Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

A

DISSERTATION

ON

MIRACLES,

DESIGNED TO SHEW

THAT THEY ARE ARGUMENTS OF

A DIVINE INTERPOSITION,

AND

ABSOLUTE PROOFS OF

THE MISSION AND DOCTRINE OF

A PROPHET,

Believe me for the very works sake. JOHN xiv. 11.

BY HUGH FARMER.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed by J. Taylor, Black-Horse-Court, Fleet-Street.

AND SOLD BY J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD ;

AND W. VIDLER, 349, STRAND,

1804.

DIVINITY SCHOOL

LIBRARY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

It is intended shortly to publish, in one volume, and in the same form, The Essay on the Dæmoniacs of the New Testament, and that on the Temptation of Christ, by the Rev. HUGH FARMER.

619

F233 di PREFACE.
1804

THE Christian revelation well deserves the esteem
of mankind on account of its intrinsic excel-
lence: nevertheless, the proper proof of its di-
vine original is that miraculous testimony, which
was borne to those who first published it to the
world. But, unhappily for the interests of the
Gospel, its most learned advocates have greatly
impaired, if not destroyed, the force of this
testimony, by asserting the power of invisible
beings, of different and opposite characters, to
work miracles.

This opinion (than which scarce any has been
more generally inculcated) has occasioned much
perplexity to many sincere Christians. When
they survey the miracles of the Gospel, they can
scarce help feeling the force of the argument
arising from them in favour of its divinity: but
when they recur to their speculative opinions
concerning the power of evil spirits, their minds
are in the same situation with that of the most
learned of all the Jews*, when he confessed a
suspicion that all miracles may be wrought by
the power of magic or incantation.

the

* Maimonides, de Fund. Leg. c. viii, sect. 1. Compare
passage froin Dr. Clarke, cited ch. ii. sect. vi. p. 82.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

What has served to perplex the friends of revelation has emboldened others to reject it. From the earliest ages of Christianity, down to the present day, unbelievers have treated the argument from miracles (as it is commonly stated) not only as an improper means of conviction, but as an affront to their understandings. Celsus, (in a passage we shall have occasion to cite*,) not without an equal mixture of scorn and indignation, upbraids Christians with their absurdity, in making use of the same works to prove one person to be a divine messenger, and to disgrace another as a magician and impostor. And a celebrated writer, still living, when arguing against those who allow the devil a power of performing miracles, and who (according to his conception) after proving the doctrine by the miracle are reduced to prove the miracle by the doctrine, asks and resolves the following question: Now, what is to be done in this case? There is but one step to be taken, to recur to reason, and leave miracles to themselves: better indeed had it been never to have had recourse to them, nor to have perplexed good sense with such a number of subtle distinctions ↑.

It may perhaps be said, "That could deists be

* Ch. ii. sect. vi. p. 80.

Rousseau, in his Emilius, vol. iii. p. 113.

persuaded

persuaded of the truth of the Scripture miracles, they would not deny their divinity." But the same opinion concerning the miraculous power of wicked spirits, which furnishes them with an objection against the divinity of the miracles of Scripture, supplies them with their strongest argument against their truth. For they cannot persuade themselves that God, when he sees fit to give proofs of his own extraordinary interposition, will choose such as are deceitful or ambiguous. And whatever their own sentiments may be with respect to the power of evil beings to work miracles, yet as long as they are taught to believe that the Scripture ascribes to them this power, they will think themselves warranted by the Scripture itself to reject or disregard its miracles.

The more I reflect upon this subject, the more fully am I convinced, that it is entirely owing to the natural impression which miracles make upon the human mind, and not to those speculative opinions which have been most commonly entertained concerning them, that Christianity has maintained its ground in the world. And to these natural impressions we might safely trust the cause of revelation, were they not liable to be effaced by the power of superstition, and the sophistry of science falsely so called. In other instances, as well as in this, the natural sense of mankind

« AnteriorContinuar »