system of doctrines-or, as a general fact, misapply the Word of God; and in truth few writers interpret Scripture on all great doctrinal points with such precision and correctness as President Edwards.

May God give the same spiritual insight into his Word to all our young men, and especially may he guide them into the true interpretation of that glorious book of prophecy which was the last message of Christ to his own church, to guide her on to victory!

ARTICLE V.

MIRACLES.

By REV. ENOCH POND, D.D., Prof. of Theology, Bangor Theological Seminary.

In the following article, I propose, first, to define or describe miracles; secondly, to show, that the Bible contains veritable accounts of real miracles; thirdly, to consider the leading object of miracles, and their bearing on the divine authority of the Bible; and then to consider the question of their continuance.

By a miracle, I understand an event or work, not only out of the common course of nature, but contrary to it; transcending, obviously, the capacities of creatures; and implying, in every case, a direct intervention of the divine knowledge or power. A clear and proper miracle is always, and may be known to be, a work of God.

Miracles may be divided into two classes, viz: those of knowledge, and of power. In miracles of the first class, there is a display of knowledge-there are disclosures, which are possible to no being but God. In those of the second class there is a display of power, which no being can exercise, except the Creator.

Intelligent creatures in this world may arrive at various kinds and degrees of knowledge; and they may make displays of their knowledge which shall astonish and confound the uninitiated; but they never work miracles. Intelligent creatures in other worlds may have knowledge vastly superior to our own; and were they permitted to have communication with us, might make disclosures far exceeding all our present conceptions. But there are some things which even they cannot do. They cannot perform a proper miracle.

I can conceive that some ministering spirit, if he were allowed to make the communication, might inform me what had been doing in the city of London to-day, or yesterday. But could he tell me, of

his own unaided wisdom, what will be doing there a hundred years hence? I trow not. To do this would be to perform a miracle of knowledge, which is the prerogative of God alone. Soothsayers, fortune-tellers, in order to convince those who consult them of their ability to look into the future, will sometimes undertake to disclose the past. "If we can tell you what is past in your history, you will be convinced of our ability to foretell what is to come.' I decide nothing here as to the ability of the fortune-teller to disclose in any case (except where he has had the ordinary means of information) what is past. Allowing him to possess such ability, will it follow that he can disclose the future? By no means. His demon (if he have one) may inform him as to the past of an individual's history; but no demon or angel can, of his own knowledge or wisdom, lay open the future. This is locked up in the infinite mind of God; and, except so far as he is pleased to reveal it, is a secret alike to angels and to men.

When I say that God alone can look into the future, I mean, of course, what is commonly called the contingent future, including the remote and voluntary actions of men. Such events as depend on known, established physical causes, may, indeed, be calculated and ascertained. The astronomer can predict eclipses, and the times of the rising and setting of the sun, for long ages beforehand. But can he foretell what individuals shall be born a hundred years hence, and where they shall live, what they shall say and do, and when, where, and how they shall die?

Moral causes are in some instances so uniform, that we feel little hazard in predicting, within a narrow compass, how individuals, or even communities, with which we are acquainted, will be likely to act. I have no doubt that a great majority of my readers will go to their pillows to-night, and to their breakfasts in the morning. I have no doubt that the mails to and from this city will come and go, on the morrow, at the usual times. I have no doubt that the farmers of this country will plough their ground and sow their seed, at the opening of the spring. The skilful politician is able to calculate, with some degree of probability, as to the measures of cabinets, and the public acts of nations; and creatures of higher intelligence and longer experience than ourselves may be able to carry such calculations to greater lengths, and to draw them out with more precision. But then all such calculations are necessarily limited-the most of them within a very narrow circle; and they are all attended with more or less of uncertainty. A thousand unforeseen casualties may arise to disappoint our best settled and most confident anticipations. They fall immeasurably short, therefore, of proper predictions-those which reach out into the distant future, and declare, with infallible certainty, who shall live, and what things shall be done, in coming ages.

It will follow, from what has been said, that every proper preTHIRD SERIES, VOL. III. NO. 2.

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diction, in the sense explained, is a miracle of knowledge. It is a disclosure which none but God can make; involving a kind and degree of knowledge possessed alone by the Infinite Mind. And so the case is represented in the Scriptures, "I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." To "declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done," in other words, to predict the distant and contingent future, is here represented as the prerogative of God alone. In another passage of the prophets, God challenges the idols of the heathen to vindicate their claim to divinity, by predicting future events. "Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods;" implying that if they could show the things that were to be hereafter, their claim to divinity would be satisfactorily vindicated.

In the first part of the Apocalypse, a vast map of the future is exhibited, under the symbol of a sealed roll or book; and "no creature in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.". We are here taught the same lesson as before. To all created minds, the whole contingent future is a sealed book; and a sealed book it must remain, except so far as God is pleased to unseal and open it.

We conclude, therefore, that every proper prediction is a miracle of knowledge; and in every case, it is a revelation from God. Creatures may presume, may conjecture, may make calculations; but God alone can predict. The presumptions of creatures often disappoint them; but God's predictions never. These are sure to go into effect, and in precisely the way and manner which he has indicated.

