A DISSERTATION ON MIRACLES: CONTAINING AN EXAMINATION OF THE PRINCIPLES ADVANCED IN BY THE LATE GEORGE CAMPBELL, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN. 66 THE WORKS THAT I DO IN MY FATHER'S NAME, THEY BEAR WITNESS OF ME." 10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. In one point of view, it is certainly much to be deplored that men of distinguished abilities should have employed their talents and learning in an attempt to subvert the foundation of our Christian belief; yet in the wise providence of Him who bringeth good out of evil, the labours of sceptical writers have ultimately conduced, in no trifling degree, to the triumph of the great cause which they were meant to injure. In consequence of the early attacks upon Christianity, many important facts were elicited which in the silent lapse of time it might have been impossible to ascertain with accuracy, and many circumstances which might otherwise have been overlooked, adduced as valuable evidence to prove the authenticity of the New Testament Scriptures. To the continued opposition which the Gospel has experienced we are mainly indebted for the integrity in which this evidence has come down to us; and the same pertinacious hostility has served the important purpose of leading the believer to examine more carefully both the principles and the proofs of revealed truth, that he might be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him. There is, therefore, this consolation to balance the pain with which the pious mind must regard every attempt to destroy its comfortable hope, that the Scriptures have undergone the severest scrutiny, - that no effort has been left untried to detect inconsistency or imposture, and that to these efforts, repeatedly and pertinaciously made, we owe many admirable treatises, destined to outlive the temporary excitement which gave them birth, and, collectively, furnishing a complete vindication both of the reasonableness of Christianity and of its truth. His In this golden chain Dr Campbell's "Dissertation on Miracles" constitutes an important link. subject is indeed limited, but it is most important; and his argument has been generally admitted to be conclusive. Let it be remembered, also, that in this instance the champion of religion had to contend with one of the most acute metaphysicians, one of the ablest disputants of modern times, whose opposition was the more formidable that it exhibited little of the flippancy, coarseness, and extravagance which have so often characterized the writings of modern infidels. Unlike the wild dreamer Rousseau, Mr Hume had too cool a head to permit either his feelings or his imagination to run away with his argument, or sacrifice it for declamation. The witty raillery of Voltaire he rejected as unsuitable to his genius, and as unbecoming the gravity of a professed philosopher; and the vulgar profanity of Paine was alike foreign to his character, and repugnant to his habits and education. He reasoned calmly, and if not always candidly, at least plausibly and with an appearance of candour, adopting, and dexterously availing himself of any unlucky concession by the avowed friends of religion, which might seem, when pushed to its legitimate conclusion, to weaken the evidences of revelation, while he himself carefully avoided every thing that could tend to rouse the suspicion, or excite the hostility of his reader. To obtain a decided advantage over such an antagonist certainly redounds to the praise of the author of the "Dissertation;" but, in justice, it must rather be regarded as the triumph of truth over error. Mr Hume grounds his argument against miracles—one of the strong pillars upon which our belief in the Gospel revelation rests on the assumption that experience is our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; but a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined; and if so, it is an undeniable consequence, that it cannot be surmounted by any proof whatever from testimony. A miracle, therefore, (he concludes,) however attested, can never be rendered credible even in the lowest degree. The author of the "Dissertation" disallows the position laid down and assumed by Mr Hume as an axiom, namely, that the evidence of testimony is derived solely from experience. He maintains that miracles are capable of proof from the evidence of testimony; and proceeds, in conclusion, to shew that the miracles recorded in the Gospel are fully attested, and proved to moral demonstration. This slight sketch of the ground respectively occupied by Mr Hume and his opponent will prepare those unaccustomed to the digressions of controversialists for entering more immediately into the spirit of Dr Campbell's argument, although, in reality, there is very little of either obscurity or confusion in the " Dissertation" itself. H. B. PREFACE. 66 I HERE offer the Public a new and improved edition of my Dissertation on Miracles, first printed in the year 1762. I have made a few amendments, not very material I acknowledge, yet of some use for obviating objections and preventing mistakes. It has been observed by several, that Mr Hume has, since the Dissertation first appeared in print, once and again republished the Essay to which it was intended as an answer, not only without taking the smallest notice that any thing reasonable, or even specious, had been urged in opposition to his doctrine, but without making any alteration of any consequence on what he had advanced. I know but one exception, if it shall be thought of moment enough to be called an exception, from this remark. What, in former editions, had been thus expressed, as quoted in the Dissertation,*Upon the whole it appears, that no testimony for any kind of miracle can ever possibly amount