Читать книгу The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical - C. A. Row - Страница 8

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Having considered the direct assertions in the New Testament in reference to the supernatural, it will be necessary to take a brief view of the question in relation to modern difficulties and objections.

The following subjects present themselves for our consideration:—

1st. To what extent, and in what sense are miracles the proofs of a revelation?

2nd. Are supernatural occurrences devoid of all moral environment capable of affording such proof?

3rd. Can doctrinal statements or moral truths be proved by miracles?

4th. Are miracles objects of faith merely, or if not, how are they related to our reason; and if in any sense they are objects of faith, how can they be the media of proof?

It will be evident that these questions will immediately lay open a number of the most important considerations. They can only be adequately dealt with in the subsequent portions of this work. The natural place to discuss them will be when I come to consider the objections that can be urged against the possibility and credibility of miracles. A few preliminary observations, however, will be necessary for the purpose of putting the reader in possession of some of the most [pg 068] important points of debate and of the positions which I intend to assume respecting them. They will also help to clear the way for the solution of the various difficulties by which the subject has been attempted to be obscured.

The manner in which Christianity claims to be a divine revelation, as we have seen in the former chapter, in its most proper and distinctive sense is that the person of Jesus Christ constitutes that revelation. It is the manifestation of the divine character and perfections by means of the various acts and deeds of his earthly life and ministry. It is a revelation of the divine shining forth in the human. I have already adduced some of the affirmations of the sacred writers on this subject. It would be easy to multiply them indefinitely. Perhaps it would be impossible to express the position which they take on this subject in more distinct language than by citing two brief passages in St. Paul's epistle to the Colossians: “Who is,” says the Apostle, “the image of the invisible God;” “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Both passages affirm, as the writer's view, that all revelation is made in the person of Jesus Christ.

It follows, therefore, that the Christian revelation in its highest sense is not a body of abstract dogmas, but that it consists of an objective fact, the Incarnation. As God has manifested his eternal power and Godhead in the material creation, so he has manifested himself as a moral and spiritual being, 1st, imperfectly in the moral nature of man, and afterwards perfectly, in the perfect man who unites in himself the divine and human, Jesus Christ. God, when he effected the work of creation, made a manifestation of himself which chiefly revealed his power and wisdom. When he effected the Incarnation he made an additional manifestation [pg 069] of himself which chiefly revealed his moral character and perfections. The four Gospels contain the historical account of this manifestation, as made in the actions and teaching of Jesus Christ. As this revelation consists of a number of historical facts, all that was necessary was that his life and actions should be correctly reported. The remaining books of the New Testament are historical in character, with one exception, and as far as they treat of doctrines, they may be viewed as commentaries on the Divine fact of the Incarnation.

It follows, therefore, that the essence of Christianity consists of a superhuman or divine fact, the Incarnation. In this point of view the supernatural is not only a concomitant of Christianity, but it constitutes its essence. It is the manifestation of a supernatural and superhuman being appearing within the sphere of the natural and the human. It cannot be too carefully observed throughout this entire controversy that the character which is ascribed to Jesus Christ, while it embraces every perfection of man, is no less superhuman than the powers which are attributed to him are supernatural. In this sense the supernatural is not merely an evidence of revelation, but its essence.

The Incarnation has frequently been designated a miracle. To do so seems to me to incur the danger of involving the whole controversy in confusion of thought. In a loose way of speaking, the creative acts of God may be called miracles: that is, they involve a deviation from the previous order of existing things, and the introduction of a new one; all such results are unquestionable manifestations of supernatural agency, but they differ wholly in conception from what we usually designate by the term miracle. The Incarnation, therefore, ought not to be placed on the same [pg 070] footing as miracles, which are supernatural occurrences, having a definite evidential value, but with God's creative acts, being the highest manifestation of himself which he has made to man. It is perfectly true, as I have already observed, that the miracles of Jesus Christ stand in a double aspect, as part of his supernatural manifestation, and as possessing an evidential value.

It is clear, therefore, that a supernatural event such as the Incarnation, if evidential, can only be self-evidential. It was not wrought for the purpose of proving anything. But, as we have seen, the sacred writers and our Lord himself assert that in a certain sense it was self-evidential. “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.”

A recent writer affirms that Christianity professes to be a revelation of supernatural truths utterly inconceivable to reason, and that such truths can only be proved by miracles. I can understand what is meant by a truth derived from a supernatural source of information, or one respecting a supernatural being or occurrence: but what a supernatural truth can be contradistinguished from other kinds of truth is far from evident. Revelation may disclose truths which reason alone would have been unable to discover; but this does not make the truths themselves, when they are discovered, either supernatural or incomprehensible.

