rectly inferring those laws. Testimony, therefore, must be ad-| mitted as constituting the principal means of discovering the real laws by which the universe has been regulated; that testimony assures us that the apparent course of nature has often been interrupted to produce important moral effects; and we must not at random disregard such testimony, because, in estimating its credibility, we ought to look almost infinitely more at the moral, than at the physical circumstances connected with any particular event." (3.) The futility of Mr. Hume's sophism may also be shown, even upon its own avowed principles. If the secret of compounding gunpowder had perished by the accidental death of its discoverer, immediately after its extraordinary powers had been exhibited before a hundred competent witnesses, on the principles of the sophism now before us, the fact of its extraordinary powers must immediately be rejected as a manifest falsehood. For, that a small black powder should possess such powers, contradicts the universal experience of mankind. The attestation, therefore, of the hundred witnesses plainly contradicts the universal experience of mankind. But it is more probable that these hundred witnesses should be liars, than that the universal experience of mankind should be contravened. Therefore, the pretended black powder possessed no such extraordinary powers, as those which these false witnesses would fain ascribe to it. 66 (4.) This sophism (for argument it can scarcely be called) proves too much, and therefore proves nothing." ANSWER.-This objection is specious, but very far from being correct. It is not, indeed, denied, "that there may be cases in which credibility vanishes with time; but no testimony is really in the nature of things rendered less credible by any other cause, than the loss or want of some of those conditions which first made it rationally credible. A testimony continues equally credible, so long as it is transmitted with all those circumstances and conditions which first procured it a certain degree of credit amongst men, proportionate to the intrinsic value of those condi tions. Let it be supposed that the persons who, transmit the tes timony are able, honest, and diligent in all the requisite inquiries as to what they transmit, and how should the credibility due to their testimony be weakened, but by the omission of circumstances? which omission is contrary to the hypothesis. No calculation of the decrease of the credibility of testimony, in which a man bears witness respecting realities, and not the fictions of his own brain, can ever proceed upon any other principle than that of the characters and qualifications of the witnesses: and, therefore, as far as the credibility of any matter of fact depends upon pure testimony, those who live at the remotest dis tance of time may have the same evidence of the truth of it, as those persons who lived nearest to the time in which the thing was said to be done; that identical time being of course excluded. "In what possible manner, for example, can the evidence on which we believe the facts related in the Gospels be less than that on which those facts were accredited by Christians in the second or third centuries? They possessed the standard writ«It proves too much; for, if I am to reject the strongest testi-ings of the evangelists; so do we: what those books then conmony to miracles, because testimony has often deceived me, tained, they now contain; and the invention of printing seems whilst nature's order has never been found to fail, then I ought likely, under the care of Providence, to preserve them genuine to to reject a miracle, even if I should see it with my own eyes, and the end of time. This admirable invention has so far secured all if all my senses should attest it; for all my senses have some considerable monuments of antiquity, that no ordinary calamitimes given false reports, whilst nature has never gone astray; ties of wars, dissolutions of governments, &c. can destroy any and, therefore, be the circumstances ever so decisive or inconsist- material evidence now in existence, or render it less probable to ent with deception, still I must not believe what I see, and hear, those who shall live in a thousand years' time, than it is to us. and touch; what my senses, exercised according to the most de- With regard to the facts of the Christian religion, indeed, it is liberate judgment, declare to be true. All this the argument re- notorious that our evidence in favour of them has increased quires, and it proves too much for disbelief in the case supposed instead of diminishing since the era of printing, the refor is out of our power, and is instinctively pronounced absurd; and,mation of religion, and the restoration of letters; and, as even what is more, it would subvert that very order of nature on which the recent inquiries of learned men have produced fresh evithe argument rests: for this order of nature is learned only by dence, there is every reason to hope it will continue to increase. the exercise of my senses and judgment; and if these fail me in Indeed, it is only with regard to the facts related in the Bible, the most unexceptionable circumstances, then their testimony to that men ever talk of the daily diminution of credibility. Who nature is of little worth."2 complains of a decay of evidence in relation to the actions of Alexander, Hannibal, Pompey, or Cæsar? How many fewer of the events recorded by Plutarch, or Polybius, or Livy, are believed now (on account of a diminution of evidence), than were believed by Mr. Addison, or Lord Clarendon, or Geoffrey Chaucer? It might be contended, with some show of probability, that we know more of those ancients than the persons now mentioned; but that is widely different from accrediting less. We never hear persons wishing they had lived ages earlier, that they might have had better proofs that Cyrus was the conqueror of Babylon, that Darius was beaten in several battles by Alexan V. Refutation of the objection, that the evidence for the credibility of miracles decreases with the lapse of years. It is further objected by the disciples of Mr. Hume, that "whatever may be conceded to those who received miracles as true from the testimony of concurrent witnesses, those who lived a thousand years after the event can have no reason to believe it; and that if we admit that concurrent testimony may augment, still successive testimony diminishes, and that so rapidly as to command no assent after a few centuries at most." Dr. O. Gregory's Letters on the Evidences, &c. of the Christian Reve-der, that Titus destroyed Jerusalem, that Hannibal was entirely lation, vol. i. pp. 176, 177. This argument is pursued to a considerable extent by Professor