-
WORKS
RIGHT REV. BISHOP HAY
WORKS
OF THE
RIGHT REV. BISHOP HAY
OF EDINBURGH
VOL. VI. ON MIRACLES: VOL. I.
A NEW EDITION
EDITED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF
THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP STRAIN
WILLIAM BLACKWrOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH
1873
THE
SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE
OF
MIRACLES
DISPLAYED
BY
THE RIGHT REV. DR GEORGE HAY
BISHOP OF DAULIS, VICAR APOSTOLIC OF THE LOWLAND DISTRICT IN SCOTLAND
A NEW EDITION— IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH
1873
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
THE recent controversy between Dr Middleton and his opponents has produced so many elaborate treatises on Miracles that the public may well be weary of the sub ject, and of the various theories propounded. The line taken by Mr Hume and his free-thinking brethren is well known. They openly deny the existence of mira cles, and their sophistry has called forth many zealous Christians to defend this highly-prized prerogative of revelation.
After the able arguments adduced by these gentlemen it may be thought that the subject is exhausted, and that a new work on Miracles must be superfluous. A little reflection, however, will show that this is not the case, and that much yet remains to be done. Indeed the chief point in dispute is still undecided ; for, notwith standing all that has appeared, learned writers themselves have not arrived at distinct and clearly-defined ideas upon various points, and therefore it is not wonderful that they have failed to impart settled convictions to their readers.
Vlll PREFACE.
This may 'be traced chiefly to three causes. First, The several writers have conceived different ideas of a miracle, and these they have expressed by various defini tions. Proceeding upon opposite principles, and treat ing different subjects under the same name, they have arrived at different and often contradictory conclusions, thus producing a still further confusion of ideas.
Secondly, In order to acquire a full knowledge of the subject of miracles, there are several preliminary points to be examined. Of these some are comparatively plain and simple, and ought to serve as guides in inves tigating others which are more abstruse and intricate. But none of the writers, so far as I have seen, have taken a full and comprehensive view of all the several heads. Generally confining their inquiries to one par ticular point, they assume that their readers are con versant with all the others from which their arguments are drawn. But, as this is rarely the case, their reason ing appears obscure and inconclusive, even when they have truth upon their side ; and when they are defend ing error, it perplexes and bewilders their readers.
Thirdly, Even Christian writers, when treating of miracles, have paid too little attention to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. This omission has not entirely escaped the observation of Dr Middleton and his op ponents, for they mutually charge each other with the neglect of Scripture proof. Mr Hume and his followers not only discard the Holy Scriptures from their pages, but would ridicule any one who attempted to confute them from these sacred records. Thus the Word of God
PREFACE. IX
has been in a great measure excluded from this contro versy, whereas, miracles being the work of the Omni potent, it is chiefly, if not solely, from His sacred Word that we can be thoroughly instructed regarding them. Besides, the Word of God contains the most ample infor mation upon every point relative to miracles, and there fore it is the more surprising that it has been overlooked and neglected by Christian authors.
Any attempt to supply this defect, and clearly to eluci date the Scripture Doctrine of Miracles, seems calculated to benefit the cause of religion, and may not be unac ceptable to Christians generally. This has been the author's aim, but how far he has succeeded, the judg ment of his readers must decide. Of his own deficiencies he is fully sensible. To elegance of style — a pleasing kind of argument, and skilfully used by the enemies of Christian miracles, he has no pretension. His entire reliance is upon the intrinsic goodness of his cause ; and if he has failed to do it justice, he can only hope that his efforts may induce some abler hand to undertake and prosecute the work.
EDINBURGH, 1775.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
CHAP. I. THE NATURE OF MIRACLES, ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN IDEA, AND THEIR DIF FERENT KINDS, I
i. II. THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE
MATERIAL CREATION, .... 2O
.1 III. THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES, ... 53
ii IV. THE ENDS FOR WHICH MIRACLES MAY BE
WROUGHT, AS DISCOVERED BY REASON, . 65
ii V. THE GENERAL ENDS OF MIRACLES, AS DIS COVERED BY REVELATION, ... 82
ii VI. OTHER GENERAL ENDS OF MIRACLES, AS DIS COVERED BY REVELATION, ... IOS
ii VII. THE PARTICULAR ENDS OF MIRACLES KNOWN
FROM REVELATION, . . . . . 137
ii VIII. THE INSTRUMENTS USED IN PERFORMING
MIRACLES, ...... 169
ii IX. THE AUTHORITY OF MIRACLES, . . . 22O
ii X. THE CRITERION OF MIRACLES, . . . 259
THE
SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE
OF
MIRACLES DISPLAYED.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES, ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN IDEA, AND THEIR DIFFERENT KINDS.
I. /^\F the word miracle we find a great variety of VV definitions given by the learned. Some writers, looking only to the results, tell us that as " effects pro duced by the regular operation of the laws of nature are called natural, so effects contrary to this settled con stitution and course of things are miraculous''1 Others include the producing cause, without which they think we cannot have a proper idea of what a miracle is. " A true miracle," says Le Moine, " is a sensible, unusual operation or effect above the natural ability or inherent power of natural agents — that is, of all created beings — and therefore performable by God alone."
VOL. i. A
2 CHAPTER I.
Some confine their notion of the producing cause to God only, as in Le Moine's definition ; others admit as true miracles what may be performed by created beings of a nature superior to man. Thus Mr Chub, defining what he understands by miracles, expresses himself as follows : " This term, I think, is used to express a sensible effect, which is above the natural ability or inherent power of man to cause or produce; which is likewise above, or besides, the ordinary course of nature ; and which also is produced by the agency or co-operation of an invisible being." Dr Chandler, in his discourse on the nature and use of miracles, gives a very singular definition of them, and says that only is a miracle " where the action exceeds the utmost capacity of the agent."
We find another cause of this difference among these writers regarding the nature of a miracle arising from their different ideas of what is natural and what is supernatural. According to Le Moine, the words nature and natural are the same as creation and created ; and consequently, in his opinion, nothing is supernatural but what immediately belongs to or is done by God alone. Others confine the words nature and natural to the material creation, and consequently give the term supernatural to the opera tions of spiritual created beings, as well as to those of the Creator, as we have seen in the definition of a miracle given by Mr Chub. Others, again, use these terms with out explaining whether they take them in the one sense or the other. Thus the Bishop of St David's, in his vin dication of the miracles of our Saviour, says: "A true miracle is properly a supernatural operation, disagreeing with and repugnant to the usual course of things and the known laws of nature, either as to the subject-matter or the manner of its performance."
Many of our latest writers on this subject giv.e a still
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. 3
more vague definition of miracles, calling them " effects unusual above human power, and manifesting the inter position of superior power." According to Mr Locke, no more is requisite to constitute a miracle than that it should appear such to the spectator; for he calls it "a sensible operation, which exceeds the capacity of the spectator, and which he believes to be contrary to the course of nature, and judges to be divine." Mr Hume, with his vaunted precision, says : " A miracle may be ac curately defined a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent." — Ess. on Mir., p. 182. And in another place he calls it a violation of the usual course of nature. Finally, to cite one more, " Every sensible devia tion from, or contradiction to, the known laws of nature, must be an evident and incontestable miracle," says Mr Farmer, p. 21.
II. Whoever attentively considers these several defini tions will easily perceive the very different ideas which they convey. It is not my intention to examine their respective merits or demerits. Some of the above-named gentlemen have already endeavoured to expose the de fects of those given by others, while their own have not escaped the censure of their opponents. This great difference, however, among writers, is one plain cause of the many different systems that have been formed regard ing miracles ; and it seems surprising that so many great men should disagree so widely on a subject which has now for ages been discussed among the learned. For this, however, various reasons may be assigned. Some seem to have been prejudiced in favour of a precon ceived hypothesis, and to have adopted only such ideas of miracles as could be reconciled with it. Some have considered the subject only in a partial manner,
4 CHAPTER I.
and hence their explanations are defective. Others have not sufficiently cleared their own ideas, nor assigned a precise meaning to their terms, and hence they use he same words in various senses, thereby causing confusion and obscurity. In order, therefore, to avoid as much as possible these defects, I propose first to take a view of the things themselves which are the subject-matter of miracles, and also of the agents by whom miracles are performed ; and, in doing this, to give a precise explana tion of the terms proper to the subject, from which the definition of a miracle, according to the Christian sense of the word, will naturally flow.
III. (i.) The works of God, which fall more or less under our observation and experience, are comprised in the visible and material creation. Of these, some aie more immediately subject to the examination of our senses, as the earth on which we dwell and the things upon it ; others, as the heavenly bodies, being at a dis tance, we know only by observation, and argue about chiefly by calculation and analogy. To this material visible creation we give the name of nature.
(2.) To all those parts of nature which fall under our immediate observation we find that the Creator has given certain powers or forces, which, when applied in their proper circumstances, produce certain uniform results. Thus the power of gravitation causes bodies near the earth to tend towards its centre ; the rays of the sun fall ing upon the earth produce light and heat ; seeds sown in a proper soil produce plants and trees ; food taken into animal bodies nourishes and strengthens them ; the annual motion of the earth round the sun produces the different seasons of the year, and its diurnal motion round its own axis causes day and night.
Now, as all these powers of created nature are found
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. 5
by observation to act in a constant uniform manner, and in certain circumstances always produce the same effects, if we inquire whence arises this uniform connection be tween natural created causes and their effects, we must at last attribute it to the will of the Creator. It is true that in many particular cases we may observe a mechani cal fitness between the cause and its effect, as in the mechanism of a watch or clock ; yet, if we carry our in quiry farther, and ask whence these mechanical powers come to act in such and such a manner, we must even tually end in the will of the supreme Author of nature. Thus, in examining the powers of gravitation and attrac tion, the sensations excited in our mind by the action of external bodies on the organs of our senses, and the pro duction of light and heat by the rays of the sun, we can see no mechanical connection between the cause and its effects, and therefore must attribute this constant unifor mity to the will of the Creator impressed as a law at the creation. Hence the learned world has justly given the general name the laws of nature to these constant uniform rules by which natural causes in certain circumstances never fail to produce certain effects.
(3.) When a being in this visible creation exerts its natural powers, it is called a natural agent. If it be necessarily applied to action, without any free-will to con tinue or suspend its operations at pleasure, it is called a necessary agent. If it is endowed with free-will, and can act or not act by its own choice, it is called a free agent. Fire, for example, is a necessary agent, because it has no free-will nor choice in its operations, but of necessity burns and consumes the fuel placed upon it. Man, on the contrary, is a free agent, because he is not necessitated to perform the operations that are proper to him, but may or may not perform them, as he pleases.
6 CHAPTER I.
(4.) We learn from experience that among the several powers or forces observed in different creatures, some are stronger, others weaker ; and when two unequal powers meet in opposition to each other, the weaker is overcome ; and that law of nature, by which it would otherwise pro duce its proper effect, is suspended by the superior act ing power. Thus, though by the laws of gravitation a stone is always drawn towards the centre of the earth, and if left to itself would immediately fall towards it, yet, if a force superior to that of gravity in the stone be ap plied — from the strength of a man's hand, for example, or of gunpowder — it may be made to fly upwards from the earth by a motion diametrically opposite to that which the laws of gravitation produce, which laws are in this case said to be suspended by a superior force applied in opposition to them. Numberless similar examples might be mentioned, from which it is evident that the powers or forces given by the Almighty to different creatures have in each only a certain degree of strength, and that they may be hindered from producing their proper effects; or that even quite opposite effects may be produced in them by stronger and opposite powers counteract ing them; or that the laws of nature, by which these powers produce their effects, may be suspended for a time by contrary and stronger laws acting in opposition to them.
(5.) A "suspension of the laws of nature," or " to sus pend the laws of nature," are expressions frequently used by writers on miracles ; but perhaps the term "a suspen sion of the usual effects of these laws " would convey a clearer and more precise idea. These expressions may be understood in two ways ; for they may either imply a temporary annihilation or destruction of the very power itself in the agent, or they may only mean the preventing
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. /
the sensible effect of that power, while the power itself remains entire. It is in this latter sense only that it seems necessary to use these expressions for the purpose of miracles. In fact, the former signification is not always true, nor is it at all requisite to suppose it for understand ing this matter. When, therefore, I say that the laws of gravitation are suspended if a stone is made to fly upwards, I do not mean that the power of gravity is annihilated in the stone. I know it still continues to exert its usual force, but that its sensible effect of mak ing- the stone move towards the centre of the earth is suspended for the time, and a contrary effect produced by the superior power which opposes and overcomes it.
(6.) The above remarks on the laws of nature, and on the different degrees of strength bestowed by Almighty God on creatures, hold universally true in all the parts of nature which fall immediately under our observation, and in those also which are distant, as far as we can dis cover from their motions. If, therefore, we argue from analogy, it is reasonable to conclude that all the other parts of nature, without exception, are governed in the same manner by certain uniform and fixed laws, by which their powers, operations, and effects are regulated and determined according to the views and ends of their sove reign Creator. And when we consider the powers im pressed by Him on the different parts of the material creation, differing from one another in degrees of strength, we see that the natural effects of the weaker forces must be superseded and suspended when a greater power acts in opposition to them. If, therefore, we gradually ascend from the weaker to the stronger powers, or from the weaker to the stronger laws, by which the operations of these powers are regulated, we must at last arrive at powers and laws superior to all corporeal agents, and whose
8 CHAPTER I.
effects can be suspended only by beings of a nature supe rior to this material creation.
(7.) The belief that there are amongst the works of God spiritual beings of a nature superior to man is con formable to reason ; and revelation not only assures us of their existence, but also discloses to us various parti culars concerning them, to the knowledge of which un assisted reason never could attain. It teaches us that these spirits, at their first creation, were placed for a time in a state of trial ; that some of them, persevering in their fidelity, were confirmed in happiness, are now in full enjoyment of the presence of God, and are employed by Him in executing His sacred commands throughout the universe ; that others, revolting against their Creator, were immediately punished, degraded from their high station, banished from the face of God, and condemned to eternal torments. Revelation teaches us that both are endowed with many qualities and powers very superior to those of man, as to knowledge, strength, and agility ; that they can produce effects in the inferior creation con trary to all ordinary laws ; that they have a spiritual na ture, and are governed by laws peculiar to themselves, and very different from those which regulate this material creation. It is evident, then, that to include both the spiritual and material creation under the name of nature would occasion a confusion of ideas, as their respective natures, and the laws by which they are governed, are ex tremely different. In order, therefore, to distinguish them, we confine the word nature to the material creation, of which we are a part, and with which we are acquainted. And as spiritual beings are superior to man in their qua lities and powers, to them we give the name of super natural beings. When we consider them as acting in this our lower world, we call them supernatural agents ;
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. 9
and the effects which they produce in nature we term supernatural effects. But as these spiritual beings have a nature peculiar to themselves, with special qualities and powers, when speaking of these we are obliged, from the poverty of language, to apply the word natural to them also, meaning those particular properties which are essential to them, or necessarily belong to their spiritual natures.
(8.) The effects produced by supernatural agents in this material creation may be conceived to be of two kinds, — they may be supernatural either as to the manner only, which must be always the case ; or both as to the matter itself, or the thing done, and the manner of per forming it. If the effect produced exceeds the power of natural agents, then it must be supernatural, both as to the matter and manner. For example, if a man should walk upon water without any visible support, but in visibly borne up by an angel, here the effect is super natural, being contrary to the laws of gravity, by which the body of a man sinks in water ; and the manner also is supernatural, the effect being produced by the ministry of a supernatural agent.
But if the effect could be procured by natural means, and is produced in the present case only in a way superior to the abilities of any natural agent, then it will be supernatural only in the manner. A man may naturally acquire the knowledge of what is pass ing in the most distant parts of the world, but time is necessary that proper information may be brought ; so that this acquisition of knowledge is a natural effect, which may be procured by natural means. But if an angel, coming in an instant from some distant part, should communicate intelligence of what was occurring there, this acquisition of knowledge would be super-
10 CHAPTER I.
natural, not in the thing done, but only in the manner of doing it.
(9.) It is not necessary that every supernatural opera tion or effect should consist in or imply a suspension of any of the laws of nature. A suspension of any of these laws necessarily supposes the existence of some positive law, and of some real force or power, whose effects are superseded by such suspension. Now, many effects may be produced in nature by supernatural agents which do not suspend the effects of any positive law, but only re quire a power superior to that of a natural agent to per form them. Even man can perform many things in crea tures, and produce many effects in them, without violating or suspending any positive law of nature : much more may we suppose supernatural beings capable of doing so.
In the case above mentioned of an angel communicat ing almost instantaneously the knowledge of events oc curring in the most distant parts of the world, there is no positive law of nature suspended, but an effect produced which, as to its manner, no natural agent is capable of performing. In like manner, should Almighty God in a moment give to any man an infused knowledge of the sciences, or the power of speaking all languages, these effects would not be contrary to any positive law of na ture, nor would they imply a suspension of any power in nature ; but it is plain that they would be the effects of a power superior to that of any natural agent, as no power in nature can communicate the instantaneous knowledge of these things to man. Of the same nature also is the raising a person from the dead, in which there is no posi tive law of nature violated, no effect of any natural power suspended \ but, as in the former cases, a new effect is produced out of the ordinary course of nature, and ex ceeding the power of all natural agents. Many other
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. II
similar cases will occur to every intelligent reader, which we shall call effects produced out of, or besides, the usual course of nature, to distinguish them from those which imply a suspension of any of its laws.
