DISCOURSE VII.

THE USE OF MIRACLES IN PROVING THE DIVINE MISSION OF OUR SAVIOUR AND HIS APOSTLES.

[Preached on Whitsunday.]

JOHN, CHAP. V.-VERSE 36.

The works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

THOUGH Our Saviour frequently appealed to the reason of mankind, in support both of his mission and his doctrines; yet it was not his practice to explain particularly or minutely the nature and force of the arguments he alleged. He referred to certain general principles, just in themselves, and suited to the habits of thinking in the country where he preached; but he left every scrupulous inquiry into the foundation of these princiciples, and an exact application of them to the proofs of his religion, to be an exercise for the inquisitive and ingenious in other countries and distant ages and a most useful exercise have they proved; engaging the attention of his serious followers in many difficult studies, and thus connecting together religion and science. Nor are the subjects yet exhausted. Even in that most common and most important argument, which demonstrates the truth of Christianity from the miracles recorded in the New Testament, one part has been slightly passed over by the ablest advocates of religion. They have labored, indeed, and with great success, to establish the truth of these records, but have been less solicitous to explain their use. They have taken it for a clear point, which wants no illustration,

that a power of working miracles is sufficient evidence of a commission from heaven; and even infidels have usually allowed that a revelation might be thus confirmed. But a cautious inquirer admits not hastily either the assumptions of friends, or the concessions of enemies: he examines both with equal jealousy, and receives, on the one part or the other, such opinions only as his own reason justifies. Let us proceed with this honest care, and endeavor to discover on what grounds we may admit the miracles of our Saviour and his apostles, supposing them to be true, as proofs of their divine mission. 1. Are we to receive the interpretation of these wonderful works, on the authority of those, who were, or appeared to be, the performers of them? Is there reason to believe, that they knew the true meaning of them, and have fairly explained it to us? 2. Or, have miracles in general any natural signification, by which they declare to mankind the will of their Creator? 3. Or, are there, among the Christian miracles, some of a peculiar kind, which could hardly be intended for any other, and were fully adapted to this purpose? 4. Or, may we judge of the design from the effect of them? Ought we to be convinced that God's intention was, by these miracles, to propagate Christianity, because it was actually thus propagated? 5. Or, did the circumstances attending the performance of some miracles plainly show, that, besides their natural import, they had also an instituted one, and were properly signs or expressions, revealing the will of God to mankind?

The answers to these five inquiries will each, I think, discover a strong connexion between the miracles and doctrines of Christ, which must, united, form an indissoluble bond.

1. First then, it is evident, that they who performed these wonderful works, had knowlege and power more than belong to mortals; such knowlege and power, as must wholly prevent all the doubts that might have arisen, from their teaching doctrines, which could never be investigated by any faculties of the human mind; or from their assuming authority to publish the laws and disclose the mysteries of heaven: for, when we are convinced (and every man who attends to their history will be convinced) that some kinds of knowlege were miraculously conveyed to them, we have no reason to reject their pretensions

to inspiration of other kinds. Their own testimony may then be received as good evidence of a matter, which, from the fact already admitted, independent of the characters of the witnesses, is become highly probable. When we are convinced that they had power to suspend or alter the established laws of nature, we must consider them as peculiarly favored by the Author of nature, and shall easily allow the title they claimed of his heralds, commanded to promulgate other parts of his laws. This is agreeable to our method of judging in a thousand like cases. We perpetually believe, on the slightest evidence, facts similar to those we have experienced; and they who have seen many incontestable proofs of wisdom and power, never before given among men, could not suspect any deceit, when the same persons alleged, that they possessed other treasures of supernatural knowlege, other portions of divine authority. We therefore need only recollect, what has been often urged by the defenders of Christianity, concerning the witnesses of the facts on which it is founded; their number, their integrity, their ability to know the truth, their motives to declare it. These have been all scrupulously examined, and appear to be such as must render their testimony of the most extraordinary stories indisputable. But the same arguments might be repeated here with great advantage: for these uncommon facts required an uncommon force of testimony to support them; whereas, the facts being once supposed, the whole force of analogy will lie on the other side. A communication with heaven is acknowleged, and whatever explains the nature and design of that communication should meet with a ready admittance: for it would be inconsistent with the plainest rules of philosophical reasoning, to give our assent to those, who relate a series of astonishing events; and not to receive, on the credit of the same witnesses, an easy solution of them.