Vince, in his Sermons on the Credibility of Miracles, Svo.; and with much acuteness by Dr. Dwight, in his System of Theology, Vol 11. pp. 498-505. See also Bp. Marsh's Lectures, part vi. lect. 30. pp. 72-91. and Dr. Cook's Inquiry into the Books of the New Testament, pp. 336-352 The sceptical theory of Hume concerning testimony has been exposed with singular ability by Dr. Whately, in his "Historic Doubts" relative to the late Napoleon Bonaparte, who has applied it to the history of that extraordinary man, to which he has shown that it applies with so much greater force than it does to the Jewish or Christian narrative, as to reduce the disciple of Hume to this dilemma, viz. either to abandon his theory altogether, or to apply it first where it is most applicable; and upon those grounds, on which he impugns the Christian Scriptures, to acknow ledge the accounts of Bonaparte, with which the world was so long amazed and terrified, to have been a mere forgery-the amusement of wits-or the bugbear of politicians. The reader, who is desirous of fully investigating the subject of miracles, will find it very ably treated in Drs. Campbell's and Adams's Treatises, in reply to the sophistry of Hume; in Dr. Hey's Norrisian Lectures, vol. i. pp. 157-200.; in Dr. Price's Four Dissertations on Providence, &c. diss. iv. pp. 384. et seq. (4th edit.); in the Criterion of the late Dr. Douglas, Bp. of Salisbury; and in Dr. Elrington's Sermons on Miracles, at the Donnellan Lectures for 1795, 8vo. Dublin, 1796. See also Bp. Gleig's Dissertation on Miracles (in the third volume of his edition of Stackhouse's History of the Bible, pp. 210. et seq.), in which the recent endeavours in a celebrated literary journal to support the sceptical notions of Hume and his followers are most ably exposed; as they also are in the Rev. J. Somerville's "Remarks on an Article in the Edinburgh Review, in which the Doctrine of Hume on Miracles is maintained." Svo. Edinburgh, 1815. The fifth and sixth volumes of Professor Vernet's Traité de la Vérité de la Religion Chretienne also discuss the subject of miracles at considerable length, and present both solid and learned replies to the objections of the opposers of revela tion. Dr. Channing's Discourse on the Evidences of Revealed Religion, routed by Scipio, or Pompey by Julius Cæsar: though we sometimes find men of ardent and enterprising minds exclaimingO that I had lived and been present when such and such splendid events occurred: how lively an interest should I have taken in such scenes, how much concern in their termination! And, indeed, it is the frequent hearing of like exclamations that causes men to confound weight of testimony with warmth or depth of feeling; and to lose sight of the essential difference between real evidence, or the true basis for belief of history, and the sensible impression or influence which such history may make upon the mind. We believe as firmly that Lucretius killed himself in the delirium of a fever, as that Lucretia stabbed herself in consequence of the wrongs she had received from Tarquin's son; yet we feel a much more lively interest in the latter event than in the former. The fate of Carthage, or the result of the contest between Anthony and Octavius respecting the empire of the world, would doubtless be much more deeply felt, and much more warmly conversed about, within two centuries of the circumstances, than they ever are now; yet those who then conversed about them had just as much reason to doubt their occurrence as we have; that is, just none at all. And the like reasoning will apply to all the circumstances recorded in authentic history. So that, having established the genuineness and authenticity of the books of Scripture on evidence far superior to that on which other historic books are received, it is the most idle and ridicu lous thing imaginable, to affect to disbelieve any of the facts therein recorded on account of the remoteness of the times in which they occurred." erroneous doctrines which that church has imposed upon her members, as articles of faith, that must be believed on pain of damnation. CREDI Thus, the historical evidences of the genuineness, truth, 2. A second criterion of a miracle is, that IT BE INSTANand divine authority of the Scriptures are so far from grow-TANEOUSLY AND PUBLICLY PERFORMED, AND BEFORE ing less and less by the lapse of ages (as some antagonists BLE WITNESSES.-A business, huddled up in a cloister before of revelation have insinuated), that, on the contrary, they are a few interested monks, is not properly attested. But when progressively increasing with increasing years: for so many an action is performed before the public eye, as the miracles new evidences and coincidences have been discovered in fa- of Moses and those of Christ were, or before witnesses who vour of the Jewish and Christian histories, as abundantly to have totally exculpated themselves of having any end but make up for any evidences that may have been lost in for- that of truth, we have all the attestation we can reasonably mer ages; and, as this improvement of the historical evi- desire. dences is progressively increasing, there is every reason to believe that they will daily become more and more irresistible to all candid and serious inquirers.2 (1.) It must be INSTANTANEOUSLY performed. A miracle does not present the shades and gradations obVI. But, however satisfactory the preceding general ab- servable in nature. Nature proceeds not by fits and starts, but stract evidences may be, it is not necessary to rest the de- is gradual and progressive in its operations; does not create, but fence of miracles against the objections of infidels wholly unfolds; nourishes, and causes to sprout and grow; sets to work upon them. The miracles related in the Bible are accom- second causes, which act only by little and little, and do not propanied by such evidences as it will be found difficult to ad-duce their effect until the end of a certain period. From this rule duce in support of any other historic fact, and such as can- the divine agency is entirely free. God said, "Let there be not be brought to substantiate any pretended fact whatever. light, and there was light." 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 and 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. 5. Not only public monuments must be kept up, but some outward actions must be constantly performed in memory of the fact thus publicly wrought. 