Without at present touching the question as to their reality, it may be
well to ascertain what miracles are considered to be, and how far,
and in what sense it is asserted that they are supernatural We have,
hitherto, almost entirely confined our attention to the arguments of
English divines, and we must for the present continue chiefly to deal
with them, for it may broadly be said, that they alone, at the present
day, maintain the reality and supernatural character of such phenomena.
No thoughtful mind can fail to see that, considering the function
of miracles, this is the only logical and consistent course.(1)
The insuperable difficulties in the way of admitting the reality of
miracles, however, have driven the great majority of continental, as
well as very many English, theologians who still pretend to a certain
orthodoxy, either to explain the miracles of the Gospel naturally, or
to suppress them altogether. Since Schleiermacher denounced the idea
of Divine interruptions of the order of nature, and explained away the
supernatural character
{28}
of miracles, by defining them as merely relative: miracles to us, but in
reality mere anticipations of human knowledge and power, his example
has been more or less followed throughout Germany, and almost every
expedient has been adopted, by would-be orthodox writers, to reduce or
altogether eliminate the miraculous elements. The attempts which have
been made to do this, and yet to maintain the semblance of unshaken
belief in the main points of ecclesiastical Christianity, have
lamentably failed, from the hopeless nature of the task and the
fundamental error of the conception. The endeavour of Paulus and
his school to get rid of the supernatural by a bold naturalistic
interpretation of the language of the Gospel narratives, whilst the
credibility of the record was represented as intact, was too glaring
an outrage upon common sense to be successful, but it was scarcely more
illogical than subsequent efforts to suppress the miraculous, yet retain
the creed. The great majority of modern German critics, however, reject
the miraculous altogether, and consider the question as no longer worthy
of discussion, and most of those who have not distinctly expressed this
view either resort to every linguistic device to evade the difficulty,
or betray, by their hesitation, the feebleness of their belief.(1) In
dealing with the
{29}
question of miracles, therefore, it is not to Germany we must turn, but
to England, where their reality is still maintained.
Archbishop Trench rejects with disdain the attempts of Schleiermacher
and others to get rid of the miraculous elements of miracles, by making
them relative, which he rightly considers to be merely "a decently
veiled denial of the miracle altogether;"(1) and he will not accept
any reconciliation which sacrifices the miracle, "which," he logically
affirms, "is, in fact, no miracle, if it lay in nature already, if it
was only the evoking of forces latent therein, not a new thing, not the
bringing in of the novel powers of a higher world; if the mysterious
processes and powers by which those works were brought about had been
only undiscovered hitherto, and not undiscoverable, by the efforts of
human inquiry."(2) When Dr. Trench tries to define what he considers the
real character of miracles, however, he becomes, as might be expected,
{30}
voluminous and obscure. He says: "An extraordinary Divine casualty, and
not that ordinary which we acknowledge everywhere, and in everything,
belongs, then, to the essence of the miracle; powers of God other than
those which have always been working; such, indeed, as most seldom or
never have been working before. The unresting activity of God, which at
other times hides and conceals itself behind the veil of what we term
natural laws, does in the miracle unveil itself; it steps out from its
concealment, and the hand which works is laid bare. Beside and beyond
the ordinary operation of nature, higher powers (higher, not as coming
from a higher source, but as bearing upon higher ends) intrude and make
themselves felt even at the very springs and sources of her power."(1)
"Not, as we shall see the greatest theologians have always earnestly
contended, _contra_ naturam, but _praeter_ naturam, and _supra_
naturam."(2) Further on he adds: "_Beyond_ nature, _beyond_ and _above_
the nature which we know, they are, but not _contrary_ to it."(3) Dr.
Newman, in a similar strain, though with greater directness, says: "The
miracles of Scripture are undeniably beyond nature;" and he explains
them as "wrought by persons consciously exercising, under Divine
guidance, a power committed to them for definite ends, professing to be
immediate messengers from heaven, and to be evidencing their mission by
their miracles."(4)
Miracles are here described as "beside," and "beyond," and "above"
nature, but a moment's consideration must
{31}
show that, in so far as these terms have any meaning at all, they are
simply evasions, not solutions, of a difficulty. Dr. Trench is quite
sensible of the danger in which the definition of miracles places
them, and how fatal to his argument is would be to admit that they are
contrary to the order of nature. "The miracle," he protests, "is
not thus _unnatural_; nor could it be such, since the unnatural,
the contrary to order, is of itself the ungodly, and can in no way,
therefore, be affirmed of a Divine work, such as that with which we
have to do."(1) The archbishop in this; however, is clearly arguing from
nature to miracles, and not from miracles to nature. He does not, of
course, know what miracles really are, but as he recognizes that the
order of nature must be maintained, he is forced to assert that miracles
are not contrary to nature. He repudiates the idea of their being
natural phenomena; and yet attempts to deny that they are unnatural.
