Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A28442
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Miracles, no violations of the lavvs of nature
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Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B3310; ESTC R7329
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20,726
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38
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When therefore the Scripture relates that the Earth became barren for the Sins of men or that the Blind recover'd Sight by Faith we have no more reason to be moved to admiration than when it tells us that God is angry sorrowful penitent of his Promises or Facts mindful of his Promise upon sight of the Sign pre-ordain'd and many other like things which are either deliver'd Poetically or related according to the pre-conceiv'd Opinions and Prejudices of the Writer Wherefore we here absolutely conclude that all the Events that are truely related in the Scripture to have come to pass proceeded necessarily as all other Contingents do according to the immutable Laws of Nature and that if any thing be found which can be apodictically demonstrated to be repugnant to those Laws or not to have followed from them we may safely and piously believe the same not to have been dictated by divine Inspiration but impiously added to the sacred Volumes by sacrilegious men for whatever is against Nature is against Reason and whatever is against Reason is absurd and therefore also to be rejected and refuted XII But lest any man should by misinterpreting any Miracle suspect that he has found in the Scripture something that is repugnant to the Light of Nature or right Reason it concerns me now to come to the FOURTH and last Part of my present Subject viz. the Interpretation of Miracles Of this therefore I will deliver 〈◊〉 of many Thoughts and by an Example or two endeavour to illustrate them It very rarely happens that men relate any Action simply and as it was really done without mixing with it somewhat of their own Judgement Nay when they see or hear any thing new and surprizing unless they circumspectly defend themselves from their own pre-conceiv'd Opinions they are for the most part prone to be so blinded and pre-possess'd by them that they apprehend in their Brain quite another thing than what they see or hear to have come to pass chiefly if the thing done exceed the Capacity of either the Reporter or the Hearer and when the same is likely to bring some considerable Advantage or Emolument to the Reporter if it be believ'd to have come to pass in such or such a manner Hence doubtless it comes that men in their Chronicles and Histories rather relate their own Conjectures and Opinions than things as they were really done and that one and the same Case or Event is by two men of different Opinions and Judgments so diversly related that they seem to speak not of one Case but two and in fine that it is not very difficult to a man that reads with attention to investigate the Opinions of the Chronographer or Historian meerly from his Narrations To confirm this I might bring hither many Examples as well of Philosophers who have written Natural Histories as of Chronographers if I did not think it superfluous so to do I will therefore content my self with one pertinent and remarkable Example taken out of holy Scripture and then leave the Reader from thence to judge of the rest In the time of Joshua the Hebrews perhaps with all other Nations believing the Sun to be carried round the 〈◊〉 in its diurnal Motion and the Earth to stand still perpetually accommodated to this their pre-conceiv'd Opinion the Miracle that happen'd to them when they were fighting against those five Kings of the Amorites For they have not simply related that that day was longer than any other day but that the Sun and Moon then stood still or ceas'd from their Motions And this could not but serve mightily to their advantage at that time to convince their Ethnick Enemies who adored the Sun and Moon and to prove by Experience it self that those celestial Luminaries were under the Command of another God at whose beck they were forced to stop their Course and change their natural Order Wherefore they conceiv'd partly from Religion partly from their pre-conceiv'd Opinions the thing to have come to pass far otherwise than it might really have happen'd and related the same accordingly To interpret therefore Scripture Miracles and to understand from the Narrations of them how they really happen'd 't is necessary to know the Opinions of those who first reported them and who transmitted them down to after-Ages by their Writings and to distinguish the Narrations from that which their Authors Senses might represent to their surpriz'd Imaginations otherwise we shall confound their Opinions and Judgements with the Miracle it self as it really came to pass nay more we shall confound also things which have really happen'd with things purely imaginary and which were only Prophetick Representations For in Scripture many things are related as real and which were also believ'd to be real even by the Relators themselves that notwithstanding were only Representations form'd in the Brain and meerly imaginary as that God the supream Being descended from Heaven Exod 19. v. 28. and Deuteron 5. v. 28. upon Mount Sinai and that the Mountain therefore smoak'd because God came down upon it surrounded with Fire that Elias ascended to Heaven in a fiery Chariot drawn by fiery Horses which were only Representations accommodated to their Opinions who deliver'd them down to us as they had been represented to them viz. as things actually done For all men of Understanding above the Rabble know that God hath no right nor left Hand that he is neither moved nor quiet uncircumscrib'd by Place but absolutely infinite and that in him are comprehended all Perfections All these Proprieties of his I say are known to those considering men which judge things from the Perceptions of a pure Intellect and not as the Imagination is affected by the outward Senses as the Vulgar is wont which therefore imagines God to be Corporeal and like an Emperor sitting in a Throne above the Stars in the Convexity of Heaven the distance of which they believe not to be very great from the Earth From these gross Imaginations and Opinions of common Heads it is that the Writers of holy Scripture accommodating their Narrations many times to vulgar Capacities describe many Events in Expressions familiar and suitable to those pre-conceiv'd Opinions which therefore ought not to be receiv'd by Philosophers as real Besides to understand how Miracles really happen'd 't is requisite to be well vers'd in all the Idioms Phrases and Tropes of the ancient Hebrews for he that doth not understand and attend to all these will be apt to feign and add to the Scripture many Miracles which the Writers of it never thought of and consequently remain ignorant not only how the Miracles that have been written came to pass but even of the true Sence and Mind of the Writers For Example the Prophet Zacharias chap. 14. v. 7. speaking of War to come saith And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day
