Mankind) his comment and application of this fact: It is well known that all the strata of which our continents are composed were once a part of the ocean's bed. There is no land in existence that was not formed beneath the surface of the sea, or that has not risen from beneath the water. Mankind had a beginning; since we can look back to the period when the surface on which they live began to exist. We have only to go back in imagination to that age, to represent to ourselves that at a certain time there existed nothing in this globe but unformed elements; and that in the next period there had begun to breathe and move, in a particular spot, a human creature; and we shall already have admitted, perhaps, the most astonishing miracle recorded in the whole compass of the sacred writings. After contemplating this phenomenon, we shall find no difficulty in allowing that events which would now be so extraordinary that they might be termed almost incredible--our confidence in the continuance of the present order of things having been established by the uniform experience of so many ages--would at one time have given no just cause for wonder or scepticism. In the first ages of the world, events were conducted by operative causes of a different kind from those which are now in action; and there is nothing contrary to common sense or to probability in the supposition, that this sort of agency continued to operate from time to time, as long as it was required; that is, until 'the physical and moral constitution of things now existing was completed, and the design of Providence attained."--(Vol. ii. p. 594.) "No greater changes," continues the reviewer, "can be well imagined in the ordinary sequence of cause and effect, such as constituted the laws of nature, as they had been previously established, than took place on the day when man was, for the first time, seen among the creatures of the earth."-(Edinburgh Review, No. civ., pp. 396, 397.)

A plain fact may sometimes put down the most confident boasting. And the great argument which, in the opinion of its author, was to be useful as long as the world endures, is found, on examining its texture, to be marred, like the girdle that was hidden by the prophet for a season, and as to its intended use, to be profitable for nothing. The seeming strong tower, when close contact is tried, proves of aërial and impalpable form, and the attempt is vain to grasp the shadow of a reason, where there is nothing but the baseless fabric of a vision.' The wonder-working delusion, conjured up by the great metaphysical necromancer of modern times, by which he was to cheat the world out of all belief in Revelation, may be detected and exposed by

any child who can read a verse of the New Testament; just as the infantine charm and dread, which have their unknown source in the magic lantern, are gone, so soon as the scene is opened or the light of day is let in.

"A miracle," says Hume," is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.”— (Hume's Essay.)

reason.

But as all things have not continued as they were at the beginning of the creation; as the laws of nature are not unalterable, but have been altered; as a change, since their origin, has been introduced, great as any change can be well imagined, it is as clear as any proof can possibly be, that any argument which rests entirely on their presumed absolute inviolability is founded, not on a fact, but on a falsehood, and is therefore necessarily devoid of all truth as well as of all The like cause can never more indubitably produce the like effect, than the recent origin of man, of which the geological date is engraven on the earth, gives demonstration of the interposition of Almighty and creative power, and of the operation of the first great Cause; to which surely it must be admitted that all things are subservient and subordinate. The palpable proof of the exercise of this power, after the present terrestrial order began, shows that experience is on the side of miracles, and that the same Almighty Being who ordained the laws of nature, and afterwards introduced a mighty change, may possibly, for wise purposes, better known to himself than to man, suspend them again. It cannot therefore be, from the very nature of the fact, that there is a direct and full proof against the existence of any miracle; for, instead of there being any soundness in so absolute a rule, as scoffers on a false assumption have laid down, the denial of a miracle, " perhaps even of the most astonishing miracle recorded in the whole compass of the sacred Scriptures," would be the denial of an admitted fact.

Even without the knowledge of this fact, or willfully ignorant of it, what was the scornful rejection of all evidence of miracles on such a principle but the phrensied attempt to measure the power of God, who had created the heavens and the earth, and whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting, by the experience of man, who stands on a speck in space, and whose vision can embrace but a mere point in eternity? But what can scoffers any longer say, when, looking singly to their favorite hypothesis, the earth on which they

tread does tell them that, were it true, or had the laws of nature, as they existed after the beginning of the creation, been established to this day by "uniform and unalterable experience," the world would have been but a waste of waters, or at best but a tenement for beasts? And seeing that the great Creator crowned his works on earth by the creation of man, and placed him in a world prepared for his reception, why might he not, for the salvation of man, give proof of his Divine interposition in an after age by some changes in that order of nature which for man's sake he had established? Seeing that the most astonishing miracle recorded in Scripture (a mystery till of late not otherwise unfolded) is a certain fact, it is not because of any infringement of the laws of nature that all the rest may not be proved to be true. Seeing that the order of nature was altered by the creation of a new thing upon the earth, what could hinder the same effecting power from altering at any time the things that are made, or from giving unto man, as a rational being, some proof of the interposition of his hand? Surely making the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see, feeding of thousands with a few loaves and fishes, staying a tempest with a word, raising the dead to life, and calling the buried from the tomb, and all scriptural miracles combined, are no more to be disbelieved from the very nature of the facts, than that, in the midst of a fair and faultless creation, the human form was at first fashioned from the dust, and sight given to the eye, hearing to the ear, strength to the limbs, life to the whole frame, and a spirit put in man by the inspiration of the Almighty. The raising of a man from the dead is not more contrary to the order of nature, as subsisting now, than the creation of man was contrary to the order of mature which subsisted then, when a human being never had been seen. Recalling life to the body it had left is not more marvellous than giving life to that which before had none. And as so great a miracle was the origin of our race, it becomes not mortal man, nor is it a right exercise of his reason, to say unto the Almighty, what dost thou? nor does it become the thing formed to say to him that formed it, there are laws which thou canst not alter.