(10.) However great may be the strength of created supernatural agents, it has its limits, beyond which it cannot reach. How far it can extend in affecting the material creation, we are unable to determine. It would seem probable that no created agent could suspend those higher laws of nature by which the general frame of this universe is preserved ; for to what purpose would a power have been given to them which they will never have occa sion to exercise as long as the world shall endure ? And when the final dissolution comes, it seems altogether more befitting that the same Almighty Word which .^j first en acted these laws should Himself annul them. Besides these more universal laws there may even be many others the suspension of which exceeds the strength of any created agent ; and as for effects which are out of the usual course of nature, there must be many such pro ducible in the material creation, which can be performed only by the almighty hand of the Creator. As He made all creatures at the beginning, and gave them their re spective natures, qualities, and powers, so He alone can dispose of them as He pleases — alter their natures, de prive them of their powers, change or annihilate them entirely, as He pleases. These effects are all super natural with regard to us, and indeed are so in the most extensive signification of the word ; but when we have occasion to speak of them as distinct from the operations of supernatural created agents, we shall call them divine-
IV. From these observations it will be easy to ascer tain the proper meaning to be affixed to the word miracle. When we see any of the known laws of nature suspended
12 CHAPTER I.
by the power of a superior known law acting against it — for instance, when a stone is thrown upwards by a man's hand, or when we see any effect produced for which we know an adequate natural cause — we are not surprised. But were we to see any of the known laws of nature sus pended without perceiving any cause capable of doing so — were we to see a stone rising from the earth and flying upwards — or, if never having seen nor heard of an eclipse, we should hear an astronomer foretell that at such an hour the sun would become dark, and if this predic tion should be literally fulfilled at the time appointed, — we would be filled with wonder and astonishment. Now, as the word miracle, according to its etymology, signifies a wonderful thing, or a thing that causes wonder, in its most geafiferal sense it may be used to signify all cases of this kind, whether natural or supernatural ; and in this more loose and general signification it is not un- frequently applied in common conversation; for, in relat ing or hearing anything extraordinary or unusual, we say, It is a miracle ! it is miraculous ! without considering whether it may arise from natural causes or not. But this is not the sense in which it is used when we speak with precision ; and if we examine the idea which we have when we mean a miracle properly such, and which accords with the general sentiments of the Christian world, we shall find the following observations holding true : —
1. That it implies an operation, or an effect produced, in this material creation, consequently capable of being known to one or other of our senses ; so that the mate rial sensible creation, to which we give the name of nature, is the subject-matter in which miracles are per formed.
2. That this effect must be extraordinary — that is,
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. 13
either directly contrary to the known laws of nature, and to the natural powers of creatures, which are regulated and determined by those laws ; or, that it be besides the usual course of nature, either as to the effect produced or the manner of producing it. For the moment we conceive that any event, however uncommon, may arise from natural causes, or is conformable to the usual course of nature, we immediately lose the idea of its being a miracle.
3. That this operation or effect be not only performed by a supernatural agent, but also that we be persuaded there is no natural agent capable of performing it, at least in the manner ; for here also we find that our idea of the miraculous in any event immediately ceases the moment we suspect that it may be produced by natural agents.
4. That this supernatural agent be either God Himself, or His holy angels commissioned by Him. In Christian theology, there is no doubt but that the devil and his wicked spirits can, by the strength and abilities which are natural to them, perform many extraordinary things in the material creation ; yet certain it is, as the same theology assures us, and as we shall afterwards see in its proper place,* that Almighty God will never permit them so to exercise this power as that their operations cannot be distinguished from those of God Himself, or of His good angels. One idea which the Christian world has constantly attached to miracles is, that they are the seal and language of God, by which He speaks to the heart of man ; and it has always been convinced that God never will permit Satan so to usurp this seal, or so to speak in this language, as to be mistaken for God Himself; but
* See Chapter X. on the Criterion.
14 CHAPTER I.
that all the extraordinary operations which he is ever permitted to perform in the material world, are either in the things done, the end proposed, in the manner of per forming them, attended with such circumstances as evi dently manifest the source from which they flow.
This firm persuasion is grounded upon the prediction of our Saviour, of the extraordinary signs and wonders that will be performed towards the end of the world by false Christs and false prophets, through the agency of Satan, whose ministers these are ; and which signs, He tells us, will be so many and so great at that time, " as to lead (if it were possible) even the elect into error," Matt, xxiv.; which expression evidently shows that though those signs and wonders will be great, yet their delusion will not be undiscoverable, but that the elect will discover it, and escape being deceived by it. So strongly impres sed are Christians with the idea that miracles are the work of God, or of His good angels only, that as soon as they suspect any extraordinary event to be the work of Satan, they immediately lose all thought of it being mir aculous. They call it a prestige, an illusion, a prodigy, an enchantment, and the like; or, as such operations are em phatically termed in Holy Writ, lying signs and wonders : but their idea of a miracle is exclusively confined to such extraordinary effects as they believe to be the work of God, or of good angels commissioned by Him.
V. These observations being premised, the definition of a miracle, according to the Christian idea of the word, naturally follows — namely, that it is " an extraordinary effect produced in the material creation, either contrary to the known laws of nature, or besides the usual course of nature, above the abilities of natural agents, and per formed either by God Himself, or by His holy angels."
VI. Words indeed are but arbitrary signs, and every
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. I 5
one is at liberty to attach what idea he pleases to any word he uses, provided he explains his meaning. I am therefore far from blaming any other writer who has given a definition of the word miracle different from mine. If he understood the word, according to his definition, he had a perfect right to do so. I have abstained, therefore, from examining the several definitions, and from pointing out what may be thought defective or praiseworthy in them. But as Christian miracles are realities which have actually existed in the world, they must have some pecu liar properties by which a correct idea can be formed of them, and by which they can be distinguished from what they are not. These properties I have endeavoured to investigate, according to what seems the opinion most general in the Christian world, and the most comform- able to the doctrine of Holy Scripture ; and from these properties I have composed my definition of the word miracle.
If this definition be strictly accurate and fully expres sive of what is meant by a miracle, according to the Christian revelation, then it follows that those writers who have assigned to that word different significations, have not had Christian miracles for the subject of their inquiries, but ideas of their own, to which perhaps there is no corresponding object in existence. Thus, when Mr Hume gives us his idea of a miracle, and tells us " that a miracle may be accurately defined a trans gression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposal of some invisible agent," it is evident that, in this sense of the word, there is no such thing as a miracle existing, or possibly can exist ; for, as Dr Campbell justly observes, the word transgression in variably denotes a criminal opposition to authority ; and of this God Almighty is here represented as guilty in
1 6 CHAPTER I.
working a miracle, which is an evident impossibility. Also, if the miracle be wrought by an invisible created agent, in performing it this agent is always guilty of a crime, of an opposition to the divine will. What mon strous absurdities must necessarily follow from such ideas as these ! If, therefore, Mr Hume, or others, instead of miracles have substituted the creations of their own fancy, and have drawn from them conclusions which the Chris tian religion abhors and condemns, we need not be sur prised. These conclusions may naturally flow from the principles which they lay down, but Christianity cannot be affected by them. For, though these writers insidi ously employ the same word to signify their ideas, that Christians use to denote real miracles,* it is plain that their reasonings and conclusions cannot in the least degree affect either Christian miracles or Christianity.
VII. Before leaving this subject, I must observe that some Christian authors of note define the word miracle in a more limited manner than I have done, excluding all created agents, and understanding by it only such extraordinary operations as require the arm of the Al mighty to perform them.
Their reasons are two : First, that when an angel per forms anything unusual to us in this material creation, it is no less conformable to nature than if it were done by man ; nor is it in the least surprising or wonderful to those spiritual beings, who see and know the cause per forming it — for the angel in this case only acts according to his natural power, and produces an effect naturally corresponding to it. Secondly, because the sacred Scrip ture expressly attributes miracles to God only. Thus, Ps. Ixxii. 1 8 : " Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who only doth wonderful things/' Also Ps. Ixxxvi. 10 : " For Thou art great, and dost wondrous things ; Thou art God
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. I/
alone." Again, Ps. cxxxvi. 4 : "To Him who alone doth great wonders : for His mercy endureth for ever." Add to these, Ecclus. xi. 4 : " The works of the Highest only are wonderful." Hence they conclude, that those operations only are to be admitted as miracles which are peculiar to Almighty power, and can be done by none but God. It does not appear, however, that this is the opinion of the Christian world, or that it is the true idea which the Scripture itself conveys. For, according to this limited sense of the word, several remarkable effects related in the Scripture as miraculous, and yet performed by angels, and many others evidently within the power of angels, which fully answer all the ends of miracles, would be entirely excluded..
It would certainly be thought a miracle were a man to stand in the fire and not be touched by it, as was the case with the three children in the fiery furnace; and yet the Scripture declares that this was done by the ministry of an angel. In like manner the deliverance of Daniel from the lions is justly esteemed miraculous, and yet that prophet himself declared that " God had sent His angel and shut up the lions' mouths that they had not power to hurt him." Now both these events produced the full effect intended of convincing two heathen princes that Almighty God alone was the supreme Lord and Master of all things, as much as if they had been the immediate operation of God Himself; yet they, as well as many others, cannot be recognised as miracles if the above limited sense of that word be adopted. However, as there is a great difference between any operation which can be performed by the ordinary power of a created agent, and such as can be done only by the almighty hand of the Creator, it is proper to make a
VOL. i. B
1 8 CHAPTER I.
distinction, and we shall see this more particularly when we come to consider the criterion of miracles.
To miraculous operations, therefore, which can be performed by created agents, we shall give the name of relative miracles ; because, though to man they be real miracles, yet they are not so with relation to the angels, but are effects produced by an adequate cause, natural in that order of beings. Miracles which can be per formed by none but God we shall call absolute miracles, because they are really miracles with ' relation to all creatures, and exceed the natural powers of every created being. This distinction will fully answer the argument from reason, that nothing is to be esteemed a miracle which does not require Almighty power. And to reconcile the Scripture with itself, in answer to those texts above cited, we must say, either that they speak only of abso lute miracles, which are peculiar to God alone; or, if both kinds are to be understood, the meaning is, that God alone doth wonderful things, either immediately by His own hand, or by the ministry of His holy angels, who never perform such wonders but when commissioned and authorised by Him to act.
VIII. We shall now conclude this explanation by taking a view of the different kinds of miracles.
First, then, if we consider the nature of the miraculous effects performed, we find two kinds specifically different, — the one being a suspension of some known law of nature ; and those of this kind we call miracles contrary to the laws of nature. Miraculous effects of the other kind not being contrary to these laws, but new or unusual opera tions performed in nature beyond the power of any natural agent, we call miracles out of, or besides, the ordinary course of nature.
Secondly, if we consider the character of the opera-
THE NATURE OF MIRACLES. 19
tions, this will give us two other kinds no less distinct than the former, such as are supernatural, both in the thing done and in the manner of dging it ; and such as are miraculous and supernatural only in the manner of performing it, but where the thing itself is natural, and may be brought about by natural means.
Thirdly, if we consider the agents, we shall find another division into relative miracles, which can be performed by the natural ability of supernatural created agents, and absolute miracles, which exceed all created power, and can be done only by the great Creator.
20
CHAPTER II.
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE MATERIAL CREATION.
I. T) EFORE we proceed to particulars concerning J_) miracles, it may be proper to consider the idea which the Holy Scriptures give us of the power of super natural created beings to act upon matter, and of their agency in this world. This will illustrate the explana tion given of miracles, and will facilitate our under standing the doctrine of the sacred writings concerning them.
I observed above, that it is from revelation alone that we know with certainty of the existence of spiritual beings, and consequently it is only from the same source that we can draw information regarding their nature, qualities, powers, and operations. It is unjust, therefore, in the adversaries of Christianity, to deny the existence of such beings, or at least to assert that they have no communication with the affairs of men, and, from this groundless supposition, to ridicule, and argue against Christianity and its miracles. For if the existence and agency of spirits in nature be the manifest doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, it is unreasonable to deny this doc trine, while they cannot disprove the divine origin of those sacred writings which contain it. It is no less un-
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 21
just in certain pretended friends of Christianity to allege that the teaching of the holy fathers and primitive Chris tians concerning the agency of spiritual beings in the material creation, was solely owing to their attachment to the heathen mythology, and was the remains of their belief in demons before their conversion ; for we find not only that their teaching concerning spirits is strictly con formable to the Holy Scriptures, but that these very Scriptures are brought by them to prove this doctrine, and are the sources from which they profess to draw it. But still more unjustifiable is it in Christians themselves, who receive the sacred Scripture as divine truths, to call in question what they clearly express concerning spiritual beings and their agency in nature, and to pervert the plain and obvious meaning of the text on this subject, rather than surrender some favourite preconceived opin ion on pretence of being superior to what they call the prejudices of vulgar minds. A plain view of what is contained in the Word of God, will at once show the folly of such conduct.
II. The belief in the agency of spiritual beings in the material world has passed through various phases within the last two centuries. At the period of the Reformation, when Catholics urged the invincible weight of miracles in their communion as a proof of the truth of what they taught, and consequently as the strongest refutation of the new tenets, the first reformers had not yet dis covered Dr Middleton's ready answer to all pleas of this kind. They could not deny the reality of the facts, and therefore did not hesitate to attribute them to the agency of Satan, willingly allowing an unbounded power of this kind even to wicked spirits during what they called the " reign of Papacy."
Afterwards, when Deism and Free thinking became
22 CHAPTER II.
more prevalent, gentlemen of that party found it ex tremely inconvenient to admit the existence of evil spirits ; for devils, hell, eternity, and the like, were in compatible with the leading articles of their belief, and still more with their morality. They sought, therefore, to resolve all miracles into juggling tricks and human im posture. But this plea was soon abandoned as untenable by various serious inquirers, who saw on the one hand many miraculous effects which they could not attribute to the art of man ; and on the other, being unable to find any show of reason for absolutely denying the possibility of supernatural agents, they gladly admitted this, and from it pretended to invalidate the authority of miracles in gen eral, even those of Jesus Christ Himself and of His holy apostles. For how, say they, do we know but that all miracles without exception may be only the work of dif ferent genii or demons, of whom there be many different degrees ? And if the things done be some more and some less wonderful, this may be owing only to the greater or less degree of strength in the assisting demon. Thus, if Moses performed greater miracles than the magi cians of Pharaoh, it only shows that his invisible helper was of a higher order than theirs ; and if the miracles of Jesus Christ were above all that had ever been seen in the world before, it was owing only to the superior abili ties of His assisting genius. Now, say they, as this is possible, it may be true, and all miracles may be the work of demons ; and if this be the case, in vain do we appeal to miracles as interpositions of the Deity, and as proofs of doctrines revealed by Him.
The futility of this line of argument will afterwards be seen, and is indeed a natural consequence of what shall be shown upon the authority and criterion of miracles. At present I shall only observe that these various theories
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 23
concerning the existence and agency of spiritual beings in the material world, show clearly that their respective advocates have no solid ground on which to stand ; that they adopt their opinions at random, as fancy prompts; or, at best, that they are forced to embrace them in sup port of the different systems in which they have been previously engaged, without consulting the only certain source from which they could be fully informed, and, in deed, without examining whether their opinions be con formable to what is there taught or not.
There is still another system regarding the agency of spiritual beings, differing from all the former, lately set forth with great pomp by Mr Farmer. In this it is pre tended that though these beings be of a nature superior to man, and may possess many qualities and powers of a more excellent kind, yet the exercise of them is limited to their own peculiar spheres for which they are adapted ; that naturally they have no power to act in the material creation ; and that when Almighty God is pleased at any time to employ them as His agents in performing anything miraculous, it is not enough that He order or authorise them, but it is also necessary that He impart to them a particular power, extraordinary, and .otherwise not com petent to their nature, to enable them to perform what He so commands.
III. In refutation of these and other such hypotheses, it will be sufficient to display the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures in their own words, where we shall find the following truths clearly declared by the authority of God Himself: i. That spiritual beings, whether good or bad angels, have in their own nature an inherent power to act in this material creation ; that they can move, dispose of, and affect bodies in many different ways ; and that their strength is great, far superior to anything we know
24 CHAPTER II.
or can conceive in this world ; so that they can perform many things marvellous in our eyes, and far above the abilities of any natural agent. 2. That evil spirits have an implacable hatred both to God and man ; and con sequently are most desirous to exert this their natural strength for the injury and destruction of man, and to per form great signs and wonders in order more effectually to delude and deceive him. 3. That, however, in the present dispensation of Providence, their malice is much restrained by Almighty God, who never permits them to exert their natural power to the injury of mankind, but in such man ner and degree as He pleases for His own wise ends— that is, either for the good of mankind, according to the views of His mercy, or for the punishment of their sins, accord ing to the order of His justice. This restraint appears, as we shall afterwards see, both from the nature of the things they are permitted to do, and from other circum stances attending them. 4. That good angels on many occasions have had communication with men, and have often performed extraordinary things on their account, and at their desire, by divine appointment for the benefit and consolation of God's friends and servants. 5. That wicked spirits also, by God's permission, have had fre quent communication with men, and have often done ex traordinary things at their desire, and by their means, for most wicked ends on their part, although justly and wisely permitted by Almighty God for His own most righteous views and purposes. Each of these heads we shall now illustrate separately from the Holy Scriptures ; and afterwards we shall make a short inquiry into the power of spiritual beings to perform things miraculous to us in the material world.
IV. As the first of these is the most important, I shall be more explicit upon it, and show that spiritual beings
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 25
act not only upon matter, but upon all the different parts of it — upon things on the surface of the earth and in the air; the bodies of animals, their health and life; and upon the mind of man : that they can move bodies, change their parts and appearances, and in several other ways dispose of and affect them. The proofs of this from the Holy Scripture are of the most convincing kind, and free from all ambiguity, consisting of repeated facts related in these sacred oracles.
With regard to strength, the angels are represented as excelling in it : " Bless the Lord," says the royal prophet, " ye His angels that excel in strength " — or, as the Hebrew expresses* it, "mighty in strength" — Ps. ciii. 20. St Peter assures us that the " angels are greater in power and might than men," 2 Pet., ii. u; and on this ac count they are called in Scripture, Dominations, Virtues, Powers. This appears also from the strength which the devils sometimes communicate to those whom they pos sess. Thus we are told in the Gospel of a possessed per son, who " had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains ; because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces," Mark, v.
That spiritual beings can exert this power by acting upon matter, is evident from the following instances. An angel wrestled with Jacob. The two angels that were sent to destroy Sodom " put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house," to deliver him from the fury of the people ; " and they shut the door, and smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both great and small," Gen. xix. 10. The angel Gabriel several times touched Daniel, and set him upright, when he had fallen flat on the ground from fear, Dan. viii. ix. x. " An angel
26 CHAPTER II.
came down and rolled away the stone, for it was very great, from the door of the sepulchre/' When the apostles were cast into prison, " the angel of the Lord, by night, opened the prison doors and brought them forth," Acts, v. 19. And the angel that delivered St Peter out of prison smote him on the side and awoke him.