I will now proceed to consider whether there is any real ground for affirming that occurrences which we designate as miracles are the only proofs of a divine revelation.

The same writer, whose object is to prove that Christianity is utterly destitute of all claims to our acceptance [pg 071] as a divine revelation, endeavours to show that miracles, viewed as bare objective facts, are the only evidence which can substantiate such a mass of incredible assertions as those contained in the New Testament, and that their moral environment cannot be taken into account in estimating their evidential value. For this purpose he quotes the following passage from Dr. Mozley's Bampton Lectures: “Dr. Mozley,” says he, “supposes the case, that if a person of evident integrity and loftiness of character had appeared eighteen centuries ago announcing himself as pre-existing from all eternity, the Son of God, the maker of the world, who had come down from heaven, and had assumed the nature of man, in order to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, and so on, enumerating the other doctrines of Christianity; Dr. Mozley then adds, what would be the inevitable conclusion of sober reason respecting that person? The necessary conclusion of sober reason would be that he was disordered in his understanding.... By no rational being would a just and a benevolent life be accepted as a proof of such announcements. Miracles are the necessary complements of the truth of such announcements, which without them are powerless and abortive, the fragments of a design which is nothing unless it is the whole. They are necessary to the justification of such announcements, which unless they are supernatural truth are the wildest delusions.”—Supernatural Religion.

In justice to Dr. Mozley, the passage which is omitted in this citation from his lectures ought to be quoted. It is as follows: “What other decision could be come to when a man, looking like one of our own selves, and only exemplifying in his life and [pg 072] circumstances the ordinary course of nature, said this about himself, but that when reason had lost its balance a dream of supernatural and unearthly, grandeur might be the result.”—Bampton Lectures.

Some expressions in this passage leave it open to the assumption which this writer wishes to fasten on it that Dr. Mozley intended to affirm that the only adequate proof of such affirmations as were made by Jesus Christ respecting himself would have been visible miracles wrought in confirmation of them. This, however, is not necessarily its meaning, for the omitted passage above cited, distinctly affirms that the person who is supposed to make such assertions is only an ordinary good and holy but imperfect man.

But the assertions in question were not made by an ordinary man like ourselves, but by one who is described as possessed of superhuman greatness and holiness and of profound spiritual insight into truth. He is uniformly depicted as speaking with the fulness of knowledge of the subject on which he speaks. I cannot therefore admit, supposing the character of Jesus to have been historical, that if he had made such assertions respecting himself prior to the performance of his first miracle at Cana, they would have been utterly unworthy of serious attention. It must be readily admitted that if they had been affirmed of himself by an ordinary man like ourselves, no affirmation of his would have been a guarantee of their truth, for the simple reason that they would have been self-contradictory. Nor would the performance of a miracle have made them one atom more credible. But the credibility of such an assertion, if it had been made by such a person as Jesus Christ even prior to his performance of a single miracle, is a wholly different question.

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It follows, therefore, on the supposition that the delineation given us in the Gospels is that of an historical reality, that his assertions respecting himself would stand in a wholly different position from those of any other man. He could neither deceive nor be deceived. When he made assertions respecting himself he must have known whether they were true. The assertions of such a person therefore would be worthy of all acceptation.

Miracles are not the means of substantiating assertions respecting the truth of unseen realities, nor are they used for such purposes in the New Testament. The whole question is one of adequate knowledge. If we have the means of knowing that a person has a complete acquaintance with truths of which we are ignorant, we can rationally accept them as true on his assurance that they are so, exactly on the same principles as we accept the truths of physical science although we ourselves are ignorant of the processes by which they are arrived at. To state the position generally, it is quite rational to accept the affirmations of those who possess full knowledge of any subject of which we ourselves are profoundly ignorant. The only thing necessary is to attain an assurance that the knowledge of our informant is adequate to justify his assertions. It is on the ground of the fulness of his knowledge that we accept the assertions of Jesus Christ, and not because he wrought a miracle for the purpose of proving that his assertions were true.

Let us now consider in what sense miracles are a proof of the truth of a divine revelation.

I lay down that the proper function of miracles is to establish the truth of a divine commission. From this we argue to the truth of the assertions of the persons who are intrusted with it.

