Paley's View of the Evidences of Christianity for a long time held the first place as a text-book on evi- dences in England. Paley even goes so far as to say we can conceive of no way in which a revelation could be made except by miracles. "In whatever degree it is probable, or not very improbable, that a revela- tion should be communicated to mankind at all, in the same degree it is probable, or not very improbable, that miracles sliould be wrought. Therefore, when miracles are related to have been wrought in the pro- mulgation of a revelation manifestly wanted, and, if true, of inestimable value, the improliabilit}' which arises from the miraculous nature of the things related is not greater than the original improbaljility that such a revelation should be imparted hy God." The book is divided into two parts : I. The direct historical' evi- dence of Christianit}', and wherein it is distinguished from the evidence alleged for other miracles; II. The auxiliary evidences of Christianity. The first part is then divided into two i>ropositions : (I.) " That there is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be orig- inal witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labors, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily un- dergone in attestation of the accounts which they de- livered, and solely in consequence of their belief in those accounts ; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct." (II.) " Tliat there is not satisfactory evidence that persons pretend- ing to 1)6 original witnesses of anj' other similar mira- cles have acted in the same manner, in attestation of the accounts which the}' delivered, and solely in con- sequence of their belief in the truth of those accounts." The argument rests on the credibility of testimony, and aims to show tliat the testimony in this case is in- dubitable. The second part treats briefly the argu- ment from prophecy, from tlie morality of the Gospel, and the internal evidences afforded both by the sacred ■writings, and by the doctrines and histories which they contain.
Coleridge, who disparaged the comparative value of evidence from miracles and prophecy, dictated to a friend the following scheme of evidences: "I. Mira- cles, as precluding the contrary evidence of no mira- cles. II. The material of Christianity, its existence and history. III. The doctrines of Christianity, and the correspondence of human nature to these doctrines, illustrated, 1st, historically, as the actual production of the new world, and the dependence of the fate of tlie planet upon it ; 2d, individually, from its ap- peal for its truth to an asserted fact, which, whether it be real or not, every man possessing reason has an equal power of ascertaining within himself, namely, a will which has more or less lost its freedom, though not the consciousness that it ought to be and may l)e- come free ; the conviction that this cannot be achieved ■without the operation of a principle connatural with
itself; the evident rationality of an entire confidence in that principle, being the condition and means of its operation ; tlie experience in his own nature of tha truth of the process described by Scripture as far as he can place himself within the process, aided by the confi- dent assurances of others as to the efiects experienced by them, and which he is striving to arrive at. All these form a practical Christian. Add, however, a gradual opening out of the intellect to more and more clear per- ceptions of the strict coincidence of the doctrines of Christianity, with the truths evolved by the mind from inflexions on its own nature. To such a man one main test of the objectivity, the entity, the objective truth of his faith, is its accompaniment b}- an increase of insight into the moral beauty and necessity of the process which it comprises, and the dependence of that proof on the causes asserted. Believe, and, if thy be- lief be right, that insight which gradually transmutes faith into knowledge will be the reward of that belief. The Christian, to ■whom, after a long profession of Christianity, the mysteries remain as much ni}'steries as before, is in the same state as a school-boy with re- gard to his arithmetic, to whom the facit at the end of tha examples in his ciphering-book is the whole ground for his assuming that such and such figures amount to so and so. 3d. In the above I include the increasing discoveries in the correspondence of the liis- tor}', the doctrines, and the promises of Christianity with the past, present, and probable future of human nature ; and in this state a fair comparison of the re- ligion as a divine philosophy with all other religions which have .pretended to revelations and all other systems of philosophy, both with regard to the totality of its truth and its identification with the manifest march of affairs. I should conclude that, if we sup- pose a man to have convinced himself that not only the doctrines of Christianity, which may be conceived independently of history or time, as the Trinity, spir- itual influences, etc., are coincident with the truths which his reason, thus strengthened, has evolved from its own sources, but that the historical dogmas, namely, of the incarnation of the creative Logos, and his becom- ing a personal agent, are themselves founded in philo- sophical necessity, then it seems irrational that such a man should reject the belief of the actual appearance of a religion strictly correspondent therewith, at a given time recorded, even as much as that he should reject Cajsar's account of his wars in Gaul after he had con- vinced himself a priori of their possibilit}'. As the re- sult of these convictions, he will not scruple to receive the particular miracles recorded, inasmuch as it would be miraculous that an incarnate God should not work what must to mere man appear as miracles, inasmuch as it is strictly accordant with the ends and benevolent nature of sucli a being to commence the elevation of man above his mere senses by attracting and enforc- ing attention, first, through an appeal to those senses. But with equal reason will he expect that no other or greater force should be laid on those miracles as such ; that they should not be spoken of as good in them- selves, much less as the adecjuate and ultimate pi'oof of that religion ; and, likewise, he -will receive additional satisfaction should he find these miracles so wrought, and on such occasions, as to give them a personal value as symljols of important truths when their miraculous- ness was no longer needful or efficacious" (Coleridge, Works^ N. Y., V, 555).