These facts clearly prove that spiritual beings can act upon matter, touch it, move it, and dispose of it in differ ent ways. This is still further evident from the following examples of the several parts of nature wherein their power has been exercised, i. In things upon the earth, we find that the devil changed the rods of the magicians into serpents ; turned water into blooft, and brought up frogs. This is not the place to inquire how this was done ; we only consider the fact, which proves to a de monstration the agency of wicked spirits upon material objects, even to a very high degree, in whatever manner the change, whether real or apparent, was effected. The same Scripture that relates these facts informs us that they were done by enchantment, and in opposition to God, consequently they were therefore the operations of wicked spirits.
2. With regard to their agency in the air, we are told that the devil sent a great wind, which threw down the house where Job's children were assembled and destroyed them ; and that he sent fire and lightning from heaven, which consumed Job's sheep and their keepers. From the power which these wicked spirits have in the air, St Paul calls the devil " the prince of the power of the air," Eph. ii. 2. And again he says, that our spiritual enemies are " principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world," Eph. vi. 12.
3. We find they can inflict diseases upon the bodies of men. Thus, " Satan went forth from the presence of the
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 2/
Lord, and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown," Job, ii. 7. And our blessed Sav iour Himself assures us, that the crooked woman whom He cured upon the Sabbath, and who for eighteen years had not been able to raise herself up, had been kept bound for so long a time in this miserable manner by the devil : " Ought not this woman," says He, " being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day ? " Luke, xiii. 16. Of those persons who were possessed by the devil, as related in the Gospel, some he made dumb, some deaf, and some he threw into fits, tormenting them miserably, and endeavouring even to destroy them by throwing them sometimes into fire and sometimes into water. We are also told that " an angel of the Lord smote Herod, because he gave not glory to God," and that he died in a few days of a most loathsome disease, "being consumed by worms," Acts, xii. 23.
4. It appears further, from the same sacred records, that spiritual beings can take away the life of man and of other animals. Satan destroyed Job's children and his cattle ; a devil killed Sarah's seven husbands ; the de stroying angel, in one night's time, killed all the first born of Egypt, both man and beast. " An angel of the Lord went forth and smote, in the camp of the Assyrians, an hundred and fourscore and five thousand," Isa. xxxvii. 36. The two angels entertained by Lot told him, " we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it," Gen. xix. 13. The devils that entered into the herd of swine drowned them in the sea ; and the angel that withstood Balaam's journey declared to him that he would surely have killed him if the ass had not turned out of the way, Num. xxii.
28 CHAPTER II.
5. That wicked spirits have power to tempt men to sin, both by external occasions and by exciting bad ideas, is, and always has been, a fundamental article of Christian faith clearly laid down in holy writ. As to ex ternal temptations, we find the devil, at the beginning, either taking upon himself the appearance of a serpent, or entering into that creature, and making use of its or gans to converse with Eve, thereby tempting and seduc ing her to sin. In like manner, when our blessed Sav iour was pleased for our instruction to submit to be tempted, the devil appeared visibly, spoke to Him, and carried Him up to a pinnacle of the temple, and to the top of a very high mountain ; and St Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says : " We could have come unto you (even I Paul) once and again, but Satan hindered us," i Thess. ii. 18. And on another occasion he tells us that " an angel of Satan was given to buffet him." With re gard to his internal temptations, the Scripture tells us, " That he taketh away the word of God out of our hearts," Luke, viii. 12. "That he blinds the minds of them that believe not," 2 Cor. iv. 4. " That he transforms himself into an angel of light," 2 Cor. xi. 14, in order to deceive us. " That he goes about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us," i Pet. v. 8. " That he is the old serpent, who is called the devil, and Satan who seduces the whole earth," Rev. xii. 9. These texts require no comment, as they clearly show how great is the strength of wicked spirits to act upon our organs, both external and internal, and even upon our whole persons.
6. As to the agency of good angels, the Scriptures are full of the most convincing examples. Besides what. we have seen above, we are assured that these holy " angels are ministering spirits, sent for the min istry of those who are the heirs of salvation," Heb. i. 14. That " God has given them charge over us to
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 2Q
keep us in all our ways," and that " they carry us in their hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone," Ps. xci. That " they encamp round about those that fear God and deliver them," Ps. xxxiv. That "an angel delivered Jacob from all evil," Gen. xlviii. That " an angel brought bread and water to Elijah in the wilder ness," i Kings, xix. That an angel deprived the fire of its power to burn or touch the three children who were thrown into the fiery furnace by the king of Babylon. That an angel shut up the mouths of the lions, that they might not hurt Daniel. That an angel delivered St Peter out of prison, before whom the iron gate opened of its own accord, as if sensible of the presence and power of that heavenly being.
Now, let any one consider these facts, so repeatedly occurring in the Word of God, and say if he thinks it possible to give more convincing proofs of the power which these spiritual beings have to act upon every part of the material world. For the question is not, how far human ingenuity may wrest the words of Scripture, but whether the plain and obvious teaching of all the above facts is not calculated to imprint upon the mind the strongest conviction of the agency of spiritual beings in the material creation.
I conclude, then — r. That it is a truth plainly and repeatedly revealed by God in His Holy Scriptures, that spiritual beings, both good and bad angels, have power to act upon bodies in this material world in many differ ent ways, and that they frequently exercise it. 2. That this power is natural and inherent in them as spiritual beings • for this is the obvious idea conveyed by all the above testimonies of holy writ. There is not the slightest insinuation to the contrary — nay, in many of the above examples the evil spirits exert their power in opposition to God ; and it would be impious to suppose that in
30 CHAPTER II.
these cases He gives them extraordinary powers, not competent to their natures, to enable them to act against Himself. 3. That it is shameful in any one who • calls himself a Christian to assert that the doctrines taught by the holy fathers concerning the agency of spirits are only the remains of heathenism. How little can such pretended Christians be acquainted with the Scriptures ! or what idea must they have of a Christian world, when they dare to impose such a manifest calumny upon it ! 4. That as it is only from revelation we can learn any thing certain of the existence of spirits, and their agency on material beings, and as revelation is so ex plicit on that head, it is in vain to pretend to argue from reason against it. Reason has no data to go upon, either for or against the existence of spirits or their agency — nay, the analogy from our own soul, and its agency upon the body, is evidently in favour of both. For as by interior consciousness we have the most feel ing conviction that our soul, though a spirit, acts in many ways upon our body, it is evident that a spirit can act upon matter ; and will any one dare to assert that the only way by which Almighty God can communicate this power to spirits, of acting upon bodies, is to unite them in one principle, as our souls and bodies are ?
Seeing, then, the fact of spiritual beings acting in numberless ways on the material creation is so repeat edly affirmed by the Word of God, and that there is not in the whole Scripture the least insinuation to the con trary, with what colour of reason can it be called in question, at least by any one who believes the Scriptures? That spiritual beings do act on bodies, is evidently a revealed truth. How they do so we cannot compre hend, because God has not been pleased to reveal this to us ; but our ignorance is no more a reason for deny-
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 31
ing the fact, than it would be a reason to deny the action of the soul upon the body, because how this is performed we do not comprehend.
That one particle of matter acts upon another, even at a distance, by the power of gravitation and attraction, is a point that will readily be admitted by all Newtonian philosophers ; and, indeed, it is a fundamental principle of their system. But how this is effected we cannot con ceive. Those who have attempted to explain this me chanically have only bewildered themselves to no pur pose, and have been forced to end at last in the difficulty which they attempted to explain. The most judicious, both among divines and philosophers, have resolved this power of attraction, so universally diffused through every particle of matter, to an immediate act of the divine will impressed upon matter as a law, by which it is ordained that all particles of matter, when within certain distances, should act upon one another by attraction, and produce all the various effects which we perceive to follow. And is it not equally easy for the same Almighty will to make a similar law between spirits and bodies, that these latter should be subjected to the former?
The possibility of this cannot be called in question, even in sound philosophy ; and since revelation assures us of the fact, it is most unphilosophical to pretend from reason to argue against it. We must conclude, then, that supernatural created agents have great and extensive powers inherent in their nature as spiritual beings to act upon matter throughout every part of nature ; and that by these powers they can move bodies, change their parts, suspend their natural effects upon each other, and perform many operations in them superior to the abilities of any natural agent, which therefore, with respect to us, are real miracles.
32 CHAPTER II.
V. Having thus proved the first of the five heads pro posed, I now proceed to consider the others, which will be more easily disposed of. The second — that evil spirits, from their malice and hatred to God and man, are most desirous to exert their strength for the destruc tion of man — is declared in the plainest terms by the Word of God, and is indeed the foundation of some of the most important rules of morality in religion.
Besides what we have seen above of the devil's power to tempt man to sin, we are also assured, that " by the envy of the devil death entered into the world," Wis. ii. ; and our blessed Saviour Himself declares, that " the devil was a murderer from the beginning," John viii. St Peter compares his rage and fury against us to that of a roaring lion seeking to devour us, continually going about, and always upon the watch to seize every oppor tunity of doing so. Our Saviour showed the same in the strongest light when he said to St Peter, " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee," Luke xxii. 3 1 ; and it was only by this prayer that the desire of Satan was disappointed, and his design against the apostles frustrated. These expressions show, beyond reply, how eager is the desire of Satan to ruin and destroy mankind both soul and body ; and consequently that he would do so, were not his power restrained and bounds set to his malice by Almighty God.
This restraint put upon the power of Satan, which was the third point above mentioned, is no less plainly delivered in holy writ than the two former. The Egyp tian magicians, at whose desire the devil turned the rods into serpents, and water into blood, and even brought up frogs, could not by their enchantments bring up lice. Here the devil's power was restrained, and the magicians
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 33
were forced to confess that this was the finger of God. Why the devil, by his natural abilities, might not have brought up lice as well as frogs, we see no reason — the one appears as easy as the other ; but it now pleased God to show Himself master ; and therefore, though He permitted Satan to imitate the former miracles of Moses, yet He thought proper now to restrain his power, and put an end to the contest, by securing the victory to Himself and His holy servant.
Notwithstanding the hatred of Satan against Job, yet, till he was permitted, he could not so much as touch a single thing that belonged to him. And it is to be observed, that when the Lord gave this permission to Satan, there is not the slightest hint of giving him any extraordinary strength to enable him to injure Job, but, on the contrary, a plain intimation of his having already strength sufficient for that purpose; and the authority conveyed to Satan by the expression used, is plainly nothing more than leave to exercise his natural strength, first upon Job's goods, and afterwards upon his person : " Behold," saith Almighty God, " all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand," Job, i. 12; and afterwards, "Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life," Job, ii. 6. In both these ex pressions, the restricting clause plainly shows the nature of the leave given to Satan, and what further he could have done by his own natural strength, had not that clause been added.
In like manner, though the devil killed the seven hus bands of Sarah, yet he had no power to touch young Tobias ; and when the angel Raphael explained this to him, he said, " Hear me, and I will show thee who they are over whom the devil can prevail : for they who in such manner receive matrimony as to shut out God from VOL. i. c
34 CHAPTER II.
themselves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and the mule, which have not understanding ; over them the devil hath power," Tob. vi. 1 6, 17 — where we see that it is not any extraordinary increase of strength given to Satan which enables him to injure men, but our own sins, which, depriving us of the friendship of God, and rendering us slaves of the devil, give him power over us, and permission to exercise his natural strength against us.
What our Saviour told St Peter, that " Satan desired to have him, that he might sift him as wheat," not only shows the rage of that wicked spirit against God's ser vants, but proves at the same time how much his power is restrained by the divine providence. He eagerly desired to injure, but he was rendered powerless, the execution of his desire being prevented by the prayers of Jesus Christ ; nay, what is still more remarkable is, that when our Saviour dispossessed the poor man in whom there was a legion of devils, they could not even enter into the herd of swine till they had asked and received permission.
Lastly, our blessed Saviour not only restrains the power of Satan, and sets bounds to his malice Himself, but He has also given a similar power to His apostles and disciples ; for " He gave them power and authority over all devils," Luke, ix. i. And in the following chapter, when they had exercised this power, and found the effects of it, they returned and said to their Master with joy, " Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy name ; " upon which He renews the grant to them again, saying, " Behold I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." But to repress all emotions of pride or vanity which might
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 35
arise in their minds on that account, he immediately adds, " Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven," Luke, x. 17, 19, 20. All this manifestly shows that in the present dispensation of providence the devil's power is much restrained, and such bounds are set to his malice against man as best suit the views and designs of the divine wisdom.
We come now to consider the fourth point above pro posed — the agency of good angels, and their communica tion with men ; but of this we have already seen several manifest examples, and therefore here I mention only one other — that of the angel Raphael with Tobias.
VI. In the Christian revelation it is a well-known truth that pride was the ruin of the fallen angels. Dazzled with their supereminent excellences, they forgot the hand from which they had received them, and arrogated to themselves that glory which belonged only to their great Creator. Banished from heaven, and condemned to eternal misery in punishment of their crime, they did not become wiser by their fall, but rather were confirmed in pride and hardened in ambition.
To see man, formed of the dust of the earth, and so much inferior to them in dignity of nature, created in such happiness, and destined by the Almighty to fill up the places which they had lost in heaven, was a humilia tion to their pride and envy. They resolved, therefore, on his destruction, and unhappily accomplished it. Having brought man into subjection to themselves, and being continually urged on by pride to put themselves on a level with their Maker, they have, since the very beginning, used every effort to procure honour from de luded mortals, and to imitate, among their votaries, what ever Almighty God was pleased to ordain for His own
36 CHAPTER II.
glory among His servants. Hence we find, throughout the whole heathen world, that the devils had their temples, their altars, their priests, their sacrifices, their oracles, their prophets, and even their miracles also ; thereby imitating the works of God, and procuring to themselves the vain homage of worship and adoration on earth, which they could never have obtained in heaven.
From this known disposition of these proud spirits, it is not surprising to a Christian that they should aim at having their sacraments also, and should form compacts with such unhappy mortals as they could delude, en gaging to work certain uncommon effects in nature, or such as their votaries should require, whenever these should perform, on their part, such exterior signs or ac tions as should be agreed upon between them. This would serve to gratify several passions of the human heart, particularly pride, envy, and hatred, and therefore would be readily agreed to by such unhappy souls as either knew not God or had lost all sense and fear of Him, and were by their vices become slaves to the above or other violent passions. It would no less gratify the pride of these infernal spirits to be thus honoured by men in their having recourse to them for such things as they de sired, instead of applying to the great God that made them.
Seeing, therefore, that spiritual beings, both good and bad, have frequently appeared to men, and have conversed with them, there is clearly no impossibility that such compacts should be entered into between wicked spirits and men. It is even natural to expect them, from the known dispositions of both. Now, if such a compact be supposed, in which the devil ap points certain outward actions to be done, and engages to perform such and such extraordinary effects in na ture, it is plain that the knowledge of the connection
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 37
between the outward sign and the effect to be produced may be communicated to others who had not them selves been parties to the compact, and be again by them communicated to others. It is also plain that this know ledge may be imparted to others merely as a secret or curiosity of nature, without any intimation that the effect so produced is the work of the devil ; nay, as the ex terior signs used may even be sacred things, and the words pronounced taken from the Holy Scriptures, ignor ant persons may thus be so far deluded as to believe them lawful or even holy, and think they are serving God, while they are honouring the devil.
Compacts of this. kind with wicked spirits, and the using and trusting to their infernal signs for procuring the effect intended, is what is meant in general by the terms witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, magic, charms, and the like. But as there are different degrees of guilt in the thing done, so, strictly speaking, the idea connected with these terms is different accordingly ; for witchcraft and sorcery seem properly to signify the very being in such compact with wicked spirits, and having a personal familiar intercourse with them ; and those who have this are termed witches and sorcerers. Enchantment and art magic seem rather to imply the knowledge and use of these signs and their effects, knowing them to be from an evil principle, though the persons who use them did not themselves make the compact, nor had any personal intercourse with the devil, but had learned it from others. Even the Scripture speaks of magic as an art : " And the delusions of their art magic were put down, and their boasting of wisdom was rebuked reproachfully," speaking of the magicians of Egypt, Wis. xvii. 7. Now an art implies a thing taught by one person to another ; and it would appear from other parts of Scrip-
38 CHAPTER II.
ture that this art magic was professedly taught among the Egyptians and Chaldeans. See Daniel, in several places.
Charms, spells, and superstitious practices imply the use of these signs, with a confidence in them as curi osities or natural secrets, without knowing, or at least without fully adverting to the source from which they come. Besides these general names, there are also many particular appellations given to the different prac tices, and to those who use them, according to the effects produced and the various means employed — as diviners, augurs, soothsayers, pythonesses, necromancers, fortune-tellers, and the like.
VII. Deists and freethinkers ridicule all these things, regarding them as impossibilities, chimeras, and the re sult of weakness of mind and childish credulity. Nor is this surprising, as they do not admit the existence of the devil. Unbelievers, however, have never yet been able to bring the shadow of proof why spiritual beings may not exist ; and if they do, why they may not act in the affairs of this material creation. All they can say on this subject is reduced to a witticism and a sneer. In Christianity, the possibility of these diabolical opera tions admits of no doubt. That they have often been done, and a communication kept up by their means between wicked spirits and men, is a truth most mani festly revealed in the Holy Scriptures ; and if such intercourse be possible, and has actually existed in former times, who will be so bold as to say that it never can exist again? It would, indeed, be a weak credulity to believe every idle tale related ; but it would be a no less blamable folly to deny the possibility of its existence, when we consider what the Word of God teaches. This we find contained under the following heads : —
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 39
1. All commerce of this kind, and all connection with those who practise such things, is severely prohibited by Almighty God, as a crime most detestable in His eyes. Thus, Exod. xxii. 18 : " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Levit. xix. 31 : " Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be denied by them." Levit. xx. 6 : " And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a-whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and cut him off from among his people." Ib., verse 27 : " A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death ; they shall stone them with stones ; their blood shall be upon them." And Deut. xviii. 10 : " There shall not be found among you any one . . . that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer : for all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord." And, in the new law, witchcraft is reckoned by St Paul among those works of the flesh of which those who are guilty, he assures us, " shall not inherit the kingdom of God/' Gal. v. And, Rev. xxi. 8, it is declared, that " murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Now, can anything be more impious than to suppose, that God Almighty would have made such severe prohibitions of a crime, which not only had no existence in nature, but could not possibly exist? Can there be a more blas phemous arraignment of the divine wisdom than to suppose it capable of such folly ? Besides, it is plain from all the above texts that they speak 01" the thing as real and certain, and as actually practised in the world.