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If an ordinary man, such as a prophet or an apostle, were to affirm that he had a communication from God which he was directed to make to others, or in other words that he had a divine commission, it is evident that no one would be bound to believe him on his mere affirmation. The simple and obvious reply would be, Give us some proof of the reality of the fact. Your claim is far too lofty to be admitted as valid on your simple affirmation. The question then is, how is such a claim to be tested? I reply by the person who makes it performing some action which is adequate to prove that the Great Governor of the Universe ratifies this claim. He must do something analogous to what all persons who claim to be acting under commissions from others do, i.e. he must produce some direct and formal credentials from the authority in whose name he claims to be acting. In this case the authority is God. He must therefore perform some action which directly identifies himself with God.

How is this to be accomplished? I answer by the performance of an unequivocal miracle which will directly connect him with the Great Governor of the Universe. I say unequivocal miracle, because if there were any doubt as to its supernatural character it would be useless. Nor would it be of any avail if it were a bare objective fact in external nature, devoid of its moral and spiritual environment. What is required is some direct manifestation of the divine on the sphere of the human and the natural. It must, in fact, exactly fulfil the character so often assigned to miracles in the Gospels. It must be a σημεῖον, or indication of the presence of God, resembling as it were the Great Seal which is affixed to state documents as the final mark of sovereign authority. Of such a character are all the chief miracles recorded in the Gospels.

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The question about miracles has been beclouded by debating it in an abstract instead of in a concrete form; thus forgetting that it is not every conceivable form of alleged supernatural occurrence with which we have to deal, but the miracles recorded in the New Testament. By discussing it in this form it has been possible to raise a number of difficulties which may be abstractedly conceivable, but which have no bearing whatever on the miracles in question. Thus it has been frequently urged that to enable us to be certain that an alleged miracle is really due to supernatural agency, a jury of savants ought to be impanelled, before whom the worker of the miracle should exhibit his miraculous operation. They are to subject it to a variety of scientific tests. Even then if they have failed to discover error, they are to demand a second and a third performance, in order that it may be again and again submitted to the same process of scientific scrutiny. Until miracles can be submitted to and verified by tests of this description they have been affirmed to be unworthy of credit, even on the strongest ordinary testimony.

I shall discuss this and kindred questions more fully in the subsequent portions of this volume, when I consider the nature of the evidence which is adequate to prove the performance of a miracle. For the present I shall only observe that the entire plausibility of this position arises from its being stated in an abstract or general form. We cannot help seeing in reference to the chief miracles recorded in the New Testament, such as the care of blind, lame or leprous persons, instantaneously by a word or a touch, that common sense is fully adequate to determine that such occurrences must belong to the regions of the supernatural and to no other.

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Two things are necessary to establish the reality of a supposed miracle. First, that the alleged fact should not only have been brought about by supernatural causes but previously announced by him who performs it: secondly, that the fact actually happened as it appeared to happen.

There can be no doubt that the power of juggling and sleight of hand, to perform actions which would be supernatural, if they were only what they appear to be, is considerable, and the difficulty of detection is great. Enthusiasm also when once excited, is capable of generating various unreal appearances which if actual, would be supernatural. It is also mighty in those regions where the union takes place between mind and matter, but the chief miracles recorded in the Gospels belong to a wholly different order of occurrence. If they took place as they are reported, no one possessed of common sense can doubt as to whether they were due to supernatural agency. It is no less clear that such miracles were occurrences in which successful imposture was impossible. What is required to prove them is the evidence of common sense, and not of scientific analysis. Let it be observed that it is not my intention to affirm that the whole of the supernaturalism recorded in the New Testament is of the same unequivocal character.

The evidential value of a miracle viewed as a matter of common sense maybe briefly stated thus. A person comes to me who affirms that he has a divine message to communicate. I ask him to prove it. He lays his hand on one whom I have known to be blind for the last twenty years, tells him in the name of Jesus Christ to receive his sight, and he forthwith receives it. There is probably no person gifted with ordinary understanding [pg 077] who would not consider such an act to be an adequate proof of divine agency, all theoretical or metaphysical difficulties to the contrary notwithstanding.

It will doubtless be objected that such an act would prove only the presence of a superhuman instead of a divine power. This point will be fully considered hereafter. For my present purpose it will be sufficient to fall back on the decision of common sense, that he who can restore sight to the sightless eye-ball, by no other apparent instrumentality than a word or a touch, can be no other than the Maker of the Universe.