They must either be the one or the other. The archbishop, besides;
forgets that he ascribes miracles to Satan as well as to God. Indeed,
that his distinction is purely imaginary, and inconsistent with the
alleged facts of Scriptural miracles, is apparent from Dr. Trench's own
illustrations; The whole argument is a mere quibble of words to evade
a palpable dilemma. Dr. Newman does not fall into this error, and more
boldly faces the difficulty. He admits that the Scripture miracles
"innovate upon the impressions which are made upon us by the order and
the laws of the natural world;"(2) and that "walking on the sea, or the
resurrection of the dead, is a plain reversal of its laws."(3)
{32}
Take, for instance, the multiplication of loaves and fishes. Five
thousand people are fed upon five barley loaves and two small fishes:
"and they took up of the fragments which remained twelve baskets
full."(1) Dr. Trench is forced to renounce all help in explaining this
miracle from natural analogies, and he admits: "We must simply behold
in the multiplying of the bread" (and fishes?)" an act of Divine
omnipotence on His part who was the Word of God,--not, indeed, now as
at the first, of absolute creation out of nothing, since there was a
substratum to work on in the original loaves and fishes, but an act of
creative accretion."(2) It will scarcely be argued by any one that
such an "act of Divine omnipotence" and "creative accretion" as this
multiplication of five baked loaves and two small fishes is not contrary
to the order of nature.(3) For Dr. Trench has himself pointed out that
there must be interposition of man's art here, and that "a grain of
wheat could never by itself, and according to the laws of natural
development, issue in a loaf of bread.(4)
Undaunted by, or rather unconscious of, such contradictions, the
archbishop proceeds with his argument, and with new definitions of the
miraculous. So far from being disorder of nature, he continues with
audacious precision: "the true miracle is a higher and a purer
{33}
nature coming down out of the world of untroubled harmonies into this
world of ours, which so many discords have jarred and disturbed, and
bringing this back again, though it be but for one mysterious prophetic
moment, into harmony with that higher."(1) In that "higher and purer
nature" can a grain of wheat issue in a loaf of bread? We have only to
apply this theory to the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes
to perceive how completely it is the creation of Dr. Trench's poetical
fancy.
These passages fairly illustrate the purely imaginary and arbitrary
nature of the definitions which those who maintain the reality and
supernatural character of miracles give of them. That explanation is
generally adopted which seems most convenient at the moment, and none
ever passes, or, indeed, ever can pass, beyond the limits of assumption.
The favourite hypothesis is that which ascribes miracles to the action
of unknown law. Archbishop Trench naturally adopts it: "We should see
in the miracle," he says, "not the infraction of a law, but the
neutralizing of a lower law, the suspension of it for a time by a
higher;" and he asks with indignation, whence we dare conclude that,
because we know of no powers sufficient to produce miracles, none exist.
"They exceed the laws of _our_ nature; but it does not therefore follow
that they exceed the laws of _all_ nature."(2) It is not easy
{34}
to follow the distinction here between "_our_ nature" and "_all
nature_," since the order of nature, by which miracles are judged, is,
so far as knowledge goes, universal, and we have no grounds for assuming
that there is any other.
The same hypothesis is elaborated by Dr. Mozley. Assuming the facts of
miracles, he proceeds to discuss the question of their "referribleness
to unknown law," in which expression he includes both "_unknown law_, or
unknown connexion with _known_ law."(1)
Taking first the supposition of (unknown) connection with known law, Dr.
Mozley argues that, as a law of nature, in the scientific sense, cannot
possibly produce single or isolated facts, it follows that no isolated
or exceptional event can come under a law of nature _by direct
observation_, but, if it comes under it at all, it can only do so by
some _explanation_, which takes it out of its isolation and joins it to
a class of facts, whose recurrence indeed constitutes the law. Now Dr.
