18 
10. Thus far I think we may assert that Keason and Philosophy 
conduct us, unaided by Inspiration. And since belief in God 
is belief in the supernatural (the Deity being veiled from our 
direct observation, and therefore being outside the phenomenal 
world), there ought not to be much difficulty to those who 
have proceeded so far, in admitting the existence of other 
incorporeal spirits, such as angels. It is unnecessary to say 
that our belief in God, founded on philosophical reasoning, is 
amply confirmed by Scripture. But for the existence of sub- 
ordinate spirits we are thrown more completely upon the 
testimony of Scripture. Those, however, who have arrived 
at belief in God, and have in so far admitted the existence of 
the supernatural, need not hesitate to receive that testimony. 
The Creator of all matter must Himself be immaterial, and to 
those who believe that one immaterial Spirit exists, it seems 
as easy to admit that He should create other spirits, as that 
He should create matter. 
11. Thus much as to supernatural beings. We have now 
to consider supernatural occurrences, or miracles. I have 
said (sec. 8), that these are to be attributed, wholly or in part, 
to the agency of a supernatural being, or beings. The first 
miracle of all is the creation of the universe, which we attribute 
to the agency of God. It was no violation of the laws of 
nature. Kather, it was the commencement of those laws. It 
was something beyond nature, but not against it. This is the 
view of miracles in general, which is now usually adopted. 
Any deviation from the ordinary course of nature is attributed, 
not to a violation or suspension of her laws, but to the intro- 
duction of some higher law which, acting together with the 
ordinary laws of nature, produces (to borrow a metaphor from 
mechanics) a resultant different from that which the ordinary 
laws, acting by themselves, would lead us to expect. ^AVe 
should see in a miracle,^^ says Archbishop Trench, in his 
valuable work on the subject, not the infraction of a law, but 
the neutralizing of a lower law — the suspension of it for . a 
time by a higher. We continually behold in the world around 
us lower laws held in restraint by higher, mechanic by dynamic, 
chemical by vital, physical by moral. Yet we do not say that 
there was any violation of law, or that anything contrary to 
nature came to pass : rather, we acknowledge the law of a 
greater freedom swallowing up the law of a lesser.^'’* The 
Archbishop then goes on to mention some instances, as the 
Trench on MimcU$^ Preliminary Essay, ch. ii. p. 17. 
