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wrought, as proper Teftimonies of his divine Miffion, the Works, which my Father hath given me to finish, the Works which I do in my Father's Name, the fame bear Witness of me, that the Father bath fent me: If I do not the Works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the Works, that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

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Saviour

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And indeed, confidering the Design Why our of our Saviour's Miffion, that he was a was to Teacher fent from God to abolish a Form work Miof Worship, which had inconteftibly been established by the Power of Miracles in Mofes, and to inftitute a new Religion, repugnant to the Wisdom of the World, in many myfterious Doctrines, and abhorrent to the vicious Inclinations of Men, in all its righteous Laws and Precepts; that he was appointed, in fhort, to destroy the Kingdom of the Devil, and, upon its Ruins, to erect a Kingdom of Righteousness; there was an abfolute Neceffity for him to be invefted with a power of working Miracles: Otherwife, his Pretenfions to this high. Character had been ridiculous, and the Jews, with good Reafon, might have demanded of him, Mafter,

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would fee a Sign from thee, what Sign therefore doeft thou do, that we may fee and believe? What doeft thou Work? But this Demand is effectually filenced, by our Saviour's being able to make the Reply, If I had not done among them the Works, which none other Man did, they had not had Sin, but now they have both feen and hated both me and my Father.

We readily grant, P that the Christipreferable to an Revelation fuppofes, and is built upProphe- on the Jewish, as to its Foundation; that the Character, which Jefus Chrift affumed, was that of the Meffiah, a Perfon promised, and delineated in the Law and the Prophets: And accordingly both Chrift and his Apoftles appeal to these Prophefies, and apply them, as giving Evidence to his Pretenfions ; and, confequently, the Trial of Chriftianity is, in effect, put upon this Iffue, and unless the Validity of this appeal can be fupported, Miracles, exclufive of this Teftimony, will not be a fufficient Evidence. But then it ought to be confidered, that, when, among the particular Predictions of a Perfon, promifed to the Jews as their Meffias, it was foretold, that he should a be like unto Mofes, that

John xv. 24.
P Rogers's Neceffity of a Divine
Revelation. Deut. xviii.

that the Spirit of God fhould rest upon bim, that he fhould f open the Eyes of the Blind, and unftop the Ears of the Deaf, and that he should make the Lame leap as an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb to fing; Miracles became then an effential Ingredient of his Character, and the fureft Teft of his being a Prophet fent from God. For fuppofing the Meffias characteriz'd in Scripture in all other Refpects, except the Power of working Miracles, any other Perfon, falling under the common Description of his be ing of the Seed of Abraham, of the Tribe of Judah, of the Family of David, and born in Bethlehem, might, with fome Dexterity and Addrefs, have fo accommodated his Life and Actions⚫ to the other Part of the Character, as to deceive, even an attentive Judgment. Or, fuppofing him pretending to the Gift of Prophecy, the way to make good his Pretenfions muft be, either by telling us Things paft, or foretelling Things to come: But now, the Knowledge of Things paft may be acquir'd by fo many other ways, befides Revelation, that though, where we cannot prefently account for it, it may furprize us; yet where there is no Concurrence of

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Ifa. xxxv. 5, 6.

Rogers's Ne

* Ifa. xi. 2. ceflity of a Divine Revelation.

In fome

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other Proof, it can hardly leave the
Mind without fome diftruft of Impo-
fture; and though the Prediction of fu-
ture Events, purely Contingent, is, when
fulfill'd, a clear and inconteftible Evi-
dence of a Spirit of Prophecy; yet as
this affords no prefent Conviction, the
Man must wait, and perhaps a long
time, before he can make his Conclusion:
Whereas Miracles carry with them a
clear, pofitive, and prefent Evidence of
the Finger of God. For when an Action
is fuch, as manifeftly exceeds all hu-
mane Power, we cannot help acknow-
ledging the Concurrence of fome fupe-
rior invisible Agent; in which Cafe, we
have nothing to imagine, but either
good or evil Spirits: If we fuppofe good
Spirits, the Action terminates in God,
and is under his fpecial Direction ; if
evil Spirits, the nature of the Doctrine,
it attefts, will betray their Character;
and, therefore, when any fupernatural
Actions are wrought, and the Doctrine at-
tested by them ftands free from all fuch ne-
gative Objections, as affure us it cannot be
fromGod,we have the utmoft Evidence of
a Divine Revelation, that can be given us.

The Truth is, Miracles alone, without Cafes - any other Teftimony, had been a fufficient Proof of our Lord's Commiffion Evidence. (as they certainly were in the Cafe of

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Mofes)

Mofes) had not feveral Prophefies defcrib'd the Meffias (which Title our Saviour affum'd) under other Marks and Characters; but, notwithstanding this, u it is not the Application of these Prophefies, which gives Sanction to the Truth of Christianity, but the Works, by which Chrift proved himself to be fent of God, these gave him a right to apply to himself the Prophefies concerning the Meffias; and the Marks and Characters of the promised Meffias, given by the Prophets, were fo many Tefts, by which his claim was to be tried. Tho' therefore "Miracles can"not render a Foundation valid, which " is in it felf invalid, and can never "mark out a Meffias, or Jefus for "the Meffias, if both are not mark❝ed out in the Old Teftament"; yet they can give a Man a juft and undeniable Claim to be received as the promised Meffias, if the Prophetical Character of the Meffias be but applicable to him: For this is the Senfe of our Saviour's Words, comparing himfelf with the Baptift, a burning and Shining Light indeed, but who himself did no Miracles, I have a greater Witnefs than that of John, for the Works

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Clarke's Evidence of Natural and Revealed

Religion. John v. 35, 36.

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