Mozley admits that no explanation can be given by which miracles can
have an unknown connexion with known law. Taking the largest class of
miracles, bodily cures, the correspondence between a simple command
or prophetic notification and the cure is the chief characteristic of
miracles, and distinguishes them from mere marvels.
{35}
No violation of any law of nature takes place in either the cure or the
prophetic announcement taken separately, but the two, taken together,
are the proof of superhuman agency. Dr. Mozley concludes that no
physical hypothesis can be framed accounting for the superhuman
knowledge and power involved in this class of miracles, supposing the
miracles to stand as they are recorded in Scripture.(1)
Dr. Mozley then shifts the inquiry to the other and different question,
whether miracles may not be instances of laws which are as yet wholly
unknown.(2) This is generally called a question of "higher law," --that
is to say, a law which comprehends under itself two or more lower or
less wide laws. And the principle would be applicable to miracles by
supposing the existence of an unknown law, hereafter to be discovered,
under which miracles would come, and then considering whether this new
law of miracles, and the old law of common facts, might not both be
reducible to a still more general law which comprehended them both. Now
a law of nature, in the scientific sense, cannot exist without a class
of facts which comes under it, and in reality constitutes the law; but
Dr. Mozley of course recognizes that the discovery of such a law of
miracles would necessarily involve the discovery of fresh miracles, for
to talk of a law of miracles without miracles would be an absurdity.(3)
The supposition of the discovery of such a law of miracles, however,
would be tantamount to the supposition of a future new order of
nature, from which it immediately follows that the whole supposition is
irrelevant and futile as regards the present question.(4)
{36}
For no new order of things could make the present order different, and
a miracle, could we suppose it becoming the ordinary fact of another
different order of nature, would not be less a violation of the laws of
nature in the present one.(1) Dr. Mozley also rejects this explanation.
We pause here to remark that, throughout the whole inquiry into the
question of miracles, we meet with nothing from theologians but mere
assumptions, against which the invariability of the known order of
nature steadily opposes itself. The facts of the narrative of the
miracle are first assumed, and so are the theories by which it is
explained. Now, with regard to every theory which seeks to explain
miracles by assumption, we may quote words applied by one of the ablest
defenders of miracles to some conclusion of straw, which he placed in
the mouth of an imaginary antagonist in order that he might refute it:
"But the question is," said the late Dean of St. Paul's, "not whether
such a conclusion has been asserted, as many other absurdities have
been asserted, by the advocates of a theory, but whether it has been
established on such scientific grounds as to be entitled to the assent
of all duly cultivated minds, whatever their own consciences may say
to the contrary."(2) Divines are very strict in demanding absolute
demonstrations from men of science and others, but we do not find
them at all ready to furnish conclusions of similar accuracy regarding
dogmatic theology.
Immediately after his indignant demand for scientific accuracy of
demonstration, Dr. Mansel proceeds to argue as follows: In the will of
man we have the solitary instance of an efficient cause, in the highest
sense of the
{37}
term, acting among the physical causes of the material world, and
producing results which could not have been brought about by any mere
sequence of physical causes. If a man of his own will throw a stone into
the air, its motion, as soon as it has left his hand, is determined by
a combination of purely material laws; but by what _law_ came it to be
thrown at all? The law of gravitation, no doubt, remains constant and
unbroken, whether the stone is lying on the ground, or moving through
the air, but all the laws of matter could not have brought about the
particular result without the interposition of the free will of the man
who throws the stone. Substitute the will of God for the will of man,
and the argument becomes applicable to the whole extent of Creation and
to all the phenomena which it embraces.(1)
It is evident that Dr. Mansel's argument merely tends to prove that
every effect must have a cause, a proposition too obvious to require any
argument at all. If a man had not thrown the stone, the stone would have
remained lying on the ground. No one doubts this. We have here, however,
this "solitary instance of an efficient cause acting among the physical
causes of the material world," producing results which are wholly
determined by material laws,(2) and incapable of producing any opposed
to them. If, therefore, we substitute, as Dr. Mansel desires, "the will
of God" for "the will of man," we arrive at no results which are not in
harmony
{38}
with the order of nature. We have no ground whatever for assuming any
efficient cause acting in any other way than in accordance with the
laws of nature. It is, how-fever, one of the gross fallacies of this
argument, as applied to miracles, to pass from the efficient cause
producing results which are strictly in accordance with natural laws,
and determined by them, to an assumed efficient cause producing
effects which are opposed to natural law. The restoration to life of a
decomposed human body and the miraculous multiplication of loaves and
fishes are opposed to natural laws, and no assumed efficient cause
conceivable to which they may be referred can harmonize them.
