the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

‘ [253] a Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons, &c.’ This is a work of very considerable merit and value, and deserves to be studied by those who wish to obtain a full understanding of the controversy between the Christian advocate and the unbeliever. Mr. Chandler's view of the nature and use of miracles, as stated in the first part of this treatise, is on the whole good and judicious. After defining a miracle to be ‘a work visibly performed by any being, that is really and truly above his natural power and capacity, without the assistance of some superior agent,’ he argues that the performance of such works in support of the authority of a teacher, sent to make known to mankind a dispensation consistent with the views which our reason acknowledges of the perfections of God and the character of the divine moral administration, is probable in itself, and a fit subject of belief, when accredited by the same testimony on which we receive other historical facts. The folly of the demand to see a miracle, in order to be convinced, or the notion that miracles as such are not capable of being attested like other appearances and events, is well and ably exposed. Still he contends that they derive a great part of their own credibility, and consequently of the authority which they can communicate to any message professing to be divine, from the excellence and reasonableness of this message, in itself considered. The assurances of divine grace and mercy as made known in the Gospel, the terms on which they are granted, and the expectations held out in a future life, when published, are such as approve themselves to our understandings as right and good; but it does not, therefore, follow