2. Those who, contrary to this prohibition, were
40 CHAPTER II.
guilty of this crime, are severely condemned by the Word of God, and their punishments proposed as mon uments of the divine justice against it. Thus, 2 Kings xvii. 17, it is expressly declared that this was one of the principal causes of the ruin and dispersion of the ten tribes : " They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire ; they used divinations and enchant ments — therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight/' This also is represented as one of the greatest crimes of Manasses, which provoked the wrath of God so highly against him ; for "he observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards ; he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger," 2 Kings, xxi. 6. Here we find commerce with familiar spirits, and the existence of wizards and witches, expressly affirmed, and this commerce declared to be the crime of which this wicked prince was actually guilty, and for which he incurred the just displeasure of Almighty God. Now, can any one who believes the Scriptures deny the reality, much less the possibility, of these things?
3. Those good princes who, in obedience to the divine command, put away those who dealt in these impieties, and discouraged such wicked practices, are highly praised in the Holy Scriptures for so doing. Thus it is recorded in praise of Saul, who at the begin ning was an excellent prince, that " he had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land," i Sam. xxviii. 3. Among the many good things that Josiah did, it is particularly observed of him, that " the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 4!
might perform the words of the law," 2 Kings, xxiii. 24. Now, how could they be put away if they had no existence ? And how can their existence be called in question without denying the Scripture ?
4. We find several examples in Scripture of particular persons who dealt in those practices to a very great degree, and which show to what length the power of Satan is sometimes permitted to go, in doing things extraordinary by means of those his agents. Thus the magicians of Egypt are expressly affirmed to have per formed prodigies similar to the miracles of Moses by their enchantments. The witch of En-dor also is par ticularly taken notice of as a person who had such inter course with wicked spirits ; and in the New Testament, every one knows of Simon the magician, of whom we are told, Acts viii., that, for some time before Philip went to Samaria to preach the Gospel there, he had " in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one." So many and great were the wonders which he did among them, whether real or only apparent, that "to him they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God ; and to him they had regard, because that for a long time he had bewitched them with his sorceries."
Here we not only see an example of one guilty of this diabolical commerce, but we also find that such persons are sometimes permitted to hurt others, to bewitch and delude them by their sorceries. We also read of Elymas, another magician, who opposed the preaching of the Gospel by St Paul, and whom that great apostle struck blind for his impiety : " O full of all subtilty and all mis chief, and child of the devil and enemy of all righteous ness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the
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Lord?" Acts, xiii. 10. In these words the apostle gives us the true character of all such persons, and the light in which they appear in the eyes of God. We must not here omit the young woman "possessed with a spirit of divination, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying," who was dispossessed by St Paul, as we read, Acts, xvi. 16.
5. Now let any Christian attentively consider these repeated testimonies of the Word of God on the agency of evil spirits, and say if it is possible to express the actual existence of these diabolical operations, and of the interposition of wicked spirits with the affairs of men, in clearer or stronger terms ; and consequently, if it would not be the height of impiety to deny a truth so repeat edly affirmed in these sacred oracles. It is therefore undeniable, according to the Christian revelation, that wicked spirits have often had communication with men ; that they have great power and strength, natural to them as spirits, for performing many extraordinary things in the material creation ; and that they have often exercised this power at the desire and by means of those who had intercourse and communication with them.
VIII. Here perhaps a question may be proposed, Are there at present any persons in the world who are guilty of these practices? In answer to this, I may observe, that it is unimportant to my argument whether there be or be not. It is enough to show that the agency of these infernal beings, as well as of good angels, in this lower world, is a truth revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures. However, as the above question is curious, and it may be agreeable to my readers to have a solution of it, what seems to be the real case is as follows : —
i. That there have been such persons in the world who have had compacts and familiar personal com-
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 43
merce with wicked spirits is undoubted. The Word of God affirms it, gives several examples of those who have practised these crimes, and makes severe laws against them.";
2. That there may still be such persons in the world cannot be denied. What has been may be again ; and the prohibition of these crimes which we find in the New Testament, where they are condemned as grievous sins, evidently supposes that they may be found even among Christians.
3. That such persons are as common among Christians as is frequently imagined is evidently a mistake ; for it is certain that the devil's power is much restrained wherever the Gospel is planted : and among the many glorious pro mises made by Almighty God to the Church, and foretold by the prophets, this is one, — " I will take away sorceries out of the land, and there shall be no divinations in thee," Micah, v. 1 1. These words imply, at least, that such things will be less common under the Gospel ; that the devil will not be permitted to delude the people to such a degree as in former times ; and that men will not be so much given to these, abominations.
4. That there are, or may be, many who attempt to have commerce with wicked spirits, is very possible ; be cause it is natural to suppose that the passions of men will urge them on to such extremes ; and because those who are conversant with the care of souls know it from experience, as this case sometimes does actually come before them.
5. As to those who have no personal intercourse with spiritual beings, but who use charms and superstitious practices in order to procure some desired end, whether they know and reflect that these are diabolical inventions, or have no idea that they are such, it is incredible how
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many are to be found, especially among the lower classes, in all countries.
IX. It is evident, then, that nothing is more certain, according to the Christian revelation, than the existence of spiritual beings, both good and bad, and their agency in nature ; that they are endowed with great power and many qualities superior to man, and of course can perform things in the material creation which will appear mira culous to us, and above the abilities of all natural agents. We shall now briefly inquire in what manner they effect these miraculous operations ; at least, what light our reason, and the knowledge we have of their nature and qualities from revelation, can afford us.
The Scriptures everywhere represent these beings as exceedingly strong (" mighty in strength," as the Psalmist expresses it), and therefore they must be able to perform many things in moving bodies and altering their parts, in suspending the usual effects of the laws of nature, and the like, far superior to anything that can be performed by any natural agent. Again, the agility of angelic beings is doubtless great, so that they can transport themselves from one place to another with an amazing velocity, far superior to anything we can conceive in bodies. Of this we may form some idea by considering that the light of the sun, though a material substance, has such immense velocity as to reach the earth in less than ten minutes of time. If, therefore, spirits can move with much greater velocity than bodies, with what inconceivable quickness must these beings be able to transport themselves from one part to another ! They will also be able to do many things truly wonderful, both by communicating intelli gence of what is passing at a distance almost instantan eously, and also by transporting bodies to distant places with the greatest velocity. Of this last we have a re-
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 45
markable instance in Daniel, where we are told that when that holy prophet was for the second time cast into the den of lions, and had had no food for a considerable time, the prophet Habakkuk in Judea, some hundreds of miles distant, going out one morning to the field with a mess of pottage to the reapers, was caught up by an angel of God, and in an instant carried to Daniel ; and when Daniel had eaten the pottage, he was brought back in the same manner, Dan. xiv.
This chapter of Daniel, it is true, is not found in the Hebrew, and on that account is thrown into the Apocry pha by Protestants ; but it has, from the earliest ages, been received by the Catholic Church as divine Scrip ture, and its authority as an ancient history is not called in question.
Tertullian, speaking of the velocity with which spirits transport themselves from one place to another, says : " Every spirit is winged ; both angels and demons are so ; on that account they are everywhere in a moment : the whole world is one place to them ; they know where anything is doing as easily as they can declare it."*
X. Great knowledge is another prerogative of spiritual beings, which enables them to do many things above the abilities of natural agents. Experimental philosophy has of late been making daily improvements, and discovering more and more of the wonderful powers of nature, par ticularly in magnetism and electricity ; and it cannot be doubted but that there are many more secrets in nature of which mankind are still totally ignorant. Spiritual beings have doubtless a much greater knowledge of these
* Omnis spiritus ales ; hoc et angeli et dremones. Igitur mo- mento ubique sunt. Totus orbis locus illis unus est, quid ubi geratur, tarn facile sciunt quam enuntiant. — Tert, ApoL, circa medium.
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things than men, and consequently are capable of pro ducing many extraordinary effects in the material creation, which, from our ignorance of these powers of nature, would appear to us astonishing. But, as all they can perform is only by exerting these natural powers, which require time to produce their effects, such extraordinary things cannot be instantaneous, even with all the strength of spiritual beings. Hence miraculous operations, which are merely the effect of strength or agility, or which are done by the application of natural means, are known by these circumstances to be within the range of the natural abilities of spirits, and therefore 'cannot of themselves alone afford proof of divine interposition.
From this more intimate knowledge possessed by spiritual beings of the powers and properties of material agents, which are concealed from us, they will, no doubt, foresee many natural effects which will result from these powers when exerted, and from their necessary or occa sional combinations ; and this they may know a consider-' able time before these effects are actually produced. If now they should communicate this their foreknowledge of these necessary events to any man, and he should foretell them to the world, this prediction and its subse quent verification would appear miraculous to those who know nothing of the natural causes producing the effect foretold; just as the prediction of an eclipse, and its verification when the eclipse happens, will be miraculous to those who are ignorant of astronomy.
As spiritual beings have also a much more thorough knowledge of the human frame than we have, they may in like manner, with great probability, conjecture what particular persons, with whose temper and disposition they are well acquainted, will do on such and such occasions ; and hence they may, with considerable certainty, foretell
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 47
even future contingent events, and their prediction may afterwards be verified. Even human sagacity, from a thorough knowledge of the subject, frequently arrives at a considerable degree of foreknowledge of this kind. By these two kinds of foreknowledge, soothsayers, false prophets, and those who had familiar spirits, mentioned in the Scriptures, might sometimes foretell things which actually come to pass ; and the same is the explanation of the predictions of the heathen oracles, which were afterwards verified by the event. St Augustin, speaking on the divination of evil spirits, says : " First, we must know that for the most part they foretell only such things as they themselves are going to do ; for they often receive power to cause diseases, and by vitiating the air to render it morbific ; sometimes also they foretell not those things which they do themselves, but which, from natural signs, they foresee are to happen; which signs cannot fall under the knowledge of man."'""
XL Another way by which spiritual beings may appear to do things miraculous in our eyes, is by what is called fascination or bewitching, which may be conceived pos sible in two different ways, either by making such im pressions upon the organs of our senses, as if the real material object that naturally could make them were present and acting on them, or by taking upon themselves the outward appearances of the things which they wish to represent. That spiritual beings, both good and bad,
* Primum sciendum est, quoniam de divinatione dasmonum questio est, illos ea plerumque prenuntiare quce ipsi facturi sunt : accipiunt enim ssepe potestatem et morbos immittere, e tipsum aerem vitiando morbidum reddere ; aliquando autem non quse ipsi facient, sed quoe, naturalibus signis, futura preenoscunt ; quse signa in hominum sensus venire non possunt. — Aug. de Divin. Daemon. C. V.
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have a very great power in acting upon our internal senses, by altering and moving the humours of the body, so as to raise many ideas in our imagination, and affec tions in our appetite, will not be called in question by any who profess the Christian religion.
With regard to wicked spirits, those texts of Scripture which we have seen above concerning internal tempta tions, manifestly show this ; and, indeed, how else can we account for those violent temptations to blasphemy, despair, scruples, involuntary doubts against faith, and the like, which often bear in upon the mind with the utmost violence, to the unspeakable torment of the sufferer, and in spite of his earnest efforts to expel them ? How can this be accounted for, but from the action of those wicked spirits violently disturbing the imagi nation ?
As to good angels, the Christian religion assures us that they inspire us with pious thoughts, calm our fears, assuage our passions, and that they also represent things to our imagination in sleep, so as to manifest to the ser vants of God what the divine will requires of them. Thus the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him to fly into Egypt from the fury of Herod ; and Al mighty God Himself, speaking to His people on this sub ject, says : " Behold I send an angel before thee : . . . beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions. ... If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to thine enemies," Exod. xxiii.
Now, if spiritual beings have such power to act upon our internal senses, there can be no doubt that they may do the same upon our external organs also. In the Holy Scriptures we have many examples of angels appearing to men and conversing with them. The common way
THE AGENCY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 49
of explaining these apparitions, is by saying that these spiritual beings assumed an aerial body, or some other matter, by which the same natural impressions were made upon the senses of the beholders as by the natural body of a man. But this opinion is subject to several diffi culties.
There is not the least necessity for supposing this. If these spiritual beings can make such strong impressions as they sometimes do upon our internal senses, for which they certainly stand in no need of help of aerial bodies, why should they stand in need of such help to make what impressions they please upon our external senses ? If an angel could deprive the fire of its power to hurt the three holy children that were thrown into the furnace without taking any material body to assist him, could he not with equal ease communicate any motion he pleased to the air, and excite the sound of words in the ears of those present, or reflect the rays of light to their eyes, so as to excite in their minds the idea of any colour or figure he might think proper ? If the angels can at all act upon bodies, why not upon the air and light as well as on any other body, without taking a material body to assist them? Nay, if an angel could make to himself a body of air, or any other matter, in order thereby to move the air or light so as to affect the senses of those present, why could he not as well directly move the air or light itself, with out the intervention of any material instrument ?
Several of the apparitions related in Scripture plainly show that the impressions were made immediately by the spiritual agent upon the senses of those present. Had a material body been taken by the angels who appeared to men, this must have reflected the light, and moved the air equally on all sides as other bodies do, and conse quently all present must have been equally sensible of
VOL. I. D
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the angel's presence, and must equally have heard his words. But we find that frequently this was not the case. The angel that appeared to Balaam was seen by the ass for some time before he appeared to the master. The angel who appeared to Daniel by the great river was seen by him alone ; and Daniel says, " I alone saw the vision ; for the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them," Dan. x. 7. At the conversion of St Paul, though our Saviour spoke to him in an audible manner, and conversed with him, yet he himself tells us, that " they that were with him saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of Him that spoke to him," Acts, xxii. 9.
It is evident, then, that these apparitions were exhib ited by an impression made upon the organs of some particular persons, and not of others who were equally present, which could not have been the case without another miracle, had they been performed by means of any assumed aerial body ; and therefore it is most rea sonable to conclude that they were immediate impres sions made by those who appeared upon the organs of those who saw them.
This is further confirmed by the words of Scripture mentioning the appearance of any spiritual being to those who, though present, saw him not before ; for the expres sion used on these occasions plainly implies an impres sion made immediately on the organs of those to whom the apparition is exhibited. Thus, though the angel had appeared for some time to Balaam's ass, yet he had never been seen by himself. At last " the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel," Num. xxii. 31. So also, when Elisha's servant expressed great fear on seeing the army of the Syrians, his master said, " Fear not ; for they that be with us are more than they that be
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with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw ; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha," 2 Kings, vi. 16, 17. Shall we say here that all these angels took in an instant material bodies to appear to the young man, and not rather that the impres sion was made immediately on his eyes without the use of any material means ? This is certainly the more natural meaning of the expression, " the Lord opened his eyes."
It seems most reasonable, then, to conclude, that spiritual beings can themselves make immediate impres sions upon our outward senses, exciting in our minds the same ideas that bodily objects would, and can make objects appear to us which really have no existence. They can also, by acting on our internal senses, excite strong ideas in our imagination. When this is done by evil spirits for their wicked ends, it is called fascination ; when by good angels, to communicate the will of God to His servants, it is a species of revelation. At the same time, these spiritual agents may occasionally make use of bodily instruments, as was probably the case with the angel that attended the people of God in the appearance of a pillar of fire and of a cloud, which was visibly seen by the people. From their strength and agility, also, they can doubtless present and take away bodily objects al most instantaneously, so as to render them imperceptible to those present, and by all these different operations perform things far above the abilities of natural agents. It is in one or other of these ways that several of the holy fathers and other learned men account for what the magicians of Egypt did by their enchantments.
XII. In these different ways spiritual beings act upon matter and exhibit various effects, real or apparent, to
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our eyes. How far they can go in such operations we know not ; but certain we are, as we shall afterwards see when explaining the criterion, that Almighty God will never allow wicked spirits to use this power so as invin cibly to deceive us ; and that whatever good angels do is only by authority from God for our benefit.
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CHAPTER III.
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES.
I. r I ^O call in question the possibility of miracles JL seems strange to a true Christian, and ought, according to right reason, to appear absurd to any one who, believing the existence of the Deity, acknowledges the universe to be the work of His almighty power. Still, we know that in this enlightened age this is actually done ; nay, not only is the possibility of miracles called in ques tion, but plainly denied by many who, whilst they glory in the discoveries made in the works of nature, and boast of the improvement of the human intellect, show that their light is mere darkness, and that their pretended intel lectual improvement serves only to make them more learnedly fools. This charge might seem severe, and justly expose me to the ridicule of the accused, did I pretend to support it only by the authority of revelation, which they deny. But this is not my intention, nor is there here any need of the aid of revelation. The possi bility of miracles is so natural a consequence of their definition itself, and of the idea which we have given of them, that those who pretend to denyit must be determined to lay aside reason, and to act in direct opposition to its clearest light. Their case, however, is so far to be pitied, as it is necessity that drives them to these extremes —
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the authority of miracles carrying with it invincible argu ment against their tenets. It is impossible to evade the weight of this authority if miracles be admitted to exist, and therefore to deny their possibility is the easiest method of escaping from a difficulty. But it is one thing to deny and another to prove. Those who deny the possibility of miracles do indeed offer something by way of justification of their denial, but a little attention will show how unreasonable are all their arguments.
II. We have seen above that miracles, considered in themselves, are of two kinds : first, such as consist in a suspension of the effects of some of the known laws of nature ; and, secondly, such as are not contrary to any of these laws, but out of the ordinary course of nature, and require a power superior to that of any natural agent to perform them. Of the first kind are the following : if a -stone should fly upwards ; if the waters of a river should be divided, those below running down, and those above standing still or being gathered up ; if the sun should stop in his course ; if a man should walk on water, and the like : which are all contrary to the known laws of nature, and imply a suspension of their usual effects. It would be of the second kind were a man to cure dis eases in an instant by only willing, by commanding, or by a simple touch ; should a person know and foretell con tingent future events ; were a man to be raised from the dead, and suchlike. These two kinds of facts must be considered separately, in order to show, in the most dis tinct and convincing manner, that miracles are possible.
