MI.

moral philofopher, in a late extraordinary LETTER pamphlet, ftiled, Deifm fairly stated and "fully vindicated," in a letter to a friend. London, 1751. There were other answers to Deifm fairly stated, which I have not seen. I fhall conclude my reflections upon it with obferving, that this pamphlet furnishes remarkable inftances to verify the obfervation made in the beginning of this letter concerning the unfair conduct of the Deiftical Writers, and the ftrange liberties they take in mifreprefenting the fenfe of the Chriftian Writers whom they quote.

LETTER

II).

Additional obfervations relating to Mr. Hume. His account of the nature of belief defigned to exclude reafon from any share in it. A transcript of a paper containing an examination of Mr. Hume's arguments in his Effay on Miracles. Obfervations upon it. The evidence of matters of fact may be fo circumftanced as to produce a full affurance. Mr. Hume artfully confounds the evidence of paft facts with the probability of the future. We may be certain of a matter of fact after it has happened, though it might feem beforehand very improbable that it would happen. Where full evidence is given of a fact, there must not always be a deduction made on the account of its being unusual and extraordinary. There is strong and pofitive evidence of the miracles wrought in atteftation to Chritianity, and no evidence against them. The miraculous nature of the facts no proof that the facts were not done. A fummary of Mr. Hume's argument against the evidence of miracles. The weakness of it fhewn. Confidering the vast importance of religion to our happinefs, the bare poffibility of its being true fhould be fufficient to engage our compliance.

I

SIR,

Shall now proceed to lay before you fome additional observations relating to that part of the fecond volume of the View of the

Deiftical

Deiftical Writers, which contains remarks on LETTER Mr. Hume.

دو

It is obferved, p. 24. that Mr. Hume himfelf acknowleges, That no durable good can ever be expected from exceffive scepticism: And that nature will always maintain her rights, and prevaileth in the end over any abstract reasoning whatsoever." After this let it be immediately added line 4 from the bottom And if fo, I think we may juftly conclude, that any abftract reasoning which is contrary to the plain voice of nature ought to be rejected as falfe and trifling, and of no real use or fervice to mankind.

In p. 41. it is fhewn, That "we may reafonably argue from the traces of excellencies in ourfelves to the infinitely fuperior perfections "in the great Author of the univerfe, ftill taking care to remove all thofe limitations "and defects with which they are attended in us." Let it be immediately fubjoined line 11 from the bottom. This is what Mr. Hume himfelf elfewhere allows in his Effay on the Origin of our Ideas. "The idea of God, faith he, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, "wife, and good Being arifes from reflecting "on the operations of our own minds, and "augmenting thofe qualities of goodness and "wifdom without bound or limit." Sec his Philofoph, Effays, p. 24, 25.

It is obferved, p. 90. that Mr. Hume taketh great pains throughout his whole Effay on Li

F 3

berty

II.

LETTER berty and Neceffity to fhew, that there is as great III. a certainty, and as neceffary a connexion, in

what are called moral caufes as in phyfical. Let it be there added, line 14.-This author undoubtedly in that Effay carrieth it too far, when in order to subvert human liberty, he would have it thought, that in all cafes the power of motives worketh with as neceffary a force upon the mind, as any phyfical caufe doth upon the effect. But that in many particular cafes things may be fo circumftanced with regard to moral caufes, as to afford a certainty equal to what arifes from phyfical, cannot reafonably be denied. And fuch is the cafe here put.

In p. 134. line 4. from the bottom, a paffage is quoted from Mr. Hume, in which he faith, That our most holy religion is founded on ચંદુ faith, not on reafon." After reafon let a mark of reference be put, and the following note be inferted at the bottom of the page.

This author who takes care to make the principles of his philofophy fubfervient to his defigns against religion, in the fifth of his Philofophical Effays, where he undertakes to treat of the nature of belief, gives fuch an account of it as feems to exclude reafon from any fhare in it at all. He makes the difference between faith and fiction to confift wholly in fome fentiment or feeling, which is annexed to the former, not to the latter. That the fentiment of belief is nothing but the conception of an object more lively and forcible, more intenfe,

and

III.

and steady than what attends the mere fiction LETTER of the imagination; and that this manner of conception arifes from the customary conjunc tion of the object with fomething prefent to the memory or fenfes. See his Philofophical Effays, p. 80-84. This gentleman is here, as in many other places, fufficiently obfcure, nor is it easy to form a diftinct notion of what he intends. But his defign feems to be to exclude reafon or the understanding from having any thing to do with belief, as if reafon never had any influence in producing, directing, or regu lating it; which is to open a wide door to en thufiafm. But this is contrary to what we may all obferve, and frequently experience. We in feveral cafes clearly perceive, that we have reafon to regard fome things as fictitious, and others as true and real. And the reasons which fhew the difference between a fiction and a reality, fhew that we ought in reason to believe the one and not the other: And so reafon may go before the fentiment of belief, and lay a juft foundation for it, and be inftrumental to produce it. And in this cafe the belief may be faid to be strictly rational.

What I fhall next produce is a much larger addition, occafioned by a letter I received from a gentleman of fenfe and learning, foon after the publication of the fecond volume of the View of the Deiftical Writers, and which particularly related to that part of it which is defigned in anfwer to Mr. Hume. He was F 4 pleafed

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