an obfcure village, of obfcure parents, without any of thofe very brilliant talents or exterior accomplishments which ufually captivate the hearts of men; without having previoufly written or done any thing that fhould excite the ex pectation, or attract the attention and admiration of the world, offers himself at once to the Jewish nation, not merely as a preacher of morality, but as a teacher fent from heaven; nay what is more as the Son of God himfelf, and as that great deliverer, the Meffiah, who had been fo long predicted by the prophets, and was then fo anxiously expected, and eagerly looked for by the Jewish people. He called upon this people to renounce at once a great part of the religion of their forefathers, and to adopt that which he propofed to them; to relinquifh all their fond ideas of a fplendid, a victorious, a triumphant Meffiah, and to accept in his room a defpifed, a perfecuted, and a crucified master: he required them to give up all their former prejudices fuperftitions, and traditions, all their favourite rites and ceremonies, and what was perhaps ftill dearer to them, their favourite vices and propenfities, their hypocrify, their rapacioufnefs, their voluptuoufnefs. Inftead of exterior forms he prefcribed fanctity of manners; inftead of wafhing their hands, and making clean their platters, he commanded them to purify their hearts and reform ther lives. Instead of indulging in eafe and luxury, he called upon them to take up their crofs and follow him through forrows and fufferings; to pluck out a right eye, and to cut off a right arm; to leave father, mother, brethren, and fifters, for his name's fake, and the gospel.

What now shall we fay to doctrines fuch as thefe delivered by fuch a person as our Lord appeared to be? Is it probable, is it poffible that the reputed fon of a poor me. chanic could, by the mere force of argument or perfuafion, induce vaft numbers of his countrymen to embrace opinions and practices fo directly oppofite to every propenfity of their hearts, to every fentiment they had imbibed, eve ry principle they had acted upon from their earliest years? Yet the fact is, that he did prevail on multitudes to do fo; and therefore he must have had means of conviction fuperior to all human eloquence or reafoning; that is, he must have

convinced his hearers by the miracles he wrought, that all power in heaven and in earth was given to him, and that every precept he delivered, and every doctrine he taught, was the voice of God himself. Without this it is utterly impoffible to give any rational account of his fuccefs.

In order to fet this argument in a still stronger point of view, let us confider what the effect actually was in a cafe where a new religion was propofed without any support from miracles. That fame impoftor Mahomet, to whom I before alluded, began his miffion with every advantage that could arife from perfonal figure, from infinuating manners, from a commanding eloquence, from an ardent enterprising spirit, from confiderable wealth, and from powerful connections. Yet with all thefe advantages, and with every artifice and every dexterous contrivance to recommend his new religion to his countrymen, in the space of three years he made only about fix converts, and those principally of his own family, relations, and most intimate friends. And his progress was but very flow for nine years after this, till he began to make use of force; and then his victorious arms, not his arguments, carried his religion triumphantly over almost all the eastern world.

It appears therefore, that without the affiftance either of miracles or of the fword, no religion can be propagated with fuch rapidity, and to fuch an extent, as the Christian was, both during our Saviour's life time, and after his death. For there is, I believe, no inftance in the history of mankind of fuch an effect being produced, without either the one or the other. Now of force we know that Jefus never did make ufe; the unavoidable confequence is, that the mira cles afcribed to him were actually wrought by him.

4. Thefe miracles being wrought not in the midst of friends, who were difpofed to favor them, but of most bitter and determined enemies, whofs paffions and whose prejudices were all up in arms, all vigorous and active against them and their author, we may reft affured that no falfe → pretence to a fupernatural power, no frauds, no collufions, no impofitions, would be fuffered to pafs undetected and unexpofed, that every fingle miracle would be most

critically and most rigorously fifted and enquired into, and no art left unemployed to destroy their credit and counteract their effect. And this in fact we find to be the cafe.Look into the ninth chapter of St. John, and you will fee with what extreme care and diligence, with what anxiety and folicitude the pharifees examined, and re-examined, the blind man that was restored to fight by our Saviour, and what pains they took to perfuade him, and to make him say, that he was not restored to fight by Jefus.

