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his goodness chose to instruct; his plan of wisdom did not admit that he should change the nature of that being, and give to him on earth the faculties of an angel. But infinite WISDOM, without making an angel of man, had pre-ordained means, by which he might arrive at a reasonable certainty of that which was of the highest importance for him to know. Man is endowed with various intellectual faculties; the sum of these faculties constitutes what we call rea

son.

If it were the will of God not to force man into belief-if he chose only to speak to his reason, this was acting with man as with an intelligent being. He must therefore have spoken to him a language adapted to his reason; and it must be his will that he should apply his reason to the explanation of that language, as to the sublimest inquiry which could occupy his intellectual faculties.

The nature of that language being such as could not be addressed to every individual, it was necessary for the supreme legislator to adapt it to those natural means

*Vide the beginning of Chap. i. of this Part.

by which human reason arrives at the conviction or moral certainty of past events, and becomes also convinced of the order and species of those events. These natural means are what is expressed by the word. testimony: But testimony always supposes facts; the language of the supreme legisla tor has then been a language of facts, and of particular facts. But testimony is confined to rules, which are established by rea son, and by which reason judges; the language of the legislator has then been subor dinate to these rules.

The foundation of the belief of man concerning his future destiny has therefore been reduced thus by the author of man to proofs of facts, to palpable proofs, and such as are within reach of the most confined and limited capacity.

Because testimony supposes facts, it implies senses which perceive those facts, and transmit them to the soul without alteration. The senses themselves are necessarily connected with intellect, which judges of facts,

for the senses (being wholly material) cannot judge.

I call palpable facts, those of which plain common sense is able to judge, or concerning which we have a thorough conviction that there is no mistake.

Good sense, or common sense, will be that degree of understanding requisite to judge of such facts; but as the most palpable facts may be either altered or disguised by imposture, or by interested motives, an avowed probity and disinterestedness must be required in the testimony of those who give an account of those facts.

And since the number of witnesses or relators increases the probability of any fact whatever; TESTIMONY requires therefore such a number of witnesses as reason judges sufficient.

Finally, the more circumstantial the fact, the better it is known; and when the witnesses agree in the essential circumstances of the fact, but vary in the manner and in the terms only, a secret concert between them seems less probable. Testimony requires circumstantial evidences converging

towards each other, but varied however as to the form and expressions.

Further, if certain facts were attested by various ocular witnesses, which combated their most ancient, deeply-rooted, and be loved prejudices-the more I was convinced they had imbibed these prejudices, the greater would be my confidence in their evidence; because men are naturally apt to believe that which coincides with or favours their prejudices, and, on the contrary, believe with difficulty that which contradicts those prejudices.

If after all, these witnesses, to the most essential conditions required in evidence, united those transcendent qualities not usually met with in ordinary witnesses; if the most eminent virtues, an universal and active benevolence, were joined to sound sense and irreproachable manners; if these qualities were never disputed, even by their adversaries; if nature were as subservient to their command as to that of their master; if, finally, they persevered in their testimony with the most heroic constancy, and sealed it with their blood; their evidence

would then appear to me to have all the force of which human testimony is susceptible.

If therefore the witnesses chosen by the Divine MESSENGER united in themselves so many ordinary and extraordinary qualifications, I think it would be acting diametrically opposite to reason, if I rejected. their evidence.

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