6. And such monuments must be set up, and such actions and observances be instituted, at the very time when those events took place, and afterwards be continued without interruption.4 (2.) Further, PUBLICITY or notoriety is requisite. Not that a miracle performed in the sight of a few witnesses is the less a miracle on that account. It is enough that there is a sufficient number of spectators worthy of credit. The notoriety of this or that particular miracle may be more or less restrained by circumstances; and we cannot reject a miracle, properly established, under the pretence that it has not had all the notoriety which we might have imagined to be necessary. How great soever may be the number of witnesses, we can always conceive a greater. But there is a degree of notoriety which satisfies reason; and if it were not so, testimonial proof could never be complete. To this criterion of a miracle, it has been OBJECTED, that Jesus enjoined secrecy on some of the persons on whom he had wrought miraculous cures, and hence it has been insinuated that they could not bear the test of examination. ANSWER.-A little attention will show that this objection is 1. The first character of a miracle is, AN IMPORTANT END, unfounded. 'Distinguish the times, and the Scriptures will AND WORTHY OF ITS AUTHOR. For what probability is there, agree." This observation is of particular importance in showthat the Almighty should specially interpose, and suspending that the contradictions, which the opposers of revelation the laws by which he governs this world, without any neces- have asserted to exist in the relations of Christ's miracles, are sity, for a frivolous reason, inconsistent with his wisdom, utterly unfounded; and also in showing the reason why he and unworthy of his greatness? Every miracle, then, must commanded some of the persons whom he had healed, not to have a useful end, and one to which second causes are inade- divulge their miraculous cures to any man, while he performed quate; as, to authorize a prophet, or to establish a revela- others with the greatest publicity. tion. An end so wise and so benevolent is well worthy of the Supreme Being. This character of a true miracle is found in all the miracles recorded as being performed by Moses and Jesus Christ. None of them are represented as having been wrought on trivial occasions. The writers who mention them were eye-witnesses of the facts, which facts they affirm to have been performed publicly, in attestation of the truth of their respective dispensations. They are indeed so incorporated with these dispensations, that the miracles cannot be separated from the doctrines; and if the miracles were not really performed, the doctrines cannot be true. Further, the miracles of Moses and Jesus Christ were wrought in support of revelations, which opposed all the religious systems, prejudices, and superstitions of the age. This circumstance alone sets them, in point of authority, infinitely above the pagan prodigies recorded by ancient writers, as well as the pretended miracles of the Romish church; many of which may be shown to be mere natural events, while others are represented as having been performed in secret, on the most trivial occasions, and long before the time of the writers by whom they are related; and such of them as at first view appear to be best attested, are evidently tricks contrived for interested purposes, to flatter power, or to promote the prevailing superstitions, and the 1 Dr. O. Gregory's Letters on the Evidences, &c. of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. pp. 196. 199. On this subject see Mr. Benson's Hulsean Lectures for 1820, pp. 78-93. The reader who is desirous of seeing the argument (which is here necessarily treated with brevity) fully discussed, is referred to the Hulsean Prize Essay, for 1831, by the Rev. George Langshaw, B. A. (Cambridge, 1832. 8vo.), entitled "The Evidences of the Truth of the Christian Religion are not weakened by Time." * See p. 95. supra. These criteria for judging of miracles, with their illustrations, are chiefly abridged from Mr. Leslie's Short and Easy Method with the Deists, and Professor Claparede's "Considerations upon the Miracles of the Gos pel," in answer to Rousseau, translated and published in 8vo. London, 1758. Jesus Christ having delighted and instructed the multitude with his discourses, the fame of them, and of his mighty works, so struck the people, that the crowd which assembled around him increased every day. In the universal expectation of the Messiah that then prevailed, there was reason to fear lest the Jews, under the impulse of blind but ardent zeal, should have declared him their king, or lest some seditious spirit should take advantage of their favourable disposition towards him, to create some disturbance among that people. This indeed is evident from the Gospel, which informs us that the Jews had laid a scheme to take him away by force, and make him a king. (John vi. 15.) But Jesus did not choose to give umbrage to the Roman government. Though he was to be condemned to death, it was not necessary he should be so as a rebel to Cæsar. That fine testimony was to be borne to his innocence,-I find no fault in this man. (Luke xxiii. 4.) Determined to seal with his blood the truth of his religion, he first proved his divine mission, multiplied the witnesses of his miracles, confirmed the faith of the apostles, gave them instructions, and destroyed the prepossession that the Messiah was to be a temporal king, surrounded with the pomp of worldly grandeur. But all this was not the work of a few days. A rapid instruction, joined to a multitude of miracles crowded into a short space of time, would not have left traces deep enough in the minds of men. Infinite Wisdom, therefore, permitted not our Saviour to kindle the hatred of his enemies too soon, nor to deliver himself into their hands before his hour was come. He was in the mean time to work miracles, and to give them the necessary authenticity; but their greater or less notoriety depended upon times, places, and persons. By making these distinctions, we shall discern in our Divine Saviour a wisdom as constant in its aim, as admirable in Distinguite tempora, et concordabunt Scripturæ. Augustin. de Verb Domini, serm. 16. upon such as are scarcely or not at all known; nor upon subjects too remote from us, or which require the experienced eye of an observer in order to be perceived. A supernatural motion in the ring or satellites of Saturn could not therefore be a miracle for the generality of the earth's inhabitants; it would at most be only so to astronomers. A miracle, being calculated to establish the divine interposition, ought to be more within the reach of men signs from earth, therefore, will be preferable to signs from heaven.-If a man display a phial full of blood which sometimes congeals and sometimes liquefies, he has no right to senses. But when the waters of the Nile are turned into blood; when millions are fed with manna; when a man is raised from the dead; when four or five thousand people are fed by a pittance :—in such cases there can be no deception; our senses, which are the only competent judges, have the means of judging. 