III. With regard to those of the first kind, or such as consist in a suspension of any of the laws of nature, it is evident that if miracles of this class be impossible, the impossibility must arise from one of three causes — either that these laws are in themselves absolutely immutable
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. 55
and incapable of suspension, so that their effects cannot be superseded by any power whatever, or that there exists no agent whose abilities are capable of suspending them, or that it would argue inconstancy and mutabil ity in the divine Author of those laws, if, having once established them for the regulation of the universe, He should either Himself at any time suspend their effects, or allow them to be suspended by others. But none of these can be affirmed, and therefore we justly conclude that miracles of this kind are not impossible.
That the laws of nature are not in themselves immu table is evident from experience. Many of those with which we are acquainted, not only may be, but actually are, suspended and hindered by other stronger laws acting against them ; nay, effects directly opposed to them are not unfrequently produced. Hence we may justly argue, that those other laws of nature which do not fall under our observation, though we see no natural created cause capable of suspending their effects, yet in themselves are not unsusceptible of suspension, but would undoubtedly be suspended were any agent, with sufficient power, to act against them. We see no im possibility in this conclusion, no reason why some laws should be immutable in their effects and others not ; and if analogy have any weight, we must acknowledge this conclusion to be just and reasonable ; therefore the laws of nature are not in themselves incapable of being suspended, and consequently miracles are not impossible.
IV. Experience shows that man by his own natural strength, still more if he calls in the help of art, and employs the power of other creatures, is able to produce many effects quite contrary to some of the known laws of nature. From this we justly argue that beings of a
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superior nature — who are endowed with much greater strength, possess far superior abilities, and at the same time know better all the powers of creatures — must be able to suspend many more of the laws of nature, to prevent their ordinary effects, and to produce others contrary to them.
Let us suppose, for instance, the strength of man to be as one, with which he can raise a weight of ten stone. If we suppose an angel to have a degree of strength as ten thousand, he will be able to raise a weight of one hundred thousand stone. Let us again suppose that this angel, invisible to us, should, by compact with man, immediately at his desire raise into the air a body weighing a hundred thousand stone, this would be an evident miracle to all beholders. Now, can the possi bility of such a miracle be denied, either from the thing done, or the agent that is supposed to do it ? Not from the thing done, which is not in itself impossible if there be an agent endowed with strength sufficient to perform it. Shall we then deny that an angel can exist endowed with such strength ? Where is the impossibility ? Upon what grounds shall we deny it ? And even if this be not allowed, it will not surely be denied that God Himself has strength sufficient to produce the effect supposed ; and therefore its possibility cannot be called in question, though the thing be evidently in opposition to all the laws of gravitation.
The same reasoning will equally hold in every imagi nable case ; and therefore we must justly conclude in general that whatever laws of nature there may be superior to the powers of beings of an inferior order, there are supernatural agents of a higher order capable of sus pending them. And if there be any of those laws superior to the powers of all created agents, they can
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. $?
never exceed the almighty power of God. Consequently there can never be wanting an agent, either among creatures or in the Creator Himself, capable of suspend ing any law of nature, since these laws are in themselves capable of suspension ; and therefore miracles of this class are not impossible from want of a proper agent.
V. The last resort of infidelity is to say that it would argue inconstancy and mutability in God, the divine Author of the laws of nature, either Himself to suspend their effects in particular instances, or to permit any other to suspend them. But here, again, I must appeal to experience, by which we know that several of the laws of nature, even the most general, as those of gravity and attraction, are in many cases suspended without any prejudice to the immutability of God. If, therefore, some laws of nature may be suspended, and yet God remain immutable, why not others ? why not all, when an adequate power is exerted against them ? Does it argue mutability in God that an angel, for instance, should stop the course of water in a river, sup posing him capable by his own natural strength to do so, contrary to the known laws of gravitation, whilst yet it argues no such mutability that man, by his natural strength, or by the help of gunpowder, should make a ball of iron fly upwards from the earth in direct opposition to these same laws ?
If neither of these cases can prejudice the immuta bility of God, why should it be thought to do so if He Himself should be pleased to stop for a time the diurnal motion of the earth, and thereby lengthen the day, and make the sun appear to stand still in the heavens ? Does it argue mutability in God to suspend any of those laws by the sole act of His will, while it argues no such mutability when he does it by using secondary causes ?
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Were this the case, an absurd consequence would fol low — namely, that God could perform any miraculous effect which He pleased, in suspending the laws of na ture by the ministry of angels, giving them strength for this purpose, but could do no such thing Himself without destroying His own immutability, and becoming changeable.
We may conclude, therefore, that as those laws of nature which fall under our observation are often sus pended by other natural causes acting against them without any prejudice to the immutability of God, so it never can affect that divine prerogative when He Himself, by the sole act of His will, shall be pleased to suspend any law without employing created secondary causes ; and consequently, that such miracles as consist in a suspension of any of the laws of nature are possible, without the least prejudice to the immutability of the Deity. In a word, the whole creation, and all the laws by which it is maintained, proceed from the free will and good pleasure of Almighty God. He made choice of the present system of nature with a view to those wise moral ends which He proposed to Himself. He freely made all things in nature as they are ; He can with equal ease change them as He pleases. As He freely enacted those laws by which all nature is governed for the best of ends, so He can dispense with them when He sees proper — that is, when the end proposed can better be accomplished by such dispensation ; and though this good end happens in time, both it, and the dispensing with any law of 'nature in order to procure it, were always present with God from all eternity; and there fore, when it is actually accomplished in time, it can argue no change in Him. He forms no new decrees, He makes no new laws, He acquires no new knowledge.
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. S9
What He wills in time He willed from all eternity ; and, as St Augustin justly observes, " opera mutat, consilia non mutat ; " "He changes His works, but His counsels and views remain the same." This the Holy Scripture beauti fully expresses in the books of Wisdom : " Nothing is hidden from His eyes ; He sees from eternity to eternity, and nothing is wonderful to Him," Ecclus. xxxix. Con sequently to Him there is nothing new, nothing that in Him can cause change.
Seeing, therefore, that the laws of nature in them selves are not incapable of being suspended, provided an adequate force acts against them ; that there can be found, either in created agents or in God, power and strength fully capable of this ; and that they may be sus pended by any of these causes without prejudice to the divine immutability, — it evidently follows, therefore, that miracles of this kind are not impossible.
VI. We come now to consider the possibility of those miracles which are beside the ordinary course of nature. And here there seems to be little difficulty ; for can any one doubt that the same almighty power which created all things, and gave to each its being, powers, and pro perties, is still able to perform numberless effects which far exceed the powers bestowed on these His creatures ? Will any one deny that Almighty God is able in a moment to do by a single act of His own will what He does in a certain space of time by the ordinary powers of created agents ? It is not contrary to any law of nature to cure diseases in the human body, to cause plants to grow from seed. These effects are daily produced by natural causes, but they require time for their production. Almighty God gave to natural causes the power of producing these effects ; and will any one deny that He Himself can produce them in an instant by the sole act of His will,
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without making use of created powers ? Or will it be said that Almighty God, in giving such powers to creatures, has divested Himself of the right to act with out their agency ? Has He bound Himself by an im mutable law never to produce the above effects without them ? The bare statement exhibits its absurdity ; and it is evident that all such miraculous effects as exceed the power of created agents are possible to Almighty God whenever He pleases to perform them.
Miracles of this second class are the most excellent of all, and the most proper for securing the ends intended to be gained by miracles, as they are the most incontest able proof of divine interposition. Besides, the argument of freethinkers, drawn from the immutability of God, has no place here, where these laws are neither changed nor suspended, but a new effect produced by the almighty hand of God out of the ordinary course of these laws, and superior to the strength of creatures.
VII. There is still another argument advanced against the possibility of miracles, drawn from the wisdom of God, as if it would argue a defect of wisdom in the Deity were the laws established by Him for the regula tion of the universe insufficient for this purpose, and should require at any time to be suspended in order to obtain the ends which He had in view. What I have said above concerning the immutability of God is equally applicable to His wisdom, and equally shows the weak ness of this objection. Besides, we may further add, what Mr Farmer justly observes — "Whoever reflects on the boundless extent and duration of the divine govern ment, will easily perceive that nothing can be more absurd, as well as arrogant, than for man, a creature whose faculties are so limited, and who is but of yester day, to presume to determine that no fit occasion for
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES. 6 1
extraordinary interposals can ever occur in that admin istration, the plan of which transcends his comprehen sion. By what principles of reason can it be demonstrated that He who reigns from eternity to eternity never formed any designs, except such as may be accomplished by the present establishment and structure of the universe ? "
Now, if Almighty God has from eternity formed de signs to be executed at various times among His creatures, the exhibition of miracles at these times, in order to the more perfect execution of these designs, so far from being an arraignment of His wisdom, shows it forth in a still more striking light. Again, had the universe been com posed only of necessary agents, devoid of liberty or free-will, extraordinary interpositions of the Deity by miracles would have been less required. But the rational creatures, whom Almighty God governs by moral laws, are endowed with free-will and liberty to obey or disobey His commands ; and experience too clearly shows how apt they are to neglect their duty, and even to forget their obligations. The many proofs of His providence and perfections displayed in the regular course of the universe, by use and custom, cease to move our hearts ; and nothing can more display the infinite wisdom and goodness of the Creator, than that He should at certain times give extraordinary proofs of His power, by controlling the usual course of nature, thereby to awaken intelligent beings from their lethargy, to rouse them to a sense of their duty and dependence, and to give them a deep impression of the power and presence of their sovereign Master.
" It would be difficult to prove " (says Mr Farmer) " that God may not, in certain circumstances, have greater reasons for varying from His stated rules of acting than for adhering to them ; and whenever this is the case, and
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the end proposed is proportionable to the means for ac complishing it, the miracles are worthy of a divine inter position. Nor does this imply any inconsistency in the divine conduct, or any defect or disturbance of the laws of nature. When the Deity occasionally controls or supersedes them, He does not hereby contradict or defeat His intention in their first establishment; He proposes a design different from it, but not inconsistent with it. The laws of nature being the laws of God, are certainly perfect — that is, perfectly adapted to answer all the uses for which they are designed ; but miracles derogate not from this perfection, because they aim at an end which the laws of nature were not intended to answer."
To this just remark we must add, that both the ends proposed and the miracles wrought to obtain them, were from eternity known and present to the wisdom of God, and comprehended in the general plan of His operations, to be put in execution at the time appointed. This again shows that miracles, instead of derogating from this wisdom, still further display its immensity, which comprehends all things, foresees all things, and wonderfully adapts the means to the ends and designs proposed. I shall conclude this subject by inserting another passage from Mr Farmer, wherein he very judi ciously sets forth the possibility of miracles with regard to the power of God.
" Infinite power, though it does not extend to con tradictions, performs with ease whatever is possible in its nature. And so far are miraculous works from being impossible, that they are similar to what we see actually effected in the common course of divine providence. I will endeavour to illustrate this by the following example : To cause water to be both water and wine
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at the same time, is a manifest absurdity and contradic tion, and therefore cannot be the object of any power; but to turn water into wine, or to change one liquid into another specifically different, is certainly within the reach of divine omnipotence, inasmuch as there is nothing con tradictory in the idea of such transformation, and we observe continual changes of a like kind in many parts of the creation. Thus the moisture of the earth, by a common, but admirable operation in the natural world, is converted into the juice of the grape, and numberless other juices differing in kind from each other, according to the different nature of the plant or tree which imbibes it. This observation might be extended farther, and applied to other instances. Revelation itself is a miracle > but wherefore should it be thought impossible with God ? To His inspiration we owe our understandings, with all their powers ; from Him we derive the noble faculty of speech, by which we communicate our ideas to each other; and has the Father of our spirits no access to them, no ability of imparting immediately and directly the knowledge of His will, and of affording sufficient evidence of His own extraordinary presence and opera tion ? Is there anything in this more inexplicable than in the common action of mind on body, and body on mind ? Will any assert that the Almighty Author of our frame is unable to repair the disorders of it ? — that He who, with such exquisite skill, formed the seeing eye and hearing ear, cannot restore sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf? or that it is impossible for Him to raise the dead, who every year renews the face of nature, and revives the seed sown in the earth, and every day awakens mankind from the death of sleep to new life, in a manner as incomprehensible by us as the greatest miracle ? He gave being to every living thing ; to in-
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numerable kinds of animals, and to a great diversity of rational creatures ; continually does He call into exist ence ten thousand new individuals ; and is the second gift of life more difficult than the first? The analogy between miracles and the common operations of God in the settled course of nature, is a convincing demonstra tion of the possibility of the former."
This passage is a specimen of the excellent abilities of Mr Farmer in solid reasoning, when he advocates a good cause. It excites our regret that, in his * Disser tation upon Miracles,' he has employed his talents in advancing several statements, and in giving such ex planations of the sacred Scriptures, as will not stand the test of sound theology.
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CHAPTER IV.
THE ENDS FOR WHICH MIRACLES MAY BE WROUGHT, AS DISCOVERED BY REASON,
I. HT^O pretend to investigate all the various ends JL and particular designs which the divine wisdom has ever had, or may have, in performing miracles, would be presumptuous ; for " who has known the sense of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor ? " Rom. xi. 14. Still it is important to examine what can be known with certainty on this head, not only because the enemies of Christianity assert that no good end can be attained by miracles, but also because some Christians seem to think this argument sufficient to disprove the continua tion and existence of them in these later ages of the Church. They allege that, as the Gospel is now suffi ciently confirmed and widely propagated, it seems un necessary that God should any more interpose by miracles, and therefore they conclude that in fact He does not.
This argument assumes that the propagation and con firmation of the Gospel is the only end worthy of God's interposition ; but even were this the case, the conclusion would not follow, seeing that the planting the Gospel among heathen nations, who have not yet received it, must require the assistance of miracles, as well as the
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first planting it did in those nations who have long since embraced it. 'The difficulties in this great work are no less now among heathen nations than they were at the beginning of Christianity; and the majority of men are still as incapable of understanding the rational arguments and proofs in favour of the Christian religion as our ancestors were at the time of their conversion : nor can it be thought that the present heathen world would give either the time or application necessary for examining these proofs, even though it had sufficient capacity for doing so.
But miracles are a language suited to all. They re quire no time nor application of study to comprehend them ; they conquer at once, and convince at sight. They are the most certain means of gaining the ends in tended, and of subduing the obstinacy of the heart of man. Even were it true, then, that the propagation of the Gospel was the only end worthy of God's interposing by miracles, still we might reasonably expect from a God of infinite goodness that He would continue from time to time to perform them, at least for the propagation of His Gospel among those heathen nations who as yet do not know Him. But if we reflect, we shall see that the propagation of the Gospel, though doubtless a very principal end of miracles, is by no means the only one, and that there are others which have been actually judged by God Himself worthy of such interposition.
II. First, from the very nature of miracles, as above explained, it is evident that no operation whatever, no possible effect produced in the creation, can be miracu lous with regard to God, or wonderful in His sight. He thoroughly knows all that can be known concerning every possible effect or operation in His creatures, and also He possesses in Himself a power not only adequate,
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but infinitely superior, to every possible effect producible in them ; so that nothing is either hard or difficult to Him. With the same ease that He maintains the present order in the universe, He can in a moment alter or destroy it. With the same ease that He created all things at the beginning, He can, if He pleases, reduce them again to nothing ; and consequently, with respect to the almighty power of God, the most stupendous work in the creation is as easy as the smallest, and infinitely more so to Him than the throwing a stone upwards, contrary to the laws of gravity, is to man. It is enough that He wills anything to be done ; and be it what it may, great or small, His all-powerful will is instantly obeyed.
Secondly, No change, alteration, or unusual effect produced in the material insensible part of the universe — merely as such, that is, when considered only in itself, without relation to sensible or intelligent creatures — can properly be called either good or evil. Our idea of evil seems always to include a relation to sensible or intelligent beings, and consists either in making them unhappy by suffering, or in bringing upon them moral guilt and turpitude, which is disgraceful to their nature, and renders them odious in the eyes of their Creator. The evil of guilt and the evil of suffering, therefore, are the only things we mean by the word evil, in the strict and proper acceptation of the term. Now these, it is plain, can have place only in intelligent creatures, and not in the mere material parts of the creation — the former only being capable of suffering or guilt, but not the latter. Whatever change or alteration can be pro duced in material beings, may alter their form, motion, or the configuration of their parts ; but nothing of this enters into the proper idea of evil.
Thirdly, As the very essence of evil consists in ren-
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dering intelligent creatures guilty or miserable ; so good, being the contrary of evil, is, properly speaking, what ever renders these creatures innocent, virtuous, or happy ; and the more anything contributes to this, the greater and more excellent it is. Mr Hutchison, in his admirable treatise of moral philosophy, speaking on this subject, very justly observes, " that our moral sense or conscience is implanted in us by the Author of our being as the proper judge of what is good and evil, and that the several objects which this judge approves as good are only such as have these two qualities — a tendency to the happiness of others, and a tendency to the moral perfection of the mind possessing them ; and that the objects which this judge condemns as evil, are such as have the contrary tendencies." From this we justly infer that no change or effect produced in the inanimate crea tion, which is incapable of moral perfection or of happi ness, can properly be called either good or evil, and that these can have place only in sensible or intelligent creatures.
Fourthly, Our idea of God as a Being infinitely per fect, convinces us that He must essentially approve and desire the moral excellence and virtuous perfection of His creatures; and that the procuring this is an object worthy of His divine goodness and sanctity. On the contrary, we feel that He must detest and abhor moral turpitude in His creatures, and that to prohibit and prevent this is highly becoming His divine goodness and sanctity. In fact, what is this moral sense or conscience implanted in us by the Creator but the promulgation of His law in our hearts — the manifestation of His will, declaring in the most touching manner what He re quires from us — the most intimate and convincing proof that He wills our moral excellence and perfection, and
THE ENDS OF MIRACLES FROM REASON. 69
severely prohibits our moral turpitude ? The whole ex terior manifestation of His will to man by revelation, both in the old and new law, proves this truth, as the uniform' tendency of revelation is to exhort, persuade, encourage, and assist us to advance and improve our souls in virtue and perfection, and to prohibit and deter us from the contrary.
