precursory

for this reason he makes a compendious and declaration, for this is the prophetic character.

Such, therefore, as was the course of the Son of God, such also is the form of the living creatures; and such as is the form of the living creatures, such also is the character of the Gospel. For quadriform are the living creatures, quadriform is the Gospel, and quadriform the course of the Lord. And on this account four covenants were given to the human race . . . . . These things being thus; vain and ignorant, and, moreover, audacious are those who set aside the form of the Gospel, and declare the aspects of the Gospels as either more or less than has been said." As such principles of criticism presided over the formation of the Canon, it is not singular that so many of the decisions of the Fathers have been reversed. Irenæus himself mentioned the existence of heretics who rejected the fourth Gospel,2 and Epiphanius 3 refers to the Alogi, who equally denied its authenticity, but it is not needful for us further to discuss this point. Enough has been said to show that the testimony of the fourth Gospel is of no value towards establishing the truth of miracles and the reality of Divine Revelation.

1 Irenæus, Adv. Hær., iii. 11, §§ 8, 9. 2 Adv. Hær., iii. 2, § 9.

Hær., li. 3, 4, 28.

CHAPTER III.

CONCLUSIONS.

WE may now briefly sum up the conclusions to which we are led by our inquiry into the reality of Divine Revelation, although we shall carefully confine ourselves within certain limits, in order that we may not too far anticipate the fuller observations which we shall have to make at the close of the second portion of this work, when we find the results at which we now arrive confirmed by more comprehensive examination of the subject. It is impossible to refrain from some anticipation of final reflections, nor would it be right to delay a clear statement of what we believe to be the truth and its consequences.

We have seen that a Divine Revelation is such only by virtue of communicating to us something which we could not know without it, and which is in fact undiscoverable by human reason; and that miraculous evidence is absolutely requisite to establish its reality. It is admitted that no other testimony could justify our believing the specific revelation which we are considering, the very substance of which is supernatural and beyond the criterion of reason, and that its astounding announcements, if not demonstrated to be miraculous truths, must inevitably be pronounced "the wildest delusions. On examining the supposed miraculous evidence, however, we find that not only is it upon general grounds antc

cedently incredible, but that the testimony by which its reality is supported, so far from establishing the inferences drawn from the supposed supernatural phenomena, is totally insufficient even to certify the actual occurrence of the events narrated. The history of miraculous pretension in the world, and the circumstances attending this special exhibition of it, suggest natural explanations of the reported facts which rightly and infallibly remove them from the region of the supernatural.

Even if the reality of miracles could be substantiated, their value as evidence for the Divine Revelation is destroyed by the necessary admission that miracles are not limited to one source, but that there are miracles Satanic which are to be disbelieved, as well as Divine and evidential. As the doctrines supposed to be revealed are beyond Reason, and cannot in any sense, therefore, be intelligently approved by the human intellect, no evidence which is of so double and inconclusive a nature could sufficiently attest them. This alone would disqualify the Christian miracles for the duty which miracles alone are considered capable of performing.

The supposed miraculous evidence for the Divine. Revelation, moreover, is not only without any special divine character, being avowedly common also to Satanic agency, but it is not original either in conception or details. Similar miracles to those which are supposed to attest it are reported long antecedent to the promulgation of Christianity, and continued to be performed for centuries after it. A stream of miraculous pretension, in fact, has flowed through all human history, deep and broad as it has passed through the darker ages, but dwindling down to a thread as it has entered days of enlightenment. The evidence was too hackneyed and

commonplace to make any impression upon those before whom the Christian miracles are said to have been performed, and it altogether failed to convince the people to whom the Revelation was primarily addressed. The selection of such evidence for such a purpose is much more characteristic of human weakness than of divine power.

The true character of miracles is at once betrayed by the fact that their supposed occurrence has been confined to ages of ignorance and superstition, and that they are absolutely unknown in any time or place where science has provided witnesses fitted to appreciate and ascertain the nature of such exhibitions of supernatural power. There is not the slightest evidence that any attempt was made to investigate the supposed miraculous occurrences, or to justify the inferences so freely drawn from them, nor is there any reason to believe that the witnesses possessed in any considerable degree the fulness of knowledge and sobriety of judgment requisite for the purpose. No miracle has yet established its claim to the rank even of apparent reality, and all such phenomena must remain in the dim region of imagination. The test applied to the largest class of miracles, connected with demoniacal possession, discloses the falsity of all miraculous pretension.

There is no uncertainty as to the origin of belief in supernatural interference with nature. The assertion that spurious miracles have sprung up round a few instances of genuine miraculous power has not a single valid argument to support it. History clearly demonstrates that wherever ignorance and superstition have prevailed every obscure occurrence has been attributed to supernatural agency, and it is freely acknowledged that, under their influence, inexplicable and miraculous

are convertible terms. as knowledge of natural laws has increased, the theory of supernatural interference with the order of nature has been dispelled, and miracles have ceased. The effect of science, however, is not limited to the present and future, but its action is equally retrospective, and phenomena which were once ignorantly isolated from the great sequence of natural cause and effect, are now restored to their place in the unbroken order. Ignorance and superstition created miracles; knowledge has for ever annihilated them.

On the other hand, in proportion

Miracles, of the reality of which there is no evidence worthy of the name, are not only contradictory to complete induction, but even on the avowal of those who affirm them, they only cease to be incredible upon certain assumptions with regard to the Supreme Being which are equally opposed to Reason. These assumptions, it is not denied, are solely derived from the Revelation which miracles are intended to attest, and the whole argument, therefore, ends in the palpable absurdity of making the Revelation rest upon miracles which have nothing to rest upon themselves but the Revelation. The antecedent assumption of the Divine design of Revelation and of the necessity for it stands upon no firmer foundation, and it is emphatically excluded by the whole constitution of the order of nature, whose imperative principle is progressive development. Upon all grounds of Reason and experience the supposed miraculous evidence, by which alone we could be justified in believing in the reality of the Divine Revelation, must be pronounced mere human delusion, and the result thus attained is confirmed by every external consideration.

When we turn from more general arguments to examine the documentary evidence for the reality of the