4. A miracle ought to be INDEPENDENT OF SECOND CAUSES, or performed without any natural instrument. the appropriation of means to the variety of circumstances. He It must turn upon laws which are generally known, and not acted less openly in Judæa: Jerusalem especially required from him great circumspection. He was there under the eye of Pilate, the sanhedrim, and the priests: and the eagerness of the people to follow him might have readily furnished them with a pretence to accuse him as seditious. In the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John we learn, that Jesus retired into Galilee, not choosing to remain in Judæa, because that the Jews sought to kill him. (John vii. 1.) Out of Judea he was more at liberty. We must not therefore wonder at his saying to the demoniac of Gadara, Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. (Luke viii. 39.) Gadara was a city where our credit, unless he submit his phial to the examination of our there were many heathens: a disturbance among the people there was not so much to be feared. Jesus acted also more openly in Galilee. We read in the fourth chapter of Matthew, that he there performed miracles in a very public manner. Such was the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves; and yet, as soon as he saw that the people were on the point of taking him away to make him a king, he retired to a mountain. (John vi. 15.) He had regard therefore to the different disposition of men's minds. This was sometimes so favourable to him, that, choosing to distribute into different places the light of his doctrine, he prescribed silence to those whom he cured; that he might not be too long detained in the same place by the multitude, who, being informed of a new miracle, would have importuned him without ceasing. Thus, when he had raised up Jairus's daughter, he forbade the parents to publish it. That our Lord chose to distribute equally the light of his doctrine is evident from the Gospel. We learn (Mark i. 38. Luke iv. 43.) that when he had wrought several miracles in Capernaum, he says, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth. The people staying him, that he should not depart from them, he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also. his course. But this distinction of times will furnish us with the most light in perusing the narrative of our Saviour's miracles. At his entrance upon his ministry Jesus Christ used the utmost caution, not choosing to be detained at the commencement of It was at the entrance upon his ministry that he healed the leper spoken of in Mark i. 40—45. Accordingly, the evangelists adds, that he recommended to the leper to keep silence respecting his cure. (ver. 44.) Presently after, he performed his miracles more openly; but took the wise precaution of qualifying their splendour. It was with this view that he declared his kingdom was not of this world. Luke informs us that the people were amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered at all things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. (Luke ix. 44.) The further he advanced in his course, the more eclat and notoriety did he give to his miracles. On the approach of his last passover, he hesitated not to celebrate it at Bethany, at Jerusalem, and in sight of his enemies. We learn from Matthew (xxi. 14. with John xii. 37.), that the blind and the lame came unto him in the temple, and that he cured them in the presence of the chief priests. When he had laid the foundations of his religion, the reserve which he had formerly used was no longer necessary: it would have shown more weakness than prudence. The preceding remarks will serve to remove the apparent contradictions arising from the different degrees of notoriety which Jesus Christ gave to his miracles. As he read men's hearts, the different dispositions which he there discovered led him to diversify his measures. He tempered the splendour of his miracles, when any event might result from that splendour injurious to his religion. The infinite Wisdom which enlightened him, discovered to him, in this respect, combinations which would have escaped a mortal sight. When, therefore, he appears to vary his process, it is not that he changes his plan, but he avoids the obstacles which might injure it.1 3. A miracle must, in the third place, BE SENSIBLE AND EASY TO BE OBSERVED: in other words, the facts purporting to be miraculous must be of such a nature, that the senses of mankind can certainly perceive that both the event is real, and its origin supernatural.2 1 Claparede's Considerations upon the Miracles of the Gospel, in an swer to Rousseau, part i. c.7. "There are two things," says Archbishop Tillotson, "necessary to a miracle:-that there should be a supernatural effect wrought, and that this effect be evident to sense, so that, though a supernatural effect be wrought, yet if it be not evident to sense, it is, to all the ends and purposes of a miracle, as if it were not, and can be no testimony or proof of any If any external action or foreign circumstances accompany it (as was commonly the case), this action or circumstance has no natural connection with the effect produced. This it is which The particularly distinguishes miracles from natural events. the effects which result from it. Thus every body, that is in latter have a natural cause; and that cause is proportionate to motion, moves in proportion to the force that impels it. But the immediate special interposition of God excludes that of phyand effects no longer subsists. Medicine has remedies proper sical agents; in every miracle, the proportion between causes for curing diseases: these remedies bear a certain relation to the nature of the malady which they are to remove or destroy; but no such relation is discoverable in miracles. It is by natural means that the understanding is enlightened and instructed in language that is foreign to me; I devoted time and labour to the those things of which it was previously ignorant. I speak a acquisition of it, and employed the assistance of a master: but if, independently of such aids, my mind be instantaneously enriched with all the words of a language before unknown to me, the effect has not its cause in nature. The event is supernatural. The application of this remark to the apostles, at the day of Pentecost, is too obvious to be insisted upon. It has been OBJECTED to this criterion of a miracle, that Jésus Christ, in three of his miracles, made use of an external application; which, if it were necessary to the cure, looks like the application of some