"They brought," fays St. John, "to the pharifees him that aforetime was blind; and the pharifees asked him how he had received his fight. And he faid unto them, Jefus put clay upon mine eyes and I washed, and did fee. A plain and fimple and honeft relation of the fact. But the Jews, not content with this, called for his parents, and asked them, faying, Is this your fon who ye fay was born blind? How then doth he now fee? His parents, afraid of bringing themselves into danger, very difcreetly answered, We know that this is our fon, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now feeth we know not, or who hath opened his eyes we know not; he is of age, afk him, he shall speak for himself. They then called the man again, and faid to him, Give God the praife, we know that this man (meaning Jesus) is a finner. The man's anfwer is admirable: Whether he be a finner or no, I know not; but this I know, that whereas I was blind, now I fee. Since the world began, was it not known that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. And they answered him and faid, Thou waft altogether born in fin, and doft thou teach us? And they caft him out." A very effectual way it must be confeffed of confuting a miracle.

The whole of this narrative (from which I have only felected a few of the most striking paffages) is highly curious and inftructive, and would furnish ample matter for a variety of very important remarks. But the only use I mean to make of it at prefent, is to obferve, that it proves, in the cleareft manner, how very much awake and

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alive the Jews were to every part of our Saviour's conduct. It fhews that his miracles were prefented not to persons prepoffeffed and prejudiced in his favor, not to inattentive or negligent, or credulous fpectators, but to acute, and inquifitive, and hoftile obfervers, to men difpofed and able to detect imposture wherever it could be found. And it is utterly impoffible that the miracles of Chrift could have paffed the fiery ordeal of fo much fhrewdness and fagaci ty, and authority, and malignity united, if they had not been carried through it by the irrefiftible force of truth, and of that divine power which nothing could refift.

5. The miracles of our Lord were not merely tranfient acts, beheld at the moment with astonishment, but forgot as foon as over, and productive of no important confequences. They gave birth to a new religion, to a new mode of worship, to feveral new and fingular inftitutions, fuch as the rite of baptifm, the facrament of the Lord's fupper, the appropriation of the first day of the week to facred purposes, the establishment of a diftinct order of men for the celebration of divine offices, and other things of the fame nature. Now this religion and thefe inftitutions fubfift to this day. And as the books of the New Tellament affirm that this religion and these institutions were first eftablished, and afterwards made their way by the power of miracles, they are standing teftimonies to the truth and the reality of thofe miracles, without which they could never have taken fuch firm and deep root at the first, and continued unshaken through so many ages to the prefent time. The magnitude and permanency of the fuperftru&ture prove that it could not have had a lefs folid, a less fubftantial foundation.

6. And lastly, when we confider the great facrifices made by the first converts to Chriftianity, particularly by the apoftles and primitive teachers of it; how many deeprooted prejudices and favorite opinions they gave up to it; what a total change it produced in their difpofition, their temper, their manners, their principles, their habits, and the whole complexion of their lives; what infinite pains they took to propagate it; how chearfully they re

finquifhed for this purpose all the eafe, the comfort, the conveniencies, the pleasures, and the advantages of life; and inftead of them embraced labours, hardships, fufferings, perfecutions, torments, and death itfelf; we cannot rationally fuppofe that fuch patience, refignation, fortitude, magnanimity, and perfeverance, could poffibly be produced by any lefs powerful caufe than thofe evidences of divine power exhibited in the miracles of Christ ; which demonftrably proved that he and his religion had a divine original, and that therefore the fufferings they underwent for his fake in the prefent life would be amply repaid by the glorious rewards referved for them hereaf

ter.

When, therefore, we put together all these confiderations, they can leave no doubt on any unprejudiced mind, that the account given in this chapter of the first commencement of our Saviour's ministry, and the reasons of his aftonishing fuccefs, are perfectly accurate and true; namely," that he went about all Galilee, teaching in the fynagogues, and preaching the gofpel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of fickness, and all manner of disease among the people." And our conclufion from this must neceffarily be the fame with that of the great Jewish rulers, who, with a laudable anxiety to know the truth, came to Jefus by night, and addressed him in these words : "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.”*

* John, iii. 2.