when they come under the cognizance of our fenfes, they are proper matter of testimony, and, when attefted by witnesses who have fufficient opportunities of convincing themselves, and give fufficient proof of their conviction, have a right to command our faith.

And here I accept the author's alternative, without complaining of the infidious: terms in which it is expressed. «The plain "confequence," fays he, "is (and 'tis a "general maxim worthy of our attention) "that no testimony is sufficient to establish "a miracle, unless the testimony be of fuch

a kind, that it's falfehood would be more "miraculous than the fact which it en"deavours to establish and even in that "cafe there is a mutual deftruction of ar

guments, and the fuperior only gives us "an affurance fuitable to that degree of "force which remains after deducting the " inferior. If the falfehood of any perfon's teftimony would be more miracu"lous than the event which he relates, then, and not 'till then, can he pretend "to command my belief or opinion

*

"

By

* P. 182.

By miraculous it is plain that the author here means, in the popular sense of the word, wonderful or incredible. I affert then, that miracles may be made fo credible by circumstances and concurring facts, and fo fupported by teftimony, that, if we reject them, we must believe things more incredible, or, as the author would have us fpeak, more miraculous than the miracles themselves.

The miracles I fhall mention are thofe in the Chriftian Gospel - healing the fick without any visible means, giving fight to the blind, raising the dead to life, &c. all which are faid to be performed by the power of God for ends the most worthy of himself, viz. to reftore religion and morality to their true principles, and to establish the practice of them in the world. The character of those who were appointed to this work, and the doctrines which they taught, correspond perfectly with this defign: great as it was, they undertook it with alacrity and confidence, declaring from the beginning that their commiffion was to go and teach all nations: the miracles which they atteft, as giving authority to their doctrine, they affert from their own knowledge, as D 4 what

what they faw with their eyes, and handled with their hands: the number of these facts, and the numbers attesting them, were very great: they concurred, without variation, in the fame doctrine, and in the fame teftimony they fubmitted, with the fame courage and conftancy, to the greatest perfecutions and afflictions, in confirmation of their truth; and, when called to it (as many of them were) laid down their lives for it's fake: they forefaw from the beginning the oppofition they met with, and foretold, with the fulleft affurance, their fuccess against it: and the event justified their predictions; the religion they taught was in a fhort time established in a great part of the world.

Here, now, the attempt itself, if not fpirited and fupported by truth, is wholly strange and unaccountable. That men of low birth and education fhould conceive a design of new-modelling the religion of all nations, and reforming their manners, by the laws of temperance, purity, and chari

ty -that bad men fhould concur in an end fo great and godlike, or good men in means fo impious as fraud and imposture

that men of craft or address should chufe

for

for the hero of their ftory one who was chronicled as a malefactor, and who had been put to death by the consent of a whole people one, too, that had abused their confidence, and misled them by false hopes into an endless train of miferies - all this is contrary to nature, and therefore, by the author's rule, impoffible.

The zeal with which they carried on this defign, traverfing feas and kingdoms, without reft, and without wearinefs a zeal which could not be exceeded by the most righteous men in the most righteous caufe - this, if not prompted by duty and a strong conviction of the truths they taught, is ftill more incredible.

The excellency of the religion they taught, in its worship and morality far surpassing all human wisdom and philosophy, and the fole end of which is to make men honest, fincere, and virtuous, if it be the work of ignorance and fraud, is equally strange and mysterious.

The fuccefs of this design is yet a greater miracle. In this chain of wonders the event is the moft miraculous part. The

efta

establishment of the Gospel in an hundred different nations, it's victory over Jews and Gentiles, over the power and policy of the wisest and greatest people, over the pride of learning and the obftinacy of ignorance, over the prejudices of religion and those of fin and irreligion, is an event the most wonderful of any in hiftory. But this is a miracle which we see before our eyes: it is a miraculous fact that must be afcribed to a miraculous caufe. Even granting the truth of the Gospel miracles, the instruments in propagating it were fo unequal to the work, that nothing but the power of God, accompanying and working with them, can account for it's fuccefs. It was ftill a miracle that it should prosper in their hands. But, without either truth or providence to fupport it, this fuccefs would be more than miraculous - it would be impoffible.

The teftimony directly given to these miracles is ftrongly confirmed by the character of the witnesses, who, as far as appears even from the teftimony of their enemies, were unblameable in their lives and manners men of confcience and religion. Their writings breathe a spirit of piety, a zeal for God and good works, that is not equalled

by