Essays on the Foundation and Publication of Opinions, and on other Subjects. Essays of the Pursuit of Truth, on the Progress of Knowledge, and the Fundamental Principles of all Evidence and Expectation. [pp. 394-428]

The Formation of Opinions,
the same cause does uniformly produce the same effect: concerning this there is not, nor can there be any dispute. But
we have shown, that in the case of a deviation from the laws
of nature, there is no need of calling this first principle at all
into question. It is not alleged, that the miraculous fact is
produced by the simple operation of the laws of nature; but
the very contrary is asserted and believed, in every such case.
Let the fact be, that some combustible substance, when cast
into a hot fire, is not touched by the flame; or, to use the
autthor's favourite illustration, that a piece of ice remains for
an hour in a hot fire without being melted. Now, if it was
maintained or believed, that no cause operated here but the
fire, according to its common properties, there would be an
absurdity in the supposition; a cause on one day produces a
different effect from what the same cause does on another
day. To-day a hot fire melts ice; to-morrow a fire of the
same kind does not melt ice. But we venture to affirm, that
this is a supposition which was never made by the most credulous of mortals. We believe that no persons, however
rude, ever believed in a fact as miraculous, wvho did not suppose that some other than the common natural cause was in
operation to produce that effect. Indeed(l, this idea enters
into every definition of a miracle: it is an effect produced by
some supernatural power. How then does such a belief militate with the principle of the uniformity of causation? So
far from this, it recognises the axiom, and therefore ascribes
the effect not to an ordinary but to an extraordinary cause.
Whether, in any given case, the testimony is sufficient,
to induce an impartial man to believe in the existence of
such a supernatural operation is altogether a different questionti. T'he point, and the only point now under discussion
is, whether the uniform sequence of effects creates an insuperable bar in the way of our believing in a miracle, or in
an event which is a deviation from the common course of nature. And we trust that we have-with some repetition perhaps-made it evident, that this principle of common sense,
that the same cause operates uniformly, or as long as it is the
same produces the same effects, is, in no degree violated by
the belief in miracles; because, in every miracle, it is not only
supposed,but explicitly tautght,that the effect owes its existence,
not to the same cause which operates in the usual course of
the laws of nature, but to a divine and supernatural agent, by
whose interposition the laws of nature are suspended or counteracted. That an agent capable of producing such an effect
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