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exercise of the rational faculties in judging of | the nature and character of a miracle?

The allegations that miracles performed by lying spirits must be a trial too severe for all human sagacity and virtue may be met by the question, how then are we to account for the permission of counterfeit miracles, so closely resembling the true, as often to require profound discernment and laborious inquiry to find out the imposture? If it is consistent with the divine perfections to suffer large portions of mankind to be exposed, by the agency of wicked men, to delusions, which a vast proportion of them are not qualified to detect, how can we confidently exclude the agency of seducing spirits from the dispensations of God? Human craft, although capable of being matched by human sagacity, has yet in certain circumstances, as to civilization and knowledge, the power of deceiving whole cominunities of men. Why are we to conclude that a similar power of deception may not be committed to demons? Does it follow that enlightened persons making a right use of their faculties must in this case be utterly incapable of separating truth from error?

As to the extreme case of a heathen encou raged to persevere in idolatry by a miracle wrought expressly for the confirmation of that practice, it is a supposition altogether gratuitous; the thing cannot be: neither can it be imagined that the miraculous proof can be equally strong for the worship of the true God and the worship of idols. And even if this were the fact, there would be other considerations which would lead to a right decision.

"But, after all, the history of the divine dispensations presents us with no such cases. It seems, indeed, impossible, with the Bible open before us, to doubt that superhuman intelligences may have the power of working miracles. Whether that power be inherent in their nature, or only consigned to them by special appointment, is an inquiry of little moinent: for if such beings be allowed to interfere at all in human affairs, their interference must, to us, be miraculous, whether they are acting within their own natural sphere or not. But the great and important circumstance to be observed, is, that the exercise of such power is always represented as under limitation and control. In the Old Testament, the nearest approach to a competition of miracles is to be found in the contest between Moses and the necromancers of Egypt. Now let us, purely for the sake of argument, imagine that those impostors had the advantage of preternatural aid; and let us see whether, even in that case, the contest, as it is recorded, could have left on any well-regulated mind a doubt as to the conduct demanded by the occasion. The sorcerers, we will suppose, were enabled, by a confederacy with evil demons, to convert rods into serpents, and water into blood, and to bring up frogs upon the land. But here the efficacy of their enchantments ended; and they were them. selves compelled to acknowledge the working of a superior agent. And then followed such an august display of supernatural power as must have convinced any sane mind, that, if

arm of Omnipotence! What comparison could there be between the performance of the magicians, and the potent word which called hail and fire from heaven, which spread over the land a darkness that might be felt, and which smote all the first-born throughout the realm of Pharaoh? Let us imagine that we ourselves had been witnesses of these scenes, could we have hesitated a moment which to trust, the 'juggling fiends' of Egypt, or the mighty God of Israel? Would it ever have occurred to us, that the finger of the Lord' was to be resisted, because certain strange things had recently been achieved. either by crafty men. or deceiving spirits? Where, then, is the overpowering trial of faith or discernment imped in such an exhibition?" pp. 17-20.

The same principles apply to the New Tes tament: demons are introduced only to be baffled: the authority of Christ over them is decisive: the faith of no man, possessing a sound mind, could be endangered by comparing their power with that of the Son of God.

"On the whole, then, it appears, that, in our speculations respecting miracles, we are not required-because we are not enabled-to draw a clear line of restriction round the agency of invisible beings. But it also appears, that they who feel themselves compelled to admit the possible exercise of superhuman power by beings not absolutely divine, have nothing to apprehend from this admission. The only just inference from it is, that in this particular, as in many others, the divine government is profoundly mysterious. Inscrutable, however, as it is, there is nothing in this department of it to unsettle our reliance on miracles performed for purposes obviously unexceptionable and benevolent. There is, in all the dealings of God, so much that is unfathomable by us, that it must be dangerous to frame our views upon the presumption, that this or that particular course of things is incompatible with his perfections. Whether by the agency of men or demons-certain it is, that delusions of the most abominable kind have been successfully practised. But this, assuredly, does not exempt us from the duty of exercising our judgment on every case of miraculous evidence connected with our salvation. And if we approach the task in a proper temper, we shall not fail to perceive, that the arm of the Lord has been revealed to us in a way that puts to shame all the works of darkness, whether carried on by human or by spiritual agency.

"It may, perhaps, be urged in reply to these remarks, that all deviations from the course of nature, by whatever immediate agency, must be regarded as the work of God, since they cannot take place without his permission; and that, by such permission, he does no less than make the acts his own. Every person, however, at all conversant with inquiries of this nature, must shrink from the aid of so treacherous an argument as this: an argument, which, if admitted, would recoil upon its employer with this dreadful consequence,—that the most fearful prodigies of human wickedness and impiety may be ascribed to the special interference of the Almighty. For, if by permitting

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special sanction, why may not the said of the most gigantic atrocities of But it is needless to dwell longer most dangerous defence. It may be indeed, for us, by any process of reao discriminate between the active and ve providence of an Omnipotent, and independent Being. And yet, every has thought at all on this unfathomact, must surely perceive that nothing darkest confusion can result from any to identify them." pp. 24-27. 'enrose, of whose treatise on the evithe Scripture miracles the substance volume was published as a review, s his definition of a miracle" an act e power of man," establishes the two g positions:

t, that every superhuman act confers agent a superhuman authority, when 1 to for that purpose.

ondly, that it may safely be concluded, h authority is not merely superhuman, lutely infallible and divine, unless one hings can be shown; namely, that the ons of the agent involve some doctrine incredible or inadmissible, or that they variance with some authority at least potent. If, on the contrary, any inaddoctrine be involved, or any acknowauthority invaded, then we are bound o suspend our judgment as to the perce of the miracle, or, at all events, to The pretensions of the person by whom acle is wrought. And, as to the diffiwhich may, in some conceivable cases, the application of this rule, it is our duty on the aid and guidance of that power, n we are taught to look under all other tions."-pp. 30, 31.

he truth of these positions, he appeals moral and intellectual constitution of The first of them will not, where that tion is sound, cause any difficulty: uirer will arrive at a conviction upon ond by a simple process of reasoning. g nothing to repel the evidence before at this more than human authority is e, he will rely upon such miraculous ce as indicative of the Divine will: he reject it till it can be shown to involve ing which renders that belief untenable. o any imagined instances of rival au, such, for example, as that of a dead ised to life by Jesus Christ, and another as Iscariot after his apostacy, the specwould surely not be induced by them to the pretensions in each case as equally ess: he would fall back upon his convicat the world is governed by a righteous and would, with whatever hesitation in an time, eventually take him for his whose doctrine or pretensions involved g repugnant to the unalterable principles t. We are so constituted, that the conce of a superhuman act with unimpeachnets, must be sufficient to compel the of every sound intellect.

n reflections of this nature, the author

miracle, and then the miracle by the doctrine." That all persons who make this charge, are aware of the falsehood and folly of it, we would not affirm. We are bound in charity to suppose that, in many cases, their conduct is to be ascribed not so much to dishonesty of purpose, as to a defect in the reasoning faculty, which renders them objects rather of compassion than of stern censure. The process by which believers in the Christian revelation do arrive at their convictions may be stated in this way: In the first place, they believe Jesus of Nazareth to be a teacher of superhuman authority, because he did such mighty works as exceed the power of man.

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Secondly, finding neither in his own life and precepts, nor in the pretensions of other teachers, any thing to limit their reliance on that authority, they hesitate not to confide in it as absolutely conclusive and divine.

"Thirdly, on the strength of his divine commission they receive all his sayings, and believe him to be the Christ the Son of the living God.

"Fourthly, perceiving the truths revealed by him to be capable of a highly moral and beneficial application, they feel strongly confirmed in the justness of their conclusion.