hidden means of art. it were unnecessary, such process is arraigned as being improper in the mode, and even ridiculous. If ANSWER. The three miracles in question are those of the man who had been born blind (John ix. 1-7.), the blind man in the vicinity of Bethsaida (Mark viii. 23-26.), and the deaf man near the sea of Galilee. (Mark vii. 32-37.) In the first of these, "he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay," and commanded him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam; the man went thither, and washed, and returned seeing. In the second case, "he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town, and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught? and he looked up, and said, I see men as trees walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was restored, and he saw every man clearly; and he sent him away to his own house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town." Nearly similar was our Saviour's treatment of the deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, into whose ears he put his fingers, and "spit and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is,-Be opened! and straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain." "These three are the only instances where a deliberate exthing, because it stands in need of another miracle, to give testimony to it, and to prove that it was wrought. And neither in Scripture, nor in profane authors, nor in common use of speech, is any thing called a miracle, but what falls under the notice of our senses; a miracle being nothing else but a supernatural effect evident to sense, the great end and design whereof is to be a sensible proof and conviction to us of something that we do not see. For want of this, transubstantiation is no miracle; a sign or miracle is always a thing sensible, otherwise it could be no sign. Now, that such a change as is pretended in transubstantiation should really be wrought, and yet there should be no sign of it, is a thing very wonderful; but not to sense, for our senses perceive no change. And that a thing should remain to all appearance just as it was, hath nothing at all of wonder in it. We wonder, indeed, when we see a strange thing done, but no man wonders when he sees nothing done." Sermons, vol. ii. p. 440. 8vo. London, 1820. ternal application is related to have been used, and in all these cases the reason for using it seems to have been one and the same, namely, to convey to the individuals, on whom the miracles were performed, a clear assurance that Jesus was the person at whose command, and by whose agency, the cure was wrought, and to enable them to state to others the grounds of this assurance fully and circumstantially. For this purpose our Saviour used such a mode of application as was best calculated to make an impression on the senses these men possessed, unimpaired, antecedent to the miracle, and such as led them to observe that he was about to interpose, in order to perfect those organs which were defective. A little attention will show that every circumstance in the different modes of application had this tendency. "A blind man can know another only by the voice or the touch. The blind man near Bethsaida our Lord led out of the town remote from the crowd, that he might be sure of the person who spoke to or touched him; he then spat on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, and restored him to sight, though imperfectly,—after that, he put his hands again upon his eyes, and he saw clearly. What possible mode could give him a more full assurance that the cure was wrought by the interposition of an external agent, and that Jesus was that agent? The deaf man could judge of the intentions of another only by seeing what he does; him therefore our Lord took aside from the multitude, that he might fix and confine his attention to himself, and then he put his fingers into his ears, and touched his tongue, thus signifying to him that he intended to produce some change in these organs; he then looked up to heaven, at the same time speaking, to signify that the change would proceed from a divine power, exercised at his interposition. "The very same purpose was equally answered by our Lord's application to the eyes of the man born blind; it assured him that the person who came close to him, and spoke to him, and anointed his eyes, was the sole agent, by whose interposition the cure was wrought. Immediately, on approaching our Saviour, after receiving his sight, he must have recognised him by his voice. Had the grounds of his assurance been less full and circumstantial, he never could have so unanswerably silenced the objections, and replied to the captious queries of the Pharisees, What did he do to thee? how opened he thine eyes 2-He anwered, and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went and washed, and I received sight. "We may be confirmed in believing this to have been the design of these external applications, by observing, that they were used in no instance except those of blindness and deafness, when a defect of the senses rendered them necessary to convey such assurance of Jesus having been the author of the miracle. And still more, by observing that it does not appear that any of these three men had any previous knowledge of our Saviour's power and character. The man born blind, he healed without any solicitation. The blind man at Bethsaida, and the deaf man, do not appear to have come of themselves, they were brought by their friends; more precaution was therefore necessary to call their attention to the person by whom the miracle was wrought, and give them full evidence that it was his sole work. When the two blind men at Capernaum, and two others near Jericho, applied to our Saviour to be healed, it was with a declared previous conviction of his divine power that they followed him, crying, Son of David, have mercy upon us! Here, therefore, a less remarkable external application was sufficient; as they professed their belief, Jesus only required that this profession should be sincere: Believe ye, said he, that I have the power to do this? and they said, Yea, Lord: then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you; and their eyes were opened. 6. SUCH MONUMENTS MUST BE SET UP, AND SUCH ACTIONS AND OBSERVANCES INSTITUTED, AT THE VERY TIME WHEN THOSE EVENTS TOOK PLACE, AND BE AFTERWARDS CONTINUED WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. These two rules render it impossible that the belief of any facts should be imposed upon the credulity of after-ages, when the generation asserted to have witnessed them had expired; for, whenever such facts come to be recounted, if not only monuments are said to remain of them, but public actions and observances had further been constantly used to commemorate them by the nation appealed to, ever since they had taken place; the deceit must be immediately detected, by no such monuments appearing, and by the experience of every individual, who could not but know that no such actions or observances had been used by them, to commemorate such events. plained, to the ILLUSTRATION of a few of the miracles related VII. Let us now apply the criteria, thus stated and exin the Sacred Writings. 