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ESSAY X.

THE MODERN DOCTRINE OF MIRACLES.

State of belief in the Christian Church-concession to infidelity-characteristics of miracle, as recently stated-testimony now requiredduty and mode of investigation.

DIFFICULT as it is for any man to form a right estimate of the age in which he lives, I feel convinced that I was not mistaken when, more than six years ago, I wrote the remarks on incredulity, which may be found in the fourth of these essays. Recent events seem to me to prove, that the spirit is not confined to those who have been accustomed to call themselves enlightened philosophers, in contradistinction to weak and credulous Christians, but that it prevails to a very great and dangerous degree in the Christian Church. I refer to the controversy which has arisen on the subject of miracles; and I wish to offer a few remarks on

that subject, as illustrating and confirming what I have already said on the subject of incredulity.

Let me, however, be clearly understood at the outset I do not adduce the disbelief of alleged modern miracles as a proof, or an instance, of that incredulity which I have attempted to describe. I am not going to say (as some have been charged with saying) that he who disbelieves them is an infidel or a sceptic. My remarks are directed not against the disbelief of the miracles, but against the reasons assigned for disbelieving them.

Waiving, therefore, for the present, any consideration of the alleged facts themselves, and any inquiry whether they are true, and if true, whether they are miraculous,* I beg the reader most fully to understand that my object in this essay is merely to offer some remarks on the grounds on which the Christian Church has been called upon to decide respecting

* The reader who wishes to form an opinion on these points, should read the statement of facts in the Jewish Expositor for April, 1831; and, on the general question, he will do well to read what had previously appeared in that work, and has since been published under the title of "The Christian Dispensation Miraculous," by the Rev. Thomas Boys, A

them; and this, not so much with a view to any particular cases, as to the state of belief and opinion in what is called the religious world. It is obviously of less importance whether men believe these events to have happened, or, if they have happened, to be miraculous, than that they should receive or reject them on right grounds.

Much, I dare say, has been written on the subject which I have not yet seen; but a pamphlet published by the editor of the Christian Observer, has found its way to me, and as that periodical has for many years been a principal channel for the publication of the opinions of a great part of the religious world, and of no inconsiderable number of the clergy, it seems worthy of serious attention. Coming from the editor of "a religious magazine, "which during thirty years has had a character "to lose;" (p. 7.) and the greater part of it having been, as he states, approved by com"munications, lay, clerical, medical, and we

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may add, episcopal," (p. 55.) it may be supposed to contain what is now the opinion of the religious world; and, in fact, the editor, who has, I presume, good opportunity of knowing whether his opinions are those which

are generally, or even extensively, received, says, "Our correspondent goes on to say, that "our disbelief in alleged modern miracles is "only the opinion of an individual, and that 66 we have adduced no proof of it from Scrip But so far from it being only the "opinion of an individual, we sincerely 66 thought, till the late Scotch miracles, that "it was the opinion of every reasonable man "in christendom." (p. 37.)

❝ture.

The opinion stated (not, perhaps, very clearly) above, seems to be, that until the Scotch miracles occurred, the editor sincerely thought that every reasonable man in christendom held as an opinion (as far as it can be called an opinion) the disbelief of alleged modern miracles. This disbelief he supposed to be, as far as unbelief could be, an article of faith among all Christians whose opinion was worth notice—an opinion which might, perhaps, be expressed somewhat in this way"We have disbelieved, we do disbelieve, and come what may, we will disbelieve, all modern miracles, past, present, and future. We want to hear nothing about evidence; the disbelief of alleged modern miracles is a part of our creed."

If it be thought, at first sight, that this

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passage does not contain quite so much, yet I think as we proceed this will be seen to be its true meaning. In the case which led to his publication, the editor acknowledged that the patient's spine was curved, and her collarbone enlarged. These facts were distinctly stated in her father's letter (p. 13), and the editor admits, on the following page, that "the facts of the above case are incontro"vertible, and there is not the slightest reason "to impute mistake, misconception, and least "of all misrepresentation, to the narrators.' Now I profess no knowledge of anatomy; but, without referring to this case, I have put the question to medical men, who had never heard of this patient, and of whose surgical knowledge I have a high opinion, and they have assured me that it is, as far as they know, contrary to all experience, and beyond all belief, that a curved spine, and an enlarged collar-bone, should be rectified and reduced by excitement. I am perfectly aware that, since the editor made this admission, much pains has been taken to shew that there was at least mistake and misconception, if not misrepresentation, on the part of the narrators. But this is nothing to the purpose; for these

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