"Lastly, being thus assured of his plenary authority, they rest on it, not only as proving his own peculiar doctrines, but as furnishing an additional and independent sanction to all the moral principles involved in his teaching. So that morality, which before may have appealed only to reason, now appeals to revelation also.

Now where, it may confidently be asked, is the illogical assumption in this proceeding? We have assumed, as an ultimate truth, what we suppose no one will deny, that man only obeys a natural impulse when he suffers himself to be powerfully influenced by great authority. We have also assumed, that the inquirer is in a tolerable state of moral sanity; that he has in him the elements of morality; for, otherwise, the second step in the above process, if taken at all, would be taken in pure ignorance and blindness. Without such assumption, how could we maintain that man is qualified for any inquiry relating to morals or religion? And what sceptic is there so besotted as to maintain, that, before we can become impartial judges in such questions, we must get rid of all our moral preferences and antipathies? No: the argument, as we have put it above, does not circulate. It does not merely bring us back to the point where we began. It sets off on the firm ground of instinctive moral perception; but it pursues a path which rises at every step, till it leads us round to a position infinitely more elevated and commanding than that from which we started; a position which enables us to survey, more clearly than before, all the grand truths of natural religion, while at the same time it opens a prospect of still greater magnificence, even the kingdom of the Redeemer, with the glory thereof."-pp. 42—44.

Should it be alleged that, by allowing an examination of the doctrine to precede our full

trines even of the Trinity and the Atonement, the reply is, that we are not bound to dispose of this class of difficulties. All that can be expected of the advocates of miracles is, to suggest a criterion which will satisfy the generali ty of sound understandings.

"He is not obliged to concede that a doctrine is inadmissible, merely because certain strange and incredulous mortals refuse their assent to it. A position is not to be rejected as incredible, unless the common sense and feeling of mankind revolt against it. Thus, if a person claiming the authority of a prophet, were to assure us, that murder and fraud are allowable and even meritorious, we might just ly dispute his pretensions, though supported by the most overpowering apparent display of signs and wonders. But it certainly does not follow that we should be justified in rejecting him and his miracles, if he were to tell us of the incarnation of the Son of God; although many persons may be found, who profess themselves incapable of embracing any such incomprehensible and mysterious article of faith."p. 50.

It would be well if individuals of a sceptical turn of mind would examine into the grounds of their scepticism. In many instances, it is to be feared that, as in old times, there existed persons who loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; so, likewise, at this day, the resistance to divine truth arises but too often from selfish interests, strong prejudices, and unruly passions.

"It has been suggested by Cudworth, that even geometrical theorems, if connected with offensive moral truths, might, possibly, become the subject of eternal doubt and controversy:* and, if so, we ought not to be surprised at the existence of understandings upon which the evidence of miracles might be absolutely thrown away. They whose intellests are thus perversely fortified, must be left to higher influence. The only miracle that could succeed with them must be wrought upon their own mind."-pp. 53, 54.

Of possible objections arising from extreme cases, there is no end: and to those who imagine or invent miracles, the purpose of which is to establish monstrous and atrocious principles, it is sufficient to reply that we cannot, unless dreadfully depraved, acquiesce in such principles; the moral constitution of our nature forbids it. "As little," the objector may perhaps rejoin, "can I admit the doctrine of

If the Pythagorean proposition, for instance, (Eucl. i. 47,) were to impose on mathematicians the Pythagorean maxim of a strict vegetable diet, what carnivorous student of geometry would ever get to the end of the first book of Euclid? Or if we could conceive the doctrine of Fluxions had, some how or other, been combined with an obligation to abstain from the use of wine, does any one believe that it would have gained its present undisputed establishment throughout the scientific world? Should we not, at this very day, have many at hirsty annalist protesting that he was under an absolute inability to comprehend, or to credit, the system?

eternal punishments." Be it so: to his OF Maker he must stand or fall.

