical paradoxes; where, though he advanced many principles of which I cau by no means approve, yet as they feem to be curious, and to bear fome relation to the chain of reafoning carried on throughout this inquiry, I fhall here copy them from my memory as accurately as I can, in order to fubmit them to the judgment of the reader.

Our converfation began with my admiring the fingular good fortune of philofophy, which, as it requires entire liberty above all other privileges, and chiefly flourishes, from the free oppofition of fentiments and argumentation, received its firft birth in an age and country of freedom and toleration, and was never cramped, even in its most extravagant principles, by any creeds, confeffions, or penal ftatutes. For, except the banishment of Protagoras, and the death of Socrates, which laft event proceeded partly from other motives, there are fcarcely any inftances to be met with, in ancient history, of this bigoted jealousy with which the prefent age is fo much infefted. Epicurus lived at Athens to an advanced age, in peace and tranquillity: Epicureans were even admitted to receive the facerdotal character, and to officiate at the altar, in the most facred

* LUCIANI συμπο η λαπιθαι.

rites

rites of the established religion: And the public encouragement,* of pensions and falaries was afforded equally, by the wifest of all the Roman emperors †, to the profeffors of every fect of philofophy. How requifite fuch kind of treatment was to philofophy, in her early youth, will eafily be conceived, if we reflect, that, even at prefent, when she may be fuppofed more hardy and robuft, fhe bears with much difficulty the inclemency of the seasons, and thofe harfh winds of calumny and perfecution which blow upon her.

You admire, fays my friend, as the fingular good fortune of philofophy, what feems to refult from the natural courfe of things, and to be unavoidable in every age and nation. This pertinacious bigotry, of which you complain, as fo fatal to philofophy, is really her offspring, who, after allying with fuperftition, feparates himself entirely from the intereft of his parent, and becomes her most inveterate enemy and perfecutor. Speculative dogmas of religion, the prefent occafions of fuch furious difpute, could not poffibly be' conceived or admitted in the early ages of the world; when mankind, being wholly illiterate, formed an idea of religion more fuitable to their weak apprehenfion, and compofed their facred tenets of fuch tales chiefly as were the objects of traditional belief, more than of argument or difputation. After the first alarm, therefore, was over, which arofe from the new paradoxes and principles of the philofophers; thefe teachers feem, ever after, during the ages of antiquity, to have lived in great harmony with the established fuperftition, and to have made a fair partition of mankind between them the former claiming all the learned and wife, the latter poffeffing all the vulgar and illiterate.

It feems then, faid I, that you leave politics entirely out of the question, and never fuppofe, that a wife magiftrate can juftly be jealous of certain tenets of philosophy, such as thofe of Epicurus, which, denying a divine existence, and confequently a providence and a future ftate, feem to loofen, in a great measure, the ties of morality, and may be fuppofed, for that reafon, pernicious to the peace of civil fociety.

I know, replied he, that in fact thefe perfecutions never, in any age, proceeded from calm reafon, or from experience of the pernicious confequences of philofophy, but arote entirely from paffion and prejudice. But what if I fhould advance farther, and affert, that if Epicurus had been accufed before the people, by any of the fycophants or informers of thofe days, he could cafily have defended his caufe, and proved his principles of philofophy to be as falutary as thofe of his adverfaries, who endeavoured, with fuch zeal, to expofe him to the public hatred and jealousy ?

I wifh, faid I, you would try your eloquence upon fo extraordinary a topic, and make a fpeech for Epicurus which night fatisfy, not the mob of Athens, if you will allow that ancient and polite city to have contained any mob, but the more philofophical part of his audience, fuch as might be fuppofed capable of comprehending his arguments.

The matter would not be difficult, upon fuch conditions, replied he: And if you please, I fhall fuppofe myfelf Epicurus for a moment, and make you ftand for the Athenian people, and fhall deliver you fuch an harangue as will fill all the urn with white beans, and leave not a black one to gratify the malice of my adverfaries.

Very well: Pray, proceed upon thefe fuppofitions. I come hither, O ye Athenians! to juftify in your affembly what I maintained in my fchool; and I find myself impeached by furious antagonifts, instead of reasoning with calm and difpaflionate inquirers. Your deliberations, which of right fhould be directed to questions of public good, and the intereft of the commonwealth, are diverted to the difquifitions of fpeculative philofophy; and these magnificent, but perhaps fruitless inquiries, take place of your more familiar, but more useful 'occupations. But, fo far as in me lies, I will prevent this abuse. We fhall not here dispute concerning the origin and government of worlds. fhall only inquire how far fuch queftions concern the public interest and if I can perfuade you, that they are entirely indifferent to the peace of fociety and fecurity of government, I hope that you will presently fend us back to our schools, there to examine, at leisure, the question the moft fublime, but, at the fame time, the most speculative of all philofophy.

We

The religious philofophers, not fatisfied with the tradition of your forefathers, and doctrine of your priests (in which I willingly acquiefce), indulge a rafh curiofity, in trying how far they can establish religion upon the principles of reafon; and they thereby excite, inftead of fatisfying, the doubts which naturally arise from a diligent and fcrutinous inquiry. They paint, in the most magnificent colours, the order, beauty, and wife arrangement of the universe; and then afk, if fuch a glorious display of intelligence could proceed from the fortuitous concourfe of atoms; or if chance could produce what the greatest genius can never fufficiently admire? I fhall not examine the juftnefs of this argument. I fhall allow it to be as folid as my antagonists