But this testimony, however forcible, would yet be no other than human testimony; and miracles are usually considered as the testimony of God. Let us inquire, whether these pretensions can be vindicated.

2. The obvious and certain effects of miracles among the most barbarous people, is to excite the passions of fear, and wonder, and curiosity; and to make them attend to the persons

endowed with these powers, as beings superior to themselves; as gods that are come down in the likeness of men. But, among those whom reason has taught to acknowlege one Supreme Being, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, these events will certainly be attributed to him, as their immediate Author, and be considered as notices from him, which demand attention and reverence. Such, it should seem, would be the impressions of miracles on every understanding: and if the impressions be natural, then are they the warning voice of God. He calls on us in this, as in various other examples, by the faculties he has given us, to listen to his laws. The constitution of our minds is the declaration of his will; and the evidence, which we cannot resist without violence, is such as he commands us to receive.

3. These natural apprehensions may be confirmed, if we attend to the apparent design of the miracles: they reveal God's will the more clearly, when they are such as can answer no other purpose worthy of the interposition of Providence. The greatest part of our Saviour's miracles were indeed marks of his benevolence; but their immediate effects were not illustrious or extensive all the miseries he relieved were perhaps small, when compared with those which men often suffer from a war, a famine, or a pestilence and yet the laws of nature are not changed, to prevent or mitigate these calamities. The government of the world is carried on by general laws. Some good reasons for such a government appear to us: many more and better we may be unable to discover: and, though these laws be sometimes productive of unhappiness to particular persons; they are not, they ought not, on this account, to be altered by a wise governor, who regards the whole. When therefore many changes in them were observed, there was reason to expect some more important, more extensive benefit, than the supply of a meal, or the cure of a disease.

But, to convince us more fully, that the relief of present evils was not the principal design of our Lord's miracles, several of them were not accompanied with any such benefit. If his word restored the withered limbs of men, it also caused a fig-tree to wither away. He calmed the sea to save a sinking ship; he walked on it, and supported one of his disciples, without any

such necessity. An earthquake and a miraculous darkness extorted from the centurion and his companions a confession, that 'truly this man was the Son of God.' And of many of the miracles, we are utterly unable to find the meaning, unless it were to imprint the same important truth.

In other instances the design is evident; in none more evident than in the occasion of this day's solemnity. To what purpose were the apostles inspired with new knowlege, and suddenly enabled to utter it in every language, but that they might preach, among all the nations on the earth, the religious doctrines thus communicated to them? Could a divine commission to instruct mankind have been written in more legible characters? With what design were they taught languages, unless that they might speak them? And what had they of importance to speak, but the truths revealed from heaven? The words they uttered were, in a strict and proper sense, the language of God; and the religion they taught was not their own, but his who authorised and evabled them to publish it. Other miracles confirmed the authority of the teachers; these had a more direct reference to the doctrine itself.

4. But we need not confine our reasonings on this subject to the nature of the facts; for though we seem to proceed with tolerable exactness, there will always remain some room to suspect, that their nature is beyond our comprehension. We will examine an argument of another kind, to which we are more accustomed, and on which many a tenet in natural religion, many a received principle in philosophy depends. Some of the clearest maxims in both these sciences are those which relate to final causes. When we perceive the works of nature to be admirably adapted to certain ends, which they produce frequently and uniformly, we conclude, with the fullest assurance, that these were designed by their Author: and, in like manner, it being once established, that the Christian miracles were real, that is, interpositions of the Governor of the world, the purpose for which they were performed may be discerned from the event. In the works of the Almighty, every thing corresponds to his intention: nothing is done in vain. But the event was, that vast numbers in every nation were presently converted, from idolatry and superstition, to a firm belief of Christianity: