Swedish generals, when he gave them the honourable appellation of his masters in the art of war, I may, with great sincerity, pay my acute and ingenious adversary. I shall add a few things concerning the occasion and form of the following dissertation. Some of the principal topics here discussed were more briefly treated in a sermon preached before the Synod of Aberdeen, and are now made public at their desire. To the end, that an argument of so great importance might be more fully and freely canvassed than it could have been, with propriety, in a sermon, it was judged necessary to new-model the discourse, and to give it that form in which it now appears. The edition of Mr. Hume's Essays, to which I always refer in this work, is that printed at London, in duodecimo, 1750 *, intitled, Philosophical Essays concerning Human Uuderstanding. I have, since finishing this tract, seen a later edition, in which there are a few variations. None of them appeared to me so material as to give ground for altering the quotations and references here used. There is indeed one alteration, which candour required that I should mention: I have accordingly mentioned it in a note †. The arguments of the essayist I have endeavoured to refute by argument. Mere declamation I know no way of refuting but by analysing it; nor do I conceive how inconsistencies can be answered otherwise than by exposing them. In such analysis and exposition, which, I own, I have attempted without ceremony or reserve, an air of ridicule is unavoidable: But this ridicule, I am well aware, if founded in misrepresentation, will at last rebound upon myself. It is possible, that, in some things, I have mistaken the author's meaning; I am conscious, that I have not, in any thing, designedly misrepresented it. As this advertisement was prefixed to the first edition of the Dissertation, I was not a little surprised to observe, that the French translator declared, in the first sentence of his Avis au Lecteur, that he did not know what edition of Mr. Hume's Essays I had used in this work. On proceeding, I discovered that my advertisement has not been translated by him, which makes me suspect, that, by some accident, it had been left out of the copy which he used. † Page 101. Miracles are capable of Proof from Testimony, and Religious Miracles are not less capable of this Evidence than others. SECT. I. Mr. Hume's favourite argument is founded on a false hypothesis,. II. Mr. Hume charged with some fallacies in his way of managing the argument, III. Mr. Hume himself gives up his favourite argument, IV. There is no peculiar presumption against such miracles as are said to have been wrought in support of religion, ... V. There is a peculiar presumption in favour of such VI. Inquiry into the meaning and propriety of one of Mr. PART II. .... The Miracles on which the Belief of Christianity is founded, are sufficiently attested. I. There is no presumption arising from human nature, against the miracles said to have been wrought in proof of Christianity,....... II. There is no presumption arising from the history of mankind, against the miracles said to have been wrought in proof of Christianity, III. No miracles recorded by historians of other religions are subversive of the evidence arising from the miracles 56 63 80 V. Examination of the POPISH miracles mentioned by VI. Abstracting from the evidence for particular facts, we have irrefragable evidence, that there have been mira- cles in former times; or such events as, when compar- ed with the present constitution of the world, would by Mr. Hume be denominated miraculous, CONTENTS OF SERMONS, &c. PREFACE. HERE offer to the Public a new and improved edition of my Dissertation on Miracles, first printed in the year 1762, together with some other Tracts related to it, as supplying additional evidences of the truth of our Religion, displaying its amiable spirit, and manifesting its beneficial tendency, in respect, not only of individuals, but of communities and states. The first of these is a Sermon on the Spirit of the Gospel, preached before the Synod of Aberdeen in 1771. The second, a Sermon preached before the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge in 1777; the scope of which is to show, that the success of the first publishers of the gospel is a proof of its truth. The third is a Sermon preached at the Assizes at Aberdeen, on the happy influence of Religion on Civil Society. The fourth also is a Sermon, on the Duty of Allegiance, preached at Aberdeen in 1776, on the Fast-day, on account of the Rebellion in America; and the fifth, an Address to the People of Scotland, on the alarms that had been raised in regard to Popery. On the Dissertation itself I have made a few amendments, not very material I acknowledge, yet of some use for obviating objections and preventing mistakes. It has been observed by several, that Mr. Hume has, since the Dissertation first appeared in print, once and again republished the Essay to which it was intended as an answer; not only without taking the smallest notice that any thing reasonable, or even specious, had been urged in opposition to his doctrine, but without making any alteration of any consequence on what he had advanced. I know but one exception, if it shall be thought of moment enough to be called an exception, from this remark. What, in former editions, had been thus expressed, as quoted in the Dissertation*, "Upon the whole, it appears that no testimony 66 "for any kind of miracle can ever possibly amount to a probability, much less to a proof," is made, in the octavo edition published in 1767, "Upon the whole, it appears that no testimony for any kind of miracle has ever amounted to a proba"bility, much less to a proof." By this more moderate declaration, Mr. Hume avoids the contradiction there was in the sentence to the concession he had subjoined in a note. But no correction is given to many other sentences which needed correction, not less glaringly than this. For this conduct it is not easy to account, unless on the hypothesis, that he had never read the Dissertation, or that he had so low an opinion of it, as not to think it contained any thing which either required an answer, or deserved his notice. What follows will probably satisfy the reader that neither of these suppositions was the fact. That Mr. Hume had read this attempt to confute his argument, and did not think contemptuously of it, I have his own authority to affirm; for soon after its publication, I was honoured with a letter from him, one great purpose of which was to assign his reasons for not intending a reply. What he writes on this subject shows sufficiently, though incidentally, that contempt was not the passion which the perusal of this Tract had raised in his mind. As there is nothing in the letter which can lead to an unfavourable reflection, either on the understanding, or on the disposition of the writer, (for to me it appears to have an opposite tendency) and as it assigns his own reasons for not engaging farther in the controversy, I have been induced, in justice both to him and to myself, to publish it. I say, in justice to him, for I am convinced, that Mr. Hume would not have considered it as redounding to his honour, to have the construction above mentioned put upon his silence. Yet it must be owned, that, to those who have never heard himself on the subject, it is by far the most plausible construction. The letter is word for word as follows : 66 SIR, "IT has so seldom happened, that controversies in philoso 66 phy, much more in theology, have been carried on without producing a personal quarrel between the parties; that I must "regard my present situation as somewhat extraordinary, who 66 |