MIRACLE, is defined by Dr. Samuel Clark to be a work effected in a manner different from the. common and regular method of Providence, by the interposi tion either of God himself, or some intel ligent agent superior to man. It has been much controverted, whether true miracles can be worked by any less pow er than the immediate power of God : and whether, to complete the evidence of a miracle, the nature of the doctrine pretended to be proved by it is neces sary to be taken into consideration. The above learned author undertakes to set this matter in a clear light, as follows.
In respect to the power of God, and the nature of the things themselves, all things that are possible at all, are equal ly easy to be done : it is at least as great an act of power to cause the sun to move at all, as to cause it at any time to stand still ; yet this latter we call a miracle, the former not. What degrees of power God may reasonably be supposed to have corn. manicated to created beings, or subordi nate intelligences, is imposible for us to determine : therefore a miracle is not rightly defined to be such an effect, as could not have been produced by any less power than the divine omnipotence. There is no instance of any miracle in Scripture, which, to an ordinary spec tator, would necessarily imply the im mediate operation of original, absolute, and underived power. All things that are done in the world, are done ei. ther immediately by God himself, or by created intelligent beings, matter not being at all capable of any laws or powers whatsoever ; so that all those things, which we say are the effects of the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, are properly the effects of God, acting upon matter continually and every moment, either immediately by himself, or mediately by some created intelligent beings. Consequently, it is no more against the course of nature for an angel to keep a man from sinking in the water, that for a man to hold a stone from falling in the air, by overpowering the law of gravitation ; and yet the one is a miracle, and the other not so.
Mr. Hugh Farmer, who has entered more fully and more successfully into this subject than any other writer, objects to all the definitions of miracles which repre. sent them as effects unusual, above hu man power, and manifesting the interpo sition of superior power ; because, he says, the term unusual does not distin guish real miracles from many things which are not miraculous, such as the rare and uncommon appearances of na ture : nor does the calling a miracle an effect above human power distinguish it from all other effects equally above hu man power, produced by superior beings, when acting within their usual sphere, which, for that reason, cannot be miracu lous. Besides, as this definition compre
hends many things which are not mira culous, and to which no persons apply the term, so it excludes many things which are allowed by all to be proper miracles. For there seems to be a difference be tween effects above human power, or which argue a higher degree of power ; and effects which argue a power barely different from human, and in no manner superior to it., According to this defini tion, beasts and birds may work miracles ; for they do many things that are above the power of man. Moreover, this defini tion, instead of describing miracles by the nature of the works themselves, de scribes them by their author, and the de gree of power necessary to their perform ance. To which it may be added, that works, which argue only a power more than human, can be no absolute proofs of a divine interposition : and further, the last part of the definition, manifesting the interposition of superior power, is super fluous; because it is only saying, effects above human power must be produced by a power above it.
This writer considers the contrariety or conformity of the event itself to those laws by which the world is governed, in the course of God's general providence, as the only circumstance which denomi nates and constitutes it a proper miracle, or not ; and, therefore, before we can pronounce with certainty any effect to be a true miracle, it is necessary (and no thing more is necessary than) that the common course of nature be in some de gree first understood. Miracles, in this view, are not impossible to the power of God, nor necessarily repugnant to our ideas of his wisdom and immutability. Neither do they imply any inconsistency in the divine conduct, or a defect or dis turbance of the laws of nature : so that in the general idea of miracles, consider ed as variations from the common course of nature, there is nothing that can fur nish a certain universal proof against their existence ; and there is a power su perior to nature, which is ever able, and which, in certain circumstances, may rea sonably over-rule what was at first esta blished.