S M. D. H. A Christianity is a system of doctrines founded on miracles, every attempt to explain their nature and enforce their credibility deserves to be treated with candour. Allow me, therefore, to offer a few hints to the consideration of your numerous readers, which are a summary of those reflections which have produced in my mind a belief in the miracles on satisfactory evidence and rational conviction. The Founder of Christianity said to the Jews, "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not." John x. 25, 37. It has, however, unfortunately hap pened, from the ideas entertained of the nature of miracles, that formidable objections have been made to the truth of the doctrines founded on them in ancient and modern times. The Jews, believing in magic and the interference of evil spirits, ascribed our Saviour's miracles to Beelzebub. But as the present improved state of knowledge has rooted from the minds of men the belief in magic, the Christian apologist has not now to combat with this childish superstition. Modern objections have taken a different turn, and been principally grounded on the idea that miracles are riolations of the laws of nature. Thus Mr. Hume, in his Essays, says, "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined." Many of the friends of Christianity whose writings I have consulted, acknowledge that miracles are deviations or departures from general laws. Mr. Farmer, in his Dissertation on Miracles, observes, "Every sensible deviation from, or contradiction to, the known laws of nature, must be an evident and incontestable miracle." Dr. Priestley, in his Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, has a short section on the Nature and Use of Miracles, in which he observes, that "though it be wise to establish general laws, yet occasional deviations from them may contribute more to promote the same end than a perfect uniformity." He then proceeds to point out the advantages of these deviations, and at the conclusion makes the following important remark: 66 Strictly speaking, indeed, it is improper to say the laws of nature are violated in working of miracles, because they are no more than the effect of an adequate power in nature exerted. But this view of miracles by no means affords any objection to the use of them that is here contended for, since whatever demonstrates the interposition of a power superior to human, must be referred to the operation of God, mediately or immediately, nor is it possible that any religion should have a stronger sanction than such works as these." Supported by such authority, I beg leave to define a miracle to be a work superior to human power, which God enables a messenger whom he has sent to perform in attestation of his divine mission, by the immediate agency of physical or material causes. If it be supposed that no being besides God ever wrought a real miracle, which appears to me to be the truth, the definition which I have given will not be materially affected. It is acknowledged they were wrought mediately or immediately by the power of God. The question to be considered is simply this,-Was this power exerted in violation of the laws of nature? * Institutes, I. 255. I shall endeavour to shew that this view of miracles is not unphilosophical, unscriptural, nor dangerous in its consequences, but likely to prove advantageous to the Christian cause. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, his resurrection, commonly, though not strictly and philosophically speaking, may be considered as a deviation from a general law for there exists not in nature a law more general than the law of fermentation or putrefaction. It takes place in animal, vegetable, and even mineral bodies. It is the great law by which nature continually destroys her own works, and thence proceeds to a new creation. Now this law was prevented from taking effect in the body of Lazarus by a miracle. But it is well known this process may be prevented, stopped or accelerated by the skill of inan, at different times and with different views. When suspended animation is restored to persons apparently drowned or suffocated by some such means as are recommended by the Humane Society, this law is prevented from taking effect in their bodies; but the members of this benevolent institution do not consider themselves as departing from any general law. The difference between the resurrection of Lazarus and the restoration of suspended animation, is only this-the former was the effect of a miracle, that is, a competent power in nature exerted by the will of God; the latter, the consequence of the same cause made active by a skilful and persevering use of means sanctioned by experience and recommended by suc cess. The phrases, a violation of the laws of nature," and "deviations or departures from a general law," convey no definite ideas to the mind. A law cannot be said to be violated unless it be known, nor a rule departed from unless it be understood. The causes which produce those effects of which we have an unalterable experience, have hitherto eluded the tests of experimental philosophy, and baffled the reasonings of human wisdom. "Wherever it is imagined that the laws of nature are contradicted, the true state of the case is entirely mistaken; for the laws of nature continue always the same; and where there is any change in the effect which we observe, the change is made in the things them selves, that is, in their essences or properties." But perhaps I may be referred to a passage in the Book of Joshua which appears, at first view, a violation of the laws of nature. It is recorded in Josh. x. 12, 13: "Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun! stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon; and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies." It is well known that the diurnal motion of the sun and moon is not real, but apparent, arising from the revolution of the earth round its axis. The laws by which the solar system is governed are so well understood, that the eclipses of the sun and moon, and their duration, may be calculated for ages back and for ages to come. To produce the phenomenon of the sun's standing still, the diurnal rotation of the earth must have been stopped, which would have been followed with consequences as destructive as those of the general deluge. But Joshua was unacquainted with the principles of astronomy. He supposed the diurnal motion of the heavenly bodies to be real, and not merely apparent. On this supposition there is a peculiar energy and beauty in his speech : ،، Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon." This was the word of Joshua, and the signal of battle. The armies engage, and confidence, courage and Providence on one side, with consternation and dismay on