Lectures on Reason and Revelation

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 Excerpt: ... no evidence to which men will be forced to yield if they deliberately refuse to see the light or to use their reason. Yet here the fault is on the part of the frailty and perverseness of man, and not on the part of God. Evidence internal addressed to individual minds would not be sufficient to establish a revelation. There must be plain external proof that God is speaking to us mediately or immediately, and that we are exposed to no deception of man. Such proofs before a revelation are miracles and prophecy, while after its establishment the manner of its preservation and the influence of its doctrine may come before us to add strength to the evidence already given. Each one of these sources of testimony demands a separate consideration. 1. Miracles, being works above and sometimes contrary to the order of created nature, furnish the most evident proof. Thus to a genuine miracle is required some sensible effect, contrary to the accustomed order of pro, idence, which can therefore be produced by God alono, who is the author of nature. The sensible effect is manifest to the eyes of the beholders, who have every opportunity to judge of what they see and to guard against deception. And the nature of the work wrought before competent witnesses is so plainly contrary to the accustomed order of things that the divine power is evidently in exercise. There are things striking and wonderful which can be performed by angelic or diabolical agency, but a genuine miracle transcends this, and requires the Almighty hand. For example, the sudden and complete cure of the sick, the raising of the dead to life, are operations which no one but God can work, since they imply the power of life and death. And in cases where our own eyes do not behold such miracles, we must have th..