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blind man “came seeing” (John ix. 6, 7). It may be presumed that the 
miraculous effects were caused to be consequences of such antecedents that 
eye-witnesses might be the more convinced of the actuality of the miracles. 
The account of the plague of locusts states that Moses stretched forth his 
rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord caused an east wind to bring the 
locusts ; “ before them there were no such locusts, neither after them shall 
be such”; and “the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind,” which cast 
them all into the Red Sea. Again, with respect to the passage of the 
Israelites through the Red Sea, the narrative states that Moses stretched out 
his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east 
wind, and the waters were divided so as to be a wall to the Israelites on their 
right hand and on their left; and when Moses again stretched his hand over 
the sea, the waters returned and overwhelmed the Egyptians. I have collected 
these particulars in order to demonstrate the hopelessness of attempts to 
refer Scriptural miracles to any mode of natural causation. Even where 
natural causation is specified as to quality, the effects are such iu kind or 
degree as have never been known either before or since. In short, as respects 
their antecedents (Moses stretching out his hand, &e.) and the limitation of 
their consequences through personal agency, the miracles of Scripture (at 
least those performed iu Egypt) are wholly out of the category of intelligible 
physical causation. 
What I have said about angels is a logical and necessary consequence of an 
axiom stated in sec. 21 of the Paper in these terms : “ It is inconceivable 
there can be any production or event which is not determined by antecedent 
will, and the power, in operation, of a conscious agent.” This, it must be 
admitted, is true with respect to what God does. It is true also with respect 
to what man does, as I can tell by ray own consciousness. But since in God 
“we live, and move, and have our being,” our acts consciously performed 
under conditions of time, space, and bodily organization which He has imposed, 
are His acts. But besides God and man there are other agencies in the 
world, “Fire and hail, snow and vapours ; stormy wind, fulfilling His word” 
(Ps. cxlviii. 8). Inasmuch as these natural phenomena fulfil God’s word, they 
are the products of conscious agency. This agency is ascribed in Scripture to 
angels, on the principle of the axiom above enunciated. And whereas this 
power of producing fire, hail, snow, &c., is, as well as human power, derived 
from God, and is exercised under conditions which He has ordained, it is, in 
fact, God’s power, and we reasouably regard these natural phenomena as 
coming from God. Thus, operations which we ascribe to Nature, and those 
which Scripture ascribes to angels, are identical entities. This is all that I 
meant by what is said about angels iu sec. 33. Of course, I only refer to 
angelic agency as concerned in the ordinary circumstances of natural pheno- 
mena : the extraordinary appearances of angels in human form mentioned in 
Scripture come under the category of miracle. 