We turn now to the second class of miracles, viz: those of power. In these, as I said, there is an exercise and display of power, such as is possible to no being but the Creator.

Creatures in this world, in some instances, possess great power, the exercise of which is surprising and unaccountable to their fellow men. But they never perform miracles of power; and if they are honest, they make no such pretensions. And created beings in other worlds may possess power, as well as knowledge, far superior to all that is merely human; and were they permitted to make a full display of their power, we might be astounded and overwhelmed. But neither angels nor devils can perform proper miracles, more than we can. They may do things superhuman, and to our apprehension supernatural; that is, above our natures, and above what we know of the powers and laws of nature; but strict and proper miracles they never perform. These belong only to the Almighty.

In the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to open this book we have one of the most convincing proofs which the Scriptures afford us of his proper Divinity. See Rev. 5: 6.

But it will be asked, How are we to distinguish between the superhuman, and to us supernatural, and that which is strictly and properly miraculous? We are unacquainted with the powers of angels. We know not the extent of created power, as it exists in other worlds. We see a thing done, which is not only out of the common course of nature, but entirely above all that we know of the regular powers and operations of nature. Now, in what way are we to distinguish between such an event, and one strictly and properly miraculous?

This is a fair question, and one which deserves an explicit answer. The event, in the case supposed, is above nature-above all that we know of its powers and laws. Is it also contrary to nature? Does it obviously contradict any of its powers or laws? Does it involve a suspension or contravention of them? If so, it is a proper miracle. But if not, it is no miracle. And if it be doubtful whether it be so or not, then its claims to be regarded as miraculous are of a doubtful character.

Limited as our powers and capacities are, we do know something as to the powers and laws of nature. We may not know as much as the angels; still, we know something, consequently we may know, at least within certain limits, when these powers are suspended, and these laws contravened. And whenever we witness an obvious suspension or contravention of them, we witness what we may know to be a proper miracle, and we may know that the hand of the Lord is there.

The great laws of nature are all of them of Divine appointment. They are spoken of in the Scriptures as "the ordinances of heaven." They are rules which the great God hath prescribed to himself, in carrying forward the vast movements of his providence. They are regular and established modes of Divine operation. Now, as God himself established these laws, God alone has power to suspend them. He only can cause an event to take place in palpable contradiction to them. In other words, God only can perform a proper miracle.

But it may be further inquired, whether what seems to us in contravention of some known law of nature may not be in accordance with some unknown and higher law; or in other words, whether what seems to us a miracle, is so in reality? May not its apparently miraculous character be the result entirely of our ignorance and short-sightedness? And if we were in a situation to know more about the powers and laws of nature, might we not discover that it was no miracle at all?

In replying to these questions, I come back to the position before assumed, that, limited as our capacities are, we do know something in regard to the powers and laws of nature. I repeat, we have, or may have, not presumption and conjecture, but knowledge here. Else all philosophy is delusive, and every attempt at phi

losophical inquiry must be fruitless. But if we may know to some extent what the laws of nature are, then we may know when they are suspended or contravened. In other words, we may know and distinguish a palpable miracle from every other kind of event. And to escape this conclusion by saying, that what we see to be in contradiction to some known law of nature, may be in accordance with some unknown and higher law, is only to say that these laws may be in opposition to each other; in which case the great wheels of providence must be moving in opposition, and will be likely, ere long, to come in collision, with tremendous crash.

We come then to the conclusion, that a clear and proper miracle is not merely a strange thing, or an unaccountable thing, or a thing to our apprehension supernatural; but it is an event involving a manifest suspension or contravention of some one or more of nature's laws-those laws which God has established, and which God alone has power to suspend. Were ourselves, or any one else, whether in this age of the world or in any other, to see an event like this taking place; were we to see, for example, the sun standing still in the heavens for hours together, or apparently moving from west to east, instead of from east to west; were we to see living men cast into a burning fiery furnace and coming out unharmed; were we to see the raging waves of the ocean calmed to rest, or the mouldering dead called out of their graves, or a great river of water turned into blood, or the dust of a whole country turned into lice at the simple word of a prophet; were we actually to see such things done, we might certainly know that we saw miracles, miracles of power, works to the performance of which no hand was adequate but that of the Almighty. And it would be vain to say, in such case, that what seemed to contradict one law of nature might be in accordance with some other law. Here is a palpable contravention of known laws of nature, to which no other laws can be set in opposition, unless we will suppose the providence of God to contravene and oppose itself.

It will be objected, perhaps, to one of our positions, that in Scripture, miracles are sometimes ascribed to wicked men or to wicked beings, to other beings besides God. This is the case, it has been said, in regard to both the kinds of miracles here described, viz. those of knowledge and of power. "If there arise among you," says Moses, "a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods and serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you," &c. It is here represented, it is thought, that the seducing prophet or dreamer may give a sign or a wonder that shall come to pass; or, in other words, that he may utter a real prediction. But is it certain that the representation implies as