"But, nevertheless, we should by no mea be compelled to admit this sweeping cone sion,-that, by pausing to weigh the doctrin we render the evidence of miracles altogeth nugatory. It may still be safely held, as a ge eral rule, that superhuman acts indicate to man beings an authority, not only superh man, but divine; and that, accordingly, the demand our entire submission. And the fore of this general rule cannot be destroyed by th failure of its application, in certain extreme o imaginary cases, connected, perhaps, wit some peculiar habit of thought, or some anoma lous structure of mind."-p. 57.

The difficulties really incident to our inqui ries on this subject are only such as may b expected by responsible beings in a state o moral probation.

To confirm and illustrate his argument o the admissibility of a doctrine as an elemen in our estimate of the force and value of mi raculous testimony, Mr. Le Bas introduce some very judicious and important remark from Mr. Penrose; and subjoins the following passage from Tucker, which we cite here. partly because it is of an original cast, and partly because it may easily be remembered. "If (says he) a man of honest, judicious character, but a little straitened in present cash, should receive a strong impression in a dream, that his deceased friend had bid him look under a particular bush, where he should find & purse of money; though he had no faith in dreams, it is very likely he might have the curiosity to poke about a little under the bush. If the direction had been, to lay five guineas there, which. on his returning the day after, he should find grown to an hundred, he would hardly care to run the risk: yet, upon the advice being repeated four or five success:V8 nights, with pressing entreaties and expostulations, he might be tempted to try the experi ment. But, if he were commanded to break open a neighbour's house for the money, with an assurance of the deed being lawful and safe, I imagine he would require a better warrant than even twenty dreams, before he would proceed to execution. In like manner, if other persons had told him of having had such dreams, and found them accomplished in all points, upon following their directions, he would want different degrees of evidence to convince him of their being true.

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Therefore, where the facts reported are frivolous, unbecoming, or repugnant to our ideas of justice and mercy, they carry a higher degree of improbability on that very at count: for though we have not so perfecti knowledge of what is agreeable to wisdom and goodness, as to render every thing appearing foolishness and evil, incredible, yet we mast and ought to give their due weight to the judgments of our understanding, that salutary guide given us from God, for our general direction."-pp. 64—66.

"And to this it may be added, (observes Mr. Le Bas,) that the same considerations by which we pronounce on the credibility of miracle, may fairly be resorted to for the pur pose of judging whether it came from God

feel ourselves unable to question its formance."

e the dictates of sound reason; and a to the Scriptures will prove that wise is their testimony. This is re, from Mr. Penrose, by the admoMoses to the Israelites, against a prodreamer of dreams, who should, by signs and wonders, attempt to lead e into idolatry; it being the purpose nighty thus to prove his people --by of our Lord, when charged with ghty works through the assistance of b; and by the solemn anathema of St. inst even an angel from heaven who reach any other gospel than that by the Apostles: all these passages to establish the same conclusion to und reason would conduct us. uppose that we are in dispute with a who did not believe, or who did not the existence and moral character of How should we deal with such an adin our endeavour to work his convicin appeal to Revelation?

should begin, I apprehend, by produBook itself; but considering the Vosealed up. We should say nothing to its contents, except merely in general hat it related to the moral government world. We should then tell him, that me had been received under circumwhich leave no doubt of its superhugin; that we have ample proof of its he work of no mortal power or under

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opose, then, by the usual course of exnd historical evidence, this point estabthe satisfaction of the gainsayer; he course, concede that much more attendue to such a record than to any collecmerely human compositions; that is, he t hesitate in ascribing to it more than authority."

should next ask him, " Can you, yoursatisfied to stop here? Are you not seand powerfully impelled to go further? rofess yourself convinced, that we are ed for this communication to some unpower, or agent, or principle, superior manity. Can you, then, endure to limit eliance on that Power, unless you see cogent and irresistible reason for so ?"We do not mean, in this argument, ist on any instinctive persuasion that certainly exists a Sovereign of the Uni; but we ask, is there not within us a sort cle, which declares, at least, thus much: "if there's a Power above us.... he delight in virtue," and in benevolence, truth? And if so, can we, without posiiolence to our nature, cherish the appreon, that a communication, confessedly suman, may either be frivolous and nugaor else a mere instrument of impenetraelusion?

f our antagonist should reply, that he is cious of no impulse which urges him to this t of confidence; that he cannot deny the

point, let the subject or the contents of the Book be what they may;-if such should be his reply, it would seem that the discussion must instantly break off. We could have no means of forcing our opponent beyond his present position; and there he must be left, until more potent influences could be brought to bear upon him.