The resuscitation of an organized frame is not less credible than the original formation of the first animated body. And since the latter is an admitted fact, though an infringement of an order previously established, the other may be effected by the same cause, whatever the general law of nature may be; since the one is indisputable, the other is not impossible. It shows not, therefore, perfect sanity of mind, nor is it a principle that will ever be established by reason,

that a miracle is incredible from the very nature of the fact; nor is it in reason, but in order to escape from its verdict, that men would ever be debarred from enquiring whether there be not full proof of the events recorded in Scripture, as the earth itself bears witness to one of the most astonishing of the miracles which it records."*

The fallacy of Mr. Hume's argument being exposed, the only question now is, have we sufficient evidence that miracles were performed by the authors of the dispensations contained in the Old and New Testament Scriptures? To this it is replied, that the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and especially those of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and of his apostles, are accompanied by such evidences as it will be found difficult to adduce in support of any other historic facts, and such as cannot be brought to substantiate any pretended fact what

ever.

can

The truth of matters of fact may be positively inferred and known, if they be attended by certain criteria, such as no pretended fact can possibly have. These criteria are at least four. It is required, first, that the facts be sensible facts, such as man's outward senses judge of; secondly, that they be notorious, performed publicly in the presence of witnesses; thirdly, that there be memorials of, or monuments, actions, and customs, kept up in commemoration of them; fourthly, that such monuments and actions, commence with the facts. There may be facts in favor of which these four marks cannot be produced; but whatever fact has all these marks cannot be false, as is shown in Mr. Leslie's argument, which it is deemed necessary here to present to the reader, as Mr. Olmsted attempts to prove it altogether fallacious as applied to the miracles recorded in the Scriptures.

After giving the rules just specified, Mr. Leslie proceeds: "The two first rules make it impossible for any such matter of fact to to imposed upon men, at the time when such matter of fact was said to be done, because every man's eyes and senses would contradict it. For example: suppose any man should pretend, that yesterday he divided the Thames, in presence of all the people of London, and carried the whole city, men, women and children, over to Southwark on dry land, the water standing like walls on both sides: I say it is morally impossible that he could persuade the people of London, that this was true, when every man, woman, and child, could contradict him, and say, this was a notorious falsehood, for that they had not seen the Thames so divided, nor had gone over on

Keith's "Truth of the Christian Religion," pp. 61-71.

dry land. Therefore I take it for granted, (and I suppose, with the allowance of all the Deists in the world) that no such imposition could be put upon men, at the time when such public matter of fact was said to be done.

Therefore it only remains, that such matter of fact might be invented some time after, when the men of that generation, wherein the thing was said to be done, are all past and gone; and the credulity of after ages might be imposed upon, to believe that things were done in former ages, which were not.

And for this the two last rules secure us as much as the two first rules, in the former case; for whenever such a matter of fact came to be invented, if not only monuments were said to remain of it, but likewise that public actions and observances were constantly used ever since the matter of fact was said to be done; the deceit must be detected by no such monuments appearing, and by the experience of every man, woman, and child, who must know that no such actions or observances were ever used by them. For example: suppose I should now invent a story of such a thing, done a thousand years ago, I might perhaps get some to believe it; but if I say, that not only such a thing was done, but that from that day to this, every man, at the age of twelve years, had a joint of his little finger cut off; and that every man in the nation did want a joint of such a finger; and that this institution was said to be a part of the matter of fact done so many years ago, and vouched as a proof and confirmation of it, and as having descended without interruption, and been constantly practised, in memory of such matter of fact all along, from the time that such matter of fact was done: I say, it is impossible I should be believed in such a case, because every one could contradict me, as to the mark of cutting off a joint of the finger; and that being a part of my original matter of fact, must demonstrate the whole to be false.

Let us now come to the second point, to show, that the matters of fact of Moses, and of Christ, have all these rules or marks before mentioned; and that neither the matters of fact of Mohammed, or what is reported of the heathen deities, have the like; and that no imposture can have them all.

As to Moses, I suppose it will be allowed me, that he could not have persuaded six hundred thousand men, that he had brought them out of Egypt, through the Red sea; fed them forty years without bread, by miraculous manna, and the other matters of fact recorded in his books, if they had not been true. Because every man's senses that were then alive, must have contradicted it. And therefore he 2 x 2