to a probability, much less to a proof," is made, in the octavo edition, published in 1767, Upon the whole it appears, that no testimony for any kind of miracle has ever amounted to a probability, much less to a proof." By this more moderate declaration, Mr Hume avoids the contradiction there was in the sentence to the concession he had subjoined in a note. But no correction is given to many other sentences, which needed correction not less glaringly than this. For this conduct it is not easy to account, unless on the hypothesis that he had never read the Dissertation, or that he had so low an opinion of it, as not to think it contained any thing which either required an answer, or deserved his notice. What follows will probably satisfy the reader that neither of these suppositions was the fact. That Mr Hume had read this attempt to confute his argument, and did not think contemptuously of it, I have his own authority to affirm; for, soon after its publication, I was honoured with a letter from him, one great purpose of which was to assign his reasons for not intending a reply. What he writes on this subject shows sufficiently, though incidentally, that contempt was not the passion which the perusal of this tract had raised in his mind. As there is nothing in the letter which can lead to an unfavourable reflection, either on the understanding or on the disposition of the writer, (for to me it appears to have an opposite tendency,) and as it assigns his own reasons for not engaging farther in the controversy, I have been induced, in justice both to him and to myself, to publish it. I say, in justice to him; for I am convinced that Mr Hume would not have considered it as redounding to his honour, to have the construction above mentioned put upon his silence. Yet it must be owned, that, to those who have never heard himself on the subject, it is by far the most plausible construction. The letter is word for word as follows: "SIR,It has so seldom happened, that controversies in philosophy, much more in theology, have been carried on without producing a personal quarrel between the parties, that I must regard my present situation as somewhat extraordinary, who have reason to give you thanks for the civil and obliging manner in which you have conducted the dispute against me, on so interesting a subject as that of miracles. Any little symptoms of vehemence, of which I formerly used the freedom to complain, when you favoured me with a sight of the manuscript, are either removed or explained away, or atoned for * Part I. Sect. 1. by civilities, which are far beyond what I have any title to pretend to. It will be natural for you to imagine, that I will fall upon some shift o evade the force of your arguments, and to retain my former opinion in the point controverted between us; but it is impossible for me not to see the ingenuity of your performance, and the great learning which you have displayed against me. I consider myself as very much honoured in being thought worthy of an answer by a person of so much merit ; and as I find that the public does you justice, with regard to the ingenuity and good composition of your piece, I hope you will have no reason to repent engaging with an antagonist, whom, perhaps, in strictness, you might have ventured to neglect. I own to you, that I never felt so violent an inclination to defend myself as at present, when I am thus fairly challenged by you; and I think I could find something specious at least, to urge in my own defence: but as I had fixed a resolution, in the beginning of my life, always to leave the public to judge between my adversaries and me, without making any reply, I must adhere inviolably to this resolution, otherwise my silence, on any future occasion, would be construed to be an inability to answer, and would be matter of triumph against me. † "It may perhaps amuse you, to learn the first hint which suggested to me that argument which you have so strenuously attacked. I was walking in the Cloisters of the Jesuits' College of La Fleche, (a town in which I passed two years of my youth,) and was engaged in conversation with a Jesuit of some parts and learning, who was relating to me, and urging some nonsensical miracle performed lately in their convent, when I was tempted to dispute against him; and as my head was full of the topics of my Treatise of Human Nature, which I was at that time composing, this argument immediately occurred to me. and I thought it very much gravelled my companion. But at last he observed to me, that it was impossible for that argument to have any solidity, because it operated equally against the Gospel as the Catholic miracles; which observation I thought proper to admit as a sufficient answer. I believe you will allow, that the freedom at least of this reasoning makes it somewhat extraordinary to have been the produce of a convent of Jesuits; though perhaps you may think that the sophistry of it savours plainly of the place of its birth. I beg my compliments to Mrs Campbell; and am, with great regard, + As far as I recollect, Mr Hume, whose curious theories have raised many able opponents, has, except in one instance, uniformly adhered to this resolution. But what no attack on his principles, either religious or philosophical, could effectuate, has been produced by a difference on an historical question, a point which has indeed been long and much controverted; but as to which we may say, with truth, that it would not be easy to conceive how the interests of individuals or of society could at present be affected by the decision, on which ever side it were given. I believe Mr Hume's best friends wish, for his own sake, as I do sincerely, (for I respect his talents,) that he had given no handle for this exception. |