صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

the divine conduct. The most common things in nature are not to be accounted for à priori. The existence of animals, is as miraculous as the existence of Christ. Moreover, the Jews had one very peculiar characteristic as relative to the Messiah, that when he came, "No man should know whence he was." At the same time, I acknowledge, if the ground on which the miraculous conception rests, be sapped, the temptation, the transfiguration, the resurrection, and the ascension, may all, in a great degree, totter to their foundation. But, seriously, are not such discussions more likely to engage petulant controversy, than to ensure present or future felicity? Had God designed, that the precise nature of the dispensation should ever have been understood by his creatures, he would most undoubtedly have precluded all necessity of disputation.

[ocr errors]

We have said, inan must have been created; for, had he been eternal, there could have been no succession. Now, is one creation more surprising than another? The first man could not have come by the way of generation. It may be answered, indeed, perhaps, that the first man was created according to the general laws of nature. But, by what laws of nature were

[ocr errors][merged small]

the sun, moon, and earth, brought into existence? Why do not these laws of nature, thus acting incessantly on determined principles, produce other suns, and moons, and habitable orbs? In the unoccupied space of our solar system, there is ample room for the laws of nature to display their uniform and unceasing operations; and yet, strange to tell, the history of the world does not furnish one solitary instance of their prolific energies. The orbs in the great system are materially, locally, and numerically, excepting those lately brought to our acquaintance by Herschel, the orbs which were noticed by astronomers three thousand years ago.

And

It is not my intent either to enter into the reasonings of Unitarians, or Trinitarians. There are strong arguments on both sides. both the one belief and the other have been supported by men as able, as upright, and as disinterested as the world ever saw. In truth, no advantage is gained to true religion, as far as I can perceive, by tenaciously maintaining either that an Unitarian is a Deist, or that a Trinitarian is a Polytheist. No culpable timidity here induces me to be overawed by the authority of

great

great names. I speak as I feel. The heavenly gifted man of the Unitarians is as unoffending, in my apprehension, to common sense, as the more immaculate and immediate divinity of the Trinitarians.

Even an acknowledgment of three powers, persons, or intelligencies, in the one Deity, though it be a mystery far above the apprehension of our finite understandings, yet may very innocently be allowed to those who chuse to follow deductions, originally, perhaps, taken from appearances in created beings. Examine, for instance, the little microcosm, man, and you will find three distinct powers in his nature: one power of intelligence, by which he thinks, reasons, and reflects; which he concevies to be absolutely free from matter, form, or figure, and suitable to the idea he entertains of the immortal Deity: another power of self motion and perception, by which he moves his bodily organs, and by means of his senses perceives the beings without him and a third power, of which, indeed, he has not the sole direction, though it be in some manner subservient to his other faculties, the plastic or plantal power, by which he vegetates and enlarges, or varies his form. Thus analogically may be conceived the complex idea of the eternal mind.

Is

"Is it possible," says Voltaire, to know that which is not in being?" It is possible, for there have been things which are not, and are they not known to have had being? Man speaks, at all times, according to feeble and limited powers. But he who can foresee, can fore-ordain; and he who made the world of Christians, could as easily have made the divine founder of their religion. Knowledge is rightly divided by Locke, into intuitive, sensitive, and demonstrative. It is clear, I confess, that a past miracle can neither be the object of sense, nor of intuition, nor consequently of demonstration; and of course, philosophically speaking, we cannot be said to know that such a miracle actually did happen, But in all the great and gcneral concerns of life, are we not more frequently influenced by probability than by knowledge; and of probability, does not the same great author establish two foundations,, a conformity to to our own experience, and the testimony of others ?

It is contended, that by the opposition of these two principles, probability is destroyed; or in other terms, that human testimony can never influence the inind to assent to a proposition repugnant to uniform experience. But may not,

such

such a reasoner be asked, whose experience do you mean? You will not say your own; for the experience of an individual reaches but a little way; and no doubt you daily assent to a thousand truths in politics, in physics, and in the business of common life, which you have never seen verified by experience. Neither will you appeal to the experience of your friends; for that can extend itself but a little way beyond your own. By uniform experience, then, you understand the experience of all ages and nations, since the foundation of the world. *

Now let us see first, how it is that you become acquainted with the experience of all ages and nations. From history you say. Be it so. Turn to your books, and peruse by far the most ancient records of antiquity; and if you find no mention of miracles in them, I give up the point. Yes; but every thing related therein, respecting miracles, is to be reckoned fabulous. Why? Because miracles contradict the experience of all nations and ages. Do you not perceive you here beg the very question in debate? For I affirm, the great and learned nation of Egypt, the heathen inhabiting the land of Canaan, the numerous people of the Jews, and the nations

* Bishop Watson.

which

« السابقةمتابعة »