Fifthly, Our idea of God, as a Being of infinite good ness, convinces us that He can never directly will the misery of His creatures in itself. In our sufferings, merely as such, He cannot possibly have pleasure. He must essentially desire and will the happiness of His creatures as an object most becoming the supreme mind, and most worthy His infinite goodness : and if at any time He inflicts sufferings upon His creatures, and ren ders them for a time unhappy, we cannot conceive that He rests in this as the ultimate object of His complacency, but must have in view some other end more congenial to His infinite perfections ; and the light of reason points out two such ends, either in goodness procuring the moral perfection of His creatures, their greatest good, or punishing them in justice for having voluntarily, and therefore culpably, incurred the guilt of moral turpitude. Revelation also confirms this in the strongest terms ; for through the whole series of the sacred Scriptures we find Almighty God everywhere represented as having the most tender love and concern for His creatures, earnestly desiring their happiness, and doing all on His part, without infringing the freedom of their will, to pro cure it. It is true that these same sacred writings do also sometimes represent Him in the most awful colours, as threatening or inflicting the most dreadful sufferings upon His creatures ; but then we are assured that He does so against His inclinations, forced to it by their crimes, and
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that even then His chief design is their greater good, to reclaim them from their evil ways, and to secure their 'eternal happiness. To procure the good of His creatures, then, both by rendering them happy and by promoting their moral excellence and perfection, is an object worthy of God. This is our very idea of God, and it is con firmed by His own express declaration in holy writ.
Sixthly, With regard to the material insensible crea tion, however, the case is very different. We have seen above that the present order established in the universe, and the laws of nature by which that order is maintained, are not in themselves essentially necessary, but depend en tirely upon the free choice of Almighty God. It is true that God did not make this choice without the most con summate wisdom, according to the wise ends which He had in view ; neither can we suppose that He will capri ciously alter the laws and order which He has once estab lished; but then, as they are not self - necessary, but depend entirely upon His will, it cannot be denied that He may alter, change, or even annihilate them, if and when He pleases.
The material world, as far as our reason can discover, is in itself perfectly indifferent to exist in its present form or in any other, to be guided by its present laws or by any other ; nor can we imagine of good or evil accruing to material or insensible creatures, whatever change or alteration may happen in their forms, or in those laws of nature by which they are at present regulated. It is indifferent to a particle of matter whether it be em ployed to compose the sun or the meanest object, whether it shines in the form of gold or is trampled under foot in the form of dust. It is neither more or less happy, more or less virtuous, in the one case than in the -other; because it is incapable either of happiness
THE ENDS OF MIRACLES FROM REASON. 7 1
or misery, vice or virtue. Neither can we possibly ima gine that any change in matter, or its laws, should in the least degree affect the happiness of God, to whom, considering it only with regard to His own happiness, and independently of any particular design He may have in view, it must be perfectly indifferent whether the material world be of this form or of that, be guided by its present laws or by any other, or, indeed, whether it has an existence or not.
From this it follows that the whole material creation, and its present order and laws, are not in themselves the immediate and ultimate objects of the divine will, intended by Almighty God ; they are only the means for procuring those ends which the divine wisdom had in view to be obtained by them. They are therefore neither good nor evil in themselves, but only in so far as they conduce to promote or to impede the ends for which they exist.
III. The preservation or suspension, then, of the laws of nature, is neither good nor evil in itself, but only in so far as it conduces to or hinders some good end. On the other hand, as the happiness or moral perfection of intelligent creatures is a real good, and their misery or moral turpitude a real evil, the suspending the laws of nature, in order to procure these ends, is truly worthy of the divine wisdom and goodness. And if it be worthy of Almighty God even to suspend the general laws of the creation in order to obtain those ends, it is-no less so to exert His almighty power in producing other effects in the material world superior to the power of all created agents when such are necessary ; that is, to procure the happiness or moral perfection of intelligent creatures, and to prevent their misery and moral turpitude, are ends truly worthy of the divine interposition, even by miracle.
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IV. But to place this in a still clearer light, let us consider what are the ends of the divine wisdom in creating this universe, and in establishing its present laws and order. For if at anytime a suspension of these laws, or an alteration of the present order, might be re quired for more easily procuring these ends, it would then not only be becoming and worthy the divine good ness and wisdom so to suspend the laws, or alter the present order of things, but to do so would even be in some degree incumbent upon Him. If in this inquiry we find that the procuring the happiness and perfection of intelligent creatures was certainly one of the principal, if not the ultimate end of the creation, the above con clusion will appear still more evident.
V. Now, whether we examine this subject by the light of reason only, taking a view of those beneficent purposes which manifestly appear throughout the whole creation, or by the light of revelation, we shall see that this is actu ally the case — namely, that the happiness of intelligent creatures is one of the principal, if not the ultimate end of the creation. For, first, let us suppose that there were no rational or intelligent creatures upon earth — nothing but inanimate matter and the brute creation — what idea can we form of such a work from the hand of an all-wise and an all-powerful Being ! Can we re gard it in any way becoming such a Being to create such a world ? What satisfaction can we imagine it could give Him to see inanimate matter formed and moved in such and such a manner, arid a number of irrational creatures, without judgment or reflection, exist ing on the face of the earth ? Could the actual exist ence of such a world make the smallest difference to Him in point of happiness ? For my own part, I can not imagine that it should j and to me it would seem
THE ENDS OF MIRACLES FROM REASON. 73
altogether unbecoming a Being of infinite perfection to create such a world.
But suppose rational and intelligent creatures placed in this world, and immediately everything is changed. These are capable of knowing the God who made them, of understanding the wise and beneficent purposes which shine forth in His works, of rising up thence to a sense of His amiable perfections, of admiring, loving, serving, praising, and adoring their great Creator, and of enjoying a sublime happiness, almost a divine pleasure, in so doing. The feelings of our heart tell us that to receive such voluntary and just service from intelligent and free creatures must be agreeable to the Creator, and a source of joy and happiness to Him, and consequently worthy of Him to procure for Himself; also that to make such creatures happy, and to provide for them all the means necessary for being so, is no less worthy the infinite good ness of this sovereign mind, and must afford new joy and pleasure to Himself, and therefore is an object becoming Him to procure.
From this we justly conclude, " that rational and intelligent creatures are the chief, the most excellent part of the creation ; that without them all the rest would be to little or no purpose ; that they are the principal objects of the care and attention of the Creator; that all inferior beings are made only to be, either mediately or immediately, subservient to their happiness and perfec tion, and can have no end but for this purpose ; and con sequently, that the happiness and perfection of intelligent creatures is one of the greatest, if not the ultimate end of the creation."
VI. If, again, we take a view of that portion of the works of God which falls under our observation, how strongly will not this lead us to the same conclusion ? For
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what do we find in all the creatures that surround us but the most manifest and convincing proofs that the grand intention of Almighty God in their creation was, that they might all concur and co-operate to the happiness and moral excellence of man ? With what admirable design, with what consummate wisdom, are they formed to promote our comfort, by supplying our wants, relieving our necessities, and contributing to our pleasure and contentment ; to our moral excellence and perfection, by displaying to our understanding the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of their Creator, and by engaging our hearts from the most powerful motives of duty and gratitude to love, serve, praise, and adore the kind, the beneficent Author of our happiness ! It is true, indeed, that the malice of the heart of man too often perverts creatures from those great ends for which they were created, prostituting them, in the most ungrateful manner, to the very worst of purposes ; but this does not in the least degree alter our view of the original design of Almighty God in creating them. That design still shines forth in the midst of all the bad uses to which the wickedness of man perverts them ; and the rational and impartial inquirer must still confess, " that the happiness and moral excellence of man is one of the greatest, if not the ultimate end for which they have their being."
VII. I say, if not the ttltimate end, because reason alone, unassisted by revelation, though it clearly dis cerns that the happiness and perfection of man must be one of the chief ends for which the material world was created, not being able to penetrate farther with cer tainty, finds many difficulties in concluding it to be the ultimate or only end. These difficulties arise from that deluge of moral turpitude which overspreads the earth, and the numberless miseries to which human nature is
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exposed ; and the solution of them can only be obtained from revelation. But if we have recourse to its light, we shall find that it dispels the difficulties of natural reason, confirms the conclusion which reason makes, improves her light, and sets the subject in the clearest point of view.
According to revelation, the design of Almighty God in creating the universe is as follows. That the first, the principal, the ultimate end which He had in view in giving existence to creatures was His own pleasure, His own honour and glory — to display the magnificence of His divine perfections and excellences to beings capable of knowing them, and to receive from them that homage of service and praise which their essential dependence upon Him, and His divine perfections, justly demand from them. Thus we are expressly taught in holy writ that " the Lord hath made all things for Himself," Prov. xvi. 4. Again, that His primary and chief design was to pro cure this ultimate end of the creation, His own glory, by the moral excellence and happiness of His rational crea tures and their voluntary service. For this purpose He endows them with free-will, instructs them both by the light of reason placed within their breasts, and also by the external revelation of His will wherein this their per fection consists. He gives them every help necessary for acquiring it. He engages them to apply themselves earnestly to the pursuit of it by the most sacred pro mises of making them eternally and perfectly happy. He deters them from the contrary by threatening them with the most dreadful of all conceivable miseries ; de clares to them in the most amiable manner His infinite goodness and love. He assures them that He wills not their death nor misery, but, on the contrary, that He most ardently desires their eternal life and happiness,
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and has given them the strongest proofs of the sincerity of this desire in what He has done and suffered for them. Having, however, made them free agents, He will not force them, but leaves them to their own choice to com ply or not with this great end of their creation, the pro moting His honour and glory by means of their own perfection and happiness.
But if they refuse to comply with what their great Creator thus bounteously demands from them — if, abus ing their liberty, they refuse to promote His honour and glory by their own perfection and happiness — will His views be disappointed? will His intentions be frustrated? will He be deprived of that glory which He proposed to Himself by creating them ? No, this is impossible. God created them for His own glory, which He absolutely wills to procure by His creatures ; and to this grand, to this ultimate end, they must all co-operate. His primary intention, His first desire is, that they should do so by means of their own perfection and happiness ; but if, abusing their free-will, they refuse to comply with this, He then has recourse to a secondary intention, which is to inflict sufferings and misery upon them as the just punishment of their ingratitude and infidelity; and thus, whilst they refuse to glorify His goodness and mercy, He obliges them to exalt and set forth the glory of His justice.
VIII. To cite here the numberless testimonies of holy writ wherein Almighty God has made known to us these His views and ends in creating this universe, would carry us to too great a length ; nor, indeed, is it necessary, seeing that they are interwoven with the whole history of revealed truth. But, from what is said, we see a clear and full solution of those difficulties, which reason alone could not penetrate. We see the cause of that deluge
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of vice and immorality which has overspread the world through the abuse of that liberty which God has bestowed upon us as free agents ; and we see also whence all those miseries flow under which we daily groan — namely, not from any want of goodness in God, who takes no pleasure in our sufferings as such, but from the malice of our own hearts in abusing our liberty, which forces Almighty God, contrary to His primary intention, to inflict these suffer ings upon us as the just punishment of our crimes.
From these principles it follows : " That rational and intelligent creatures are the chief and most excellent part of the creation ; that without them all the rest are of little or no importance ; that they are the principal object of the care and attention of the Creator; that all inferior beings are made only to be, either mediately or immediately, subservient to their happiness and perfec tion, and can have no end but for this purpose. Conse quently, since all inferior creatures, and of course the whole present order and laws of nature, are established only as subservient to the above great ends, it is not only reasonable, but highly becoming and worthy of the infinite wisdom and goodness of God, to suspend any of these laws, to alter the present order of things, or to per form any other miraculous effects which He pleases, when the promotion of His own honour and glory, either by procuring the happiness and perfection of His rational creatures, or by averting their misery and moral turpi tude, or even by inflicting just punishments upon them, may require Him to do so. Nay, should the case happen wherein these ends could not so properly nor so per fectly be acquired by ordinary means, it would then be not only becoming Almighty God, but even in some manner incumbent upon Him, to work a miracle in order to procure them/'
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IX. But perhaps it will be asked, May not the divine wisdom procure these ends sufficiently by natural and ordinary means, without having recourse to miracles?
In answer to this we must observe, that all I have affirmed in the former part of the above conclusion is, that the procuring moral good, and preventing moral evil, are objects truly worthy of the divine interposition, even by miracles. God may procure them indeed by natural means, if and when He pleases ; but they are in themselves so valuable as to be an immediate object of the divine will ; whereas the preserving or suspending the laws of nature is by no means a primary object of God's desire, nor does it contain either good or evil in itself, irrespective of the end to be obtained by it. If, then, the former good ends can be better or more easily attained by a temporary suspension of these laws, or by any other supernatural operation, it would be highly reasonable, and most becoming the divine wisdom, so to suspend these laws, or perform that operation in order to procure them. And should it at any time happen that these ends could not be obtained by ordinary natu ral means, it would in some manner be incumbent on Almighty God, if He willed the ends, to perform the miracle in order to obtain them.
To us, however, it does not belong to judge what are the most proper means to be employed, whether natural or miraculous. To God they are both equally easy; and the Christian religion assures us that sometimes He uses one and sometimes the other — sometimes He procures the sanctity and perfection of His servants by ordinary and natural means, and sometimes He employs miracu lous and supernatural means for this purpose, as He in His wisdom judges proper. But it cannot be denied that it is most becoming the divine goodness and wisdom
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to use the means for attaining His views which are most proper and conducive thereto. Now it is certain that miraculous interpositions of the divine power are much more efficacious for procuring moral good, and preventing moral evil, in intelligent creatures, than all the natural means by the agency of secondary causes. The reason of this is plain ; because, though surrounding objects present us with numberless proofs of the divine perfections, and call upon us to love and serve their great Creator, yet by custom they become familiar, and the mind being habituated to them, ceases to attend to the great instructions they convey. But a miracle rouses our attention, awakens us from our lethargy, makes the divine presence more sensible to us, and excites in our minds pious sentiments and affections of respect, fear, veneration, love, and gratitude, which the wonderful things around us would also do, did they not by custom lose their power and efficacy.
It is a most incomprehensible effect of the divine power and goodness to multiply a few grains when sown in the earth to such an amazing quantity of corn as to afford food for thousands ; but being used to see this every day we think nothing of it, and seldom or never take occasion from it to conceive in our hearts suitable affections to the great Author of so stupendous a benefit. But were these natural and ordinary means to fail, as in time of famine, and should God then, by his almighty power, multiply a handful of meal in our granaries so as amply to supply our wants till plenty should return to the land, what sentiments would this excite in our hearts ! what admiration, what thanks, what gratitude, love, confidence, and the like! And why? Not because this latter is more difficult to Almighty God than the former, or a greater effort of His power — not because it
8O CHAPTER IV.
is more wonderful in itself — but because it is uncommon, more strikingly shows the hand of God, and makes us more sensible both of His divine presence and power, and of His infinite goodness towards us.
X. The learned authors of the ' Christian Magazine,' in their dissertations entitled " The Truth of the Chris tian Religion Vindicated," p. 159, speak on this subject as follows : " Without doubt the general order of nature perfectly displays the greatness of the Supreme Being ; but this order, thus perpetual and constant, shouts to the deafest ears, and speaks aloud to the most obdurate hearts. This is a continual miracle, and one that com prehends a multitude of miracles ; but yet in vain does it seek to call back mortals to the knowledge of their Maker.
" We are accustomed to every object in nature ; the great wonders of the world are fallen into a kind of dis paragement and disregard, and no longer strike our atten tion, because they are ever present. It is the same God who every day works all those miracles wherewith nature is replete, and those which are less common and more remarkable. But because custom induces forgetfulness of the grandeur of the former ; because mankind, diverted by many objects, no longer attend to ordinary events, or take occasion from them to elevate their minds to their Almighty Dispenser, and to render Him that worship which therefore is so justly His due ; on these accounts, and in amazing condescension to our weakness, He hath gra ciously reserved certain extraordinary events, which He assiduously takes care from time to time to produce, with a view to arouse mankind from their lethargy of negli gence. If these less usual miracles have a more striking effect upon us than others, it is not that they are more excellent than those of which we are daily spectators, but
THE ENDS OF MIRACLES FROM REASON. 8 1
that, being less frequent, they render us more sensible of the presence of their Author."
Seeing, therefore, that miracles are thus a much more powerful means to procure the moral perfection of intel ligent beings than the ordinary means from secondary causes, it follows not only that Almighty God may procure these good ends by such miraculous operations, but that it is most worthy of His divine goodness, and highly be coming His infinite power and wisdom from time to time to do so.
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CHAPTER V.
THE ENDS OF MIRACLES AS DISCLOSED BY REVELATION.
I. T T AVING seen by the light of reason the ends JL JL which appear worthy to be procured by miracles, we now proceed to examine what revelation points out on this subject. Several of the principles which we have made use of are not only evident to reason, but also conformable to revelation. This gives them a double value, and will put the conclusion we have drawn beyond contradiction, if, upon further inquiry, we shall find that it is the very same which revelation itself dis closes to us. That this is really the case may, I think, be easily proved by an argument the most convincing ; I mean the consideration of facts related and attested by God Himself in the Holy Scriptures.
There cannot be a more certain way of knowing what is becoming Almighty God to do than to consider what He has already done ; and as He has performed among His people numbers of miracles in different ages, which He has carefully recorded in His Holy Scriptures for our instruction, if we attentively consider the ends for which these miracles were wrought, and which were actually attained by them, we must conclude that they were most worthy of the divine interposition, because ex-
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pressly judged by almighty wisdom itself to be so. And if we farther see that these ends are the very same which, by the light of reason, we have found worthy of such in terposition, this will illustrate the above conclusion of reason in the most convincing manner, and place it be yond all doubt, at least to those who believe the Holy Scriptures. But before we proceed- to the facts them selves, it will be proper to premise a few observations on the moral perfection of intelligent creatures.
