. ■[ 99 ] 



-abfolutely miraculous. Falfhood is a new circum/Iance, which 

 he Ukewife comes to expedl, in proportion as he has been taught 

 by experience to expedl it. What evidence can we poffibly have 

 of any thing being neccflarily connefted with experience, and 

 derived from it, befides its never being prior to it, always con- 

 fequent upon it, and exadlly in proportion to it? — Frieftley's 

 Examination, &c p. 82. 



3dly, Mr. Frice argues, that experience is not the groiind of 

 the regard wc pay to human teftimony, for were it fo, this re- 

 gard would be in proportion to the number of inftances, in whith 

 we have found, that it has given us right information, compared 

 with thofe in which it has deceived us. But this is by no 

 means the truth. One adlion, fays he, or one converfation with 

 a man may convince us of his integrity, and induce us to believe 

 in his teftimony, though we had never, in a fingle inftance, expe- 

 rienced his veracity. His manner of telling the flory, its being 

 corroborated by other teftimony, and various particulars in the 

 nature and circumftances of it, may fatisfy us, that it muft be 

 true. See his EfTay on Miracles, page 399. 



But is not all this confidence the refult of experience ? Why 

 fhould the manner of telling a ftory induce us to believe it, unlefs 

 we had previoufly learned by experience, that this manner was 

 an indication of veracity. 2dly, In like manner, the circumjlances 

 of a ftory induce us to believe it, becaufc we have found by ex- 

 perience, that thefe circumftances difcover the integrity or flcill 



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