He says that a miracle, according to the first definition, is impossible; according to the second it is no miracle at all; but that there is no antecedent objection to a miracle according to the third hypothesis.
Pascal. “A miracle is an effect which exceeds the natural force of the means employed to bring it about.”
Hume. “A miracle is a violation of a law of nature.”
Dr. Thomas Brown. “A miracle is as little contrary to any law of nature as any other phenomenon. It is only an extraordinary event, the result of extraordinary circumstances; an effect that indicates a power of a higher order than those we are accustomed to trace in phenomena more familiar to us, but whose existence only the atheist denies. It is a new consequent of a new antecedent.”
Horne's Introduction to the New Testament. “A miracle defined is an effect or event different from the established constitution or course of things, or a sign obvious to the senses that God has interposed this power to control the established powers of nature (commonly termed the laws of nature), which effect or sign is wrought either by the immediate act, or by the assistance, or by the permission, of God, and accompanied with a previous notice or declaration that it is performed according to the purpose and by the power of God, for the proof or evidence of some particular doctrine, or in attestation of the authority or divine mission of some particular person.”—Vol. I. p. 203.
“Since, as we already have had occasion to observe, the proper effect of a miracle is clearly to mark the divine interposition, it must therefore have characters proper to indicate such interposition; and these criteria are six in number.
“1. It is required, then, in the first place, that a fact or event which is stated to be miraculous should have an important end, worthy of its author.
“2. It must be instantaneously and publicly performed.
“3. It must be sensible (that is, obvious to the senses) and [pg 061] easy to be observed; in other words, the fact or event must be such that the senses of mankind can clearly and fully judge of it.
“4. It must be independent of second causes.