I

AN

ESSAY

UPON

MIRACLES.

A.

In Two Difcourfes.

DIALOGUE I.

"Y

OU were pleafed to tell me, Sir, not many Months ago,

that you would find a Time to talk with me, at large, concerning Miracles. I have, with fome Impatience, waited

B

for

for it, and hope I have found you now at leifure, to free your felf of that Engagement.

B. You have; and I am now at liberty, to give you all the Satisfaction that I can, in that Point.

A. Will it not then be neceffary, that you should tell me what it is you call a Miracle? B. An extraordinary Operation of God, against the known Courfe, and Jetled Laws of Na· ture, appealing to the Senfes.

A. Then, I perceive, that I must know what are the Ordinary Operations of God, what is the known Course, and what are the fetled Laws of Nature, before I can be capable of knowing which are Miracles. A. Yes

B. Yes certainly, for how can you know which are Exceptions to a Rule, unless you know the Rule firft ? God works no Miracles with Refpect to his own Power, for all Things are alike hard or caly to Him; but with Refpect to his Laws, and to the Courfe of Nature fetled by Him.

A. How muft I come to know the Rule, in this Cafe? B. By your Experience, Obfervation, and by the Ufe of your Senfes, concurring with the Experience, Obfervations, and Senfes of other People. The Operations that are conftant, certain, and expected, are those we call the B 2 Ordi

Ordinary Ones. And that is the known Course of Nature, which is the common and the usual one, with which we are well acquainted, and which creates no Wonder in us; and thofe are the fetled Laws, by which Things have been all along govern'd. I am content you should remember Mr. Hobb's Definition of a Miracle, He fays it is A Work of God, befide his Operation by the way of Nature, ordain'd in the Creation. But, unless we know his Operations by the way of Nature, and how things were ordain'd in the Creation, we can never come to know, which and what a Work of

God