1. And first, as to the MOSAIC MIRACLES recorded in the Pentateuch : of the Israelites, and felt by all the Egyptians.-At the Red Sea The plagues in Egypt were witnessed by the whole nation the Israelites passed through, and beheld the whole host of Pharaoh perish.-During forty years were the children of Israel Sometimes they were supsustained with food from heaven. plied with water from the flinty rock; and throughout their journeys they beheld the cloud of the Lord on the tabernacle by day, and the fire by night. (Exod. xl. 38.)-At the passage over the Jordan, "the waters stood and rose up upon an heap; and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground in the midst of Jordan." (Josh. iii. 16, 17.) To each of the miracles here briefly enumerated, all the criteria above stated will be found to apply. [i.] The posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, being chosen by Jehovah to be his peculiar people, for the preservation of true religion, the miracles performed in their behalf were unquestionably worthy of their Almighty Author. Here we have the FIRST mark. Egypt) were announced before they were actually performed, did actually [ii] The miracles in question, though some of them (as the plagues in and really take place in Egypt, and were removed only at the command of Moses, while the land of Goshen (in which the Israelites dwelt) was exHere we have our SECOND, THIRD, and empted from their operation. FOURTH marks most fully established; for all the miracles above mentioned were recorded by Moses at or about the time when they actually took place: moreover, he recapitulated the miracles which he had wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, and appealed to those who were present for the truth of them; which no wise man would have done, if he could have been confuted. [iii] Further, all these miracles were witnessed by upwards of two millions of persons, who remained collected in one camp for forty years; an assembly so great, probably, never before or since remained collected in one body for so long a period. If, then, this whole nation had not been entirely without eyes and ears, if they were not bereft of reason and sense, it was impossible, at the time these facts were said to have taken place, that they could have been persuaded of their existence, had they not been real. all the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed, and their deliverance fiv.] Once more, to commemorate the protection of the Israelites, when from bondage, which was its immediate consequence, Moses changed the beginning of their year to the month when this event happened, and instition of the first-born of man and beast to the Lord, with the following retuted the feast of the passover. To this was added the solemn consecramarkable charge annexed :—“ And it shall be when thy children ask thee in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' thou shalt say to them, 'By bondage: and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first born of mun, and the first born of beast,-Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix,'" &c. (Exod. xiii. 14. 16.) All these things have been observed ever since, and establish the truth of the narration in the book of Exodus. In further commemoration of the destruction of the first-horn of the Egyptians, the tribe of Levi was set apart; and, besides the passover, the feast of tabernacles was instituted, to perpetuate the deliverance of the Israelites, and their journeying in the Desert (Lev. xxiii. 40. et seq.); as the feast of Pentecost was appointed fifty days after the passover (Deut. xxvi. 5-10.), in memory of the miraculous deliverance of the law from Mount Sinai, which took place fifty days after their departure from Egypt. In all these instances we have our FIFTH and SIXTH criteria most clearly and decisively established. "If these remarks are just, they exhibit one of those number less cases, where incidents apparently minute and objectionable, when well considered, display the miraculous nature of the facts, and the admirable propriety of our Lord's conduct in every circumstance; and every such instance confirms strongly the conclusion, that our Lord's miracles were not delusive visions, or the extravagances of a wild and senseless fanatic, but plain proofs of a divine power, exhibited with the sobriety and dignity be-invented this book of Joshua, affirmed that it was written at the time of that coming his divine character." 5. NOT ONLY PUBLIC MONUMENTS MUST BE KEPT UP, BUT SOME OUTWARD ACTIONS MUST ALSO BE CONSTANTLY PERFORMED, IN MEMORY OF THE FACTS THUS PUBLICLY WROUght. 1 Dr. Graves's "Essay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelists, designed to prove that they were not Enthusiasts," pp. 287, 288. [v.] The same remark will hold with respect to the miraculous supply of the Israelites with food, the memory of which was perpetuated by the pot of manna; and to the twelve stones which were taken out of the midst of Jordan, at the time of the miraculous passage of the Israelites over that river, and were set up by Joshua at Gilgal, as a memorial to them for ever. How irresistible is the reasoning of Mr. Leslie on this last monument? "To form our argument," says he, let us suppose that there never was any up upon some other occasion; and that some designing man in an after-age such thing as that passage over Jordan; that these stones at Gilgal were set imaginary event by Joshua himself, and adduced this pile of stones as a testimony of the truth of it; would not every body say to him, 'We know this pile very well; but we never before heard of this reason for it, nor of this book of Joshua; where has it lain concealed all this while, and where and how came you, after so many ages, to find it? Besides, this book tells us, that this passage over Jordan was ordained to be taught our children from age to age, and therefore that they were always to be instructed in the meaning of this particular monument, as a memorial of it; but we were never taught it when we were children, nor did we ever teach our children any such thing; and it is in the highest degree improbable that such an empha-1 (1.) The NUMBER of Christ's miracles was very great. If we consider only those which are recorded