'There are two courses of Nature-the ordinary and the extraordinary.' BUTLER'S Analogy. 'Thou canst not call that madness of which thou art proved to know nothing.' IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME TERTULLIAN, Apology I. THE FIRST. LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 1863. The right of translation is reserved. PREFACE. THE Author of this work intends by the Supernatural the operation of those higher and more recondite laws of God with which being yet but most imperfectly acquainted, we either denominate their effects miraculous, or, shutting our eyes firmly, deny their existence altogether. So far from holding that what are called miracles are interruptions, or violations, of the course of nature, he regards them only as the results of spiritual laws, which in their occasional action subdue, suspend, or neutralise the less powerful physical laws, just as a stronger chemical affinity subdues a weaker one, producing new combinations, but combinations strictly in accordance with the collective laws of the universe, whether understood or not yet understood by us. At a time when so many objections are raised to portions of the Scripture narrative, which unsettle men's minds and haunt them with miserable forebodings, the Author has thought it of the highest importance to bring into a comprehensive view the statements of the most eminent historians and philosophers of all ages and nations on the manifestations of those spiritual agencies amongst them, which we, for want of further knowledge, term supernatural. It will be seen that he has |