nor night but at evening time it shall be light c. Now by these words he seems to predict a mighty Miracle and yet to a man conversant in the Language Phrases and Style of the Prophets it will soon appear that nothing is signified by him but this That the Battel shall be siercely fought by both sides the event of it all the day known only to God but in the evening the Jews shall obtain the victory for in such Allegories and Phrases the Prophets were wont to soretel and write the Victories and Calamities of Nations signifying those by light and day these by darkness and night Thus we find Esaia chap. 13. describing the Ruine and Devastation of Babylon in these words The Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light the Sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the Moon shall not emit the splendor of her light which Prodigies no man of Understanding believes to have happen'd at the Destruction of that mighty City as neither those the same Prophet adds in the subsequent Verse I will shake the Heavens and the Earth shall remove out of her place Thus again in chap. 48. vers ult to signifie to the Jews that they should return from Babylon to Jerusalem securely and suffer no thirst in the Journey he saith And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them By which words I say Esaia intended only this that the Jews shall find Fountains in the Deserts as Travellers commonly do with which they shall mitigate their thirst For when by the consent of Cyrus they went to Jerusalem 't is evident even from the History of their return thither that no such Miracles happen'd to them After this manner of speaking in the holy Scripture occur very many things which were only old modes of expression among the Jews and therefore ought not to be interpreted according to the Letter chiefly where Miracles are rashly supposed to be intimated To recite all these is after what I have here said unnecessary and all I would have remark'd in the general is only this that the Hebrews were accustomed in these and the like phrases to speak not only ornately but also and chiefly devotely For which very Reason in the 1 st of Kings chap. 21. and Jeb 2. v. 9. is found to bless God for to curse and for the same they referr'd all things immediately to God and therefore the Scripture seems to relate nothing almost but Miracles and that too when it speaks of things most plainly natural of which I have already alledged some Examples When therefore the Scripture tells us that God hardned the heart of Pharaoh we are not bound to believe that it signifies any thing but this that Pharaoh was contumacious or obstinate And where 't is said that God opened the Windows of Heaven we may safely interpret the words to contain no other sence but this that Rain fell down from the Clouds in great abundance sic de aliis If our Reader then laying aside all superstitious Prejudices shall be pleas'd to consider and remark these Instances and withal know that in the Scripture many things are related briefly without any Circumstances and imperfectly I am fully perswaded he will therein find nothing that can be apodictically demonstrated to be repugnant to the Light of Nature or right Reason but on the contrary many things which how obscure soever they may seem at first he will be able upon a little Examen and Meditation to understand and interpret according to the genuine sence and meaning of the Writer And thus I think I have with sufficient clearness proved what I intended XIII But yet before I put an end to this Discourse there is one thing more of which it concerns me to advertise the Reader and 't is this That the Method here proposed for Interpretation of Miracles ought not to be accommodated to the prejudice of Prophesies occurring frequently in the Scripture For of these nothing ought to be affirm'd but what may be concluded from Fundamentals reveal'd in Scripture whereas the Conclusions precedent in this Discourse have been inferr'd only from Principles known by the Light of Nature Prophesie is a thing which transcends the limited Capacity of humane Understanding nor can any man comprehend wherein chiefly it consisteth unless from Fundaments reveal'd which are purely Theological But as for Miracles because what I here principally enquire viz. whether we may safely admit that in Nature any thing can possibly happen that is repugnant to the eternal Laws of Nature or that may not follow from them is a Question Philosophical I have therefore thought it as more proper so also more advised to investigate the same from Fundaments or Principles known by the Light of Nature I say more advised because I could have solved this Question from only Positions and Fundaments of the Scripture it self to manifest which I will now briefly shew the possibility thereof The Scripture in some places affirms of Nature in general that she perpetually observes a fixt and immutable Order as in Psal. 148. v. 6. He hath established them the Heavens and all the Celestial Host c. for ever he hath made a Decree which shall not pass and Jerem. 31. v. 35 36. Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the Ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roar If those Ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then c. And the Philosopher in his Ecclesiast 1. v. 9. saith expresly that nothing new happens in Nature and in vers 11 12. illustrating that Assertion adds that though a thing may come to pass which seems new yet really 't is not new but the like hath happen'd in Ages so long since past that no memory of them has reached down to us There is saith he no remembrance of former things neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after Again in chap. 3. v. 2. he saith That God hath appointed a season to every thing and a time to every purpose under the Sun And at vers 14. he saith farther I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it c. All which Texts most clearly teach that Nature always keeps her fixt and immutable Order that God hath been the same in all Ages as well unknown as known to us and that the Laws of Nature are so perfect and fertil that nothing can be added unto nothing detracted from them and in fine that Miracles are not lookt upon as new things unless by reason of mens Ignorance These remarkable Truths therefore are you see expresly taught in the sacred Books but in them it is no where taught that any thing can happen