the other, procured for the Hebrew General a speedy and decisive victory. And when the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies, the sun appeared to be upon Gibeon, and the moon upon the valley of Ajalon. By the figurative expressions, "and hasted not to go down about a whole day, and there was no day like that, before or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man," the writer testifies his admiration of the splendid event which he relates. The victory was complete before night separated the * Ben Mordecai's Letters, Lett. VII. p. 11. combatants. It was the most brilliant on record, and gained in the shortest time. The word which Joshua spake in the sight of Israel was accomplished. Viewing this passage as a sublime, poetical figure, it is one of the most striking in the Old Testament. To those who consider this passage as the relation of a real miracle, I have only to observe, that it was wrought in attestation of the divine mission of no prophet, in confirmation of the truth of no doctrine, and that the miracles of Moses, of Christ and his apostles, are not liable to the objections to which, when taken in a literal sense, it is justly exposed. Let us, for example, consider the miracle of calming the sea, recorded in Luke viii. To say that this was a violation of the laws of nature, would be a departure from the principles of true philosophy; for "there is no man so well skilled in the principles of meteorology as can certainly foretell the state of our atmosphere for the very next day, and yet it reaches but a few miles from us; we are unable to judge whether we shall have fair weather or foul, calm or stormy, or even from what point the wind will blow." * No man has been able to calculate the latitude and longitude of a storm, the minutes and seconds of the duration of a tempest, or to favour the world with a projection of the devastations of a future hurricane. The causes which produce these effects are unsearchable; but a "firm and unalterable experience" has proved that the effects themselves are partial. Thunder, lightning and earthquakes have been rationally accounted for on the principles of electricity; and winds have been considered as the effects of heat and cold, by which the air is rarified or condensed. Those who attend to these subjects will find no difficulty in conceiving that there is in nature an adequate power to produce the calm spoken of by Luke, though they must, at the same time, acknowledge, that to give it activity is beyond the skill of man. When Jesus walked on the sea it is evident that his body must have been rendered lighter than the water on which he trod. If it be asked, by what means? I answer, without hesitation, I cannot tell. But the means whereby air-balloons and many bodies have been rendered lighter than the lower regions of the atniosphere, which is of less weight than water, are well known. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, but by supposing a continued addition of an homogeneous substance, otherwise the one would not have been bread nor the other fish. Or, in other words, the loaves were multiplied by the same cause that produces farina in a grain of wheat; and the water made wine, by the cause which generates juice in the grape; and that these causes are material none will deny. The nobleman's son was cured of a fever when Jesus was at a distance. (John iv. 46.) The cause of fever is as unknown as that of electricity. But be it what it may, it is a material one, as it affects a material body; and it is difficult to conceive how it can be instantaneously removed by any other means than by the counteraction of another material cause. Mr. Hume's argument against the credibility of miracles may be stated as follows, without lessening its force: "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; a violation of the laws of nature is contrary to a firm, unalterable experience. Therefore the proof against a miracle is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined." This sophism may be easily detected. The first or major proposition, which contains the conclusion, is false. "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature." This Mr. Hume has not proved, and I believe no man will be able to prove it, to the end of time. But I may be asked, of what use are these speculations? If not useful, they are at least harmless. They threaten to undermine no creed reverenced among Christians, nor to overturn any system but the system of infidelity. The conclave at Rome may adopt them without endangering the Cardinal's hat or the Pope's mitre. Indeed, I know not but they may prove of some use. They may save the Christian apologist and the Christian divine the learned labour and the metaphysical ingenuity of accounting for variations that never happened, departures that never took place, and deviations that never existed. They may remove from the minds of many those heavy loads which press hard upon them, when they consider God as under the necessity of deviating from the established order of things, and of violating the laws of nature, to promote the moral improvement of his rational creatures. Human reason can receive no higher pleasure than when it contemplates God as giving existence, in his all-comprehensive mind, to distant futurities, and as establishing in nature such general laws, as are fully adequate, without the least shadow of a change, to accomplish all the purposes of his will. When the Divine Being is considered as enabling a prophet to work miracles by the agency of a competent power existing in nature, the mind is relieved from many perplexing doubts. The idea is not complex, and so far is it from being contradicted, that it is confirmed by the discoveries of philosophers. When a metal, by the action of fire, has been reduced to a calx or glass, it may be revivified, and recover all its metalline properties by a simple process known to the lowest mechanic. And shall it be considered as a violation of the laws of nature, if God be represented as enabling the great architect, whom he fore-ordained to create all things anew, by a process far more simple and expeditious, to calm the rage of a storm, to restore suspended animation, to give vigour and streng to a withered limb, and health and soundness to a diseased body? Nothing has more retarded the progress of religious knowledge so effectually as the idea, for ages entertained and inculcated, that the truths of Christianity are too sublime for the comprehension of human reason. The people have been exhorted to believe, but not to examine. That philosophy, the fairest child of reason, should shrink from a religion thus recommended, is not to be wondered at. But it is to be hoped that this period of the stationary, or rather retrograde