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Page 5
(4) The masses then style unusual phenomena, "miracles," and partly from
piety, partly for the sake of opposing the students of science, prefer to
remain in ignorance of natural causes, and only to hear of those things
which they know least, and consequently admire most. (5) In fact, the common
people can only adore God, and refer all things to His power by removing
natural causes, and conceiving things happening out of their due course, and
only admires the power of God when the power of nature is conceived of as in
subjection to it.
(6) This idea seems to have taken its rise among the early Jews who saw the
Gentiles round them worshipping visible gods such as the sun, the moon, the
earth, water, air, &c., and in order to inspire the conviction that such
divinities were weak and inconstant, or changeable, told how they themselves
were under the sway of an invisible God, and narrated their miracles,
trying further to show that the God whom they worshipped arranged the whole
of nature for their sole benefit: this idea was so pleasing to humanity that
men go on to this day imagining miracles, so that they may believe
themselves God's favourites, and the final cause for which God created and
directs all things.
(7) What pretension will not people in their folly advance! (8) They have no
single sound idea concerning either God or nature, they confound God's
decrees with human decrees, they conceive nature as so limited that they
believe man to be its chief part! (9) I have spent enough space in setting
forth these common ideas and prejudices concerning nature and miracles, but
in order to afford a regular demonstration I will show -
(10) I. That nature cannot be contravened, but that she preserves a fixed
and immutable order, and at the same time I will explain what is meant by a
miracle.
(11) II. That God's nature and existence, and consequently His providence
cannot be known from miracles, but that they can all be much better
perceived from the fixed and immutable order of nature.
(12) III. That by the decrees and volitions, and consequently the providence
of God, Scripture (as I will prove by Scriptural examples) means nothing but
nature's order following necessarily from her eternal laws.
(13) IV. Lastly, I will treat of the method of interpreting Scriptural
miracles, and the chief points to be noted concerning the narratives of
them.
(14) Such are the principal subjects which will be discussed in this
chapter, and which will serve, I think, not a little to further the object
of this treatise.
(15) Our first point is easily proved from what we showed in Chap. IV. about
Divine law - namely, that all that God wishes or determines involves eternal
necessity, and truth, for we demonstrated that God's understanding is
identical with His will, and that it is the same thing to say that God wills
a thing, as to say, that He understands it; hence, as it follows
necessarily, from the Divine nature and perfection that God understands a
thing as it is, it follows no less necessarily that He wills it as it is.
(16) Now, as nothing is necessarily true save only by, Divine decree, it is
plain that the universal laws of nature are decrees of God following from
the necessity and perfection of the Divine nature. (17) Hence, any event
happening in nature which contravened nature's universal laws, would
necessarily also contravene the Divine decree, nature, and understanding; or
if anyone asserted that God acts in contravention to the laws of nature, he,
ipso facto, would be compelled to assert that God acted against His own
nature - an evident absurdity. (18) One might easily show from the same
premises that the power and efficiency, of nature are in themselves the
Divine power and efficiency, and that the Divine power is the very essence
of God, but this I gladly pass over for the present.
(19) Nothing, then, comes to pass in nature (N.B. I do not mean here by
"nature," merely matter and its modifications, but infinite other things
besides matter.) in contravention to her universal laws, nay, everything
agrees with them and follows from them, for whatsoever comes to pass, comes
to pass by the will and eternal decree of God; that is, as we have just
pointed out, whatever comes to pass, comes to pass according to laws and
rules which involve eternal necessity and truth; nature, therefore, always
observes laws and rules which involve eternal necessity, and truth, although
they may not all be known to us, and therefore she keeps a fixed and mutable
order. (20) Nor is there any sound reason for limiting the power and
efficacy of nature, and asserting that her laws are fit for certain
purposes, but not for all; for as the efficacy, and power of nature, are the
very, efficacy and power of God, and as the laws and rules of nature are the
decrees of God, it is in every way to be believed that the power of nature
is infinite, and that her laws are broad enough to embrace everything
conceived by, the Divine intellect; the only alternative is to assert that
God has created nature so weak, and has ordained for her laws so barren,
that He is repeatedly compelled to come afresh to her aid if He wishes that
she should be preserved, and that things should happen as He desires: a
conclusion, in My opinion, very far removed from reason. (21) Further, as
nothing happens in nature which does not follow from her laws, and as her
laws embrace everything conceived by the Divine intellect, and lastly, as
nature preserves a fixed and immutable order; it most clearly follows that
miracles are only intelligible as in relation to human opinions, and merely
mean events of which the natural cause cannot be explained by a reference to
any ordinary occurrence, either by us, or at any rate, by the writer and
narrator of the miracle.
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