Rushton, Josiah; William Adams (1706-1789); Pembroke College, University of Oxford; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-adams-17061789-223053

Rushton, Josiah; William Adams (1706-1789); Pembroke College, University of Oxford; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-adams-17061789-223053

It cannot be denied, that the Gospel is an adequate provision for the wants, a remedy for all the infirmities of mankind. There is nothing, that can be wished for in a rule of duty, that is not comprehended in it. The miracles, then, that attest it, are accounted for to our reason: we have God, the cause of all things, for their author: and a sufficient reason is assigned for the divine interposition. And this will, at the same time, account for all the wonders that followed: the actions, sufferings, and success of the Apostles will, upon this scheme, appear easy, consistent, and natural.

But if this account be not admitted, these will remain so many contradictions to nature and experience, and it will lie upon the author to reconcile them to our belief. If the common motives to human actions, interest, passion, and prejudice, cannot be pleaded in answer to these difficulties, what other account can be given of them? Some cause must be assigned adequate to the effect. For men to act without motives is as unnatural, as it is for a body to sink without weight—to act against the force of motives is as contrary to nature, as it is for a stone to ascend against the laws of gravity. Hear what this author says himself in another Essay: “We cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to prove, that the actions ascribed to any person are directly contrary to the course of nature, and that no human motives, in such circumstances, could ever induce him to such a conduct.”

William Adams, An Essay in Answer to Mr. Hume’s Essay on Miracles, 3rd ed. (London: B. White, 1767), pp. 47-48.