Counterfeit miracles / by Benjamin B. Warfield.

  • Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge, 1851-1921.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Counterfeit miracles / by Benjamin B. Warfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to be lightly or rashly believed, but neither is it a thing to be lightly or rashly rejected. I believe that it is of God.” 41. Hanna, as cited, p. 218; cf. p. 220. 42. Hanna, as cited, p. 209: “I think that I mentioned to Lady Matilda at Cadder the circumstance that shook me with regard to the Macdonalds at Port Glasgow, that in two instances when James Macdonald spoke with remarkable power, a power acknowl¬ edged by all the other gifted people there, I discovered the seed of his utterances in the newspapers. . . . And I put it to him; and although he had spoken in perfect integrity (of that I have no doubt) yet he was satisfied that my conjecture as to its origin was correct. ... I thus see how things may come into the mind and remain there, and then come forth as supernatural utterances, al¬ though their origin be quite natural. James Macdonald could not say that he was conscious of anything in these two utterances dis¬ tinguishing them from all the others; but only said that he believed these two were of the flesh. Taplin made a similar confession on being reproved by Miss Emily Cardale for having rebuked Mr. Irving in an utterance. He acknowledged that he was wrong; and yet he could not say where the difference lay between that utter¬ ance and any other.” 43. Hanna, as cited, p. 204. He adds: “This does not change my mind as to what the endowment of the church is, if she had faith, but it changes me as to the present estimate that I form of her condition.” 44. In March, 1834, after hearing in Edinburgh “the utterances” through Cardale and Drummond, he speaks of his scepticism re¬ garding them, despite his agreement (except in two instances) with the matter delivered in them, and the pleasingness of their form. “The shake which I have received on this matter,” he writes (Hanna, as cited, p. 209), “is, I find very deep; or rather it would be a truer expression of my feelings to say that I am now convinced that I never did actually believe it.” He adds: “My conviction that the gifts ought to be in the church is not in the least degree touched, but a faith in any one instance of manifestation which I have witnessed, like the faith which I have in the righteousness and faithfullness of God, I am sure I have not and never have had, as far as I can judge on looking back—that is, the only true faith, even ‘the substance of things hoped for.’” 45. Hanna, as cited, p. 233: “James Macdonald is to be buried to-day at one o’clock. . . . This event has recalled many things to my remembrance. I lived in the house with them for six weeks, I believe, and I found them a family united to God and to each