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are still going on to completion in the world; all prove that He spake by and with the authority of God, and that His words are indeed the words of life and truth.

END OF PART I.

PART II.

PALEY'S EVIDENCES.

CHAPTER I.

Preparatory Considerations on the Antecedent Credibility of Miracles.

IN whatever degree it is probable that this world was created by an obviously wise and benevolent Being, and that its rational inhabitants were designed by Him for a future state; in such a degree it is probable that miracles have happened; for a revelation can be made in no conceivable way but by miracles; and so far from its being improbable, it is in the highest degree probable that if God designed His creatures for a future state, to be regulated by their conduct here, He would acquaint them with it.

The attributes of the Deity, and the existence of a future state, are not however assumed to prove the reality of miracles (that must be proved by evidence ;) but only to prove their antecedent credibility, i. e. that miracles are not themselves such, as that no human testimony can render them credible. It has been objected against miracles that they are contrary to experience; whereas it is want of ex

perience only, and not contradiction of experience, that can be alleged against their probability. But miracles were not necessary after the establishment of Christianity; and they would cease to be miracles were they objects of general experience. At the same time it is not impossible or improbable, that the Supreme Being should interrupt the general course of nature, or (more properly speaking) that He should suspend His own laws, on special occasions, for some particularly good purpose.

The accounts of miracles do not assign effects to inadequate causes; for the words or actions represented as made use of, in their performance, are merely signs to connect the miracle with its end; the effect is produced by the volition of the Deity.

If twelve men of probity and good sense relate an account of a miracle wrought before their eyes, and in which they could not be deceived; if it were proposed to them, both altogether and separately, to confess the falsehood of their story or submit to a gibbet; if they unanimously denied that there was any imposture in it; and submitted to every species of torture and death, rather than give up its truth; then their testimony is a phenomenon which only the truth of the fact can solve.

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