he to recover his patient merely by commanding him to see, or by anoint-philosophers of Athens and Rome in

they are not qualified to judge. The ing his eyes with spittle, we should with culcated, indeed, many excellent moral the utmost confidence pronounce the precepts, and they sometimes ventured cure to be a miracle; because we know to expose the absurdities of the reignperfectly that neither the human voice ing superstitions; but their lectures had nor human spittle have, by the establish- no influence upon the multitude; and ed constitution of things, any such pow- || they had themselves imbibed such erroer over the diseases of the eye. neous notions respecting the attributes of the Supreme Being, and the nature of the human soul, and converted those notions into first principles, of which they would not permit an examination, that even among them a thorough reformation was not to be expected from the powers of reasoning. It is likewise to be observed, that there are many truths of the utmost importance to mankind, which unassisted reason could never have discovered. Amongst these, we may confidently reckon the immer. tality of the soul, the terms upon which God will save sinners, and the manner in which that all perfect Being may be acceptably worshipped; about all of which philosophers were in such uncertainty, that, according to Plato, Whatever is set right, and as it should be, in the present evil state of the world, can be so only by the particular interposition of God.

"If miracles be effects contrary to the established constitution of things, we are certain that they will never be performed on trivial occasions. The Constitution of things was established by the Creator and Governor of the universe, and is undoubtedly the off spring of infinite wisdom, pursuing a plan for the best of purposes. From this plan no deviation can be made but by God himself, or by some powerful being acting with his permission. The plans devised by wisdom are steady in proportion to their perfection, and the plans of infinite wisdom must be abso lutely perfect. From this consideration, some men have ventured to conclude that no miracle was ever wrought, or can rationally be expected; but maturer reflection must soon satisfy us that all such conclusions are hasty.

"Man is unquestionably the principal creature in this world, and apparently the only one in it who is capable of being made acquainted with the relation in which he stands to his Creator. We cannot, therefore, doubt, but that such of the laws of nature as extend not their operation beyond the limits of this earth were established chiefly, if not solely, for the good of mankind; and if, in any particular circumstances, that good can be more effectually promoted by an occasional deviation from those laws, such a deviation may be reasonably expected.

"We know from history, that almost all mankind were once sunk into the grossest ignorance of the must important truths; that they knew not the Being by whom they were created and supported; that they paid divine adoration to stocks, stones, and the vilest reptiles; and that they were slaves to the most impious, cruel, and degrading superstitions.

"From this depraved state it was surely not unworthy of the Divine Being to rescue his helpless creatures, to enlighten their understandings that they might perceive what is right, and to present to them motives of sufficient force to engage them in the practice of it. But the understandings of ignorant barbarians cannot be enlightened by arguments; because of the force of such arguments as regard moral science

"An immediate revelation from heaven, therefore, was the only method by which infinite wisdom and perfect goodness could reform a bewildered and vicious race. But this revelation, at whatever time we suppose it given, must have been made directly either to some chosen individuals commissioned to instruct others, or to every man and woman for whose benefit it was ultimately intended. Were every person in structed in the knowledge of his duty by immediate inspiration, and were the Lotives to practice it brought home to his mind by God himself, human nature would be wholly changed; men would not be moral agents, nor by consequence be capable either of reward or of punishment. It remains, therefore, that, if God has been graciously pleased to enlighten and reform mankind, without destroying that moral nature which man possesses, he can have done it only by revealing his truth to certain chosen instruments, who were the immediate instructors of their contemporaries, and through them have been the instructors of succeeding ages.

"Let us suppose this to have been actually the case, and consider how those inspired teachers could communicate to others every truth which had been revealed to themselves. They might easily, if it were part of their duty, to

such a deviation is possible in another; and in such a case as this, it is the witness of God to the truth of a man.

Geliver a sublime divine system of natural a and moral science, and establish it upon the common basis of experiment and demonstration: but what foundation 66 'Miracles, then, under which we incould they lay for those truths which clude prophecy, are the only direct eviunassisted reason cannot discover, and dence which can be given of divine inwhich, when they are revealed appear spiration. When a religion, or any reto have no necessary relation to any ligious truth, is to be revealed from thing previously known? To a bare heaven, they appear to be absolutely affirmation that they had been imme- necessary to enforce its reception among diately received from God, no rational men; and this is the only case in which being could be expected to assent. The we can suppose them necessary, or beteachers might be men of known vera-lieve for a moment that they ever have city, whose simple assertion would be been or will be performed. at sviten would be

religion, contrary to the reigning idolatry. Many of them may be clearly shown to have been mere natural events; others of them are represented as having been performed in secret on the most trivial occasions, and in obscure and fabulous ages long prior to the era of the writers by whom they are recorded; 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. For these reasons, as well as on account of the immoral character of the divinities by whom they are said to have been wrought, they are altogether unworthy of examination, and carry in the very nature of them the completest proofs of falsehood and imposture.

"The history of almost every relifact in conformity with the laws of na gion abounds with relations of prodigies ture; but as every man has the evidence and wonders, and of the intercourse of of his own consciousness and experience || men with the gods; but we know of no that revelations from heaven are devia- religious system, those of the Jews and tions from these laws an assertion so Christians excepted, which appealed to apparently extravagant would be re-miracles as the sole evidence of its truth jected as false, unless supported by some and divinity. The pretended miracles better proof than the mere affirmation mentioned by Pagan historians and of the teacher. In this state of things poets, are not said to have been public. we can conceive no evidence sufficiently wrought to enforce the truth of a new to make such doctrines be received as the truths of God, but the power of working miracles committed to him who taught them. This would, indeed, be fully adequate to the purpose: for if there were nothing in the doctrines themselves impious, immoral, or contrary to truths already known, the only thing which could render the teacher's assertion incredible would be its implying such an intimate communion with God as is contrary to the established course of things, by which men are left to acquire all their knowledge by the exercise of their own faculties. Let us now suppose one of those inspired teachers to tell his countrymen, that he did not desire them, on his ipse dixit, to believe that he had any preternatural communion with the Deity, but that, for the truth of his assertion, he would give them the evidence of their own senses; and after this declaration, let us suppose him immediately to raise a person from the dead in their presence, mere. ly by calling upon him to come out of his grave. Would not the only possible objection to the man's veracity be removed by this miracle? and his assertion that he had received such and such doctrines from God be as fully credited as if it related to the most common occurrence? Undoubtedly it would; for when so much preternatural power was visibly communicated to this person, no one could have reason to question his having received an equal portion of preternatural knowledge. A palpable deviation from the known laws of nature in one instance, is a sensible proof that

"But the miracles recorded of Moses and of Christ bear a very different character. None of them are represented as wrought on trivial occasions. The writers who mention them were eye-witnesses of the facts; which they affirm to have been performed publicly, in attestation of the truth of their respective systems. They are, indeed, so incorporated with these systems, that the miracles cannot be separated from the doctrines; and if the miracles be not really performed, the doctrines cannot possibly be true. Besides all this, they were wrought in support of revelations which opposed all the religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices, of the age in which they were given; a circumstance which of itself sets them, in point of authority, infinitely above

the Pagan prodigies, as well as the lying wonders of the Romish church.

is tire sole foundation of the evidence of testimony, as far from being uniform, "It is indeed, we believe, universally and can therefore never preponderate admitted, that the miracles mentioned against that experience which admits of in the book of Exodus, and in the four no exception.' This boasted and plauGospels, might, to those who saw them sible argument has with equal candour performed, be sufficient evidence of the and acuteness been examined by Dr. divine inspiration of Moses and of Christ; || Campbell, in his Dissertation on Mibut to us it may be thought that they are racles, who justly observes, that so far is no evidence whatever, as we must be experience from being the sole foundalieve in the miracles themselves, if we tion of the evidence of testimony, that, believe in them at all, upon the bare on the contrary, testimony is the sole authority of human testimony. Why, foundation of by far the greater part of it has been sometimes asked, are not what Mr. Hume calls firm and unalmiracles wrought in all ages and coun- terable experience; and that if, in certries? If the religion of Christ was to be tain circumstances, we did not give an of perpetual duration, every generation implicit faith to testimony, our knowof men ought to have complete evidence ledge of events would be confined to of its truth and divinity. those which had fallen under the imme. diate observation of our own senses.

"We need not waste time here m proving that the miracles, as they are

"To the performance of miracles in every age and in every country, perhaps the same objections lie, as to the immediate inspiration of every indi-presented in the writings of the New vidual. Were those miracles universally received as such, men would be so overwhelmed with the number rather than with the force of their authority, as hardly to remain masters of their own conduct; and in that case the very end of all miracles would be defeated by their frequency. The truth, however, seems to be, that miracles so frequently repeated would not be received as such, and of course would have no authority; because it would be difficult, and in many cases impossible, to distinguish them from natural events. If they recurred regularly at certain intervals, we could not prove them to be deviations from the known laws of nature, because we should have the same experience for one series of events as for the other; for the regular succession of preternatural effects, as for the established constitution and course of things.

