ADVERTISEMENT. BOTH OTH these Essays were written when the author was Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. The former of them, on the Miracles of Scripture, was written in 1825-26 for the "Encyclopædia Metropolitana," being the sequel to a Life of Apollonius Tyanæus. The latter, on the Miracles of the first age of Christianity, was written in 1842-43, as a Preface to a Translation of a portion of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History. In the first of the two, the Miracles of Scripture are regarded as mainly addressed to religious inquirers, of an evidential nature, the instruments of conversion, and the subjects of an inspired record. In the second, the Ecclesiastical Miracles are regarded as addressed to Christians, the rewards of faith, and the matter of devotion, varying in their character from simple providences to distinct innovations upon physical order, and coming to us by tradition or in legend, trustworthy or not, as it may happen in the particular case. These distinct views of miraculous agency, thus contrasted, involve no inconsistency with each other; but it must be owned that, in the Essay upon the Scripture Miracles, the Author goes beyond both the needs and the claims of his argument, when, in order to show their special dignity and beauty, he depreciates the purpose and value of the Miracles of Church History. To meet this undue disparagement, in his first Essay, of facts which have their definite place in the Divine Dispensation, he points out, in his second, the essential resemblance which exists between many of the Miracles of Scripture and those of later times; and it is with the same drift that, in this Edition, a few remarks at the foot of the page have been added in brackets. With the exception of these bracketed additions in both Essays, and of a Memorandum at the end of the volume, the alterations made, whether in text or notes, are simply of a literary character. As to the latter, no verification has been made of the references which they contain, much pains having been bestowed on them, as it is believed, in the original Edition. June 29, 1870. |