any miracle ever having been wrought. He would then have us set off the number in one case against the other number, and thus decide by arithmetic which preponderates. But the opportunity of examining the miracle in question was never enjoyed by that majority as it was by the minority; therefore there is no parallel between them. They do not speak to the same point, or of the same thing, and Campbell justly replies on this point to Hume, that such a process of reasoning is like demanding whether six pounds or eleven pence were the largest sum, and deciding that, as the pence were eleven, and the pounds only six, therefore the value of the pence exceeded that of the pounds by five. But two things, or the conditions of them, must be the same, otherwise we cannot institute a comparison or balance of this kind between their number. Now, the condition or position of Hume's witnesses and ours is as different as the pounds and the pence. His witnesses do not pretend to have ever had the opportunity of examining the alleged miracle. Their sense, therefore, is out of the question, as the basis of any evidence, either for or against the miracle: so, of consequence, was their memory; and being destitute of these sources of information, this is the reason they never have attempted any counter testimony.

We assume, then, that testimony is a good source of evidence to establish the credibility of a miracle, and, at all events, we may or ought to examine its soundness. The prejudices of the sceptic would drive us away from the very consideration of the evidence profferred to us. Shall we give up our prerogative of rational beings, in obedience to the dogma of any one? No; we will have the moral courage (of which the sceptics sometimes seem to assume the monopoly) to examine and judge for ourselves.

To accomplish this, in many cases it is needful, at a distance of time, to trace back our evidence through a chain of testimony. This has been done by many learned men, to whom we would refer. (See Harris' Review, p. 18.) But I do not undertake this; my special object is to deal with certain prejudices. One, and a leading one with Mr Taylor, is the incompetence of the un→

learned to test the accuracy of historical evidence. To be sure, if a man is predetermined to believe only what he sees, he is disqualified for ascertaining any point of history, and even matters of natural history or science. That is his fault. It is not the fault of the evidence offered. Common sense, and the necessity of our position as members of society, oblige us to receive testimony as an evidence of all historical facts. And not only so, but likewise of all things that could not come under the observation of our own sense or memory—that is, of our own experience. I have admitted that testimony may be weakened, indeed, or destroyed by any well-founded objection to the veracity or mental soundness of the testifier. But while it may be thus weakened, it admits likewise of some circumstances which so powerfully corroborate it as to make its evidence amount to a moral demonstration.

The concurrence of independent witnesses-that is, of such as could have no concert, has been already mentioned, and the degree of the demonstration in such case is proportioned to the numbers, providing they had all equal access to the primary grounds on which it rested, viz. the evidence of their senses, and were at pains to examine and reflect upon these primary impressions. But there are other circumstances besides the number of competent and willing witnesses.

If the matter of fact testified involve something against which the party is known to have prejudices, and yet thus have been led unwillingly, or it may be inadvertently, to bear testimony to the fact or facts in question, such testimony has an additional weight. Now, as all our observations are intended at length to bear upon the testimony for the Gospel history, we shall show afterwards that it possesses this circumstance of weight.

Meantime, let us finish our general remarks upon evidence. In the case of testimony, other corroborations and additional weight may be given to it also, by means of monuments and institutions, either designedly framed to commemorate events, or incidentally having that effect. It will be shown that the facts of the Gospel history have this advantage likewise. We have

said enough, however, at present, I trust, to show that the evidence of testimony is worthy of our attention, and is not to be sconted upon the pretences that Hume and other sceptics have put forward.

EARLY UNITARIAN TIMES.

BY

REV. WILLIAM MOUNTFORD, M. A.

CHAPTER IV.