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But what, (on the other hand,) if he should answer thus:The tendency of my mind certainly is, fully to confide in the Volume which you have produced, and which you have shown to originate in no human intellect. But before any faith in it is complete, I must be satisfied that the Volume itself contains nothing to impair this confidence. It is not absolutely impossible, though it may be very highly improbable, that this Book may have come from an evil and deceitful, though superhuman, power. Before my acquiescence in it, therefore, is free from all reserve, I must be permitted to examine its contents and to decide for myself accordingly. If his reply should be of this nature, I apprehend we should allow it to be perfectly reasonable. We should then unfold to him the Sacred Volume, and if he should discover there nothing but what is suitable to the wants and principles of human nature-if he should find in it distinct assertions of the existence of a Supreme Moral Governor, with attributes fitted to win his veneration and attachment-might he not fairly rest, with final and plenary confidence, on these assertions and representations as true and faithful, and worthy of all men to be received? And if so, might it not be truly said, that he had been brought to a belief in Revelation without being first compelled to grant, categorically, the existence and attributes of the Deity?

"They who contend that this chain breaks at the link, which connects with our belief in the superhuman power, a strong presumption of the divine authority-are, in reality, contending, that all human reasonings on this subject must be utterly vain and inconclusive. If the above process be vicious and circulating, so must all others resorted to for the confutation of Atheism. For let the Works of God, be substituted in the argument, for the Word of God, and precisely the same objection may be started. If we are without a natural and ultimate reliance on the hypothetical maxim, that if God exists he must be righteous and benevolent, the Religion of Nature seems to be quite as much in jeopardy as that of Revelation. Our reasonings respecting either must be impeded almost at their very outset. The objector may declare that he sees in the wonders of Creation only the result of some unknown agency more than human; but beyond that, no argument can ever compel him to advance, if he professes himself wholly destitute of the moral sentiment or principle of faith! If his mind does not sink under the hypothesis of a Supreme Power, capable of abandoning His creatures to uncontrolled deception and falsehood, he will be able to resist all evidence, either of nature or of revelation. Nothing will ever extort from him an acknowledgment, that, by the things that

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Discussions of this nature, as it is observed, (p. 87,) are not to be considered as superfluous; it can never be unimportant to place this subject in a right point of view: and although in our own country few persons are disposed to question the authority, where the miraculous fact is established, there are portions of the world, not unvisited by the Christian Missionary, where, with regard to these matters, the habits of thinking are very different from ours. The allusion is to the Mahometans of the East; and the authority to which Mr. Le Bas refers, is Professor Lee's very striking publication, entitled "Controversial Tracts on Christianity and Mahommedanism, between the late Henry Martyn, and certain Persian Doctors of Islamism." The leading principle of these learned Divines, is that we can pronounce nothing to be miraculous, until we are in full possession of all that can be accomplished by human ingenuity and science: and as the world is in a state of improvement, they assert that it cannot be known till the day of judgment, whether extraordinary acts are miraculous or not: a belief in magic, which the Mahometan regards as an accomplishment purely human, comes powerfully in aid of his scepticisin, founded upon the possible achievements of more extensive knowledge. In addition to this hopeful creed, he is intrenched in the belief, that the Koran is the greatest of all miracles, and that while the evidence for those facts, which Jews and Christians call miraculous, is becoming feebler by lapse of time, and, in the course of centuries, must waste away into insignificance, the evidence for the Koran is, from the continued impossibility of producing any thing like it, daily becoming stronger.