I must now consider whether supernatural occurrences devoid of all moral environment, are capable of proving a divine commission.

It has frequently been the habit, both of the opponents and the defenders of Christianity, to discuss the subject of the evidential value of miracles apart from all reference to their moral environment. As, however, the overwhelming majority of the miracles recorded in the New Testament profess such an environment, the question of the value of supposed miracles which are destitute of it, forms no legitimate portion of the subject before us. What might or might not be proved by them, even if it could be determined satisfactorily, is quite foreign to the present discussion, which is limited to the truth or falsehood of those contained in the New Testament. The most important of these are not mere displays of power, but have an unquestionable moral environment impressed upon them, and they profess to have been wrought for a definite end and purpose. This is less distinctly marked in some of the miracles recorded in the Old Testament, but with them I have no present concern. It will be sufficient to observe that while many of them [pg 078] were unquestionably performed in attestation of a divine mission, as a class they bear another distinctive purpose, viz. that of correcting the polytheistic tendencies of the age. Hence their leading impress is that of power. The necessity of counteracting the tendency which I have referred to, rendered it necessary emphatically to assert the Lordship of one God over universal nature, in opposition to that conception of it so widely diffused throughout the ancient world, which saw a distinct power exerted in every combination of material forces.

The very conception of a miracle as a supernatural occurrence, brought about for the purpose of authenticating a revelation, distinguishes such an action from one which involves only a simple exhibition of power. All acts of moral agents must display a purpose of some kind. No conception of God is of the smallest religious value which does not contemplate him as being a moral agent and a being on whose actions a moral character of some kind must be impressed. Consequently an act entirely devoid of all moral aspect cannot prove that it has resulted from direct divine intervention. The difficulty has originated from dividing into three separate parts an action which is essentially one, and contemplating separately the objective fact in the supernatural action, the circumstances attending its performance, and the purpose for which it was performed. It is the union of all these which constitutes the occurrence in question an evidential miracle.

Let me now offer a few observations on a very important point for our consideration. Can abstract doctrinal statements or moral truths be proved by miracles?

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I have already observed that as far as the miracles of the New Testament were wrought for directly evidential purposes, they were performed, not to prove particular doctrines, but as the credentials of a divine mission, or that they formed a part of the superhuman manifestation of our Lord. The apparent exceptions are those which were performed to attract attention to the divine message, to assist in the foundation of the Church, or to bear witness to the truth of the Resurrection. These last were in fact attestations to the reality of the Messianic character of Jesus Christ, which is the highest conceivable form of a divine mission, on which miracle the truth of Christianity is directly pledged by the sacred writers. A mere statement of the facts of the New Testament is a practical solution of the difficulty. It nowhere affirms that a miracle was ever performed to bear witness to the truth of an abstract doctrine.

I will now endeavour to lay down some general principles as to the relation in which doctrinal statements stand to supernatural manifestations. As on such a subject it will be impossible to lay down a general rule which will be applicable to every supernatural event, it will be necessary to consider each case by itself.

First, that of our Lord.

We believe his statements about unknown truths, on the ground that he was perfectly veracious, and had the most perfect knowledge of the subject on which he spoke. The actions which he performed (I mean by these, not his miracles merely, but the entire course of his working) are evidences of his divine character. He himself avers that he possessed the most intimate knowledge of God, and of the great realities of the [pg 080] spiritual world. “We speak,” says he, “that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” Throughout the Synoptics likewise he is represented as having the most entire knowledge of both spiritual and moral truth, and as teaching direct from his own insight. We believe the assertions, not because he confirmed their truth by the performance of a miracle, but because he afforded evidence that he was a veracious witness, and fully acquainted with the subject on which he spoke. His miraculous actions proved that he was God's messenger, and as such were additional attestations to his veracity.

The acceptance of such affirmations as worthy of the highest credit may be correctly designated as acts of faith; but let us never forget that such acts of faith are also high exercises of reason. Writers in opposition to Christianity are never wearied in running a contrast between reason and faith, and in representing the two as standing in opposition to each other, and belonging to wholly different regions of thought. Nor can it be denied that they have received much encouragement to do this by the indistinct or misleading statements of some Christian writers on the subject. Between them no little confusion has been introduced into the controversy, and a general idea has become prevalent that reason and faith are two distinct, if not opposing faculties, each of which acts within a subject matter of its own. The effect of this confusion has been disastrous.