II. First, then, as Almighty God is a Being of infinite perfection, and cannot possibly contradict Himself by willing anything contrary to His own divine perfection, it follows that the divine will is the sovereign rule and standard of all perfection and righteousness. Conse quently our perfection as rational and intelligent creatures must consist in our resemblance to God — that is, in our thinking and acting conformably to His will, in enter taining such sentiments, and in pursuing such a tenor of conduct as He requires of us ; and the more we resemble God in this respect, the more holy, the more righteous, the more perfect we become. That is what our blessed Saviour so earnestly recommends to us when He says, " Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ; " and which He explains and confirms by His own example when He assures us, that " His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him ; " and that this was the very ultimate end of His incarnation, — " I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him that sent me."
Secondly, When we consider the divine perfections, we immediately perceive certain corresponding dispositions and affections in our own heart, and the necessity of a corresponding mode of action naturally resulting from them. These dispositions appear to us natural conse-
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quences of the divine perfections from which they flow, and justly due to that sovereign Being in whom these perfections reside. Thus the infinite power of God de mands from us respect and veneration ; His infinite justice inspires a dread and fear of offending Him ; His infinite veracity, a firm and unshaken belief in His word; His infinite sanctity, pious veneration ; His infinite wisdom, perfect submission to the orders and dispositions of His providence ; His infinite goodness and the innu merable benefits bestowed upon us, demand our most ardent love, gratitude, and confidence in Him ; His sovereign dominion our most profound subjection and entire obedience ; — and all these His divine perfections together essentially require, on our part, the most perfect resignation to His holy will, and an absolute and entire dependence upon Him in everything.
The connection between these divine perfections and their corresponding dispositions in ourselves, is evident at first sight to all. who understand the terms, and the light by which we perceive it is a constitutional part of human nature. This stands in no need of arguments to prove it. It convinces as much as any first principle whatever the moment it is proposed and understood. This connection, then, is real. The divine perfections do actually require these corresponding duties and affections from us. This is the proper worship due to God from His creatures ; it is therefore His will that we render it to Him, and our perfection consists in doing so.
The same observations hold good with regard to our feelings of the nature and obligation of our other moral duties, of which Mr Beattie, in his ' Essay on Truth,' very justly says : " The performance of certain actions, and the indulgence of certain affections, is attended with an agreeable feeling of a peculiar kind, which I call moral
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approbation • different actions and affections excite the opposite feeling of moral disapprobation. To relieve distress I find to be meritorious and praiseworthy ; to pick a pocket I know to be blamable, and worthy of punishment. I am conscious that some actions are in my power, that others are not ; that when I neglect to do what I ought to do, and can do, I deserve to be punished ; and that when I act necessarily, or upon unavoidable and irresistible compulsion, I deserve neither punishment nor blame.
" Of all these sentiments I am as conscious and as cer tain as I am of my own existence. I cannot prove that I feel them, neither to myself nor to others ; but that I do really feel them, is as evident to me as demonstration could make it. I ought to be grateful for a favour received. Why? Because my conscience tells me so. How do you know you ought to do that of which your conscience enjoins the performance ? I can give no further reason for it, but that I feel that such is my duty. And here the investigation must stop ; or, if carried a little further, it must return to this point — I know that I ought to do what my conscience enjoins, because God is the Author of my constitution, and I obey His will when I act according to the principles of my constitution. Why do you obey the will of God ? Because it is my duty. How do you know that ? Because my conscience tells me so," &c.— Part I. § 3.
To these just reflections we must further add, that we not only feel within us this sense of moral duty, this something which impels us to do or to avoid certain actions, and to cherish or repress certain affections ; but, when we are conscious to ourselves of possessing these affections, and of acting conformably to them, we imme diately feel the approbation of this internal monitor at-
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tended with a peaceful joy of mind ; and when we possess them not, or act against them, we are instantly punished by self-condemnation and remorse for having acted in a manner contrary to our duty, and unworthy of the dignity of our nature. The result of all these observations is, that the perfection of our nature consists in entertaining such dispositions, and in following such a line of conduct, as are agreeable to the will of our Creator, and such as He, our Sovereign Master, manifests to us by this light which He has placed within us.
Thirdly, If we examine what Almighty God has de clared to us by revelation, we shall find that it perfectly coincides with this. "Let us hear," says He by the mouth of the wise man, "the conclusion of the whole matter : fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man," Eccles. xii. — that is, his whole duty, his whole happiness, his whole perfection ; in a word, his all. And, indeed, throughout the whole Scriptures, what do we find required of mankind by the great Author of our being but to believe in Him, to fear Him, to hope in Him, to thank and praise Him, to obey and serve Him, and, which comprises all other duties in one word, to love and prefer Him above all things, and to be ready to leave all things rather than, by sin, to offend and lose Him ? In the practice of these holy virtues consists the perfection of our duty, and consequently in the same consists the perfection of our souls.
Fourthly, Had we no other feelings or inclinations in our hearts than these, it would be easy to comply with duty, and to render that just tribute of obedience and love which is so strictly due to our Creator. But this is far from being the case ; for we feel within ourselves an other principle — a violent propensity to things which our moral sense condemns. This strongly tends to turn our
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affections from God and to attach them to creatures. It induces us to seek happiness in sensual gratifications, opposed to the duties dictated by conscience. This in clination of the heart, which is called the sensual appetite, and our moral sense or conscience being contrary to each other, are at perpetual variance, and excite within us that war which is so afflicting to pious souls, and which St Paul so pathetically describes from his own experience : " I know," says he, " that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not : for the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. ... I delight in the law of God after the inward man : but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " Rom. vii.
As these two principles are thus so opposed, we cannot satisfy both ; and the more we encourage and gratify the one, the more we depress and weaken the other. Hence it is impossible that our Creator should have implanted both in our nature with the intention that they should both be fully indulged and gratified. The question then is, Which of the two ought we to hear, and which ought we to reject? A little reflection will easily enable us to answer these questions.
ist, The moral sense is always attended with the feeling that it is our duty to obey its call ; whereas the sensual appetite has no such conviction connected with it, but consists in a blind impetuous inclination of the heart towards its sensual objects.
2dly, Compliance with the dictates of conscience is always followed by internal approbation, and a sense
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of having done well ; and this approbation is the greater the more violent have been the solicitations of sensuality against our doing so. But when we indulge the inclinations of the sensual appetite, we experience no such self-appro bation • on the contrary, we are tormented by self-con demnation and remorse, which is always the more severe the greater the length we have gone in sensual gratification.
Lastly, The most noble and exalted idea which we can form of human nature is that of a person guided solely by the dictates of conscience, and never influenced by selfish and sensual motives in his conduct ; and on the other hand, the most despicable idea which we can con ceive of man is to suppose a person enslaved to his pas sions, and totally lost to every sense of duty or moral virtue. It is plain, therefore, that our moral sense is placed within us as the delegate of God Himself, to be our guide, and that it ought to be our constant care to follow its dictates, and to subdue all risings of the sen sual appetite opposed to its voice.
Fifthly, This the light of revelation confirms ; for by it we are assured that at the beginning man was not created with such contrary principles within him, but that the opposition to duty which we now experience from sen suality, is owing to the fall of our nature from its original rectitude by sin ; that the rebellion of sensuality is a defect within us which it ought to be our daily study to correct ; that our perfection consists in oppos ing and subduing its corrupt desires, and thus asserting the liberty of our souls, that we may with greater ease and ardour be united to our Creator, and render Him that worship and homage which He requires. But to accomplish this is as difficult as it is important.
Our blessed Saviour calls 1; doing violence to ourselves. St Paul, with all the saints, complains of the pain which
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this spiritual warfare cost him ; and experience daily shows, from the small number of those who have courage in earnest to undertake and persevere in it, and from the many rude assaults sustained by those who do, how arduous is the task to overcome this our corrupt nature. But how glorious the victory !
On the other hand, Almighty God ardently desires that we should gain this victory, because it alone can entitle us to the incorruptible crown of glory, for none shall be crowned but he who has lawfully fought. On His part, He leaves nothing undone to encourage and enable us to make this sacred conquest. He excites us to it by commands ; by the most affectionate solicitation ; by threatening the worst of evils if we neglect it ; by promising us the greatest happiness if we obtain it ; by assuring us that he is ever at hand to aid us, and " will never suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear," but, if we be not wanting on our part, "will always give us strength to come off with victory," i Cor. x. Besides, He declares in His own sacred Word, that in order more effectually to engage his people in this war fare, and to enable them to resist their sensuality, and pro mote the perfection of their souls, He has at various times been pleased to perform the most stupendous and amazing miracles. From this our conclusion necessarily follows, that to procure the moral perfection of our souls is an object worthy of the divine interposition, and which Almighty God Himself judges to be such, having actually wrought many miracles for that end.
Sixthly, When we consider the incomprehensible and endless bliss prepared for the good, and the eternal pun ishment which awaifs the wicked in the next life, it will readily be admitted that all we can enjoy or suffer in this world is a mere nothing ; and consequently, that it is a
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matter of the smallest moment what may be our state in this our mortal pilgrimage provided we only escape hell and obtain heaven at the end of life. What did all the wealth and enjoyments of the rich man avail him when at death he was buried in hell, where he could not command a single drop of water to cool his parched tongue ? On the contrary, what worse was Lazarus for all his sufferings in this life, when at death his soul was carried to a place of rest and peace, and put in possession of the fulness of celestial joy and happiness?
As we are placed in this world, therefore, for no other end than to work out and secure our salvation, and as all the goods and evils of this life are so disposed by divine providence that they may serve as means for ac quiring this end, it is a certain truth, that in no other respect do they deserve to be valued or esteemed than as they conduce to our avoiding eternal misery, and acquiring eternal happiness. If, therefore, the abund ance of the goods of this life should prove to us, as to the rich man, a hindrance to that great end, we ought doubtless to regard them as the greatest evils. But if, on the contrary, the sufferings of this life should prove the means of more effectually securing our salvation, as was the case with Lazarus, we ought to esteem them as the greatest and most valuable blessings.
It is true, indeed, that a great degree of Christian per fection is required to have an experimental conviction of this truth ; and it must be owned that the majority of mankind are chiefly affected by present goods and evils. We are naturally bent on procuring and enjoying present goods, as if we were capable of no other happiness ; and we shrink from present sufferings, as if they were the only real evils. In consequence of this natural disposition of our hearts, nothing makes a greater impression upon
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us than to be plentifully supplied with the goods of this world, and to be delivered from its sufferings ; and when this disposition does not prove a hindrance to our eternal happiness, but is regulated by reason and religion, it is far from being blamable, and may be made subser vient to the best of purposes.
This constitution of the human mind Almighty God well knows, and, condescending with amazing good ness to our weakness, He employs it as a means to engage us to His service by promising to bestow upon us all the necessary things of this life, and to preserve us from its evils, so far as is consistent with our eternal happiness, if we continue faithful and obedient to Him. And in order to impress us niore effectually by this promise, He has been pleased, on many occasions, so to order miracles wrought in favour of His servants, for the advancement of their souls in virtue, that they should at the same time procure them temporal blessings, or de liver them from temporal sufferings and dangers. Thus miracles make a deeper impression on the mind, and excite those pious sentiments of gratitude and love which God requires from us. On the other hand, He not only threatens obdurate sinners with temporal evils, to deter them from their wicked ways, but He has even judged it worthy of Himself to work surprising miracles in punishment of sinners, both with a view to their con version, and from their example to excite a salutary fear in the hearts of others. This I shall now proceed to show from the facts themselves.
III. In the beginning, when God created man, He gave him a full and sufficient knowledge of his Maker, and of the service which he owed to Him. But when man, in process of time, from the corruption of his heart by sin, forgot his God and revolted from His service, the
Q2 CHAPTER V.
Supreme Being was pleased to make choice of one nation, which by a particular dispensation of His providence He would preserve from the general corruption, and always maintain constant in the knowledge and service of the true God. This chosen people had been long oppressed in a cruel manner by the Egyptians, who kept them in slavery, till at last the time arrived when the God of their fathers was resolved not only to deliver them from their bondage, but also to give them an ample external revelation of His will, and of the worship and service which He required of them — that is, to plant among them His true religion, and to teach them the way to true happiness here and hereafter.
For this several thing's were necessary. First, to con vince them that it was He Himself, the God of heaven and earth, who declared His will to them ; secondly, to induce them to receive and obey His will so manifested to them ; and, thirdly, to do this in a manner adapted to the constitution of the human heart, by interesting the affections, especially those of love, hope, and fear, in the performance of what he required of them. Now, to gain these ends, we find that Almighty God was pleased to employ miracles, and such a profusion of them, as plainly shows how much He esteems the moral per fection of the soul of man, though it should require the subversion of the most general laws of nature to procure it. For this purpose He makes choice of His servant Moses ; appears to him in the wilderness in a miracu lous manner in a burning bush ; tells him who He is, what He is about to do for His people, and His inten tion to employ him as His instrument for that end.
Had Moses at once consented, had he been pleased with the charge conferred upon him, it might have been alleged that this was a delusion, and that he
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was only the dupe of his own imagination. But so far is this from being the case, that Moses, on hearing the intention of God, is alarmed, objects to the proposal, refuses to undertake the charge, and makes excuses from the difficulty of the enterprise, his own unfitness, and lastly, from the dispositions of the people, who would give no credit to him, a person who had long been absent from them, and of course was little known, except per haps by name, to the greater number.
To obviate these difficulties, to convince Moses him self that this was the work of God, and at the same time to give him credentials to the people, what does the Almighty do ? He makes use of miracles as the proper means for this purpose. He turns the rod of Moses into a serpent, and then into a rod again. He in an instant makes his hand white with leprosy, and immediately restores it to its former soundness. And these miracles He not only performs before Moses for his own satis faction, but He also gives him the power of performing them before the people for their conviction. For thus He speaks to him after turning his rod into a serpent, " That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee," Exod. iv. 5. A little after He tells him, that if the people should not give credit to these first signs, then he should turn the water of the river, when poured out upon the dry land, into red blood in their presence.
By these miracles Moses is convinced, he undertakes the charge, goes to the people, delivers his commission, and performs the miracles as his credentials. These had immediately the desired effect; for when the people were called together, and " Aaron spoke all these words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the
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signs in the sight of the people, the people believed, and bowed down their heads and worshipped," Exod. iv. 30, 31.
IV. Here, then, one main point was gained by means of miracles. The people of Israel were convinced that Moses was sent by the God of their fathers to deliver them from their present misery, and to carry them to the promised land. This, it is true, was the easiest part of the commission given to Moses. The affliction under which the people groaned, their ardent desire to be delivered, the expectation which they had that their deliverance would certainly come, and that they should be freed from that Egyptian slavery, and brought to the possession of that land which had been so often promised to their fathers, would dispose their minds readily to embrace every proposal, and to give credit to every appearance of the approach of that happiness which they expected and desired.
But it was not equally easy to convince Pharaoh. He had no favourable opinion of Moses or his commission. On the contrary, he had the strongest bias against it, both from his religious principles and from his worldly in terest. Accordingly, though Almighty God commanded the same miracles to be wrought in his presence which had convinced the Israelites (see Exod. vii.), they made no impression upon him ; nay, he looked upon them all as impostures, and called in his own magicians, who by their enchantments performed the same things that Moses did.
Observe here the admirable conduct of divine provi dence. God permits this opposition of Pharaoh. He permits the magicians to exert their utmost power, and to imitate the miracles wrought in His name, in order to show their determined will to oppose what He required,
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and their aversion to any design of favouring Moses, which might have been suspected had they at once acknowledged the divinity of his commission and his miracles. But after permitting this contest for a time, God at last asserts His own honour, works by the hand of His servant miracles, which far exceeded all the power of the magicians, and forced from the mouth of these His declared enemies an express acknowledgment, " that the finger of God was there."
Nothing, could be more honourable to the cause of God than this confession, nothing more convincing to His people that Moses was sent by Him, and conse quently nothing could more powerfully prepare their minds and hearts for receiving the religion which He was about to reveal to them by the hands of this His holy servant. But Almighty God was pleased to do still more. Pharaoh, by permission of God's unsearch able judgments, still hardens his heart, and God imme diately works other wonders. Pharaoh's hardness of heart proceeded chiefly from his worldly interest, which rendered him unwilling to comply with what God required in letting the people go, lest they might not return, and he be deprived of their service; therefore does God work such miracles as served both to prove the divine com mission of Moses, and at the same time to punish Pharaoh in those things in which he had sinned, by destroying his country, his cattle, his goods, and his people, in order the more readily to move his stubborn heart, and extort his consent to what God required of him.
In these miracles we observe, first, that generally they were above all the power of the magicians ; secondly, that frequently they were foretold before they happened ; thirdly, that they were taken away at the exact time ap-
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pointed, and this appointment was sometimes left to Pharaoh's own choice ; fourthly, that they were com monly performed at the word of Moses ; fifthly, that a distinction was made between the Egyptians and the people of God, who were freed from the plagues with which the former were afflicted; sixthly, that this last circumstance was foretold and accomplished, as Almighty God Himself says to Pharaoh, " that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth," Exod. viii. 22.
These circumstances clearly proved by whom these miracles were wrought, and evidently tended to imprint in the minds of . Pharaoh and his servants, as well as of God's people, the most thorough conviction that the Lord was the only true God, and -that Moses was His servant commissioned and sent by Him. And God Himself assures us that for this very purpose He wrought these miracles, attended with all their circum stances ; for thus He says to Pharaoh, " I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know there is none like me on all the earth," Exod. ix. 14. And to His own people He says, that He showed all these signs before Pharaoh, " that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done amongst them, that ye may know that I am the Lord," Exod. x. i, 2.
V. In this manner does Almighty God show how He esteems the sanctification of His rational creatures an end worthy of His interposition ; and here we see also how admirably His infinite wisdom adapts His miracles to the end proposed. He knew the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, and the source whence it arose. It was necessary,
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therefore, that the miracles wrought, besides convincing him that Moses was sent from God, should strike at the root of the evil, and bend his heart to a compliance with the divine will. He knew also the rudeness of his own people, their obstinacy, their proneness to the super stitions of the Egyptians, and how ready they would be, upon all occasions, to forsake His service. It was necessary, therefore, that the miracles wrought to prove that the commission of Moses was from God Himself, should not barely be sufficient for this purpose, as was the turning the rod into a serpent, making his hand leprous, and changing water into blood ; but also that they should be calculated to impress the minds of the people — to convince them that it was their only true interest to serve their God — to inspire them with con fidence in Him, and with a salutary dread and fear of offending Him.
