This state of opinion discovers to us also the reason of what some
choose to wonder at, why the Jews should reject miracles when they saw
them, yet rely so much upon the tradition of them in their own history.
It does not appear that it had ever entered into the minds of those who
lived in the time of Moses and the prophets to ascribe their miracles to
the supernatural agency of evil being. The solution was not then
invented. The authority of Moses and the prophets being established, and
become the foundation of the national polity and religion, it was not
probable that the later Jews, brought up in a reverence for that
religion, and the subjects of that polity, should apply to their history
a reasoning which tended to overthrow the foundation of both.
II. The infidelity of the Gentile world, and that more especially of men
of rank and learning in it, is resolvable into a principle which, in my
judgment, will account for the inefficacy of any argument or any
evidence whatever, viz. contempt prior to examination. The state of
religion amongst the Greeks and Romans had a natural tendency to induce
this disposition.
Pages:
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554