172 
the subject, it may not be amiss to take no- 
tice of an objection which has been made, 
with great exultation, against miracles in 
general. It has been suggested to me bya 
triend,* that this objection might be found 
ina sermon of Dr. South’s. I have since 
met with it in the fifth volume of his ser- 
mons, and for a reason which will hereafter 
he given, I shall lay it before you.in his 
words. Ina discourse on our Saviour’s re- 
surrection, he supposes Thomas to make 
this objection to the fact. ‘ Jesus of Naza- 
reth was put to death upon the cross, and 
being dead, was-laid and sealed up in his 
sepulchre, strictly watched by a guard of sol- 
diers. But I am told, and required to be- 
lieve, that, notwithstanding all this, he is 
risen, and is indeed alive. Now surely 
things suitable to the stated course of nature 
should be believed, before such as are quite 
beside it; and fora dead man to return to 
life, is preternatural ; but that those who re- 
port this may be mistaken, is very natural 
and usual. Neither can bare report of itself 
be a sufficient reason of belief; because, 
things confessedly false have been as confi- 
dently reported; nor is any thing, though 
never so strange and odd, ever almost told 
of, but somebody or other is as positively 
vouched to have seen it. Besides that, the 
united testimony of all ages and places will 
not gain credence against one particular ex- 
periment of sense ; and what then can the 
particular report of a few conclude against 
ihe general experience of so many people and 
pations who had never seen any thing like 
it?” Ife afterwards repeats the objection in 
these words,—* Things, according to the 
common stated course cf nature, ought to be 
believed before such as are beside it ; and 
that it is beside, as well as above the course 
of nature, for a dead man to return to life ; 
but, on the contrary, that those who report 
such strange things may be deceived in what 
they report is very natural andusual. Itisar- 
gued, that as the united testimony and report 
of all places and ages will not gain credence 
against so much as one particular experiment 
Art. XXXVL The Advantages of diffused Knowledge, 
THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
of sense; so much less can the particular 
report of a few persons conclude any thing 
against the universal experience of all men.” 
«¢ Mr. Hume says, ‘I flatter myself that 
I have discovered an argument, which, if 
just, will, with the wise and learned, be an 
everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious 
delusion, and, consequently, will be useful 
as long as the world endures.’ He then 
gives this very argument against miracles. 
‘ The very same principle of experience,’ 
he says, ‘ which gives us a certain degree of 
assurance in the testimony of witnesses, 
gives us, in -the case of miracles, another 
degree of assurance against the fact which 
they endeavour to establish. A miracle,” he 
says, ‘ is a violation of the laws of nature ; 
and, as a firm and unalterable experience has 
established these laws, the proof against a 
miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is 
as entire as any argument from experience 
can possibly be imagined.’ “This coincidence 
is a very curious circumstance. I have 
given rig the very words of both writers, and 
would, by the way, make one observation 
before [ proceed. Notwithstanding the pre- 
tences to originality in the writers against 
Christianity (in which [ mean not to arraign 
their sincerity, but their knowledge of the 
subject) it is easy to demonstrate that not a 
siugle argument has been urged by modern 
writers, without excepting Paine, who 
doubtless thought that he had made the 
world much wiser than it was before, which 
has not been urged, with at least as much 
effect, by ancient writers ; so that the ques- 
tion is not whether Mr. Hume and Mr. 
Paine, and such writers, have now overturn- 
ed Christianity ; but whether Julian, Por- 
phyry, Celsus, and others, and even Chris- 
tians themselves, by their own objections had 
done it before, or whether they are not com- 
pletely answered.” 
Several of these discourses are ad. 
dressed to. young persons, from which 
we could with pleasure select many use- 
ful and impressive remarks. 
a Sermon preached at Scarbo- 
rough, August 8th; and at Kingston upon Hull, December 5, 1802, for the Benefit of two 
Charity-Schools, instituted at those respective Places for the Education of the Children of 
the Poor. By Francis Wrancuam, M.A. Ato. pp. 20. 
WITH much pure and forcible elo- 
quence Mr. Wrangham here success- 
fully vindicates the attempt to diffuse 
knowledge, and especially religious 
knowledge, among the poor, against 
“the bigot and the infidel, who -from 
different motives contend, that know- 
ledge imparted to the inferior orders is 
always superfluous, often pernicious, 
and sometimes ruinous in its effects upon 
their innocence and peace.” Aiter 
shewing the importance of communicat- 
ing instruction to those who constitute 
‘‘ the productive portion of our fellow- 
subjects, and the wide-spread basis of the 
British pyramid,” the preacher urges 
the duty of strenuous exertions on the 
part of the more affluent orders. ‘The 
* Mr. Coleridge. 