at large, they are about forty in number; and consequently the opportunities of examination were increased, and of deceit proportionably lessened. But it is evident that they must have been beyond all number, if we take into account the seve ral instances in which we are told that great multitudes flocked to Jesus, who were afflicted with various diseases, for the most part incurable by human skill, and that he healed them all; and that thousands were fed by him with a few loaves and fishes. The Gospel, indeed, is full of the miracles of Christ; and one of his biographers informs us, that he performed a greater number than are in any way recorded. But, every week and every day were witnesses to numerous instances of them for a successive series of years, so that all suspicion of human management, compact, and juggle, was for ever precluded. In short, not only man but every other being bows in ready subjection to their voice; not only animate but inanimate creatures, feel the power of God, and act contrary to their natures, at his will.-The winds, the waves, the rocks, the sun, the earth, the heavens, all are the subjects of those who first introduced the Chris tian dispensation. (3.) The DESIGN of Christ's miracles was truly important, and every way worthy of their Almighty Author. The very kinds of these miracles were foretold by the prophet Isaiah, nearly seven centuries before; and if we reflect on the end and purpose 2. Secondly, the observations contained in the preceding for which these miracles were wrought, we find it grand and noble, full of pages apply with similar weight and propriety to the MIRA-dignity, majesty, and mercy. It was, to carry on one vast and consistent plan of Providence, extending from the creation to the consummation of CLES RECORDED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT; the number, va- all things, to establish a system of belief, hope, and practice, adapted to the riety, and greatness of which, as well as the persons by whom, actual wants and conditions of mankind; which had been revealed in part the persons before whom, and the manner in which they were to the Jews, promised to the prophets, and tended to destroy the four great moral evils, so prevalent and so pernicious,-viz. atheism, scepticism, imrespectively performed, together with the effects produced by morality, and vice. In subservience to their grand object,-the confirmathem, and the incontestable fact, that their reality was never tion of his divine mission, the miracles of Christ were wrought for the most denied by those who witnessed them, or who, living near the benevolent of all purposes, the alleviation of human misery in all its forms, and they carry in them the characters of the greatest goodness as well as time when they were performed, had the means as well as the of the greatest power. Most of them were performed in consequence of inclination to deny them, if they had not been actually application or entreaty; and, on these occasions, the character and conwrought, are all so many indisputable proofs of the truth of duct of Jesus appear, adorned with the most delicate expressions of coinpliance and piety. the Christian revelation. If only one or two miracles had [i] The instances of the leper, who applied for himself, as Jesus came been wrought for this purpose, it might have been considered down from the mountain (Matt. viii. 3.);—of the centurion, in applying for a as a fortunate chance, which occurred at a convenient season; favourite servant (viii. 8.);-of the sick of the palsy, brought in his bed, and let down by the roof (Luke v. 18.);--and of the ruler, whose daughter lay or, if Christ had performed them privately, and before his at the point of death, and expired before his arrival (Luke viii. 41.);-are own disciples only, they might have been suspected by the all so many occasions which display that divine compassion, which was ever rest of the world of fraud and imposition. But the reverse of open to the cries of the miserable-a compassion surmounting every obstacle, unconquerable by opposition, and with dignity triumphing over it. all this was the actual fact; for, The circumstances of the last-mentioned application are remarkably beautiful. We see a ruler of the synagogue falling down at the feet of Jesus, beseeching him to come into his house; the more importunate in his entreaty, as probably he had been either an enemy, or fiable to the imputa. tion of being one, and, on that account, also, the more doubtful of success; to crown all, his case was pitiable and pressing: He had one only daugh ter about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. As Jesus went to the house, the people crowded about him, and in the throng a most compassionate cure was wrought, only by touching the hem of his garment. In the mean time the young woman expires, and messages are sent to prevent his taking any further trouble. This new distress has the effect of heightening the compassionate favour. It instantly drew forth from the mouth of Jesus that reviving declaration, the preclude of the miracle: Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. (Luke vili. 50.) [.] Beautiful as these instances are, yet they yield to others, where Jesus wrought his miracles without application. To prevent entreaty, to watch for opportunity of doing good to others, is the very essence of a benevolent character, and is the perfection of an amiable one. The miraculous draught of fishes (Luke v. 1.) is perhaps one of the lowest of these inThe VARIETY of Christ's miracles is a circumstance that claims our atten- stances. We cannot suppose that the disciples could either ask or expect tion equally with their number. As no impostors ever pretended to per- such an appearance in their favour. But, as the miracle, by its greatness, form a great number of miracles, so they always or usually limited them- was fitted to inspire every sentiment of respect; so the occasion of work selves to one species of them. It was the number and variety of the mira- ing it served to give a full opening into the indulgent character of their Mas cles wrought by Moses, which at length convinced the Egyptian magicians ter at the moment of his calling them. His entering soon after into Peter's that the power by which he wrought them was divine. From the variety house, and healing his wife's mother, who lay sick of a fever (Matt. viii. 14), of effects in the universe, we conclude the existence of an Almighty design was also an act of indulgence, and peculiarly fitted to secure the attach ing cause. One effect or two of different kinds, or a few of the saine kind, ment of this zealous disciple. The feeding of thousands miraculously with may be inadvertently ascribed to chance; or it may