EVIDENCE OF MIRACLES. 



115 



pacter and reputation and that, these books were 

 wiittcn under a superintendant inspiration. 

 These and a variety of similar propositions inti 

 mately connected with them can be fully sub 

 stantiated ; and the necessary conclusion of the 

 whole is, that Christianity is a revelation from 

 God to man, and that its truths are to be believed, 

 and its precepts practised by all to whom they 

 are addressed. 



Miracles form one part of the external evi 

 dence by which revealed religion is supported. 

 If God. in compassion to our benighted and be- 

 wilderea race, has thought fit to communicate a 

 revelation of his will, there is no conceivable 

 mode by which that revelation could be more 

 powerfully attested, than by empowering the 

 messengers whom he inspired to work miracles, 

 as attestations of the truth of the doctrines they 

 declared. Accordingly we find, that at the in 

 troduction both of the Jewish and the Christian 

 dispensations, a series of uncontrolled miracles 

 was exhibited to those to whom the messengers 

 of revelation were sent, as evidences that they 

 toted under the authority of the Creator of the 

 universe. Under the administration of Moses, 

 ivho founded the Jewish economy, the waters of 

 Egypt were turned into blood, darkness covered 

 all that country for three days, thunders and hail 

 terrified its inhabitants and destroyed the fruits 

 of their ground, and all their first-born were slain 

 by a celestial messenger in one night the Red 

 Sea was parted asunder, the tribes of Israel 

 passed in safety through its waves, while their 

 enemies &quot; sank as lead in the mighty waters ;&quot; 

 water was brought from the flinty rock, manna 

 from heaven was rained down to supply the 

 wants of two millions of human beings in a 

 barren wilderness; mount Sinai was made to 

 tremble to its centre, and was surrounded with 

 flames and smoke ; Korah, Dathan, and Abi- 

 ram, with all the thousands that joined their 

 conspiracy, were by a miraculous earthquake 

 swallowed up in a moment ; Jordan was divided 

 when its waters overflowed its banks, and at the 

 sound of horns the strong walls of Jericho fell 

 prostrate to the ground. When Jesus Christ 

 introduced the gospel dispensation, he gave in 

 controvertible proofs of his divine mission, by 

 curing diseases of every description merely by 

 las word, causing the lame to walk, the deaf to 

 hear, the dumb to speak, and the blind to see ; 

 raising the dead to life, stilling the tempestuous 

 waves and the stormy wind ; turning water into 

 wine, feeding five thousand men in a wilderness 

 on a few loaves and fishes ; and, particularly, by 

 his own resurrection from the dead, after he had 

 been &amp;lt; crucified and slain.&quot; These, as well as 

 the miracles wrought by Moses, were demon 

 strative evidences of the agency and interfer 

 ence of the Most High ; they were completely 

 beyond the power of mere human agency, and 

 were altogether different from the tricks of jug 



glers and impostors. They were performed in 

 the open face of day, in the presence of multi 

 tudes of persons of every description ; they were 

 level to the comprehension of every man whose 

 faculties and senses were in a sound state ; and 

 the conclusion which every unbiassed mind be 

 hooved to draw from them, was, that &quot; no man 

 could do such miracles unless God was with 

 him;&quot; and, consequently, that the truths de 

 clared by those who were empowered to perform 

 them, are the revelations of heaven; for it 

 would be inconsistent with the nature of the Di 

 vine Being to suppose, that he would interpose 

 his almighty power to control the laws of natui e, 

 for the purpose of giving his sanction to false 

 hood or imposture. 



Of the reality of the miraculous events to 

 which I have alluded, we have as high a degree 

 of evidence as we have for the reality of any 

 other fact recorded in the scriptures or in the 

 history of the world. The single fact of the re 

 surrection of Christ, a fact so important in the 

 Christian system, and with which all its other 

 facts and doctrines are essentially connected, 

 rests upon a weight of evidence so great that 

 the rejection of it would be almost equivalent to 

 the adoption of universal scepticism. This fact 

 does not rest upon the testimony of an unknown 

 individual, or even of an unknown multitude, 

 but on the twelve apostles who had been pre 

 viously chosen for this purpose, who had accom 

 panied their Master in all his journeys, who had 

 been the witnesses of his miracles, sufferings, 

 and crucifixion, and who affirmed, without the 

 least hesitation, and in the face of every threat 

 ening and persecution, that they had seen him 

 alive at different times, and held intimate con 

 verse with him after he had risen from the dead. 

 It rests likewise on the testimony of the seventy 

 disciples, and on that of the five hundred bre 

 thren who had seen the Lord after his resurrec 

 tion. These persons had full opportunity of in 

 formation as to the fact they asserted; they 

 could not be deceived, for it was brought within 

 the evidence of their senses. They saw the 

 body of the Lord Jesus after he had been cruci 

 fied and laid in the tomb not with a passing 

 glance, but at different times and in divers 

 places ; they had an opportunity of handling it 

 to convince them it was no phantom ; they heard 

 him speak, and entered into intimate conversa 

 tion with him on the subject of their future mi 

 nistry. They saw him, not only separately, but 

 together ; not only by night, but by day , .tot at 

 a distance, but immediately before them. And 

 as they could not be deceived themselves, they 

 could have no motive for deceiving others ; for 

 they were aware that, by so doing, they exposed 

 themselves to scorn, persecution, sufferings, and 

 death itself, without the most distant hope of re- 

 compense cither in this world or in another- 

 Their character and conduct were strictly 



