But since it is
proved, I conceive with certainty, that the sparingness with which they
appealed to miracles was owing neither to their ignorance nor their
doubt of the facts, it is, at any rate, an objection not to the truth of
the history, but to the judgment of its defenders.
CHAPTER VI.
WANT OF UNIVERSALITY IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND RECEPTION OF CHRISTIANITY, AND
OF GREATER CLEARNESS IN THE EVIDENCE.
Or, a Revelation which really came from God, the proof, it has been
said, would in all ages be so public and manifest, that no part of the
human species would remain ignorant of it, no understanding could fail
of being convinced by it.
The advocates of Christianity do not pretend that the evidence of their
religion possesses these qualities. They do not deny that we can
conceive it to be within the compass of divine power to have
communicated to the world a higher degree of assurance, and to have
given to his communication a stronger and more extensive influence. For
anything we are able to discern, God could have so formed men, as to
have perceived the truths of religion intuitively; or to have carried on
a communication with the other world whilst they lived in this; or to
have seen the individuals of the species, instead of dying, pass to
heaven by a sensible translation.
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