Dr. Mozley continues his argument in a similar way. He inquires: "Is
the suspension of physical and material laws by a Spiritual Being
inconceivable? We reply that, however inconceivable this kind of
suspension of physical law is, it is a fact. Physical laws are suspended
any time an animate being moves any part of its body; the laws of matter
are suspended by the laws of life."(l) He goes on to maintain that,
although it is true that his spirit is united with the matter in which
it moves in a way in which the Great Spirit who acts on matter in the
miracle is not, yet the action of God's Spirit in the miracle of walking
on the water is no more inconceivable than the action of his own spirit
in holding up his own hand. "Antecedently, one step on the ground and
an ascent to heaven are alike incredible. But this appearance of
incredibility is answered in one case literally _ambulando_. How can I
place any reliance upon it in the other?"(2) From this illustration,
{39}
Dr. Mozley, with a haste very unlike his previous careful procedure,
jumps at the following conclusions: "The constitution of nature, then,
disproved the incredibility of the Divine suspension of physical law;
but more than this, it creates a presumption for it."(l) The laws
of life of which we have experience, he argues, are themselves in an
ascending scale. First come the laws which regulate unorganized matter;
next the laws of vegetation; then the laws of animal life, with its
voluntary motion; and above these again, the laws of moral being. A
supposed intelligent being whose experience was limited to one or more
classes in this ascending scale of laws would be totally incapable of
conceiving the action of the higher classes. The progressive succession
of laws is perfectly conceivable backward, but an absolute mystery
forward. "Analogy," therefore, when in this ascending series we arrive
at man, leads us to expect that there is a higher sphere of law as much
above _him_ as he is above the lower natures in the scale, and "supplies
a presumption in favour of such a belief."(2) And so we arrive at the
question whether there is or is not a God, a Personal Head in nature,
whose free will penetrates the universal frame invisibly to us, and is
an omnipresent agent. If there be, Dr. Mozley concludes, then, every
miracle in Scripture is as natural an event in the universe as any
chemical experiment in the physical world.(3)
This is precisely the argument of Dr. Mansel, regarding the "Efficient
Cause," somewhat elaborated, but, however ingeniously devised, it is
equally based upon assumption and defective in analogy. The "classes of
{40}
law" to which the Bampton Lecturer refers work harmoniously side by
side, regulating the matter to which they apply. Unorganized matter,
vegetation, and animal life, may each have special conditions modifying
phenomena, but they are all equally subject to the same general laws.
Man is as much under the influence of gravitation as a stone is. The
special operation of physical laws is less a modification of law than
that law acting under different conditions. The law of gravitation
suffers no alteration, whether it cause the fall of an apple or shape
the orbit of a planet. The reproduction of the plant and of the animal
is regulated by the same fundamental principle acting through
different organisms. The harmonious action of physical laws, and their
adaptability to an infinite variety of forms, constitute the perfection
of that code which produces the order of nature.(1) The mere superiority
of man over lower forms of organic and inorganic matter does not lift
him above physical laws, and the analogy of every grade in nature
forbids the presumption that higher forms may exist which are exempt
from their control.
If in animated beings, as is affirmed, we had the solitary instance of
an "efficient cause" acting among the forces of nature, and possessing
the power of initiation, this "efficient cause" produces no disturbance
of physical law. Its existence is as much a recognized part of the
infinite variety of form within the order of nature as the existence of
a crystal or a plant; and although the character of the force exercised
by it may not be clearly understood, its effects are regulated by the
same laws as
{41}
govern all other forces in nature. If "the laws of matter are suspended
by the laws of life" each time an animated being moves any part of its
body, one physical law is counteracted in precisely the same manner, and
to an equivalent degree, each time another physical law is called into
action. The Law of gravitation, for instance, is equally neutralized by
the law of magnetism each time a magnet suspends a weight in the air. In
each case, a law is successfully resisted precisely to the extent of
the force employed. The arm that is raised by the animated being falls
again, in obedience to law, as soon as the force which raised it is
exhausted, quite as certainly as the weight descends when the magnetic
current fails. This, however, is not the suspension of law in the sense
of a miracle, but, on the contrary, is simply the natural operation upon
each other of co-existent laws. It is a recognized part of the order of
nature,(1) and instead of
{42}
rendering credible any supernatural suspension of laws, the analogy of
animated beings distinctly excludes it. The introduction of life in no
way changes the relation between cause and effect, which constitutes
the order of nature, and is the essence of its law. Life favours no
presumption for the suspension of law, but, on the contrary, whilst
acting in nature, universally exhibits the prevalence and invariability
of law. The "laws of life" may be subtle, but they are an integral
portion of the great order of nature, working harmoniously with the
laws of matter, and not one whit more independent of them than any one
natural law is of another.