On the morrow after his arrival, Sir Francis Farel sat with Master Willoughby Brandon at an open window. It was a soft, warm, fragrant morning. The sun shone, not into, but across the window. It was such weather as predisposes a contemplative man to reveries. No treatise has yet been published on the connection between psychology and meteorological science; but, no doubt, some such dissertation will be produced sometime. How often on a summer's morning the will is asleep, while the eyes are wide open, and thoughts of all characters, solemn and grotesque, throng in and out of the chambers of consciousness, deriding the drowsy will, and defying his power to detain them from thisthat-anything-especially the idle, fleecy, dreamy

Now

Beyond the garden of Harborne-House, in the open field, a hare lay on her side, basking in the sun. and then, she lifted her head suddenly, and erected her ears; but it was not out of any apprehension of danger, as was evident by her still continuing to lie at her length along the grass, while the gardener walked close by her.

creature's confidence; bu
but there tears in th

ere were

Master Brandon, smiled with pleasure at the dumb in the eyes of Sir Francis. He stood behind Master, Brandon's chair, leaning gently upon his friend's shoulder; and, after a pause in their conversation, he said,

"I grieve very much for thine altered appearance, Willoughy, and was last evening much surprised, notwithstanding thy previous warning."

"Why, Francis, didst thou expect to meet thy friends, in mood, look, and character, precisely such as they were fifteen years agone? Even the statue of his late Majesty, which was set up the week before thy voyage to Bremen, hath already required to have the left arm soldered, and the countenance twice repainted, although the ravages of wind and rain are not nearly so merciless as are the visitations of human life."

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Oh, Willoughby, dear friend! wherein have I offended thee, that thou hast never imparted to me the knowledge of all thy hardships My wealth-I do loathe it, when I think that it hath failed in helping thee. Thou dost make me hate mine own person, since it hath been unworthy of thy trust ho pag M dug 3BI have never doubted thy kindness," said Brandon ; "solemnly I assure thee, that never have I needed thy generosity," zog-ibang er rodiesw Generosity! Oh, Willoughby, surely thou wouldst not have felt it such." o teu bug 72 olodoy 1993 "Well, Francis, friend, comfort thee, then 1. I have. ever been unscrupulous enough to have asked half of thy fortune, but that I have never needed it. Dost forget that it is now ten years since I succeeded to this house, and the Buckingham estate ?"t

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mda od to That sore matter apart, which we wept over last evening, Hast thou, in all other respects, been happy Willoughby?"

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Yes! Some few trials I have had, but still hath my life been fortunate. Assuredly, Francis, the happiest man shall not look back over an extent of years withes out finding many streaks of disappointment running through; and some few spaces, here and there, disco-s loured with the bitterness of tears, the more bitterly

god yd

Corroding, perhaps, for their fewness! But how doth the new religion prosper in Mayence??ite

Not at all; nor do I suppose that it will have any fresh accessions elsewhere in my fatherland. Politics are beginning to blend with religion. This duke is an enemy of the new faith, because those Counts befriend it; and the people of one town hate a reformer, because their commercial rivals, in such another city, are all Lutherans. Also, the political arrangements of all European states are beginning to be much affected by these religious divisions."

t

I have myself perceived this, and have bewailed it,” said Master Brandon.

And this is not the worst, Willoughby. I think that there are symptoms of a Catholic reaction visible in many of our German states certainly, and I have reason to fear that the same may occur in other countries. It is not improbable that every bishopric on the Rhine may be Catholic again Cologne most certainly so. The hierarchy is the root of the evil. It was an error not to have plucked it up. At Paderborn, for instance, it has sprouted again and blossomed a corrupt tree, you may know it by its fruits-mitres and masses visibly ripening, images and indulgences, pretended miracles, frocks, cowls, and all other ancient trumperyod non toMaster Brandon laughed, and said, "A strange assortment of vegetables are they to be the product of one tree!But whether grown on a tree, or manufactured at Rome, I grieve for their existence, and especially at their increase. The first strength of the Reformation is spent ; much of it has been wasted in intestine strifes. Obstacles, which were once enthusiastically overleapt, will henceforth be insuperable. But the worst is that religion is now becoming political; and, on most men's minds, the immediate loss of a penny weighs heavier than the fear of hell DAB MUD KE 475 olqooq sa

"And, then," Sir Francis added, "Protestants have discredited their own cause, by persecuting not only Romanists, but one another even. Among us Germans, Jolin of Leyden's sad doings at Munster have brought shame on the new faith. Unfortunately, also, when the peasants rose throughout Germany, among their de