absolutely impossible. . . . Man reveals God ; for man by 
his intelligence rises above Nature; and, in virtue of this in- 
telligence, is conscious of himself as a power, not only inde- 
pendent of, but opposed to Nature, and capable of resisting, 
conquering, and controlling her. As man has a living faith in 
this power superior to Nature, which dwells in him, so has he 
a belief in God, a feeling, an exgoerience of His existence. As 
he does not believe in this power, so does he not believe in 
God; he sees, ho experiences nought in existence but Nature — 
necessity — fate. - ” 
e From facts within we rise to thoughts of God. The sensible 
gives us knowledge of the external world. But the mind, in 
virtue of its own intuition and energy, rises from effects to 
causes. When it rises from effects to causes, it does so by 
reasoning, as strictly and properly so called, as the inductive 
philosopher in the process of generalization. Distance is not 
seen ; it is inferred in the mind. Anger is not seen ; it is 
inferred from the expression of the countenance. And God, 
the Author of miracles, is not seen, yet His presence and 
power are inferred from His works. 
Objections deawn eeom Physical Considerations. 
The results of physical science have been represented as 
hostile to faith in miracles. Mr. Powell repeated again and 
again, in round, bold statements, without a fragment of argu- 
ment or proof, that such hostility does exist. I have not, 
however, myself been able to discover any argument against 
faith in miracles from this source. “ The grand truth of the 
universal order and constancy of natural causes ” is beside the 
question. 
Tilings which differ. — Mr. J. S. Mill confounds, in his chapter 
on Induction, (see his Logic,) two things essentially different, 
and Mr. Powell, in his Essay, has done the same; viz. belief 
in causation with belief in the uniformity of nature. Necessary 
and contingent truths are not distinguished. That every 
effect must have a cause is an intuitive truth, self-evident and 
necessary ; that the operations of nature must be uniform, is 
neither an intuitive truth, self-evident, nor necessary. Belief 
in causation is a fundamental law of the human mind; uni- 
formity of operation in nature is a thing simply of experience. 
A\ e could conceive of nature's operations being different from 
what they are without any violation of the fundamental laws 
of human belief. As to miracles, the question is simply one 
of fact : the Bible affirms that miracles have been wrought, 
and physical science has done nothing to disprove the Bible's 
