MIRACLE

An effect that does not follow from any of the regular laws of nature, or which is inconsistent with some law of it, or contrary to the settled constitution and course of things: accordingly, all miracles pre-suppose an established system of nature, within the limits of which they operate, and with the order of which they disagree. The following statement is true beyond controversy:—Man cannot, in the present constitution of his mind, believe that religion has a Divine origin, unle it be accompanied with miracles. The nece ary inference of the mind is, that if an Infinite Being act, his acts will be superhuman in their character; because the effect, reason dictates, will be characterized by the nature of its cause. Man has the same reason to expect that God will perform acts above human power and knowledge, that he has to suppose the inferior orders of animals will, in their actions, sink below the power and wisdom which characterize human nature. For, as it is natural for man to perform acts superior to the power and knowledge of the animals beneath him, so reason affirms that it is natural for God to develope his power by means and in ways above the skill and ability of mortals. Hence, if God manifest himself at all—unle , in accommodation to the capacities of men, he should constrain his manifestations within the compa of human ability—every act of God’s immediate power would, to human capacity, be a miracle. But, if God were to constrain all his acts within the limits of human means and agencies, it would be impo ible for man to discriminate between the acts of the Godhead and the acts of the manhood. And man, if he considered acts to be of a Divine origin which were plainly within the compa of human ability, would violate his own reason. Suppose, for illustration, that God desired to reveal a religion to men, and wished them to recognise his character and his benevolence in giving that revelation. Suppose, further, that God should give such a revelation, and that every appearance and every act connected with its introduction were characterized by nothing superior to human power; could any rational mind on earth believe that such a system of religion came from God ? Impo ible! A man could as easily be made to believe that his own child, who po e ed his own lineaments, and his own nature, belonged to some other world, and some other order of the creation. It would not be po ible for God to convince men that a religion was from heaven, unle it was accompanied with the marks of Divine power. Suppose, again, that some individual were to appear either in the heathen or Christian world—that he claimed to be a teacher sent from God , yet aspired to the performance of no miracles—that he a umed to do nothing superior to the wisdom and ability of other men. Such an individual, although he might succeed in gaining proselytes to some particular view of a religion already believed, yet he could never make men believe that he had a special commi ion from God to establish a new religion, for the simple reason that he had no grounds more than his fellows, to support his claims as an agent of the Almighty. But if he could convince a single individual that he had wrought a miracle, or that he had power to do so, that moment his claims would be established in that mind as a commi ioned agent from Heaven. So certainly and so intuitively do the minds of men revere and expect miracles as the credentials of the Divine presence. This demand of the mind for miracles, as testimony of the Divine presence and power, is intuitive with all men; and those very individuals who have doubted the existence or nece ity of miracles, should they examine their own convictions on this subject, would see that, by an absolute nece ity, if they desired to give the world a system of religion, whether truth or imposture, in order to make men receive it as of Divine authority, they must work miracles to attest its truth, or make men believe that they did so. Men can produce doubt of a revelation in no way until they have destroyed the evidence of its miracles; nor can faith be produced in the Divine origin of a religion until the evidence of miracles is supplied. The conviction that miracles are the true attestation of immediate Divine agency, is so constitutional (allow the expre ion) with the reason, that so soon as men persuade themselves they are the special agents of God in propagating some particular truth in the world, they adopt likewise the belief that they have ability to work miracles. There have been many sincere enthusiasts, who believed that they were special agents of Heaven; and, in such cases, the conviction of their own miraculous powers arises as a nece ary concomitant of the other opinion. Among such, in modern times, may be instanced Emanuel Swedenborg, and Irving, the Scotch preacher. Impostors also, perceiving that miracles were nece ary in order that the human mind should receive a religion as Divine, have invariably claimed miraculous powers. Such instances recur constantly from the days of Elymas down to the Mormon, Joseph Smith. All the multitude of false religions that have been believed since the world began, have been introduced by the power of this principle. Miracles believed, lie at the foundation of all religions which men have ever received as of Divine origin. No matter how degrading or repulsive to reason in other respects, the fact of its establishment and propagation grows out of the belief of men that miraculous agency lies at the bottom. This belief will give currency to any system, however absurd; and, without it, no system can be established in the minds of men, however high and holy may be its origin and its design. Such, then, is the constitution which the Maker has given to the mind. Whether the conviction be an intuition or an induction of the reason, God is the primary cause of its existence; and its existence puts it out of the power of man to receive a revelation from God himself, unle accompanied with miraculous manifestations. If, therefore, God ever gave a revelation to man, it was nece arily accompanied with miracles, and with miracles of such a nature, as would clearly distinguish the Divine character and the Divine authority of the dispensation.— Plan of the Philosophy of Salvation.