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^ retiot , on that account , the less certain that he cannot travel a thousand miles in a day . . Having thus endeavoured to shew that there exists no decisive mark or criterion by which relatively impassible facts may be distinguished , he proceeds to state it as the prevailing doctrine , that no fact acknowledged to be c&ntrafy to the course of nature ought to be admitted in a court of justice
on the credit of human testimony ; that is , of a testimony which is in opposition to " a preponderating mass of counter-testimony . " * This is the doctrine which the author appears to patronize ;—and since , notwithstanding the above-mentioned limitation to judicial proceedings , the principle on which it is grounded is manifestly applicable to the reliance which we place on testimony affirming the reality of miracles , it becomes necessary to examine it particularly .
An event contrary to the course of nature is otherwise described as a * ' violation of the laws of nature . ' * What then is the proper meaning of this phrase ? According to Mr . Bentham , when mankind observe , in a number of detached appearances , a constant and regular order of succession , they con - * sider them all as dependent on a single cause , to which they give the name of a law . * We are therefore to consider the law of gravitation as the cause of the motions of the planets ; the law of association as the cause of various affections and changes of mind . Surely this is the language neither of phi *
losophy nor of truth . A law is not an agent ; it is only the mode in which some agent operates ;—it implies intelligence to perceive the adaptation of means to ends , and to pursue a regular and uniform system of conduct * This is the only rational sense which can be given to the term law as ap-r plied to the efficient cause of the phenomena of nature ; and if we are careful to bear it in mind , it will enable us satisfactorily to unravel many of the apparently plausible objections of unbelievers against the evidence of miracles .
A miracle , we are told , is a " violation of the laws of nature . " We have here a notable proof of the tyranny of sounds . We no sooner hear of the violation of a law , but we think of something wrong , illegal , improper . We not only personify Nature , but we invest her with authority to enact laws which even her Almighty Author is under an obligation to obey . Doubtless , nothing wrong can exist in the administration of an infinitely wise and good Being ; but when we consider that the law here spoken of is nothing more
than the uniform order according to which , for wise and excellent purposes , he has seen fit to regulate the course of his providence , we are readily brought to believe it possible that circumstances may arise in which the plan of the Divine government may require an occasional deviation from that regular course which at other times is observed to prevail . We can easily perceive adequate reasons why the course of nature should be governed by general laws . If it were otherwise , it is obvious that the world would not
have been adapted for the residence and education of rational beings . Experience would have been no guide either in theory or in practice ; from what has been , we should have been unable to conjecture what will be ; and there would have been no place for general rules or principles of conduct . But this , which is the only rational account that can be given of the uniformity of the course of nature , will not bear us out in maintaining that it is a uniformity subject to no exceptions . This is a point invariably taken for ? P . 172 .
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Evidence for Improbable and Supernatural Fuels . 395
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/3/
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