1 our considerations and views on the internal evidence of Christianity-we are abundantly sensible of the difficulty which there is, in tracing the precise line of demarcation between this and the external evidence. If the one consist in those marks of credibility which we observe when looking to the witnesses of the message-the other may be regarded as consisting in those marks of credibility which we observe when looking to its contents or its subject-matter. It is with this last that the third Book is chiefly conversant, with the selfevidencing power of the Bible-the chief ingredient of which, as being far the most effectual in the work of Christianization or conversion, has been denominated the manifestation of the truth unto the conscience; or, otherwise, the experimental evidence for the truth of Christianity. We shall endeavour to make palpable the distinction between this most solid of all the evidences, and a certain other internal evidence which we have long regarded as of a spurious or at least a very questionable character. The fourth and last Book is taken up, in great part at least, with what may be termed the bibliography of scripture-the evidence on which its various pieces have been admitted into the canon, so as to form constituent parts of our present Bible; and the security we have for the general correctness of the present readings in the received original But scriptures, as well as of the renderings in the various popular versions of Christendom; or, in other words, our security both for the state of the text and for the truth of its generally received interpretations. This argument has given rise to distinct chapters on the respective functions of scripture criticism and systematic theology. over and above we have thought it right to discuss both the evidence and the degree of that inspiration, by which we hold the sacred Volume to be distinguished from all other writings-a topic of incalculable importance, and which prepares the way for our concluding chapter on the supreme authority of revelation. It will be perceived, in this department of the work, how closely the two questions of the canon of scripture and its inspiration are related to each other. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. On the Cognizance which the Understanding takes 47 MR. HUME'S OBJECTION TO THE TRUTH OF MIRACLES. SECT. I. On the Origin of our Belief in Testimony, 70 II. On the Power of the Evidence of Testimony, 92 III. On the Power even of a single Testimony to accredit improbable or singular Events, 108 V. On the Testimony of Subsequent Witnesses, 232 VI. On the secure and impregnable Character of the BOOK I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. CHAPTER I. On the Cognizance which the Understanding takes of its own Processes. 1. It has often been said of man that he is the greatest of all mysteries to himself. What hath led to this saying is his profound ignorance of that which is so immediately about him as his own sentient and moral and intellectual economy. It is strange that to him the most deep and difficult secrets are those which lie nearest to him. Yet so it is and however inscrutable he may find Nature to be in all her departments, yet never does he find her more so than among the recesses of his own internal system, and amid the hidden workings of his own nature. 2. But it is of the utmost practical importance to remark that though man knows not the processes of that complex economy by which it is that he moves and feels and thinks, it is not necessary that he should, in order either to move aright, or to feel aright, or even to think aright. In as far as the merely animal constitution is concerned, this is |