not possible to read this chapter through without a shudder. Its stern truth and awful eloquence force us to realize Milton's grand figure, what Dr. Bushnell proves to be only soberest fact:

"Earth felt the wound; and nature from her

seat,

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of

woe,

That all was lost."

We shall give one illustration of the style in which he describes the disturbance introduced by sin into "the crystalline order of the soul."

tain. His words are: "Made organically perfect, set as full in God's harmony as they can be, in the mold of their constitution, surrounded by as many things as possible to allure them to ways of obedience, and keep them from the seductions of sin, we shall discover still that, given the fact of their begun existence, and their trial as persons or powers, they are in a condition privative, that involves their certain lapse into evil." (P. 107.) We can not stop to dwell upon this theory, and the sweeping manner in which our author applies it to all created moral beings. We regard this extreme mode of putting the matter not only as not justi- "Give the fact of sin, the fact of a fatal fied by the reasonings he adduces, but as breach in the normal state or constitutional fatal to his fundamental conception of order of the soul follows of necessity. And expowers, and as an injurious excrescence actly this we shall see, if we look in upon its on his system altogether unnecessary to secret chambers, and watch the motions of sins his general argument; and we earnestly tions discolored-the judgments unable to hold in the confused ferment they raise the percephope that no reader will be repelled by it their scales steadily because of the fierce gusts from prosecuting the study of the volume. of passion-the thoughts huddling by in crowds In dealing with the "Fact of Sin," Dr. of wild suggestion-the imagination haunted by Bushnell shows that Naturalism generally ugly and disgustful shapes-the appetites conignores it; or, if its advocates use the testing with reason-the senses victorious over term, they do not mean by it any act of faith-anger blowing the over-heated fire of man's will in opposition to the will of malice-low jealousies sulking in dark angles God; or that when such men as Mr. of the soul, and envies baser still hiding under the skin of its green-mantled pools-all the Parker stumble upon its right meaning, powers that should be strung in harmony and speak of its hatefulness in terms of loosened from each other, and brewing in hopeawful denunciation, they unanimously con- less and helpless confusion the conscience found and controvert themselves: and he meantime thundering wrathfully above, and proceeds in a strain of solemn and resist- shooting down hot bolts of judgment, and the less argument to exhibit sin as a super- pallid fears hurrying wildly about with their natural fact-no misdirection of nature, the Tartarean landscape of the soul and its disbrimstone torches-these are the motions of sin, but the deed of man's will in opposition orders when self-government is gone, and the to God's law, as witnessed in the univer- constitutional integrity of the soul is dissolved. sal imputation of blame, the self-condem- We can not call it the natural state of man; nation of conscience, the general " shyness nature disowns it. No one that looks in upon of God," "the malefactor aspect of man's the ferment of its morbid, contesting, rasping, conduct," and the provision which, by restive, uncontrollable action, can imagine, for family, social, and civil law and govern-order of life and nature. No name sufficiently a moment that he looks upon the sweet primal ment, we make against wrong-doing. decribes it, unless we coin a name, and call it a Another class of proofs is drawn from the condition of unnature."-Pp. 172, 173. exercise of forgiveness, which without sin were an absurdity; and from the depth of the tragic sentiment in human nature, which, if guilt were not real, would reduce its most harrowing scenes to the most ridiculous comedy.

Dr. Bushnell now comes to the "Consequences of Sin," showing how, through its action, all the laws of nature can be turned aside from their benevolent purposes, and converted into evil; and here he turns with great power against themselves the argument of the naturalists respecting the retributive action of those laws. It is

-

We quote this passage, not for its elegance, (for in this respect it is perhaps the least attractive in the entire volume,) but for its startling presentation of the disorganizing results of sin in the soul. The argument is afterwards carried out through all the provinces of the human body, society, nations, and the lower creation, closing with a representation of the objects of unsightliness and disgust, as symbolically sympathizing with man's unnatural condition, and enabling him to gloss himself in their deformities. In this

course, he marshals all the words beginning with de and dis-as deformities, discords, disgusts, disorders, derangements, and many more as all representing things which sympathize with man, and are intended to "correct his sins and train into God;" and as Addison hears the beautiful order of the heavens as a glorious voice, so this, says Dr. Bushnell,

'is indeed the tremendous beauty of God; and the strange wild jargon of the world, shattered thus by sin, becomes to us a mysterious transcendent hymn. Still it is deformity, jargon, death; and the only winning side of it is, that it answers to our woe, and meets the want of

our sin.'-P. 193.