My contention is that faith is only another name for reason when operating on a particular class of phenomena. To enter on an elaborate proof of this would be out of place here; a few illustrations must therefore suffice. [pg 081] To accept information from persons who have knowledge of subjects which we have not studied, or who have mental powers of insight or perception of which we are destitute, or who have seen phenomena which we have not seen, is an act in conformity with our highest reason. A constant effort has been made by unbelievers to confound faith with credulity: Faith is not credulity, but the acceptance of truth on adequate evidence, and the rejection of mere affirmation, when the evidence is inadequate. On the other hand multitudes of Christians have assiduously laboured to decry reason as the instrument for the investigation of truth. I admit that it is not a perfect instrument, but it is the only one which we have. The light of a candle may not be all that we can wish, but if we have no other we shall not improve our condition by extinguishing it.

Let me illustrate this subject by a few examples. We believe the assertions of Dr. Livingstone about the interior of Africa, although we have no means of verifying them by ocular observation, because we know that he has travelled there, and we are persuaded that he is a veracious witness. We accept the higher truths of astronomy, not because we have studied them, or are even able to appreciate the nature of the processes by which they have been arrived at, but because they are affirmed by persons who have afforded evidence that they possess a high order of knowledge on that subject. The same is true throughout the whole of the higher departments of science. We may call this an act of faith if we like, but it is also an act of our reason. The same thing is true throughout every department of human knowledge. It is astonishing how small a part of it is the result of our own personal observation. It follows therefore that the attempts [pg 082] which are so constantly made to separate faith and reason, and to erect an impassable wall between them, are suicidal alike both to faith and reason.

As therefore we accept the affirmations of others on subjects within the limits of their own knowledge, although we ourselves are ignorant of the processes by which it has been arrived at, so we accept the affirmations of such a person as the Jesus of the Evangelists on those subjects on which he affirms that he possesses the fullest knowledge.

But it will be objected that some of these assertions are made respecting high mysteries incomprehensible to the human intellect. Can we accept such truths?

I answer that we are only capable of accepting propositions the two terms of which we are able to comprehend with more or less distinctness. Nothing has been the subject of greater abuse than the word “mystery” in connection with revelation. It is frequently represented as denoting something which from end to end is utterly incomprehensible, like the unknowable God of a certain system of philosophy. In the New Testament the meaning of the word “mystery” is not an incomprehensible proposition, but a truth which once was hidden in the divine counsels, and has been revealed by the Gospel. That which is actually unthinkable is incapable of affirmation or denial. None of the affirmations of Jesus Christ partake of this character. They are mysteries only in the sense that they ran up into spheres of thought which transcend the limits of human knowledge. But this is done by all ultimate philosophical and scientific truths. If it be urged that some of them are difficult or incapable of definition, the same is true of not a few of the conceptions of science. It is also true that they respect truths with which we could not be acquainted apart from [pg 083] such a revelation as that made in the person of Jesus Christ; but this is true of the phenomena of Creation likewise. We do not acquire a knowledge of its phenomena by reasoning, but by observation, or from the statements of others when they lie beyond the limits of our own observation. The Incarnation, including as it does the divine actions and the teaching of Jesus Christ, is not the revelation of a dogma, but the manifestation of a new fact. This fact, like all other phenomena, although undiscoverable by our reasoning powers without the exercise of observation, becomes after observation a fact on which reason may justly exercise its powers. If he be really what he professed to be, then his statements about himself give as an account of his previous history, before he came under human observation.

Let me now consider the relation in which miracles stand to the affirmations of those who claimed a commission from Jesus Christ to publish his religion in the world, and to lay the foundation of the Church.

I must here also adhere to my original position that miraculous powers are never described in the New Testament as being used for the direct proof of dogmas, but for the proof of the Messianic character of Jesus Christ, or of the divine commission of those who wrought them. The truth of the assertions of its writers rests on no other foundation than the fulness of their knowledge of the subjects on which they spake, whether acquired by ordinary or by supernatural means, and on their veracity, when they affirm that particular truths were within the limits of their knowledge. Thus St. Paul claims acceptance for the things which he asserted because he had been taught them by Revelation from Jesus Christ, not because he had proved their truth, by working miracles in confirmation of them. [pg 084] This course is uniformly adopted by him throughout his epistles. The object of the mighty works that were wrought by him was to prove his own apostleship or the fact of the resurrection.