be said, that the per- a few loaves and fishes, gives a happy and striking instance of an attention sons producing such effects possessed some extraordinary or peculiar skill descending to the most ordinary wants of men. The cases of dispossesin accomplishing them, or some peculiar art in imposing on men in respect sion have the most humane aspect where the misery was great, and no apof them. But a variety of effects, all mutually distinguished, and each per-plication supposable, nor any desire of relief, on the part of the persons fect in its kind, suggests the idea of a perfect agent, powerful and design possessed. ing, employed in producing them. And this is the case with the miracles of Christ; for, not one disease only, but all are subject to the power of Christ and his apostles; not only diseases, but every calamity which is incident to mankind are banished by their word; and even death, the last enemy, isobedient to them, and gives up his prey at their command, especially at the command of Christ. We behold him, giving sight to the born blind-healing the obstinate leprosy,-making those who wanted a limbs perfect, those who were bowed double, straight,-those who shook with the palsy, robust,-nerving the withered arm with strength,-restoring the insane and demoniacs to reason, and raising the dead to life. That great miracle of raising the dead, in particular, Christ performed no less than four times; once on the ruler's daughter, just after she had expired,-again, on the widow's son, as he was carried on his bier to be interred,-a third time on Lazarus when he had laid in his grave four days,-and lastly, the greatest instance of all, in himself. We behold the apostles also expelling demons, restoring the lame from his birth, giving sight to the blind, healing all manner of diseases, and giving life to the dead. These supernatural works were not performed in a few instances, with hesitation and diffidence; but (2.) There was a great VARIETY in the miracles recorded in the New Testament, which were of a permanent nature, and might be reviewed and re-examined, as in many instances we know they actually were. Leslie's Short and Easy Method with the Deists, p. 22. 3d edit. The reality of the miracles performed by Moses, and the impossibility of accounting for them by natural means, are ably vindicated by M. Du Voisin, Autorite des Livres de Moyse, pp. 249-293. The various miracles, which are concisely noticed above, are considered in detail, and excellently illustrated, by Mr. Faber, in his Hora Mosaicæ (vol. i. pp. 359-387.) and by Dr. Graves, in his Lectures on the four last books of the Pentateuch. (Vol. i. pp 151-171.) In his appendix to the same volume (pp. 373-410.), Dr. G. has refuted the sceptical remarks of the late Dr. Geddes (who chiefly borrowed them from continental critics), which have lately been re-asserted by a living opposer of divine revelation, as though they had never before been refuted. Dr. Collyer, in his Lectures on Scripture Miracles (p. 151. to the end), has also treated on the principal miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments; and the miracles of the New Testament are treated of by Dr. Dodd, in the first and second volumes of his Discourses on the Miracles and Parables. (Svo. 4 vols.) London, 1809. 9 So uk signifies. It is a different word from xλsus, and has a different signification. Both these words occur in Matt. xv. 31. zuλλoug uyisis, ZWAONG REPITATOUTES. He made the maimed to be whole, those who wanted a limb, perfect, and the lame to walk. What an amazing instance of divine power, of creative energy, must the reproduction of a hand, foot, or other limb be, by the mere word or touch of Jesus! How astonishing to the spectators! That the above is the meaning of xvxos, see Wetstein, Kypke, and Elsner on Matt. xv. 31. [iii] There are two instances of such distresses as every day occur, in which we see Jesus interposing, unasked, with the most exquisite sensibility. One is a case of infirm old age; the other of youth cut off in its bloom; distresses mortifying to the pride of man, and always deeply affecting to a generous mind. Wilt thou be made whole ? says Jesus to the old man lying at the pool of Bethesda. (John v. 6.) The helplessness of distressed old age cannot be painted in more lively colours, than in the simple account which the man gives of himself; and never was relief dispensed with more grace and dignity: Jesus saith to him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. (John v. 8.) The other distress is still of a more tender kind, the untimely death of an only son; a distress always great, but on the present occasion heightened by the concurrence of affecting circumstances. Jesus went into a city called Nain. Now, when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And much people of the city was with her. (Luke vii. 11, 12.) In attending to the narration, we sympathize deeply with the distress of the sorrowful mother; we even participate in the sympathy and sorrow of the attendants. Such a distress was adapted to the divine pity of Jesus. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not (Luke vii. 13.); and he came and touched the bier, and said, Young man, arise. (14.) And, lest the immediate object of the miracle The circumstance of Christ's miracles being predicted so many years before the performance of them, is particularly worthy of notice. It removes all suspicion of any design to impose on the understandings of men, to sway them by the power of novelty, or to surprise them by a species of proof, of which they had never before heard. In this respect the miracles of Jesus have a great advantage over those of Moses. When Moses appeared, the notion of a miracle must have been new and unprecedented; allowing this, there was no impropriety in the use of miracles, among a rude, uncivilized people. But, when the world became more polished, and, by the frequency of imposture, more suspicious and inquisitive, it was highly proper that the species of proof, by which any new system was confirmed, should be previously notified, or be such as men had been in the habit of attending to. This applied particularly to the Jews, the witnesses of the miracles of Jesus. They were much prepossessed against him; and it was of importance that the proof from this quarter should appear in the most unexceptionable light. Jesus had this in view, in the answer given to the disciples of John the Baptist, when they inquired if he was the Christ. He directs them to his miracles, in proof that he was, and appeals to the predictions of the same prophet who had described the character and actions of their Master. Compare Isa. xxix. 18, 19. xxxv. 4—6. and lxi. 1. with Matt. xi. 4, 5. and Mark vii. 37. |