ON MIRACLES. 203 



A. Objections to Miracles. 



To return to the objection. A miracle^ it is said, is im- 

 possible. Testimony cannot pi'ove a supernatural event ; that 

 is, an event which does not stand in any proportionate relation 

 to the natural antecedent. All the various objections to 

 miracles may be reduced to these two principal objections : 

 a miracle is impossible; a miracle is incredible. 



The Fibst Principal Objection, — That a Miracle is Impossible. 



The first pi-incipal objection, that a miracle is impossible, 

 amounts to this : either there is no power in nature or above 

 nature adequate to its production, or the exercise of such 

 power would involve some inconsistency. 



1, There is no Potver adequate to the Production oj a Miracle. 



That there is no power adequate to the production of a 

 miracle is equivalent to the denial of the existence of God. 

 A miracle implies the existence of a Power above nature, 

 directed by a personal will. For it is not a fortuitous or chance 

 occurrence (which would not be a miracle, but a monstrosity), 

 but an act answering an intelhgent end. To affirm, there- 

 fore, that a miracle is impossible because there exists no power 

 adequate to its production, is to affirm that there is no God. 

 Few intelligent persons would now be found willing to make 

 such an assertion in bald terms. The utmost that any person 

 pretending to scientific accuracy would affirm is that His 

 existence has not been proved, or that there are no proofs of 

 His existence and character sufficient to compel the assent of 

 the judgment to the proposition — There exists a Being whom 

 we call God, the Creator of heaven and earth. 



This, as I understand it, is the position of Positivism. The 

 existence of God is not denied, but His existence, or that of 

 supernatural beings, it is affirmed, cannot be, or has not been, 

 proved. In other words, true Positivists are Agnostics. But 

 to affirm that the existence of God has not been proved does 

 not preclude evidence offered in proof of a miracle. Such 



