DISSERTATION ON MIRACLES. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. BEFORE, We we inquire whether miracles are the peculiar works of God, and in themselves proper evidences of a divine interposition, and consequently of a supernatural revelation, it will be necessary to prepare the way by several preliminary considerations. I shall begin with SECTION I. Explaining the nature of miracles. THAT the visible world is governed by stated general rules, commonly called the laws of nature; or that there is an order of causes and effects established in every part of the system of nature, so far as it falls under our observation, is a point which none can controvert. Effects produced by the regular operation of the laws of nature, or that are conformable to its established course, are called natural. Effects contrary to this settled constitution and course of things I esteem miraculous. Were the constant motion of the planets to be suspended, or a dead man to return to life, each of these would be a miracle, because repugnant to those general rules by which this world is governed at all other times. All miracles presuppose an established system of nature, within the limits of which they operate, and with the order of which they disagree. The creation of the world at first, therefore, though an immediate effect of divine omnipotence, would not come under this denomination. It was different from, but not contrary to, that course of nature which had not hitherto taken place. And miracles may be said to disagree with, or to be contrary to, the general rules and order of the natural system, not only when they change the former qualities of any of the constituent parts of nature, (as when water, for example, is converted into wine;) or when they control their usual operation and effects, (as when fire, without losing its properties, does not burn combustible materials ; or a river is divided in its course, the water still preserving its gravity;) but also when they supersede (as they always do) the usual operation of natural causes. For effects produced in the pre-established system of nature, without the assistance of natural causes, are manifest variations from, or contradictions to, the order and usual course of things in that system. That a man should be enabled to speak a new language, language, which he never learnt in a natural way, and that his body should be supported without food, are events evidently contrary to the ordinary course of things, and to that constitution of divine providence which renders mankind dependent upon their own study and application for the knowledge of languages, and upon food for sustenance. We do not affirm that miracles do universally and necessarily imply a proper suspension of the laws of the natural world, so as that they should cease to produce their usual effects: the human mind may receive new knowledge in a supernatural manner, without any suspension of its present powers. Nevertheless, the supernatural communication of new knowledge to the human mind is contrary to the general rules by which the human system is governed, or to that connexion which God has established between our acquisition of knowledge and the proper exercise of our rational faculties. To this account of miracles it has been objected, 1st, "That miracles may be performed where there is no disagreement with any law of nature, nor any variation: from its established course: because many things which exceed the power of man may be performed by superior beings." This objection has been illustrated and supported in the following manner: "A spirit may have a natural power of lifting up a stone from the carth: and therefore, if he does so, there is no law of nature contradicted, any more. than when a man lifts it up. Were a man to walk upon the water, upheld by some invisible power, the law of gravitation would no more be violated or sus pended pended than if he was upheld by some visible power. What departure is there from the laws and constitution of the universe, when a disease is cured by a superior being, any more than when it is cured by the force of some powerful medicine; unless there be a law of nature or constitution of the universe forbidding the occasional interposition of superior beings in this lower world? a point which ought not to be taken for granted, and assumed into the definition of miracles." In answer to this objection, we may observe, that it is built on a misapprehension of what I here intend by the laws of nature. For though the word nature may be sometimes used for the whole compass of existence, created and uncreated, (in which sense of the word no effect can ever be produced contrary to the laws of nature, that is, to the natural powers of all orders of existence ;) yet this is not the most common acceptation of the word, nor that in which it is here used. Neither do I apply this term to the constitution of the universe, and comprehend under it the invisible worlds, and those superior beings that inhabit them. By the laws of nature I here mean those rules by which the visible world is statedly governed, or the ordinary course of events in it, as fixed and ascertained by observation and experience; and particularly the order of that system to which we belong*. Now, according to the usual course of events * Thus, for example, that there is a force impressed upon all bodies, whereby they mutually attract or tend towards each other, according events in this system, a stone which lies upon the ground will rest there till it is removed by some corporeal force superior to that by which it gravitates towards the earth: all bodies specifically heavier than water will sink in it, when no bodily substance interposes to prevent it: and the diseases of our animal frame will continue, till the constitution, either by its own efforts or by the assistance of material causes, returns to its original state. And therefore there is a real transgression of these several laws of matter and motion, when a stone is raised up in the air, or sup according to the quantity of matter they contain, and in a certain proportion to their distances: that every body perseveres in the same state, either of rest or uniform rectilinear motion, except so far as it is compelled to change that state by some foreign force: that the change of motion is ever proportioned to the moving force whereby it is effected, and in the direction of the right line wherein that force is impressed: and that the actions of two bodies on one another are always mutually equal, and directed contrary ways: these are laws of nature, or general rules observed by natural bodies in their actions on one another, and in all the changes which befall them in their natural state. It may be said that the general laws of nature denote only the phænomena or objects of nature. To me they seem to express somewhat more, viz. that the phænomena are connected together in a certain order, and succeed one another in an invariable train, according to some general rules fixed by divine wisdom. Nor does it appear that any part of the natural system (not even the smallest particle of matter, any more than the vast body of the sun or earth) is ever moved but according to these stated rules. The more nature is studied, and the better it is understood, the more reason have we to believe that its laws are strictly and inviolably observed. ported |