Testament, were of sucli a nature, and performed before so many witnesses, that no imposition could possibly be practised on the senses of those who affirm that they were present. From every page of the Gospel this is so evident, that the philosophical adversaries of the Christian faith never suppose the apostles to have been themselves deceived, but boldly accuse them of bearing false witness. But if this accusation be well founded, their testimony itself is as great a miracle as any which they record of themselves, or of their Master. For if they sat down to fabricate their pretended revelation, and to contrive a series of miracles to which they were unanimously to appeal for its truth, it is plain, since they proved successful in their daring enterprise, that they must have clearly foreseen every possible circumstance in which they "Be this, however, as it may, we could be placed, and have prepared shall take the liberty to affirm, that for consistent answers to every question the reality of the Gospel miracles, we that could be put to them by their most have evidence as convincing to the re-inveterate and most enlightened eneflecting mind, though not so striking to vulgar apprehension, as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and actually saw the mighty works which he performed. Mr. Hume, indeed, endeavoured to prove, that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle; and the reasoning employed for this purpose is, that a miracle being a violation of the laws of nature, which a firm and unalterable experience has established, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can be: whereas our experience of human veracity, which (according to him)!!

mies; by the statesman, the lawyer, the philosopher, and the priest. That such foreknowledge as this would have been miraculous, will not surely be denied: since it forms the very attribute which we find it the most difficult to allow even to God himself. It is not, however, the only miracle which this supposition would compel us to swallow. The very resolution of the apostles to propagate the belief of false miracles in support of such a religion as that which is taught in the New Testament, is as great a miracle as human imagination can easily conceive.

"When they formed this design, ei

measures so as not to admit of a possibility of recompence to themselves, either in this life or in that which is to come. But if there be a law of nature, for the reality of which we have better evidence than we have for others, it is, that no man can choose misery for its own sake,' or make the acquisition of it the ultimate end of his pursuit. The existence of other laws of nature we know by testimony, and our own observation of the regularity of their effects. The existence of this law is made known to us not only by these means, but also by the still clearer and more conclusive evidence of our own consciousness.

"Thus, then, do miracles force themselves upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting subject. If the testimony of the first preachers of Christianity were true, the miracles recorded in the Gospel were certainly performed, and the doctrines of our religion are derived from heaven. On the other hand, if that testimony were false, either God must have miraculously effaced from the minds of those by whom it was given all the associations formed be

ther they must have hoped to succeed, or they must have foreseen that they should fail in their undertaking; and, in either case, they chose evil for its own sake. They could not, if they foresaw that they should fail, look for any thing but that contempt, disgrace, and persecution, which were then the inevitable consequences of an unsuccessful endeavour to overthrow the established religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter upon the supposition of their success. As they knew themselves to be false witnesses, and impious deceivers, they could have no hopes beyond the grave; and by determining to oppose all the religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices of the age in which they lived, they wilfully exposed themselves to inevitable misery in the present life, to insult and imprisonment, to stripes and death. Nor can it be said that they might look forward to power and afflu ence, when they should through sufferings have converted their countrymen; for so desirous were they of obtaining nothing but misery, as the end of their mission, that they made their own persecution a test of the truth of their doctrines. They introduced the Mas-tween their sensible ideas and the words ter from whom they pretended to have received these doctrines as telling them, that they were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: that they should be delivered up to councils, and scourged in synagogues; that they should be hated of all men for his name's sake; that the brother should deliver up the "The power necessary to perform brother to death, and the father the the one series of these miracles may, child; and that he who took not up his for any thing known to us, be as great cross, and followed after him, was not as that which would be requisite for the worthy of him. The very system of performance of the other; and, conreligion, therefore, which they invented sidered merely as exertions of preterand resolved to impose upon mankind, natural power, they may seem to bawas so contrived, that the worldly pros- lance each other, and to hold the mind perity of its first preachers, and even in a state of suspense; but when we their exemption from persecution, was take into consideration the different incompatible with its success. Had purposes for which these opposite and these clear predictions of the Author of contending miracles were wrought, the that religion, under whom the apostles balance is instantly destroyed. The miacted only as ministers not been veri-racles recorded in the Gospels, if real, fied, all mankind must have instantly perceived that their pretence to inspiration was false, and that Christianity was a scandalous and impudent imposture. All this the apostles could not but foresee when they formed their plan for deluding the world. Whence it follows, that when they resolved to support their pretended revelation by an appeal to forged miracles, they wilfully, and with their eyes open, exposed themselves to inevitable misery,whether they should succeed or fail in their enterprise; and that they concerted their

of language, or he must have endowed those men with the gift of prescience, and have impelled them to fabricate a pretended revelation for the purpose of deceiving the world, and involving them. selves in certain and foreseen destruction.

were wrought in support of a revelation which, in the opinion of all by whom it is received, has brought to light many important truths which could not otherwise have been made known to men; and which, by the confession of its adversaries, contains the purest moral precepts by which the conduct of mankind was ever directed. The opposite series of miracles, if real, was performed to enable, and even to compel, a company of Jews, of the lowest rank and of the narrowest education, to fabricate, with the view of inevitable destruction to