CHAPTER VIII - Argument from Laws intermitting—on the Nature of Miracles

Summary

The object of the present chapter is to show that miracles are not deviations from the laws assigned by the Almighty for the government of matter and of mind; but that they are the exact fulfilment of much more extensive laws than those we suppose to exist. In fact, if we were endued with acuter senses and higher reasoning faculties, they are the very points we should seek to observe, as the test of any hypothesis we had been led to frame concerning the nature of those laws. Even with our present imperfect faculties we frequently arrive at the highest confirmation of our views of the laws of nature, by tracing their actions under singular circumstances.

The mode by which I propose to arrive at these conclusions is, by appealing to the judgment which each individual will himself form, when examining that piece of mere human mechanism, to which the argument so frequently compels me to advert. If he shall agree with me, that the second of the two views presented to him exhibits a higher degree of knowledge, and a higher exertion of power, than the first, he must inevitably conclude, that the view here taken of the nature of a miracle, assigns a far higher degree of power and knowledge to the Deity.

Let the reader again imagine himself sitting before the calculating engine, and let him again observe and ascertain, by lengthened induction, the nature of the law it is computing.