How admirably calculated for this were the wonders wrought ! The particular protection shown to His people, the visible line drawn between them and the Egyptians, the design of their deliverance intended by all these wonders, and the actual accomplishment of it at last, were doubtless the most convincing proofs how much they were the favourites of heaven, and what happiness they might expect by faithfully serving that God Who had done such great things for them. On the other hand, the severe and dreadful punishments inflicted on Pharaoh for his disobedience, could not fail to imprint in their hearts the deepest sentiments of fear and dread of offending, by showing them what they might expect if they should follow his example. And as Moses was the person by whom God was to make known His will to His people, and it was necessary that they should entertain the utmost reverence for him as
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the ambassador of God, all these miracles are wrought at his word. Nature seems to be entirely at his com mand. He foretells the punishment to be inflicted on Pharaoh for refusing to obey the direct orders of God delivered by his mouth; and upon his speaking the word, lifting up his rod, or stretching out his hand, what he had foretold forthwith comes to pass. What means could have been better adapted to the ends proposed ? What could have conduced more powerfully to dispose this people to receive from the hands of Moses whatever revelation Almighty God should be pleased to make ?
VI. But the goodness of Almighty God did not stop here. No sooner are the people gone from Pharaoh, than immediately He exerts His Almighty power in their behalf, by performing more stupendous miracles than any they had hitherto seen. He had resolved, for His own wise ends, to conduct them through a wild and barren desert, where there was neither path nor any human guide to lead them. To supply the latter, He sends an angel from heaven as their conductor. This heavenly spirit, in order more effectually to assist and benefit the favoured people committed to his care, assumes a visible form peculiarly adapted to their wants. " The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and by night," Exod. xiii. 21.
He shows them the way they are to go. He protects them from the scorching heats of the sun by day, and by his splendour dispels the darkness of the night. He makes known to them the proper time for proceeding on their journey, and when and how long they ought to take their rest : " When the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel
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journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents ; at the commandment of the Lord, the children of Israel jour neyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched ; as long 'as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents," Num. ix. 17, 18. What senti ments of confidence and love must not this continued proof of the divine goodness have produced in this people !
VII. No sooner had Pharaoh and his servants heard that the Israelites had fled, than, thinking only of the loss of their service, and forgetting all the scourges they had suffered, they repented of what they had done : " Why, say they, have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" Exod. xiv. 5. Pharaoh, therefore, immediately resolves to pursue them with his army, and bring them back to their former slavery. His people readily agree to the proposal, and he comes, with all his hosts, upon the Israelites, at a place where they are hemmed in by the wilderness and the Red Sea, and where there is no human possibility for them to escape. But God again interposes in their behalf by new miracles. Their heavenly conductor changes his position from front to rear, to be a barrier between his people and their enemies. "And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them ; and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and" (see another miracle !) " it was a cloud of darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these ; so that the one came not near the other all the night," Exod. xiv. 19, 20.
Next morning, to complete their deliverance, Moses, by God's command, stretched forth his hand over the
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sea, and immediately it divided into two parts, leaving the dry land in the middle, and the waters standing up as a wall upon the right hand and upon the left. The Israelites, astonished at this visible protection of heaven, boldly enter the untrodden path, and safely pass' through to the other shore ; the Egyptians, blinded by their passion, and bent upon what they had in view, madly follow, in hopes at last to overtake them ; but the time is now at hand appointed for completing the punishment of their obdurate hearts. No sooner are the people of God safely over than Moses again stretches out his hand over the waters, as if to tell them they are now at liberty to return to their usual channel, — " And immedi ately the sea returned to his strength, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh — there remained not so much as one of them ; and thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore/' Exod. xiv. 27, &c. What a visible instance of the almighty hand of God ! What a stupendous miracle ! What a suspension of the laws of nature ! And all this for what end ? For that end surely which was actually produced by it. " And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses/' Exod. xiv. 31.
These were the great ends which Almighty God pro posed by doing such wondrous things, to fill the hearts of His people with a salutary fear of offending Him, and to gain authority and credit with them both for Himself and His servant ; and by this means to dispose their minds for receiving with perfect submission that sacred law which He was about to reveal to them by His holy prophet. These, then, are ends which God Himself
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judges worthy of His interposition by miracles, even of the first order.
VIII. The further we proceed, the more convincing proofs do we discover of this truth in the conduct of divine Providence. The people being now entered into that vast and barren wilderness through which it pleased God to lead them, soon find themselves exposed to the sufferings of hunger and thirst, and the utter want of all the necessaries of life. In this dismal situation, with misery and death staring them in the face, their hearts began to fail. They murmured against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to kill them, as they said, in the wilderness, Exod. xvi. 3. They looked upon all that had been done as his work alone, and called in question his being sent by Almighty God for their de liverance.
This was doubtless inexcusable, considering the many proofs they had received of the divine mission of their leader. But the mercy of their God again had pity on them ; and, condescending to their weakness, He again exerted His almighty power in their behalf, and wrought still more wonderful miracles among them, to convince them that not Moses of himself, but " that He their Lord had brought them out of the land of Egypt," Exod. xvi. 6. "And ye shall know," said He upon this occasion, " that I am the Lord your God," ver. 12. For this purpose He rains down upon them a wonderful food from heaven — a food altogether miraculous, both in the manner of its being given and in all its properties.
In order to try them, however, whether or not they were " really willing to walk in His law," Exod. xvi. 4, and entertained that filial confidence in Him, with which so many wonders wrought in their favour ought to have inspired them, He orders only a certain quantity of this
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heavenly food to be gathered at a time, so much for each person daily. But as the seventh day was to be kept holy as His Sabbath, and spent in His service, He allows a double quantity for each to be gathered on the sixth day. He also orders that what was thus gathered each day should be used, and that nothing of it should be left till the following morning.
The design of Almighty God in these orders is evi dent. It was to try their obedience ; to root out from their hearts all anxiety and solicitude for the concerns of this life, and to nourish in their souls a perfect confi dence and total reliance on the divine providence and protection for everything they stood in need of. Now, observe the miraculous properties of this manna, and how excellently it was adapted to those ends ! When the people went out to gather it, "some gathered more and some less " than the measure prescribed ; " but when they brought it home and met it, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. . . . Some of them left of it till the morning, and it bred worms and putrefied ; . . . but what remained over " the sixth day, "they laid it up till the morning, . . . and it did not putrefy, neither was there any worm therein ; " also it bore without difficulty .all the force of the fire, but melted with the slender heat of the rising sun.
Lastly, this miraculous food was rained down upon them every morning of the six days of the week, but " on the seventh day they found none." See here an accumu lation of miracles, which continued with that people as a standing proof of the finger of God during the space of forty years that they remained in the wilderness, and even till they ate the new fruits of an inhabited land. Nay, what is still more surprising, a measure of this very manna, which could not continue one night without
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worms and corruption when kept contrary to the com mand, was ordered by God to be laid up in the ark before the Lord, where it was preserved sound and in corrupt for ages, that their latest " posterity might see the bread with which God fed them in the wilderness/' which was a standing and perpetual miracle among them, Exod. xvi.
IX. The joy which this heavenly boon occasioned was soon checked by want of water, none of which was to be found in that dry and barren desert ; upon which they began again to murmur, and immediately a new miracle is wrought to supply them. Moses strikes the rock with his rod, and it is forthwith melted down into a stream of limpid water, sufficient for the whole multitude and their cattle, Exod. xvii.
Again, they began to tire of the manna, and calling to mind the food, both fish and flesh, which they had en joyed in Egypt, they murmured, and a new miracle is wrought to gratify their desire, and give them flesh in abundance. Moses himself seemed confounded when God promised to supply them with flesh, looking upon it as a thing incredible, considering where they were : " The people," says he to Almighty God, " are six hundred thousand footmen, and Thou hast said I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month ; shall the flocks and herds be slain for them to suffice them ? " But God immediately checks him by only reminding him who He was that promised it. " And the Lord said unto Moses, is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not ; " and accordingly the very next day He sent them flesh to the full, Num. xi.
Finally, to complete the proofs of his affection for them, and thereby to increase their confidence and love
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of Him, during the forty years He led them in the wilderness He gave such strength and durability to their clothing, that from the day they came out of Egypt, " your clothes," as Moses expresses it to the people themselves, "are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot," Deut. xxix. 5. In all this we see how much Almighty God thought it worthy of Himself to perform the most amazing miracles, in order to gain the love and confidence of His people, and to dispose them to receive with respect and deference the law which He was about to deliver to them.
X. We come now to the revelation itself; and here we find a new scene opened to our view; a scene of miracles even superior, if possible, in their amazing great ness to any that had gone before. Two days were em ployed to prepare the people for this great event, and upon the third day God descends in a visible form of fire in the sight of the entire multitude, attended with all the ensigns of majesty which could render His appearance awful. A thick cloud covers the mountain, the sound of trumpets is heard on every side, flashes of lightning burst forth from the clouds, peals of thunder roll, and the whole mountain trembles with violent earthquakes. From the midst God Himself speaks aloud to His people, and pro nounces, with His own divine mouth, in the hearing of all the multitude, the sacred law which He was pleased to give them. The people, spectators of this impressive scene, heard with amazement the heavenly voice ; and seeing "the thunders and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpets, and the mountain smoking," they were ex ceedingly afraid, " and removed, and stood afar off, and said to Moses, Speak thou to us and we will hear, but let not God speak to us lest we die," Exod. xx.
Nothing could more effectually serve to convince this
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people that their God was the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, than what they heard and saw upon this occa sion. Nothing could imprint more deeply on their minds a veneration and dread of that Almighty Being Who spoke to them. Nothing could more contribute to excite the utmost respect for Moses, whom they saw so highly honoured by their great Creator, and to dispose them to receive from him, with the most religious deference, whatever Almighty God should afterwards be pleased by him to reveal to them. This was one of the principal ends which God had in view in His visible appearance among them, as He Himself says to Moses, "Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever," Exod. xix. 9. But this deserves to be considered more particu larly.
XI. In the first place, we see, in this memorable event, a striking example of the infinite goodness of God, and of His ardent desire of the moral perfection of His rational creatures. What more convincing proof of this than to see this great Being condescend to reveal to them His holy will and law as the proper rule to conduct them to that perfection; and to do this in such a manner, and in such circumstances, as could not possibly fail to give them the most full conviction that it was the God of nature Himself, the sovereign Lord and Master of the universe, Who spoke whilst they saw how entirely all nature was subservient to Him.
But as it would have been too much for human weakness if all the particulars of the religion which God intended for His people had been delivered to them in such a manner, we see, in the second place, with what infinite wisdom Almighty God brings about His ends with undoubted cer tainty, but at the same time with the greatest sweetness.
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The awfulness of His appearance fills their minds with such dread and fear, that they themselves pray that He would never speak to them again in such a manner. What He had already done had fully convinced them that He was their sole and sovereign Lord, and that Moses was sent and commissioned by Him ; that, therefore, it would be sufficient if He declared to Moses what further orders He should please to give them, and they would receive them from him as the dictates of God Himself. Now what was this but the very disposition of mind which God required of them, as the end proposed in all these wondrous works which He had wrought ? And therefore He approved of what they said, and replied to Moses, " They have well spoken that which they have spoken," Deut. xviii. 17.
Lastly, in this whole series of repeated miracles, we have a convincing proof how much Almighty God esteems the moral perfection of His creatures ; that is, the implanting and strengthening in their hearts a firm belief of what He reveals to them as His truth, a fear of offending Him, a filial confidence in His goodness, and a sincere love and obedience to Him as their supreme God and sovereign Lord. We see how much Almighty God esteems these things worthy of His procuring, even by the temporary subversion, if it may be so said, of the most constant laws of nature.
That these were the very ends which God had in view in working so many wonders among His people, is evi dent from His own repeated declarations. To those above related I shall add the following, as being particu larly expressive of this truth. It is taken from Deut. iv., where Moses, exhorting the people to love and serve their God, who had done such great things for them, speaks to them as follows : " Did ever people hear the
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voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as thou hast heard, and live ? or hath God essayed to take Him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes ? Unto thee it was showed, that thou might est know that the Lord He is God; there is none else beside Him. . . . Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath ; there is none else : thou shalt keep therefore His statutes and commandments," &c. In consequence of this, the people unanimously resolved to love and serve their God, Who had done such great things for them; and having declared their firm resolution of doing so, Almighty God, to show how ardently He desired this from them, and that He desired it with a view to their real and lasting happiness, thus expresses Himself to Moses : " O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever," Deut. v. 29. In all this it is manifest what were the ends which the divine wisdom had in view in the many and amazing miracles wrought among this people.*"
* See also Deut. ix. x. xi., Psalm Ixxviii. (alias Ixxvii.), and Psalm cv. (alias civ.), through the whole, \vhere the same truth is most beautifully declared.
loS
CHAPTER VI.
OTHER GENERAL ENDS OF MIRACLES, AS DISCLOSED BY REVELATION.
I. \T 7 HAT we have seen in the preceding chapter V V must show beyond all doubt to those who receive the Scriptures as the Word of God, that to pro cure belief with mankind, when He is pleased to reveal to them His will, and to excite in their minds and hearts those holy sentiments of faith, confidence, love, gratitude, and obedience, are ends truly worthy of the divine inter position by miracles, and are so judged by God Himself. But as this is a most important subject, I must pursue it a little further, and show from the same sacred records a few more of the general ends which God has been pleased to procure by the same means, and which directly or indirectly conduced to the happiness and perfection either of whole nations or of individuals.
II. The miraculous manner in which Almighty God was pleased to reveal and establish His religion, was fully sufficient to convince all then present, and also all who in after-ages should believe upon the tradition and testi mony by which it was to be handed down to them. Still the divine wisdom, well knowing the corruption of the heart of man, its impatience of restraint, its readiness to shake off the yoke on the least pretence, foresaw how apt
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men would be in after-ages to reject the belief of this first miraculous establishment of religion, if not supported by convincing proofs. We find, therefore, that Almighty God, in all succeeding ages, when His religion was in danger of being corrupted or destroyed, was always ready to defend it by the same means by which He had at first established it. He judged its preservation, when in danger, no less worthy His divine interposition than its first establishment among His people.
III. After the death of Joshua and his contemporaries, who had been eyewitnesses of all the glorious things which Almighty God had done for that nation, the memory of those wonders began to wax weak among them : " The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that He did for • Israel. And Joshua died, and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers ; and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel," Judges, ii. In consequence of this, for a great number of years — that is, during the whole period that Israel was governed by judges — they from time to time " did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam ; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt," sometimes the whole nation, sometimes a con siderable part of it, " and followed other gods, and pro voked the Lord to anger," ibid.
In this juncture Almighty God did not fail to defend His own cause ; nay, we may justly say, that He wrought one continued miracle, by literally and daily fulfilling those prophecies which, long before, had been made by Moses. This great man, foreseeing the future infidelity of the people, foretold to them the consequences both of
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their obedience to the Lord their God, and of their apostasy from His service. He assured them, that if they adhered to Him and to His holy law, every tem poral blessing would be their portion. " If you walk in My statutes," says Almighty God to them by the moutfi of this holy prophet, "and keep My commandments and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase. . . . And I will give peace in the land, and you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. . . . And I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people." See the whole passage, Levit. xxvi. ; see also Deut. xxviii. And, on the contrary, if they should forsake the Lord their God, abandon His service and prove disobedient to Him, He assured them that all temporal evils would be sent upon them as the just punishment of their ingrati tude ; " But if you will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these My commandments, I also will do this unto you, I will even appoint over you terror, consump tion, and the burning ague, and I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies, and they that hate you shall reign over you," &c., ibid.
Now, what is the whole history of the Judges but a literal verification of these prophecies ? See the second chapter of that book, which in this respect is an abridg ment of the whole. And as the accomplishment of pro phecies, which had been uttered long before, is an un doubted proof that God is their author, nothing could more powerfully contribute to convince that people that the religion which they had received from their fathers was from God, than their daily experience of the immediate consequences which exactly followed, according to pre diction, as they either adhered to their religion and their God, or became disobedient to Him.
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IV. Neither were there wanting several particular mir acles during this period, wrought either indirectly or directly for the same end, — as the victory over Siserah, and the manner of his death, foretold by Deborah ; also Gideon's fleece, and the deliverance of the people from the captivity of the Midianites, by the miraculous victory which he obtained over them ; the circumstances attend ing the birth of Sampson, his amazing strength, with that most extraordinary miracle of his obtaining Avater to quench his thirst from the dry jaw-bone of an ass ; and Samuel's procuring thunder and lightning in an instant on a clear harvest-day, — from which we see how attentive Almighty God was to defend the purity and truth of His religion by miracles, from the dangers to which it was exposed during this period of the Judges.
These instances now mentioned we shall have occa sion to notice afterwards in a more particular manner. But there is also another celebrated passage connected with this period which deserves a little more attention here. Under the government of the high priest Eli, in punishment of the sins of His people, God permitted the ark of His covenant, which was the glory of their nation, to be taken from them, and carried away by the Philis tines. This was a subject of triumph and exultation to these heathens, but of the utmost affliction and humilia tion to the Israelites. But though Almighty God was pleased thus to punish and humble His people for their sins, He did not fail to vindicate the honour of His reli gion, and to defend the ark, which was the most sacred testimony of His covenant with them, from the insults of His enemies by repeated miracles. By these the infidels were forced to acknowledge His power and authority both over them and all their gods, and at last to restore the ark with honour to the people.
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When it fell into their hands they placed it in the temple of Dagon their god ; but next day that idol was found lying flat upon the ground, as it were in an act of adoration before the ark of the Most High God. When raised up by its votaries and put into its place, the day after it was found not only fallen as before, but even broken into pieces upon the threshold ; Almighty God disdaining to have an idol standing beside His ark, or placed upon an equal footing with it. He smote all the people of every city and its neighbourhood whither they carried the ark, with sore boils and shameful diseases, which swept them off in numbers, so that the people of that city cried out, " The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore upon us, and upon