motion of religion, is now closed; that her course is direct and progressive; and that, ere long, true philosophy will bow at her altars, assert her honour, and defend her cause. Let not, then, the Christian be disheartened. The Sun of Righteousness continues to rise to its meridian altitude; the clouds which obscure its lustre gradually vanish before its all-powerful beams. No Joshua can say to it, with a prevailing voice, "Sun, stand thou still;" for behold it shall "shine more and more unto the perfect day." to BEREANUS. Newport, Isle of Wight. SIR, HAVE not the whole of the volumes of your Repository at hand consult whether Mr. Le Clerc's views upon the Inspiration of the Scriptures have ever been communicated to you or not. They have appeared to me to merit a wider diffusion by means of that valuable work, and to be too interesting to your readers not to give pleasure. If your opinion should be the same, the following summary of them is much at your service. It is found in a small volume, now, I believe, very scarce, and first written anonymously, entitled, Five Letters concerning the Inspiration of the Translated from the Scriptures. French, 1690. They were not originally printed in this form, but are extracted from two larger volumes of an epistolatory kind; the first entitled, The Thoughts or Reflections of some Divines in Holland upon Father Si mon's Critical History of the Old Testament; the second, A Defence of those Thoughts, in Answer to the Prior of Bolville.* W. S. "In the first place, I believe that no prophet, either of the Old or New Testament, has said any thing in the name of God, or as by his order, which God had not effectually ordered him to say; nor has undertaken to foretell any thing which God had not indeed truly revealed to him; and that this cannot be doubted of without great impiety. "In the second place, I believe that there is no matter of fact of any importance, related in the history of the Old or New Testament, which in effect is not true. And that, though there may be some slight circumstances, wherein some of the historians were mistaken; yet we ought, nevertheless, to look upon that history, in general, as the truest and most holy history * The reader will find some account of these Letters in our XIIIth Vol. p. 86. that ever was published amongst men. I am persuaded, that those who writ it were very well informed of all they relate, and that they had not the least intention to deceive us; insomuch that it was impossible they should fall into any considerable error; as neither can we do, in believing what they have said. And, that there may be no equivocation, by a matter of importance I mean all the commandments that the sacred historians assure us were given to the Jews by God; all the miracles that are found in the history of the Scripture; all the principal events in that history, and, generally, all the matters of fact on which our faith is grounded. In the third place, I believe, with all Christians, that all the doctrines proposed by the authors of the Scriptures, to Jews and Christians to be believed, are really and truly divine doctrines, although it may be supposed that they did not immediately learn them from heaven; I am as much persuaded as any man, that there is no sort of reasoning made use of in the dogmatical places of the Holy Scripture, (where the prophets and apostles instruct us concerning the promises or the will of God,) that can lead us into error, or into the belief of any thing that is false, or contrary to piety. 66 "I believe, in the fourth place, that Jesus Christ was absolutely infallible as well as free from all sin, because of the Godhead that was always united to him, and which perpetually inspired him: insomuch, that all that he taught is as certain as if God himself had pronounced it. "In the last place, I believe that God has often dictated to the prophets and to the apostles the very words which they should use. Of this I have also given some examples. "In these things I agree with all Christian divines; and I believe, farther, as well as they, that these five heads of our belief may be undeniably proved against libertines and atheists, by the authority of Jesus Christ and his apostles; to whom God has borne testimony by an infinite number of miracles, which are more clearly demonstrable to have been really done, than any fact whatsoever of all ancient history. For example, it may be proved, by positive testimonies of matters of fact, that Jesus Christ did really rise again from the dead, and that the apostles had the gifts of miracles, more clearly than it can be proved that ever there was a Roman Emperor called Trajan. "The authority of the Holy Scripture being thus settled, I will now shew you wherein it seems to me that the generality of divines are deceived, and in what I am not of their opinion. "They affirm, that all that is in the sacred books, histories, prophecies, &c. has been immediately inspired, both as to the matter and the words that all the books in the Jews' catalogue ought to be reckoned amongst the inspired books: that when the apostles preached the gospel, they were so inspired that they could not be deceived, not even in a thing of no consequence at all; and that they knew at the very first, without any exercise either of reason or of memory, what they were to say. "On the contrary, my opinion is, that it is only in prophecies and some other places, as in the sermons of Jesus Christ, and where God himself is introduced as speaking, that the matter or things have been immediately revealed to those who spoke them: that the style, for the most part, was left to the liberty of those who spoke or writ: that there are some books that are not inspired, neither as to the matter nor the words, as Job, Ecclesiastes, &c. : that there are some passages which passion dictated to those that writ them, as many curses in the Psalms: that the sacred historians might commit, as they have actually committed, some light faults, which are of no moment: that the apostles, in preaching their gospel or in writing their works, were not ordinarily inspired, neither as to the matter nor the words; but that they had recourse to their memory or their judgment, in declaring what Jesus Christ had taught them, or framing arguments, or drawing consequences from thence: that the apostles, while they lived, were only looked upon as faithful witnesses of what they had seen and heard, and as persons well instructed in the Christian religion, whereof no part was unknown to them, or concealed by them from their disciples; but not as men that preached and taught by perpetual inspiration. I believe, indeed, that they were not deceived in any point of doctrine, and that it was very unlikely they should be so; because the Christian religion is |