Closely connected with this portion, is the chapter on the "Anticipative Consequences of Sin," in which our author takes us back through all the deformities and dislocations of the creation which preceded man, and regards them as all predictive of the facts of his transgression, and arranged in order to meet his abnormal condition. There is much beauty; but, we suspect also, much of fancy, in this chapter. Many of the facts which he adduces might easily be referred to a very different cause; and some are not really deformities at all, but only necessary parts of a progressive scheme. Enough had been said in the foregoing chapter to show, that nature is affected by the transgression of man, and, in many of its aspects, gives him back the reflection of his own guilty disorder.

toward his own intended results; and his own action will ever be regulated by the high and unchangeable law of holiness. Miracles thus seen will be only the de scent of power amongst the sequences and laws of the lower realm in accordance with a higher, even a moral law; but the sublime unity of God's system will remain inviolate.

The need of the supernatural, Divine interposition to restore the disorders of sin being now shown, and its ministration as a rational possibility, the question of fact arises, Has God interposed? This question is answered by presenting to view, first the character of Jesus. This, Dr. Bushnell proves, "forbids His possible classification with men ;" and that in a manner so convincing, by an argument so reverent, holy, and eloquent, and rising into such a sustained epic grandeur, that . we must not dare to indicate even the line of thought, lest we should mar it. If Dr. Bushnell had never written any thing beyond this chapter of about fifty pages, he must in virtue of it alone take his place among the foremost writers in the ology the world has seen. Others have attempted the same, but their attempts, though beautiful, are torsos; here at length is a complete work, standing alone in the finished grandeur of entireness and symmetry. Having set forth the life, which was in itself a system of supernatural powers, a full-orbed manifestation of the Divine, it is but a simple step to show, that He worked miracles, which appear, in relation to this grand miracle of Christianity, but "as scintillations only of the central fire." A chapter follows on the rarely observed but extraordinary adaptation of the system of Christianity to the accomplishment of its end, which he describes as water marks in the Christian doctrine." Another, on the supernatural government of the world in the interest of Christianity, proved from the current of human history, and from the religious experience of such men as Paul, Augustine, and others. It is very refreshing to a Christian mind to find, in a book like this, such a noble, manly statement of those deepest truths of our But if God shall interfere for man's religion which find their home in the redemption, will He set aside nature and inner man of every child of God; to find violate its laws, and will his own action them exhibited as facts, and with a fearbe lawless? Our author replies in the less faith pressed on the attention not only negative. He will act upon nature from of the theologian, but of the philosopher, above, and call its laws into operation | showing that no philosophy is worthy of

We have now reached the point of man's unnature, and nature's sympathy with him; and it is time to ask, Shall there be a restoration, and by what means shall it be effected? Dr. Bushnell takes up this question in the eighth chapter, and shows with conclusive power that development can not effect man's restoration; but that whenever a people have been left to its operation, they have sunk and perished. Neither can it be accomplished by man's natural power. He has power to derange, but not to restore. It can only be realized as he is "insphered in God," breathed into by His influence, and submitting to receive His life.

66

If our purpose had been only to review Dr. Bushnell's book, we should have given a much fuller analysis of its contents, and rigorously examined them as we proceeded; but, as we prefer that our readers should know the work for themselves, and as our object is of a more positive and

recording our deliberate judgment, that, though on more points than we have indicated we should see it needful to differ from our author, yet its blemishes are as spots on the sun in comparison with the preeminent force and beauty of the treatise; and that Dr. Bushnell has accomplished a work on behalf of our common Christianity not surpassed in the history of Christian apologetics. Its influence on the pulpit, in curbing and ultimately destroying the naturalism which has so long reigned there unsuspected, can not fail to be great, if ministers will but devote themselves to its careful and serious study.

the name which does not include them the circumstances which may warrant among the bases of its speculation. Two His coming forth in supernatural manifeschapters more close the work. The con- tation; and in His hands we can safely cluding one is an admirable summing up leave it. of what has been achieved, and a confident expression of the author's hope respecting the result, which we earnestly pray may be realized. But the chapter which will call forth the largest amount of controversy among Christians, is the fourteenth, in which Dr. Bushnell asserts, and endeavors to prove, that "miracles and super-general character, we dismiss the work by natural gifts are not discontinued." We feel as much of difficulty as he does in fixing a time when such gifts ceased. We know that the subject perplexes many minds; yet, not being of sufficient importance, soon takes its place in the background, among the shadowy things which we do not care to determine. Those who have read the two sides of the question between Dr. Middleton and Mr. Wesley, respecting the ecclesiastical miracles of the earlier centuries, have generally experienced a suspense of mind as the consequence; and those who have read Dr. Newman's two treatises on the subject pro and con, the result of different stages of his thought, have not been much better satisfied; while no higher certainty has been obtained by those who have inquired among the records of Christian antiquity. The utmost we can say of this chapter of Dr. Bushnell's is, that the case is "not proven." We regret that it has appeared in the volume, as it in some measure mars its whole impression; and we fear some foolish people, who fancy they are great logicians, will think the author but a dreamer, and seem very wise in using the old argument about the chain being no stronger than its weakest link. We are happy to inform our readers, that it is not a link of the chain at all; that the chapter can be dropped out of the argument without the least detriment to its perfection-rather, indeed, with advantage. It is simply an excrescence on a vigorous growth, thrown off in the exuberance of life. For ourselves, we prefer the language of the profound Augustine in one of his higher moods. Since the establishment of the Church, God does not wish to perpetuate miracles even to our day, lest the mind should put its trust in visible signs, or grow cold at the sight of common marvels." Yet would we not limit the Holy One of Israel. God alone is the Judge of the time and

We must now proceed to our main object, which is to show, in opposition to the tendencies we have been describing, the nature and credibility of the miracles of Scripture, and their relation to the Christian faith.

