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co mbatants . It was the moat brilliant on record , and gained in the shortest time . The word which Joshua spake in the sight of Israel was accomplished . Viewing this passage as a sublime , poetical figure , it is one of the most striking" in the Old Testament . To
those who consider this passage as the relation of a real miracle , I have only to observe , that it was wrought in attestation of the divine mission of no prophet , in confirmation of the truth of no doctrine , and that the miracles of Moses , of Christ and his apostles ,
are not liable to the objections to which , when taken in a literal sense , it is justly exposed . Let us , for example , consider the miracle of calming the sea , recorded in Luke viii . To say that this was a violation of the laws of
nature , would be a departure from the principles of true philosophy ; for " there is no man so well skilled in the principles of meteorology as can certainly foretell the state of our atmosphere for the very next day , and yet it reaches but a few miles from us ; we are unable to judge whether we shall have fair weather or foul , calm or
stormy , or even from what point the wind will blow / ' * No man has been able to calculate the latitude and longitude of a storm , the minutes and seconds of the duration of a tempest , or to favour the world with a projection of the devastations of a future
hurricane . The causes which produce these effects are unsearchable ; but a " firm and unalterable experience" proved that the effects themselves are partial . Thunder , lightning and earthquakes have been rationally accounted for on the principles of electricity ; and winds have been considered as the
effects of heat and cold , by which the air is rarified or condensed . Those who attend to these subjects will find no difficulty in conceiving that there is in nature an adequate power to produce the calm snoken of bv Luke L . duce the calm spoken of by uke
, though they must , at the same time , acknowledge , that to give it activity is beyond the skill of man . When Jesus walked on the sea it is evident that his body must have been rendered lighter than the water on which he trod . If it be asked , by what means ? I answer , without hesitation ,
* Keill ' s Astro . Lect . pref . p . 3 . VOL . XVI . 3 1
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I cannot tell . But the means whereby air-balloohs and many bodies have been rendered lighter than the lower regions of the atmosphere , which is of less weight than water , are well known .
The multiplication of the loaves and fishes cannot be satisfactorily accounted for , but by supposing a continued addition of an homogeneous substance , otherwise the one would not have been
bread nor the other fish . Or , in other words , the loaves were multiplied by the same cause that produces farina in a grain of wheat ; and the water made wine , by the cause which generates juice in the grape ; and that these causes are material none will deny . The no'blemans son was cured of a fever
when Jesus was at a distance . ( John iv . 46 . y The cause of fever is as unknown as that of electricity . But be it what it may , it is a material one , as it affects a material body $ and it is difficult to conceive how it can be
instantaneously removed by any other means than by the counteraction of another material cause . Mr . Hume ' s argument against the credibility of miracles may be stated as follows , without lessening its force : <( A miracle is a violation of the laws
of nature , a violation of the laws of nature is contrary to a firm , unalterable experience . Therefore the proof against a miracle is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined . " This sophism may be easily detected .
The first or major proposition , which contains the conclusion , is false . " A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature . " This Mr . Hume has not proved , and I believe no man will be able to prove it , to the end of
time-But I may be asked , of what use are these speculations ? If not useful , they are at least harmless . They threaten to undermine no creed reverenced among Christians , nor to overturn any system but the system of infidelity
The conclave at Rome may adopt them without endangering the Cardinal ' s hat or the Pope ' s mitre . Indeed , I know not but they may prove of some use . They may save the Christian apologist and the Christian divine the learned
labour and the metaphysical ingenuity of accounting for variations that never happened , departures that never took place , and deviations that never existed . They may remove from the minds of
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On Miracles . 465
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/25/
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