I must not allow myself to enter on the question of inspiration, its nature and limitations, or the degree of supernatural guidance afforded to the apostles and their followers. Such an inquiry would be foreign to the present subject, which is strictly historical. It is of course a direct and necessary inference that when the miracles proved the reality of the commission of those who performed them, they also proved that they were fully instructed in its terms, and entitled to credit within its limits. But the extent of their enlightenment can only be inferred from the nature of the commission itself, and from the facts and phenomena of the New Testament. It has been an idea widely spread that inspiration must confer a general infallibility. The inference that a man is rendered infallible in general matters because he is invested with a limited and definite commission, and with endowments adequate to render him competent to fulfil the purposes of his mission, is one which the premises will not justify. The utmost that the possession of such a commission can prove is that its possessor is enlightened up to its subject matter, but no further.

But in the present discussion I need not go beyond the affirmations of the New Testament. The actions performed by Jesus Christ proved him to be the Messiah. The miracles wrought by the apostles, were performed either to prove the fact of his resurrection, i.e. that he was the Messiah, or their own divine mission, which was dependent on its truth, or to draw attention to their message. The supernatural gifts so frequently referred to in the epistles, are affirmed to [pg 085] have been designed for the building up of the Church into a distinct community, and when that purpose was accomplished they were to cease. Being functional, the enlightenment communicated by them was necessarily limited to the special subject matter on which they were exercised. In this point of view miracles may be viewed as attestations of the veracity of the persons who performed them, and of the sufficiency of their knowledge on the subjects they were specially commissioned to communicate.

But the question still remains for consideration, Can miracles prove moral truths?

I answer emphatically in the negative. If dogmas, which may be viewed as intellectual truths, are incapable of a direct proof by miracles, still more so are moral truths. Such truths can rest only on a moral basis. With respect to the miracles recorded in the New Testament, the question is nugatory, for it nowhere affirms that its miracles were wrought for such a purpose. It is true that Jesus Christ, as the great legislator of the kingdom of heaven, gave an authoritative utterance to many moral precepts as the laws of his kingdom. This royal right of legislation was inherent in his Messiahship. But to give utterance to moral truths in a legislative capacity, has no connection with attempting to prove them by authority. Ordinary human legislation has its authoritative utterances. But when it does this, it does not rest the truths themselves on authority, or base them on adventitious testimony. Our Lord and his apostles uniformly appealed to the internal perceptions of our moral and spiritual nature as the only ground on which moral obligation rests.

Let it be observed, however, that this by no means pre-supposes the truth of the absurd proposition, that every man, however imperfect or degraded, is capable of [pg 086] reasoning out all moral truth for himself. On the contrary, definite moral knowledge requires to be communicated, as all other kinds of knowledge. Its great principles require to be enunciated, and to be worked out to their special applications. But the principles themselves, as far as their binding power is concerned, must ultimately rest on the internal perceptions of our moral and spiritual being. A miracle, therefore, can communicate to them no higher degree of certainty or obligation. The only thing which it can aid in establishing is, that one invested with a divine commission may have a right to claim obedience to special precepts on the authority of God, in whom all moral obligation centres.

But even in this case, the ground on which the obligation rests is a moral one, which no miracle can possibly prove or even confirm. A moral teacher can only appeal to that in man which we variously designate as conscience, moral sense, or the principles which are the foundation of our moral perceptions. The fact that many men through a long course of evil get morally blinded does not alter the case. It only exemplifies a remarkable saying of our Lord, “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” When the light within us has become darkness, there is nothing left to which an appeal to the sense of duty or obligation can be made.

The objection urged against Christianity, that because a miracle cannot prove a moral truth it is therefore useless, is quite beyond the question at issue. The special function of the Christian revelation is one far higher than the mere laying down of rules for the regulation of human conduct. Its great purpose is to impart to man a moral and spiritual power, which is able to make obedience to the moral law a possibility; [pg 087] to supply a motive of sufficient potency to make us capable of resisting the vehemence of our passions; and one which is able to lift the morally degraded from their degradation, and to strengthen the holy in their holiness. According to the teaching of the New Testament, this constitutes the great distinctive purpose of Christianity, and the end of all divine revelation. This most important truth has been greatly overlooked in the present controversy. It entirely disposes of the objection that if moral truth cannot be proved by miracles, they must be valueless. To such a revelation the presence of the supernatural is essential.