The supposed "Efficient Cause," is wholly circumscribed by law. It is
brought into existence by the operation of immutable physical laws, and
from the cradle to the grave it is subject to those laws. So inseparably
is it connected with matter, and consequently with the laws which
regulate matter, that it cannot even become conscious of its own
existence without the intervention of matter. The whole process of life
is dependent on obedience to natural laws, and so powerless is this
efficient cause to resist their jurisdiction, that, in spite of its
highest efforts, it pines or ceases to exist in consequence of the mere
natural operation of law upon the matter with which it is united, and
without
{43}
which it is impotent. It cannot receive an impression from without that
is not conveyed in accordance with law, and perceived by an exquisitely
ordered organism, in every part of which law reigns supreme; nor can it
communicate from within except through channels equally ordered by law.
A slight injury may derange the delicate mechanical contrivances of eye,
ear, and vocal chords, and may further destroy the reason and paralyze
the body, reducing the animated being, by the derangement of those
channels to which physical law limits its action, to a mere smouldering
spark of life, without consciousness and without expression. The "laws
of life" act amongst the laws of matter, but are not independent of
them, and the action of both classes of law is regulated by precisely
the same principles.
Dr. Mozley's affirmation, that _antecedently_ one step on the ground
and an ascent to heaven are alike incredible, does not help him. In
that sense it follows that there is nothing that is not antecedently
incredible, nothing credible until it has happened. This argument,
however, while it limits us to actual experience, prohibits presumptions
with regard to that which is beyond experience. To argue that, because
a step on the ground and an ascent to heaven are antecedently alike
incredible, yet as we subsequently make that step, therefore the ascent
to heaven, which we cannot make, from incredible becomes credible, is
a contradiction in terms. If the ascent be antecedently incredible,
it cannot at the same time be antecedently credible. That which is
incredible cannot become credible because something else quite different
becomes credible. It is apparent that such an argument is vicious.
Experience comes
{44}
with its sober wisdom to check such reasoning. We believe in our power
to walk because we habitually exercise it: we disbelieve in bodily
ascensions because all experience excludes them. The step is part of the
recognised order of nature, and has none of the elements in it of the
miraculous. But if we leap into the air on the brink of a precipice,
belief in an ascent to heaven is shattered to pieces at the bottom to
which the law of gravitation infallibly drags us.
There is absolutely nothing in the constitution of nature, we may say,
reversing Dr. Mozley's assertion, which does not prove the incredibility
of a Divine suspension of physical laws, and does not create a
presumption against it. There is no instance producible, or even
logically conceivable, of any power whose effects are opposed to the
ultimate ruling of the laws of nature. The occurrence of anything
opposed to those laws is incredible. Dr. Mozley has himself shown that
miracles cannot be explained either by unknown connection with known
law, or by reference to unknown law; and he renounces the explanation of
"higher law." His distinction between the laws of nature and the "laws
of the universe,"(1) by which he nevertheless endeavours to make a
miracle credible, is one which is purely imaginary, and cannot affect us
in our present position within the order of nature. We know of no laws
of the universe differing from the laws of nature. So far as human
observation can range, these laws alone prevail. For all practical
purposes, therefore, such a distinction is futile, and belief is
necessarily limited to the actual operation of natural laws. The
occasional intervention of an unknown "efficient cause," producing the
effects
{45}
called "miracles"--effects which are not referrible to any known law--is
totally opposed to experience, and such a hypothesis to explain alleged
occurrences of a miraculous character cannot find a legitimate place
within the order of nature.
2.
