58 



day; and therefore there is no reason why Christianity should not 

 be embraced, although its principles should not be agreeable with 

 our experience in other respects. It happens perpetually that 

 we believe accounts of strange, and, as we say, unnatural occur- 

 rences, upon our faith in the veracity of the narrator. Our only 

 commentary on these cases is, " unless I had every reason to 

 believe that what you say is true, I should scarcely credit asser- 

 tions so contrary to ordinary experience;'' but that the things 

 asserted are contrary to ordinary experience cannot be disguised, 

 though they are still capable of being accepted, and firmly believed, 

 upon the reliance we place on the competency and veracity of the 

 witness. So the case stands in some respects between natural and re- 

 vealed evidences concerning religion : we cannot disguise that one 

 part of our experience inclines us to a certain system of inferences; 

 but if these inferences are controverted upon what we esteem 

 better grounds, they must be rejected, and others accepted in 

 their stead. Where two systems are at issue, that must be pre- 

 ferred which is recommended by the best evidence; and the 

 general adoption of that of Christianity in this case, appears to 

 shew that, according to the common sense of mankind, the scheme 

 of Christianity, resting upon authority, and faith in that authority, 

 is better deserving of credit than that consisting of inferences 

 from the observation of nature, who is, it must be confessed, in 

 such intricate matters oftentimes a deceitful guide. In the mean 

 time physical truth or science continues to be investigated ; and 

 nations unite to complete the system of physical science, pro- 

 fessing only a design to augment the sum of their intellectual 

 attainments, and admitting still that there is an evidence above 

 that which rests upon a physical basis. 



But although in the preceding sketches physical and revealed 

 evidences appear not entirely to agree, yet in fact their results are 

 not altogether so incompatible as may at first sight appear. If in- 

 stead of investigating physical topics as such, and merely taking ac- 

 count of the evidence of nature that is derived from the relations 

 of cause and effect; if, instead of doing this, I had been desirous 

 of exhibiting a system of natural Theism, the preceding views fur- 

 nish the materials, and the whole account, so far as it goes, might 

 have been made to agree with the implication of the letter of 

 revelation, merely by a nominal change. It would have precluded 

 fancy and gratuitous assumption ; but it would have made those 

 who thought proper to accept it Theists upon physical proof. I 

 profess myself (as the nature of my profession may by some be 

 not understood) with all sincerity to be a firm believer in the 

 existence of a Deity; and I ascribe to this Deity, even on phy- 

 sical testimony, perhaps all that revelation strictly requires, 

 assuming, as is allowed on all hands, that some licence is ad- 

 missible in the interpretation of the letter ; that some expressions 

 are adapted to the sense, and to human views, and are not to be 