What

The case is certainly a difficult one. are we to say to a man who, when water is turned into wine, will escape from the miracle, by taking refuge with the alchymist? who has witnessed the recovery from pains and fevers, effected by mere incantation? who has known the spleen removed by driving a nail into the middle of a cube? who holds firmly by the magician famous for keeping seven camels in a string, and of such proficiency in his art, that entering in at the mouth of the first, and passing out at his tail, he could with the greatest ease pass through them all? who is persuaded finally that a man well skilled in magic, may restore to life one who has been dead, not three days only, but a much longer time!

But suppose the Mussulman professors to be driven from this argument, how are they to be dislodged from that other refuge of lies, their belief that, whatever miraculous works may have been done in former times-the Koran is in itself of all miracles the most irrefragable; and that it exalts their prophet far above all other prophets, Moses and Jesus not excepted. Professor Lee seems to regard the case as for the present well nigh hopeless; and recommends that the ground of miracles be abandoned, and that of prophecy taken, as affording much more safe and advantageous positions with a Mahometan disputant.

"There is (proceeds Mr. Le Bas) but too much reason to believe that these views and apprehensions of Professor Lee are well founded. But, notwithstanding all these obstacles, every

one must agree with Mr. Penrose, that it is of
the last importance to have the whole question
of Miracles, in all its bearings, accurately set-
tled. The argument respecting them is a wea-
pon which should be brought to its highest
perfection of keenness and brightness. It must
be kept in readiness to assail the monster, if
ever it should be stripped of the scaly epider-
mis, which now seems to render it invulnerable.
The skill and labour of Mr. Penrose have been
eminently serviceable in giving to the imple-
ment its proper temper: and it is no fault of
his, if its edge is still resisted by belluine tough-
ness and insensibility."-p. 109.

We certainly are disposed to treat with great
deference and respect any opinion deliberately
advanced by Professor Lee, and deliberately
sanctioned by Mr. Le Bas; but, when we ob
serve what deeply-rooted prejudices have, m
parts of the world apparently very hopeless,
vielded to the force of truth, we should be dis-
inclined to give up altogether the argument of
miracles, even with "the learned Doctor Hagi
Elharamein Mohammed Ruza, or with Mirza
Ibrahim himself, Preceptor of all the Moolas.”
These venerable doctors may have, for any
thing that we know, a very scaly epidermis:
but perhaps it is not impenetrable; Abab
was pierced through the joints of his harness;
other divines of the same fraternity probably
have less of this belluine toughness; and some
of these may feel the sharpness of the weapon,
of which their better protected superiors would
be utterly insensible. At any rate, the expe-
riment has scarcely at this moment been sum-
ciently tried. With every allowance for the
force of Mussulman education, it is difficult to
conceive that all the arguments contained in
this volume would produce no impression upon
a single Mahometan; and while approving
very highly the use of the evidence from pro-
phecy with these eastern disputants, we would
not at present abandon in absolute despair the
ground of miracles.

The latter part of this volume is occupied with matters bearing upon the main body of Mr. Penrose's disquisitions, which that gentleman conducts to the following method:

"He, first, shows that those acts which are related in Scripture as miraculous, fully deserve that title, being acts of a power unequivocally superhuman. He, secondly, proves that we have full evidence of their real performance. And, lastly, he shows that there is, in the doctrines which these miracles attest, nothing to shake our confidence in the authority which they indicate. The conclusion is obvious. The miracles must have proceeded from God; and the authority of Revelation must be divine." p. 110.

In pursuing these inquiries, Mr. Le Bas introduces quotations of some length. As we cannot conveniently compress the arguments, and have not room for copious extracts, we shall do little more than express our concurrence in the very favourable opinion here pronounced upon the manner in which Mr. Penrose prosecutes the discussion.

In speaking of the first of these propositions, Mr. Le Bas takes occasion to bestow a few severe but very just animadversions upon the rationalizing divines of the German school;

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