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Pontanus*, or an Apollonius Thyanæust, and those attested by the witnesses in question? Shall I balance between the authority of a Philostratest and that of the apostles?

It is to be presumed, that, after so nice and close an examination, the reader will class in the same category the miracles of the gospel, and all the facts held up as miraculous by different sects and parties?

I never said, because I never thought it, that, provided a fact was attested as miraculous, we are under an obligation of believing it as miraculous; but I have expatiated on the various characteristics which miracles must have, and on the testimonies which support them, so that they may obtain the suffrage of

reason.

I request only one favour of the reader, which is, to bestow upon me that attention which the nature of my work requires; not to form a judgment of the cause I am treating by a few passages, but by the whole entire chain of my reasoning; I mean, by the collection of all the proofs which I bring together or point out.

* A famous impostor.

+ Another famous impostor in the reign of Nero. Hierocles, a Pagan philosopher, who lived in the beginning of the fourth century, composed a book, intitled, Philalethes, in which he compared the pretended miracles of Apollonius with those of Christ.

Author of the Romance of Apollonius, who composed it to pay his court to Caracalla, a superstitious prince, and much addicted to magic.

Shall I weigh in the same scales fable and history*?

If in the most enlightened age, and in the capital of a great kingdom, it has been pretended that miracles were wrought by convulsionst; if a person in a public employment has handed them down in a voluminous work; if he has endeavoured to support them by various testimonies; if a numerous society has detailed these facts, as proofs in favour of their opinion concerning a passage in a theological treatise: the whole of this will appear to me a burlesque invention, and I shall contemplate with regret the melancholy wanderings of human reason‡.

Every one will see that the nature of this essay will not allow me to enter into historical and critical details, which would be inconsistent with a simple sketch. Those details may be found in almost every book that has been published in favour of the cause in which I am engaged. I shall only refer the reader, at present, to the learned notes of the respectable M. Seigneux de Correvon, on the work of the celebrated Addison.

+ Alluding to the pretended miracles of the Abbé Paris.

Undoubtedly, the judicious reader will not require that I should enlarge any further on an event so disgraceful to the age we live in. I should even be almost tempted to censure some celebrated writers for their time so ill employed in the discussion of

And because error has had its martyrs, as well as truth, I cannot persuade myself to consider martyrs as proofs, in fact, of the truth of any particular opinion: but if vir

such facts, were I not convinced of their laudable motives. That truth which they defended, had no cause to fear the weak shafts which they attempted to turn asidé.

Will the great Author of nature suspend its laws to decide so ridiculous a question, as whether some words are or are not in a certain book, or to fix the sense of some particular words of a writer of the last century? Neither can it be objected, that in such a case the great Ruler of nature might suspend its laws to confirm the religion or doctrine advanced by a particular doctor, or the society of which he is a member. For, were it evident in the eyes of reason, that the words of this doctor cannot apparently influence the happiness of mankind, is it to be presumed that divine wisdom would interfere to authorize by miracles a particular opinion? After all, there would still remain an accurate examination to be made of the miracles alleged as a proof of that doctrine, and an inquiry also into that doctrine itself. See on this subject, note ‡ page 97. This reasoning may be applied to all the events of the same nature as that which has given rise to this note. It would therefore be a very frivolous objection to the miracles of the gospel, to allege that certain facts have been hastily admitted as miraculous by individuals, or even by whole societies, and published as such; for, in attempting to give any weight to this objection, it would be requisite to prove, in a precise and satisfactory manner, that the credibility on each side is equal or nearly the same. The logician and critic would be necessitated to draw the parallel mentioned in note f. For in sound logic it will never follow, that the miracles of the gospel are not true, because a number of persons of every rank and sex have received and published false miracles as true.

K

tuous men, men of sound sense, suffer martyrdom in support of an opinion, I may lawfully conclude, that they were at least fully convinced of the truth of that opinion. It will be proper therefore to enquire into the foundations of their opinion; and, if I find that the facts were so palpable, so numerous, so diversified, so united together, and so connected with the most important end, that it was morally impossible for these men to have been imposed upon in these facts; I shall then consider their martyrdom as the final seal of their testimony.

CHA P. XII.

CONCESSIONS OF THE ADVERSARIES OF CHRIS

TIANITY.

Fafter having heard these witnesses, who

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sealed with their blood the testimony they had given to these miraculous facts, I learn that their most openly declared enemies, their own countrymen and contemporaries, have attributed to magic the greater number of these facts, this accusation of magic will appear to me an indirect avowal of the reality of these facts. This avowal will, in my opinion, acquire a still greater weight, if the enemies of these witnesses are at the same time their natural and legitimate superiors; and if, being able to employ all the means which power and autho rity can administer to expose that which they presume to be an imposture, they ne-

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