on their Lives; like that Luminary which SER. VII. towards its decline looks the largeft, when its Luftre and Influence are the weakest. And it is visible, that Charity, and even common Honefty have decayed together with Christianity, their firmeft Support. A long uninterrupted Flow of Eafe and Tranquillity has lulled us into a fatal Indolence and Infenfibility to all religious Notions: Some fignal Judgment; some extraordinary Indication of the divine Difpleafure, feems almoft neceffary to purge the Nation of its Drofs, to roufe it into a ferious Senfe of Religion, and make us difcern and value thofe Things, that belong to our Peace, before they be hidden from our Eyes: Juft as when the Sky is full of noxious and peftilential Vapours; fome violent Hurricane, fome dreadful Burfts of Thunder are neceffary to disperse them, to clear the infected Air, and restore it to its former Serenity. On the Evidences of Christianity, the Preached at the Lady Moyer's Lecture, in the Cathedral of St. Paul, London, in the and 1733. Years 1732 SERMON I. On the Truth of Christianity. JOHN III. 2. Rabbi, we know, that thou art a Teacher, come from God: For no Man can do thefe Miracles, that thou doeft, except God be with him. Τ HE Propofition contained in the SERM. I. Text is, that fome Miracles are fo circumstanced, as to be direct Evidences of a divine Power. By a Mira cle, SERM. I.cle, is meant an Effect evident to the Senfes, contrary to the fixed and established Course of Nature. Strange! that Man fhould disbelieve an Operation different from the prefent Courfe of Nature; when Man himself, the first Man, from whom all the reft defcended, could not have been brought into Being, but by an Act of Power different from the Courfe of Nature, as it is now established. For fome firft Man there must be: And, whoever he was, he must be brought upon the Theatre of Nature without Parents, without any fecond Caufes, by the immediate Power and Will of the first, or, in other Words, by an Operation, which, if it were not, strictly fpeaking, a Miracle; was, at leaft, equi valent to one. Nor is it at all improbable, that He, who called Man into Being, by a particular Difplay of Power, distinct from those general Laws, which obtain at prefent; would exert fome unusual and uncommon Acts of Power for (what was of greater Importance than his mere Being) his Well-Being, his eternal Well-Being. In the Profecution of this Subject, It, I fhall attempt to fhew, that feveral SER M. f. Miracles are decifive Proofs of a divine Power. IIdly, That we have fufficient Evidence, that fuch Miracles were wrought for the Confirmation of Religion. It, I fhall attempt to fhew, that several Miracles are decifive Proofs of a divine Power. What Powers evil Spirits may have, and what is the utmoft Extent of their Abilities; it is beyond the Extent of ours, in all Cafes, to determine: But that God would fuffer them to exert those Powers in working fuperior and uncontroled Miracles; this I cannot admit: Because God is too good to permit fuch a Snare to be laid for the Bulk of Mankind, who will be always governed more by what affects their Senfes, than by thofe Arguments, which address themfelves coldly to their Understandings. Striking and pompous Miracles, though they enforced a Doctrine feemingly abfurd, would dazzle and overpower the Soul, and force an Admittance for it into the Mind: Whereas dry and abstracted Ι |