The proposition with which Dr. Mozley commences these Bampton Lectures,
and for which he contends to their close, is this: "That miracles, or
visible suspensions of the order of nature for a providential purpose,
are not in contradiction to reason."(1) He shows that, the purpose of
miracles is to attest a supernatural revelation, which, without them,
we could not be justified in believing. "Christianity," he distinctly
states, "cannot be maintained as a revelation undiscoverable by human
reason--a revelation of a supernatural scheme for man's salvation
without the evidence of miracles."(2) Out of this very admission he
attempts to construct an argument in support of miracles: "Hence it
follows," he continues, "that upon the supposition of the Divine design
of a revelation, a miracle is not an anomaly or irregularity, but part
of the system of the universe; because, though an irregularity and an
anomaly in relation to either part, it has a complete adaptation to
the whole. There being two worlds, a visible and invisible, and a
communication between the two being wanted, a miracle is the instrument
of that communication."(3)
Here, again, the argument is based upon mere assumption.
{46}
The supposition of the Divine design of a revelation is the result of
a foregone conclusion in its favour, and is not suggested by antecedent
probability. It is, in fact, derived solely from the contents of the
revelation itself. Divines assume that a communication of this nature
is in accordance with reason, and was necessary for the salvation of the
human race, simply because they believe that it took place. No attempt
is seriously made independently to prove the reality of the supposed
"Divine design of a revelation." A revelation having, it is supposed,
been made, that revelation is consequently supposed to have been
contemplated, and to have necessitated and justified suspensions of the
order of nature to effect it. The proposition for which the evidence of
miracles is demanded is viciously employed as evidence for miracles.
The circumstances upon which the assumption of the necessity and
reasonableness of a revelation is based, however, are incredible, and
contrary to reason. We are asked to believe that God made man in his
own image, pure and sinless, and intended him to continue so, but that
scarcely had this, his noblest work, left the hands of the Creator, than
man was tempted into sin by Satan, an all-powerful and persistent enemy
of God, whose existence and antagonism to a Being in whose eyes sin is
abomination are not accounted for and are incredible.(1) Adam's fall
brought a curse upon the earth, and incurred the penalty of death for
himself and for the whole of his posterity. The human race, although
created perfect and without sin,
{47}
thus disappointed the expectations of the Creator, and became daily more
wicked, the Evil Spirit having succeeded in frustrating the designs of
the Almighty, so that God repented that he had made man, and at length
destroyed by a deluge all the inhabitants of the earth, with the
exception of eight persons who feared him. This sweeping purification,
however, was as futile as the original design, and the race of men soon
became more wicked than ever. The final and only adequate remedy devised
by God for the salvation of his creatures, become so desperately and
hopelessly evil, was the incarnation of himself in the person of "the
Son," the second person in a mysterious Trinity of which the Godhead is
said to be composed, (who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of
the Virgin Mary,) and his death upon the cross as a vicarious expiation
of the sins of the world, without which supposed satisfaction of the
justice of God his mercy could not possibly have been extended to the
frail and sinful work of his own hands. The crucifixion of the incarnate
God was the crowning guilt of a nation whom God himself had selected
as his own peculiar people, and whom he had condescended to guide by
constant direct revelations of his will, but who, from the first, had
displayed the most persistent and remarkable proclivity to sin against
him, and, in spite of the wonderful miracles wrought on their behalf,
to forsake his service for the worship of other gods. We are asked to
believe, therefore, in the frustration of the Divine design of creation,
and in the fall of man into a state of wickedness hateful to God,
requiring and justifying the Divine design of a revelation, and such a
revelation as this, as a preliminary to the further proposition that,
on the supposition of such a design, miracles would not be contrary to
reason.
{48}
Antecedently, nothing could be more absolutely incredible or contrary to
reason than these statements, or the supposition of such a design. Dr.
Mozley himself admits that, as human announcements, the doctrines of
Christianity would be the "wildest delusions," which we could not be
justified in believing, and that such a scheme could not be maintained
without miraculous evidence. The supposition of the Divine design of the
revelation is solely derived from the doctrines supposed to have been
revealed, and, indeed, that design forms part of them. Until they
are proved to be Divine truths, these statements must obviously be
considered human announcements, and consequently they are antecedently
incredible, and the "wildest delusions." As Dr. Mozley does not pretend
that there is anything antecedently credible upon which he can base an
assertion that there was actually
{49}
any "Divine design of a revelation," or that any "communication between
the two worlds" was requisite, it is therefore clear that his argument
consists merely of assumptions admitted to be antecedently incredible.