But it by no means follows because miracles are unable to impart to us a sense of moral obligation, that a duly commissioned moral teacher would be useless. They might prove his superior knowledge, or as attesting a divine commission, enable him to bring obligations already existing to bear on the mind with superior power. Thus it by no means follows that because men possess in their mental constitution the great principles on which scientific truths are based, each man is able to reason them out for himself. The most highly gifted man would make slow progress without a teacher. As I have already observed, moral truth is capable of being taught like all other truth; and although a miracle cannot prove it, it may establish the fact that the worker of one is a man eminently entitled to be heard on the great subjects of moral obligation, or that he is able to communicate knowledge which is capable of acting mightily on our moral being.

I must now proceed to offer a few observations on the question, Are miracles objects of faith? and if they are so in any sense, how can they be the media of proof of a revelation?

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The author of “Supernatural Religion” starts the following difficulty in connection with this subject: “Consciousness of the difficulties which beset miracles in the present age has led many able men to deal thus illogically with them, and to represent them alternately as evidence and as objects of faith.” He then proceeds to refer to Dr. Arnold, Professor Baden Powell, and Archbishop Trench, as having been in various degrees guilty of making this confusion.

I am not prepared to deny that many Christian writers have expressed themselves with great indistinctness on this subject, especially in works where miracles have been only referred to incidentally, and which only partially treat of the supernatural elements of Christianity. This question will be discussed more fully when we consider his definite objections; but it will tend to a clearer understanding of the subject if in the present place, I lay down the following propositions:—

I. That it is impossible to believe in any assertion which contradicts the first principles of our reason, even if it were supposable that a miracle could be wrought in confirmation of it.

II. That, although the illumination which reason imparts is imperfect, yet as it is the only instrument that we possess for the investigation of truth, attempts to disparage it are absurd.

III. So far is faith from standing in opposition to reason, that it is a legitimate branch of it when exercised on a special subject matter.

IV. That beliefs which reason refuses to authorise do not originate in faith but in credulity.

V. That even those who entertain irrational convictions are compelled to base them on evidence of some kind which is satisfactory to themselves: [pg 089] that is to say, on the dictates of their own imperfect reason.

VI. That, while we can believe in nothing that is contrary to our reason, yet it is perfectly rational to believe in many things which our reason would have been unable to discover.

VII. That extraordinary facts which lie beyond the limits of human experience are not contrary to our reason: and it is perfectly rational to believe them whenever they are adequately attested.

VIII. That a large portion of our beliefs on subjects scientific, philosophical, historical, moral, and religious, rest on testimony; the belief in them is highly rational, when the knowledge of those from whom we derive our information is adequate: and consequently that faith is a principle co-extensive with the activities of the human mind, and is by no means confined to subjects simply religious, however intimately it may be connected with them.

A few brief observations will suffice in this part of our subject.

It will be observed that I have included under the term “reason” the whole of our mental processes which are necessary for the cognition and the discovery of truth. These include, not only our powers of inductive and deductive reasoning, but our intuitions, our forms of thought, those powers of our mind, which whether intuitional or instinctive, form the foundation of many of our most important convictions and our moral conceptions. These constitute our reason as distinct from our reasoning powers. No little confusion has been introduced into this controversy from the want of attending to this distinction.

It has been asserted that we can accept things as matters of faith which to our reason would be utterly [pg 090] incredible. This assertion has arisen from the confusion of things which differ widely, viz. things which our reason might have been unable to discover, but which when discovered may be perfectly rational, and things directly contradictory to reason. The existence for example of a square circle is a thing absolutely incredible, and while thus contradictory to reason, it is impossible to accept it by faith. So would any doctrine which in a similar manner contradicted the first principles of our rational convictions. No more pernicious principle can be laid down than that things which are contradictory to our reason can be accepted by the principle of faith. Such a principle would divide the human mind into two hostile camps, and if carried to its logical consequences, must land us in universal scepticism.

It by no means follows that things which transcend our rational powers to discover must be contrary to our reason when they have been discovered. We can only arrive at the knowledge of unknown facts by observation, or accept them on the testimony of others. Until they have been brought within our knowledge in this way, no amount of reasoning could lead to their discovery. In a similar manner with respect to several of the facts in the New Testament connected with the Incarnation, our reason might never have discovered them, but when they have been discovered, they may form suitable subjects on which to exert its energies.

The whole of the confusion in which this question has become involved has originated in the assumption that faith is a faculty of the mind distinct and separate from our reason, and in a certain sense opposed to it; and that things which cannot be subjects of rational conviction may yet be the objects of faith. Whatever [pg 091] opinions may have been held by divines upon this subject, I can discover nothing which countenances them in the New Testament.

