Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/203

 impossible the Religions of antient Rome, of Turkey, of Siam, and of China should all of them be establish'd on any solid Foundation. Every Miracle, therefore, pretended to have been wrought in any of these Religions (and all of them abound in Miracles) as its direct Scope is to establish the particular System, to which it is attributed; so it has the same Force, tho' more indirectly, to overthrow every other System. In destroying a Rival-System, it likewise destroys the Credit of those Miracles, on which that System was establish'd; so that all the Prodigies of different Religions are to be regarded as contrary Facts, and the Evidences of these Prodigies, whether weak or strong, as opposite to each other. According to this Method of Reasoning, when we believe any Miracle of Mahomet or any of his Successors, we have for our Warrant the Testimony of a few barbarous Arabians: and on the other side, we are to regard the Authority of Titus Livius, Plutarch, Tacitus, and in short of all the Authors and Witnesses, Grecian, Chinese, and Roman Catholic, who have related any Miracles in their particular Religion; I say, we are to regard their Testimony in the same Light as if they had mention'd that Mahometan Miracle, and had in express Terms contradicted it, with the same Certainty as they have for the Miracles they relate. This Argument may appear over-subtile and refin'd; but is not in Reality different from the Reasoning of a Judge, who sup-