It advances a supposition of that which is contrary to reason to justify
supposed visible suspensions of the order of nature, which are also
contrary to reason. Incredible assumptions cannot give probability
to incredible evidence- Tertullian's audacious paradox: "Credo quia
impossible," of which such reasoning is illustrative, is but the cry of
enthusiastic credulity.
The whole theory of this abortive design of creation, with such impotent
efforts to amend it, is emphatically contradicted by the glorious
perfection and invariability of the order of nature. It is difficult to
say whether the details of the scheme, or the circumstances which are
supposed to have led to its adoption, are more shocking to reason or to
moral sense. The imperfection ascribed to the Divine work is scarcely
more derogatory to the power and wisdom of the Creator, than the
supposed satisfaction of his justice in the death of himself incarnate,
the innocent for the guilty, is degrading to the idea of his moral
perfection. The supposed necessity for repeated interference to correct
the imperfection of the original creation, the nature of the means
employed, and the triumphant opposition of Satan, are anthropomorphic
conceptions totally incompatible with the idea of an Infinitely Wise and
Almighty Being. The constitution of nature, so far from favouring any
hypothesis of original perfection and subsequent deterioration, bears
everywhere the record of systematic upward progression. Not only is
the assumption, that any revelation of the nature of ecclesiastical
Christianity was necessary, excluded upon
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philosophical grounds, but it is contradicted by the whole operation of
natural laws, which contain in themselves inexorable penalties against
natural retrogression, or even unprogressiveness, and furnish the only
requisite stimulus to improvement.(1) The survival only of the fittest
is the
1 We venture to add a passage from Mr. Herbert Spencer's
"Social Statics," which we have met with for the first time
since this work was published, in illustration of this
assertion. Mr. Spencer affirms "the evanescence of evil" and
the perfectibility of man, upon the ground that: "All evil
results from the non-adaptation of constitution to
conditions." After an elaborate demonstration of this, he
resumes as follows: "If there be any conclusiveness in the
foregoing arguments, such a faith is well founded. As
commonly supported by evidence drawn from history, it cannot
be considered indisputable. The inference that as
adyancement has been hitherto the rule, it will be the rule
henceforth, may be called a plausible speculation. But when
it is shown that this adyancement is due to the working of a
universal law; and that in virtue of that law it must
continue until the state we call perfection is reached, then
the advent of such a state is removed out of the region of
probability into that of certainty. If any one demurs to
this let him point out the error. Here are the several steps
of the argument. All imperfection is unfitness to the
conditions of existence.
This unfitness must consist either in having a faculty or
faculties in excess; or in having a faculty or faculties
deficient; or in both.
A faculty in excess is one which the conditions of existence
do not afford full exercise to; and a faculty that is
deficient is one from which the conditions of existence
demand more than it can perform.
But it is an essential principle of life that a faculty to
which circumstances do not allow full exercise diminishes;
and that a faculty on which circumstances make excessive
demands increases.
And so long as this excess and this deficiency continue,
there must continue decrease on the one hand, and growth on
the other.
Finally all excess and all deficiency must disappear, that
is, all unfitness must disappear; that is, all imperfection
must disappear.
Thus the ultimate development of the ideal man is logically
certain-- as certain as any conclusion in which we place the
most implicit faith; for instance, that all men will die.
For why do we infer that all men will die P Simply because,
in an immense number of past experiences, death has
uniformly occurred. Similarly then as the experiences of all
people in all times--experiences that are embodied in maxims,
proverbs, and moral precepts, and that are illustrated in
biographies and histories, go to prove that organs,
faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them
grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that
they will continue to do so. And if this inference is
unquestionable,
then is the one above deduced from it--that humanity must in
the end become completely adapted to its conditions--
unquestionable also.
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
Instead of civilization being artificial, it is a part of
nature; all of a piece with the development of the embryo or
the unfolding of a flower. The modifications mankind have
undergone, and are still undergoing, result from a law
underlying the whole organic creation; and provided the
human race continues, and the constitution of things remains
the same, those modifications must end in completeness. As
surely as the tree becomes bulky when it stands alone, and
slender if one of a group; as surely as the same creature
assumes the different forms of cart-horse and racehorse,
according as its habits demand strength or speed; as surely
as a blacksmith's arm grows large, and the skin of a
labourer's hand thick; as surely as the eye tends to become
long-sighted in the sailor, and shortsighted in the student;
as surely as the blind attain a more delicate sense of
touch; as surely as a clerk acquires rapidity in writing and
calculation; as surely as the musician learns to detect an
error of a semitone amidst what seems to others a very babel
of sounds; as surely as a passion grows by indulgence and
diminishes when restrained; as surely as a disregarded
conscience becomes inert, and one that is obeyed active; as
surely as there is any efficacy in educational culture, or
any meaning in such terms as habit, custom, practice; so
surely must the human faculties be moulded into complete
fitness for the social state; so surely must the things we
call evil and immorality disappear; so surely must man
become perfect." Social Statics, stereotyped ed. 1868, p.