To what class of truths is the word “faith” properly applied? I answer to those which we accept on testimony. It has been asserted that some of the first principles of our rational convictions, such as our belief in the existence of an external world, or in the truth of experience, is an act of faith. This, however, is to introduce a confusion of thought. Such convictions can be only acts of faith as far as we believe in ourselves.

Viewing faith as the acceptance of truth on adequate testimony, it follows that all our knowledge of things, whether natural or supernatural, that is not the result of the action of our own minds, but which we accept on the testimony of others, is an act of faith. Our acceptance of them depends on the validity of the testimony that can be adduced for them. The important question for determination is, is the subject on which it is given within the knowledge of the informant? If it respects a fact, has he witnessed it, or received it from others who have? Are his powers of observation good and his judgment sound? Is he worthy of credit? The determination of these and similar points is the proper office of our rational powers, yet the acceptance of the fact is an act of faith. When our reason is satisfied on all these points, faith becomes an act of reason. To assert that the acceptance of supernatural facts belongs to a faculty of our minds which we designate faith, and that our acceptance of others is the result of the action of our reason, is to lay down a distinction entirely of our own creation. In both cases the evidences must form the subject of [pg 092] rational investigation, and they must be accepted or rejected as they approve themselves to our reason.

It will perhaps be urged, that the acceptance of propositions, such as the doctrinal statements of the New Testament, is an act of faith which stands out in manifest contra-distinction to an act of reason. It would be so unquestionably, if we accepted them on insufficient evidence; but when we do so with the knowledge that others have a full acquaintance with the subject on which they speak, it is in the highest degree rational to accept and to act on their testimony. A large portion of the business of life is conducted on this principle. A man is ignorant on some subject, or he distrusts his own judgment respecting it: he consults one who knows, or on whose judgment he relies. For example: let us suppose that I have a bottle full of a certain substance; I do not know whether it is a medicine that I am in need of, or a deadly poison. I consult my chemist, and without hesitation I act on his opinion. In all such cases (and they are spread over the entire sphere of life) we act on faith; but it is a faith which is in conformity with the dictates of reason. The function of the latter is to ascertain the adequate knowledge and the veracity of the person whose assurance we accept. If it is a rational act thus to receive truths on the testimony of man, whose knowledge must be imperfect, it must be still more so to accept them on the authority of him who knows all things, i.e. God.

I am aware that certain writers have given such a representation of faith as to produce the impression that it is one of its special functions to accept certain dogmas, the terms of which are extremely obscure, or absolutely incomprehensible. But no rational evidence can be adduced in support of this position. To exert [pg 093] actual belief in a proposition the terms of which are incomprehensible, is an impossibility, and we only deceive ourselves when we imagine that we can. All that we can do in such cases is to repeat words, but if they have no definite meaning we cannot believe them: for the act of faith or conviction is founded on the affirmation that the two terms of a particular proposition agree. It is quite true that the facts and statements of the New Testament run up into principles which transcend our limited power of reason; but this is common to it, and every system of science or philosophy; and forms no peculiarity of religion. I am far from wishing to affirm that theologians have not fallen into this practice; but my concern is not with them, but with the statements of the New Testament. One of the most important acquisitions made to our mental science in the present day is that we have ascertained that there are limits to our mental powers beyond which we cannot penetrate. This was imperfectly realized by many of the reasoners of earlier times, and the result has been that they have fallen into a hazy mysticism, or logomachy.

Equally pernicious is the view that there is something particularly meritorious in accepting truth on little or no evidence, and that to do so is a high act of faith. Not only is this founded on no rational principle, but it is entirely unsupported by any account of faith as given in the New Testament, which again and again assumes the contrary position. Faith is the acceptance of truths which lie beyond the sphere of our personal knowledge on an adequate attestation. If an astronomer should happen to be ignorant of chemistry, and accept its truths on the testimony of one who was an eminent master of it, this would constitute [pg 094] an act of faith. Surely such an act is one which is highly rational.

It follows, therefore, that although our belief in miracles being founded, as it now must be, on testimony, is an act of faith, yet it is also an act of our reason. It is, therefore, by no means absurd to speak of miracles as objects of faith, and at the same time as possessing an evidential value. We accept them as we do all other adequately attested facts, and reason on them in the same manner as we do on other facts. This is the precise course which will be pursued by the overwhelming majority of astronomers who will be unable to witness the coming transit of Venus. They will accept the facts on adequate testimony, and afterwards use them as media of proof.

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