mony is a false principle, upon which we can no longer depend with safety. What a multitude of false and fatal consequences would follow in particular cases if this were so? How false, then, the supposition which would produce them!

Let it not be said that human testimony may safely be trusted in ordinary events, and is to be rejected only on account of the incredibility of the facts attested. For, if we thus suppose it possible for a fact absolutely incredible, and therefore absolutely false, to be attended with such a testimony as above described, surely an ordinary event no way incredible in itself, may much more easily procure such testimony, even though it be a pure fiction. It is much more probable, for example, that men should invent and attest as a truth a thing ordinary or common, against which there lies no suspicion, than a thing naturally incredible, which is more likely to render their testimony suspected, and expose them to the shame of detection: consequently, if we suppose it possible that the fullest testimony should ever be given to a thing in itself impossible, and upon that account false, much more possible will it be for such testimony to be given to a falsehood regarding an ordinary event, which in itself contains no improbability; and such a possibility of falsehood attending the fullest testimony, must, of course, render precarious all such testimony, and prevent us from being thoroughly persuaded of anything whatsoever founded on it. And if so, what becomes of history? what becomes of the Gospel? what becomes of Christianity? And, in reality, will not this very argument against miracles, in any age, from their natural incredibility, or, in other words, impossibility, if it has any weight at all, militate equally in the mouth of a deist or heathen against those of the

whole Scripture? Nay, is not this the very argument used by these gentlemen against Scripture miracles? and are not all the answers given to it by the defenders of the Scripture founded upon this very supposition, that it is impossible that full and perfect testimony, attended with all its corroborating circumstances, should ever be given to an absolute falsehood, much less to any fact in itself impossible?

Observe, then, how Mr Brook, and others who pretend to limit the duration of miracles in the Church of Christ to any of their assumed periods, are obliged to use such arguments as are evidently productive of all those fatal consequences for which they so loudly condemn Dr Middleton's argument, are subversive of history, of the Gospel itself, and in the mouth of a heathen would serve as strongly against all Scripture miracles as against any others. Happily, however, they are powerless, because, when duly considered, they are found to be destitute of common sense, and to proceed upon a supposition manifestly false and chimerical.

6

IV. Against what has been said, two objections will perhaps be offered with Dr Middleton from experience (see his Inquiry,' p. 351.), and the following: First, "There is not," says he, "a single historian of antiquity, whether Greek or Latin, who has not recorded oracles, prodigies, prophecies, and miracles; many of these are attested in the gravest manner, and by the gravest writers, and were firmly believed at the time by the populace; yet it is certain that there is not one of them which we can reasonably take to be genuine ; not one that was not either wholly forged, or improved and exaggerated into something supernatural." Secondly, "The case of witchcraft," says he, "affords the most effectual proof of what I am advancing. There is not in all history any

one miraculous fact so authentically attested as the existence of witches. All Christian nations whatsover have consented in the belief of them, and provided. capital laws against them: now to deny the reality of facts so solemnly attested, and so universally believed, seems to give the lie to the sense and experience of all Christendom; yet the incredibility of the thing prevailed, and was found at last too strong for all this force of human testimony: so that the belief of witches is now utterly extinct and quietly buried." Here, it will perhaps be said, we have two examples from experience, where the fullest human testimony was given to facts utterly incredible, and which afterwards were found to be absolutely false. Therefore, as what has actually happened is certainly possible, and may happen again, it is far from being absurd or chimerical to suppose that facts absolutely incredible may yet be attended by the fullest human testimony; and when that is the case, the incredibility of the fact must invalidate all the force of the testimony, however strong in itself, and however well supported by circumstances.

V. The proper answer to this objection is to examine the two cases, to see if they really be to the point or not. With regard to the first, taken from the prodigies, oracles, and miracles among the heathens, to proceed with requisite clearness we must distinguish the fact related from the nature and causes of it. This distinction we have already made and shall again have occasion to make in reference to all miracles. The fact itself, properly speaking, is the only object of the senses, and consequently of human testimony. The nature and causes of it, -that is, whether it be natural or miraculous, whether from causes natural or supernatural,—this is properly a subject for the judgment to investigate. Sometimes this will

appear even at first sight, at other times it will require attentive examination, in which the rules of the criterion serve to guide us.

Now as to the facts themselves referred to in the first case proposed, I ask, were any of them in reality attested by such human testimony as we are here speaking of? Are they related by authors of known integrity, who themselves were either eyewitnesses of these facts or had full opportunity of ascertaining the truth, and had used it? If they be indeed attended by such evidence, I believe every reasonable man will allow that they were undoubtedly true, and really had existence as attested. As to their nature and causes, whatever the witnesses of the facts may have said of these, is only their opinion, not their testimony. But if, on the other hand, these facts have never been attested in the manner above described; if they be only related as hearsays and popular reports, or, though gravely related, and even believed by the historian himself, yet if it be manifest that he believes them not from his own personal knowledge, nor even from a full examination of their truth, but has been carried away by the common current, then the case is beside the question, and not at all to the purpose; all the reasoning of the Doctor upon it is only vain beating the air. But, says he, "these facts, though fully believed, are now found to be false." True; but how is their falsehood discovered? not from their incredibility, whilst the testimony by which they are supported is allowed to be good. By no means; but solely by showing the insufficiency and weakness of the testimony.

VI. We come now to the other example taken from the belief in witches; and here it is amazing to see how far the Doctor, who professes himself a Christian, and expresses so high a veneration for the Bible, should for

get himself. According to the manner in which he represents this case, the existence of witches is a thing absolutely incredible, and the belief in them is now utterly extinct; and yet we find their existence attested again and again by the very word of God itself. In it we find most severe laws enacted against them; and all recourse to them for help of any kind condemned and utterly forbidden. Nay, in the New Testament we find that the "portion of sorcerers" in the next world "shall be a lake of burning fire and brimstone, which is the second death."* Can it then be true, as the Doctor so confidently asserts, that the belief in witches, though thus attested by God Himself, is absolutely incredible, and that it is at present utterly exploded in the world? If so, what becomes of the Christian religion?—for if the testimony of God Himself proves false with regard to the existence of witches, it may be false also with regard to the incomprehensible mysteries and miracles of the Gospel: nay, this is what deists and heathens absolutely affirm. Did Dr Middleton reflect on the contents of his Bible when he made this objection? I scarcely think he did, or at least for his own honour, if he had no regard for the honour of God, he never would have made it.

VII. It is evident, then, that the boasted objection against the existence of miracles, from their supposed incredibiltiy, is a mere sophism, proceeding upon at supposition not only false, but impossible; for if the fact attested be possible, and the testimony unexceptionable, such attestation renders it perfectly credible. And if the fact be impossible, it is equally impossible that it should be attested by unexceptionable testimony; for it is impossible that a fact should be consistent with the knowledge of the witnesses, if it neither had, nor possibly

* See above, Chap. II. where this is treated at large.