78 f.
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stern decree of nature. The invariable action of law of itself
eliminates the unfit Progress is necessary to existence; extinction
is the doom of retrogression. The highest effect contemplated by the
supposed Revelation is to bring man into perfect harmony with law,
and this is ensured by law itself acting upon intelligence. Only
in obedience to law is there life and safety. Knowledge of law is
imperatively demanded by nature. Ignorance of it is a capital offence.
If we ignore the law of gravitation we are dashed to pieces at the foot
of a precipice, or are crushed by a falling rock; if we neglect sanatory
law, we are destroyed by a pestilence; if we disregard chemical laws,
we are poisoned by a vapour. There is not, in reality, a gradation
of breach of law that is not followed by an equivalent gradation of
punishment. Civilization is nothing but the knowledge and observance
of natural laws. The savage must learn them or be extinguished; the
cultivated must observe them or die. The balance of moral and physical
development cannot be deranged with impunity. In the spiritual as well
as the physical sense only the fittest eventually can survive in the
struggle for existence. There is, in fact, an absolute upward impulse to
the whole human race supplied by the invariable operation of the laws of
nature acting upon the common instinct of self-preservation. As, on the
one hand, the highest human conception of infinite wisdom and power
is derived from the universality and invariability of law, so that
universality and invariability, on the other hand, exclude the idea of
interruption or occasional suspension of law for any purpose whatever,
and more especially for the correction of supposed original errors
of design which cannot have existed, or for the attainment of objects
already provided for in the order of nature.
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Upon the first groundless assumption of a Divine design of such a
revelation follows the hypothetical inference that, for the purpose of
making the communication from the unseen world, a miracle or visible
suspension of the order or nature is no irregularity, but part of the
system of the universe. This, however, is a mere assertion, and no
argument An avowed assumption which is contrary to reason is followed by
another which is contrary to experience. It is simply absurd to speak of
a visible suspension of the order of nature being part of the system of
the universe. Such a statement has no meaning whatever within the range
of human conception. Moreover, it must be remembered that miracles--or
"visible suspensions of the order of nature"--are ascribed indifferently
to Divine and to Satanic agency. If miracles are not an anomaly or
irregularity on the supposition of the Divine design of a revelation,
upon what supposition do Satanic miracles cease to be irregularities? Is
the order of nature, which it is asserted is under the personal control
of God, at the same time at the mercy of the Devil?
Archbishop Trench has, as usual, a singular way of overcoming the
difficulty. He says:--"So long as we abide in the region of nature,
miraculous and improbable, miraculous and incredible may be admitted as
convertible terms. But once lift up the whole discussion into a higher
region, once acknowledge something higher than nature, a kingdom of God,
and men the intended denizens of it, and the whole argument loses its
strength and the force of its conclusions.... He who already counts
it likely that God will interfere for the higher welfare of men, who
believes that there is a
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nobler world-order than that in which we live and move, and that it
would be the blessing of blessings for that nobler to intrude into and
to make itself felt in the region of this lower, who has found that here
in this world we are bound by heavy laws of nature, of sin, of death,
which no powers that we now possess can break, yet which must be broken
if we are truly to live,--he will not find it hard to believe the great
miracle, the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, &c... And as he
believes that greatest miracle, so will he believe all other miracles,
&c."(1) In other words, if we already believe the premises we shall not
find it difficult to adopt the conclusions--if we already believe the
greatest miracle we shall not hesitate to believe the less--if we
already believe the dogmas we shall not find it hard to believe
the evidence by which they are supposed to be authenticated. As we
necessarily do abide in the
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region of nature, in which Dr. Trench admits that miraculous and
incredible are convertible terms, it would seem rather difficult to
lift the discussion into the higher region here described without having
already abandoned it altogether.
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