Hold, said he, there's enough, and if you can defend those Articles, I'll agree to any that you shall please to add. We will begin at the last, if you please, and so go back to the first. You know very well, said he, that Christians are not all of one Opinion with regard to the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Some think the whole inspir'd even to the least Word; others reject this Opinion, and only maintain in the general, that with regard to the Matter, the Holy-Spirit so far guided the Writers of those sacred Books, that they cou'd not commit any Error in the Facts which they relate, nor in the Doctrine which they teach. Pray tell me which of these two Opinions you pretend to embrace?
I am not for the first, said I, and I think a Man must be quite void of Sense to maintain it, if he has read the holy Books with ever so little Attention. But as to the latter, it is supported by convincing Arguments. Not to insist upon the great Antiquity of the first Books of the Holy Scripture, which you will own to me, however, to be the oldest Monuments in the World, and which were written before the Art of Writing was known to other Nations; the marvellous Things which are contain'd in those Scriptures, the Miracles which God wrought to confirm the Revelation, and the Predictions of the holy Prophets of which we have seen a great part accomplish'd, and wait for the fulfilling of the rest, are Things which surpass all that Man can do, and which none but God can be the Author of.
You are in the right, said he, not to insist upon the Antiquity of your sacred Books, because it wou'd not be of any Advantage to you. For a Romance, or an Imposture, may be as ancient and more ancient than a true History, this is nothing to the purpose. Nevertheless, I am very far from admitting those Books to be so old as you pretend, and I defy you or any body, to prove that any of those Books was in being before the time of _Esdras_, that is to say, above a thousand Years after _Moses_, who according to you wrote the first Books. And if we attentively read the Books ascrib'd to _Moses_, we shall find a great many Passages which shew that they were written long after his Time. He quoted several which I pass over in Silence to avoid being tedious. Then as to your Argument, said he, which is founded upon the miraculous Things contain'd in the Scriptures, I draw a Conclusion from it quite contrary to yours. For the more a Book contains of what is marvellous and extraordinary, the more 'tis liable to Suspicion. This is the Supposition you your self wou'd form of any other Book, and if you don't think so of this, 'tis only the Effect: of your Prepossession which is very palpable, because it inclines you to admit such Evidence to prove the Truth of a Book as wou'd, if you were not prejudic'd in your Judgment, serve for the effectual Destruction of its Credit. As to the Miracles you talk of, they are only written in that Book of which you wou'd have them brought as Proofs, and therefore, as I have already said, they must tend rather to explode it. Every indifferent unprejudic'd Person receives a Relation or History of past Transactions only according to the Degrees of Probability with which it is attended, and judges it to be false or romantick by the marvellous or extraordinary Facts which it contains; for Nature was always the same at all times, and Truth was ever plain and natural. As to the Proprieties you mention'd, all the Accomplishments which are related in the same Book with the Predictions, prove nothing but that they are part of the same Romance, and were forg'd at the same time; and as for those which are pretended to have happen'd since, the Events have so little Connection with the Predictions of which they are construed to be the Accomplishment, that nothing but the Force of Prejudice can discover their Conformity. He quoted a great number of Instances to me to support what he had said, but I choose not to mention them here.