though perhaps it will be impoffible to find any fuch in all the records of hiftory. Thus, fuppofe all authors, in all languages, agree, that, from the first of JANUARY 1600, there was a total darkness over the whole earth for eight days: Suppose that the tradition of this extraordinary event is ftill ftrong and lively among the people: That all travellers, who return from foreign countries, bring us accounts of the fame tradition, without the leaft variation or contradiction: It is evident, that our present philofophers, instead of doubting the fact, ought to receive it as certain, and ought to fearch for the caufes whence it might be derived. The decay, corruption, and diffolution of nature, is an event rendered probable by fo many analogies, that any phænomenon which feems to have a tendency towards that catastrophe, comes within the reach of human teftimony, if that testimony be very extenfive and uniform. But fuppofe that all the hiftorians who treat of ENGLAND fhould agree, that on the firft of JANUARY 1600, Queen ELIZABETH died; that both before and after her death fhe was feen by her phyficians and the whole court, as is ufual with perfons of her rank; that her fucceffor was acknowledged and proclaimed by the parliament; and that, after being interred a month, the again appeared, refumed the throne, and governed ENGLAND for three years: I must confefs that I fhould be furprised at the concurrence of fo many odd circumstances, but fhould not have the least inclination to believe fo miraculous an event. I fhould not doubt of her pretended death, and of thofe other public circumstances that followed it: I fhould only affert it to have been pretended, and that it neither was, nor poffibly could be real. You would in vain object to me the difficulty, and almoft impoffibility, of deceiving the world in an affair of fuch confequence. The wisdom and folid judgment of that renowned queen, with the little or no advantage which the could reap from fo poor an artifice: all this might aftonish astonish me; but I would still reply, that the knavery and folly of men are fuch common phænomena, that I fhould rather believe the most extraordinary events to arise from their concurrence, than admit of fo fignal a violation of the laws of nature. But should this miracle be ascribed to any new fyftem of religion; men in all ages have been fo much imposed on by ridiculous ftories of that kind, that this very circumftance would be a full proof of a cheat, and fufficient with all men of fenfe, not only to make them reject the fact, but even reject it without farther examination. Though the Being, to whom the miracle is afcribed, be in this cafe Almighty, it does not upon that account become a whit more probable; fince it is impoffible for us to know the attributes or actions of fuch a Being, otherwise than from the experience which we have of his productions in the ufual courfe of nature. This ftill reduces us to past obfervation, and obliges us to compare the inftances of the violation of truth in the teftimony of men, with those of the violation of the laws of nature by miracles, in order to judge which of them is most likely and probable. As the violations of truth are more common in the teftimony concerning religious miracles, than in that concerning any other matter of fact; this must diminish very much the authority of the former teftimony, and make us form a general refolution, never to lend any attention to it, with whatever fpecious pretence it may be covered. Lord BACON feems to have embraced the fame principles of reasoning. "We ought (fays he) to make "a collection or particular history of all monsters "and prodigious births or productions, and, in a "word, of every thing new, rare, and extraordinary ❝ in nature. But this must be done with the moft "fevere fcrutiny, left we depart from truth. Above "all, every relation must be confidered as fufpicious "which depends in any degree upon religion, as the prodigies of LIVY: And no less fo, every thing that "is to be found in the writers of natural magic or "alchymy, or fuch authors who feem, all of them, "to have an unconquerable appetite for falfehood and fable*." I am the better pleased with the method of reafoning here delivered, as I think it may ferve to confound thofe dangerous friends or disguised enemies to the Chriftian Religion who have underaken to defend it by the principles of human reafon. Our most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on reafon; and it is a fure method of expofing it to put it to fuch a trial as it is by no means fitted to endure. To make this more evident, let us examine those miracles related in fcripture; and not to lofe ourselves in too wide a field, let us confine ourselves to fuch as we find in the Pentateuch, which we shall examine according to the principles of thefe pretended Chriftians, not as the word or teftimony of God himself, but as the production of a mere human writer and hiftorian. Here then we are first to confider a book, prefented to us by a barbarous and ignorant people, written in an age when they were still more barbarous, and in all probability long after the facts which it relates, corroborated by no concurring teftimony, and resembling those fabulous accounts which every nation gives of its origin. Upon reading this book, we find it full of prodigies and miracles. It gives an account of a ftate of the world and of human nature entirely different from the prefent: Of our fall from that state: Of the age of man extended to near a thousand years: Of the deftruction of the world by a 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 aftonishing imaginable: I defire any one to Jay his hand upon his heart, and after a ferious confideration declare, whether he thinks that the falfehood of fuch a book, fupported by fuch a teftimony, Nov. Org. lib. ii. aph. 29. would would be more extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it relates; which is, however, neceffary 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 revelation. If it did not exceed the capacity of human nature to fortel future events, it would be abfurd to employ any prophecy as an argument for a divine miffion or authority from heaven: So 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 conscious 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. WAS lately engaged in converfation with a friend who loves fceptical paradoxes; where, though he advanced many principles of which I can by no means approve, yet as they feem to be curious, and to bear fome relation to the chain of reasoning carried on throughout this enquiry, 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 first 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 hiftory, 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 moft facred rites of the established religion; And the public encouragement † of penfions and falaries was afforded equally, by the wifeft of all the ROMAN emperors t, to the profeffors of every sect of philofophy. How requifite fuch kind of treatment was to philosophy, 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 feafons, and those harsh 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 course 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 moft inveterate enemy and perfecutor. Speculative dogmas of religion, the * LUCIANI συμπ, η, λαπιθαι. ↑ Id. Curry. EUVNY. Id. & Dio. |