any case be more than probable. But the probable may amount to the indubitable; and such may be its relations with the axiomatically certain, so closely may the two approach one another without ever coinciding, as at length to render the distance between them, to the moral judgment, like the constantly diminishing space between geometrical asymptotes to the imagination's eye, inappreciable. Thus, in the apprehension of faith, when increasing knowledge of the Saviour strengthens trust in Him, His whence in due time to issue forth and repossess even those exterior defences, who can fall back on those inner grounds of belief, in which there can be no mistake, that testimony of the Spirit, which is above and better than all" ("Notes on the Miracles of our Lord," by R. C. Trench, p. 91). It is well, however, to bear in mind that an argument, if sound, let the subject-matter be what it may, cannot but admit of being set forth distinctly, and in propositions logically exact and coherent. If belief allows for a moment that its reasonings are not adapted to endure the test of a logical analysis, unbelief is ever on the alert to take advantage of the concession. Having placed herself at this serious disadvantage, the Church may still perhaps succeed in feeling secure within that impregnable inner citadel to which she has betaken herself, but she is now harassed from dangerously close quarters, and the enemy triumphantly defies her to eject him from those exterior defences which she has in effect abandoned, but would fain repossess. The arguments of destructive criticism in relation to alleged historical facts can never be successfully encountered by mere exhibitions of the force of inward convictions. True indeed, the man who holds a belief which his logic fails to justify is under no moral obligation to abandon it simply on that account: his persuasion may, after all, be perfectly reasonable. Were faith thus bound to logic, sad and pitiable indeed would be the situation of the majority of those persons who have earnestly embraced the Christian faith. But, however embarrassing may be the task undertaken in the attempt to do justice to arguments that are both moral and cumulative, it by no means follows that we must deny the possibility of a scientific appreciation of their pertinence and force. It is the privilege of those who recognize their Lord and Master in that deep Mystery of God in whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 2, 3), and it is no less their duty, to claim for the Theology they have learned from Him the character of a Science. revelation to this fallen world, together with the illimitably glorious prospects it has opened up to man, may come to rank with the fundamental truth that God is Love.. No candid and intelligent reader will blame me for leaving unnoticed the numerous and elaborate criticisms through which Strauss and Renan and other writers have arrived at conclusions hostile to the traditional belief regarding the origin of the Four Gospels. These criticisms certainly deserve respectful attention; but an attempt to examine them even cursorily, I need hardly say, falls not within the scope of this treatise. I have to investigate rather as a philosopher than as an antiquarian. Such being the position I have taken up, I am of course precluded from assuming the authenticity of those venerable memoirs. So far as my reasoning is concerned, I must hold myself bound to admit, if required, that they are not authentic-that not one of them is of earlier date than the second century, and that sundry historical inaccuracies have been detected in them. Be it so : I am still, however, at liberty to maintain that the portrait therein transmitted to us, whether regard be had to the sayings or to the actions which jointly constitute the sketch, is far above the reach of mythical invention, and that consequently, account for it how we may, what the Evangelists have written is in the main, not fiction, but history. Readers who have followed me thus far will perceive, when they come to chap. ix., that, even if the admission just made be rigidly insisted upon, I have proved more than had need to be established as a basis for the argument there worked out. CHAPTER VIII. DIVINELY AUTHENTICATED SIGNS AND WONDERS. “Ανδρα ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποδεδειγμένον εἰς ὑμᾶς δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σηMelois."-ACTS ii. 22. I. No one who has read the preceding chapter will have failed to observe that, although engaged throughout in a discussion touching the credibility of certain recorded facts commonly called miracles, I have never once used the word. I studiously avoided it; not, however, from a desire to minimize the strangeness and singularity of the phenomena in question, but simply because I was waiting for a convenient opportunity of directing close attention to the word, with the view of assigning to it a scientifically admissible sense, and of dissociating it from what I believe to be erroneous notions that obscure the subject of discussion and block the way to sound conclusions. 2. Hume's definition of a miracle is, “a violation of the laws of nature." a Against this definition I at once take exception. It is true, no logical difficulty is experienced in conceiving a violation of the laws of Nature, and nothing forbids that miracle should be the word chosen to designate the concept thus formed, provided that its appropriation to this use be generally agreed to. But the possibility • "An Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding,” sect. x. of such a miracle being an object of thought can have nothing whatever to do with questions relating to the credibility of wonderful phenomena alleged to have been witnessed. For if Nature be the phenomenal universe, how should it become known to us otherwise than by the phenomena it actually exhibits, and what knowledge have we of its laws, except so far as rules of coincidence and sequence are thereby disclosed? It must, of course, be conceded that, if a coincidence or sequence be reported to have been observed which contradicts the expectations warranted by experience, then, unless we suppose other considerations to have neutralized the inference arising from this contradiction, there is a reasonable presumption against the truth of the story; and this presumption will vary in degree with the extent of the experience in which it finds its justification. But to represent the alleged occurrence as a violation of the laws of Nature is to assume that we are fully acquainted Iwith all the conditions of flux and mutation to which the phenomenal universe is subject. It being granted that the Major Premiss admits of no dispute: “All alleged violations of the laws of Nature, however well attested, are incredible;" still, no facts are adduced which supply a Minor Premiss; and, therefore, to all practical intents and purposes it is useless. If we would know what the laws of Nature are, we must acknowledge to ourselves that, it may be, we have yet much to learn. 3. Now, all phenomenal changes, so far as observation of the conditions under which they take place extends, are results of a never-ceasing conflict between forces or tendencies. The universal tendency of ponderable atoms towards a common centre, arising from some inexplicable mutual affection, so to speak, is in various ways and degrees counteracted, and in various instances neutralized or over come, by energies developed in supposed permeating media, imperceptible, except in their effects; and by kinetic tendencies due originally to the same cause; and the resultant motions thereby generated are complicated still further by the invisible bonds which keep from dissolution those congeries of atoms, as it is supposed, which constitute the elementary particles of all such substances as are, it may be, incapable of decomposition, by chemical affinities, and by forces that tend to structural arrangement in solid matter. The last mentioned comprise, in addition to mere tendencies to crystallization, a kind of force which manifests a notable superiority to all the rest of those that have been just enumerated. It has the property of originating and preserving organic structures. In every organism, during its residence C It is immaterial, so far as my argument is concerned, whether media be supposed, or simply modes of motion. On neither hypothesis is the motion accounted for in both certain forces are recognized, which clearly are not identical with, and frequently manifest themselves in vigorous antagonism to, the force of gravitation. с : • In attributing the complications of phenomenal change to the complex operations of an ascending scale of forces, and at the same time calling attention to forces which have been observed and named, and pointing out that they are thus related, I lay myself under no obligation to give an exact definition of each force. Mr. Herbert Spencer has summed up the characteristics of Life in the following definition: "The continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations" ("The Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 80). This, which is, in his view, "the broadest and most complete definition of Life" that can be given, fully embraces, I doubt not, the characteristics of physical life. I can see no objection, however, to regarding Life as a force which effects the adjustment. This view of Life assumes nothing which needs to be proved: it leaves undetermined whether the forces of nature are conceived of as being substantively distinct from one another, or simply as varieties of mode in the operations of the Original and Fundamental Force-a difference of conception which, whether otherwise important or not, in no way concerns the definition in question. But if it is to be assumed that the relations adjusted are those of |