σημείον,

In treating of their nature, we are bound to keep as closely as possible to the account given, and the terms by which they are denoted, in the Scriptures. The term in common use comes from the Latin miraculum, which, however, exhibits the works in their lowest aspect. The terms used to denote them in Scripture are, repas, "a wonder," corresponding with "miracle;" onμetov, "a sign;" dvvajç, δύναμις, "power;" and on one occasion, when the people were retiring from the presence of Christ, they said, in reference to what they had witnessed, "We have seen Tapadoğa, "paradoxes," "strange things to-day." (Luke 5: 26.) Christ used another word, which was peculiarly appropriate in his lips, epya, "works." They might be wonders, signs, powers, and paradoxes, to men; to him they were simply his own works, no wonders or strange things at all. Following still the guidance of the Scriptures, we would define a miracle as a sensible, supernatural, and superhuman

fact, witnessing to a messenger or his science" of two thousand years ago. But message, and in character harmonizing if our man of science does not know all with the message. We think that this the laws of nature, if, after observing a will be sufficient for all purposes; and if few sequences, and rising to some higher we can show that such facts are possible, cause, his knowledge ceases, is he in a conand have taken place, we shall have accom-dition to assert that he knows that all plished what was intended.

First, then, a miracle must be a sensible fact. We are not about to speak of opinions, or of dreams, or of visions in which the seer is not quite certain whether he is asleep or awake; but of works performed before the waking senses of man, works which come out within the sphere of the sense, however deeply their roots may lie in the invisible.

proceeds above that point with the same undeviating regularity of natural cause and effect, and that no where does an agency above nature touch the springs of that nature, and produce these results? If man may interfere with results and alter the processes of nature by introducing some new chemical element, is God so restricted that he can not do the same? If man may take the stone which nature would allow to lie forever upon the ground, and by a force above nature, though working through its laws, hurl it on high; if even a child can suspend by its vital force the action of the law of gravitation on the toy which it holds in its tiny hand, and which in the absence of its grasp that law would draw to the earth, is God to be denied the power of thus acting

Secondly. They are supernatural. By this we mean something not according to the usual, observed, and understood processes and sequences of nature. It is not according to these that a dead man arises, that a man born blind is suddenly cured with clay and spittle, or that a man lame from his mother's womb leaps and walks when a few words are spoken to him. There is something here not accord-upon the nature he has constituted? In ing to ordinary sequences. It is true we are told of the constancy of Nature, and are warned not to think that there can be any suspension of her laws; and the man of science stands by to remind us of our ignorance of the laws of nature, and to guard us against the impropriety of supposing, in our ignorance, that there can be any thing supernatural at all. Now we are quite willing to concede the whole, if he will show us in operation the laws by which those things have been done; if he will walk for us on the water, and still the tempest by his command, raise up the fevered by his touch, and restore the purity of the leper's blood. But if he can not do these things, or expound those laws of nature by which they are done, what is all his fine-spun theory but an impudent assumption, based upon an ignorance as profound as ours? We do not know all the laws of nature, neither does he. We do not deny that these works may be in accordance with laws of which we are ignorant; but we do not see the wisdom of positively asserting that they are. We only content ourselves with saying that they are not according to what we have known and observed; and our advancing science, of whose power to dispel our delusions we hear so much, seems not to have got any nearer to an interpretation of them, than the "no

lifting and hurling the stone, man acts upon it as Nature in her ordinary processes never could; but, immediately on its leaving his grasp, his will has lost its control over it, and it returns to the control of Nature again; it observes the very curve assigned to it by the united influence of the law of gravitation and the force of impulsion, and falls in the very spot which is predetermined by the Author of nature in the laws which he has ordained. So also, in the raising of a man from the dead, there is the process of a momentary suspension: corruption is doing its work upon him-but the word comes, life enters in, it arrests the process of decay, and the organism which was fast passing to dissolution rises into a vigorous body through the introduction of the new power; yet the power acts upon the whole according to the laws of a vital chemistry. There is a suspension of the previous process by the incoming of the new life; but the moment it comes, all flows on again in the usual order of natural sequence. The miracle is no permanent violation of the law. It is but the introduction, at a certain point, of a power above nature, which sets nature at work toward another result upon the same subject.

Are we, however, to hold, with some who have the fear of science before their