557 
M IRAC L E. 
veracity, whofe Ample affertion would be admitted as fuffi- 
cient evidence for any fact in conformity with the laws of 
nature; but, as every man has the evidence of his own 
confcioufnefs and experience that revelations from heaven 
are deviations from thefe laws, an affection fo apparently 
extravagant would be rejected as falfe, unlefs fupported 
by fome better proof than the mere affirmation of the 
teacher. In this ltate of things, we can conceive no evi¬ 
dence fufficient to make fuch doftrines be received as the 
truths of God, but the power of working miracles com¬ 
mitted to him who taught them. This would, indeed, 
be fully adequate to the purpofe. For, if there were 
nothing in the doctrines themfelves impious, immoral, 
or contrary to truths already known, the only thing which 
could render the teacher's alfertion incredible, would be 
its implying fuch an intimate communion with God as 
is contrary to the eftabliihed courfe of things, by which 
men are left to acquire all their knowledge by the exer- 
cile of their own faculties. Let us now fuppofe one of 
thofe infpired teachers to tell his countrymen, that he 
did not defire them, on his ipj'e dixit, to believe that he 
had any preternatural communion with the Deity; but 
that, for the truth of his affection, he would give them 
the evidence of their own l’enfes ; and, after this decla¬ 
ration, let us fuppofe him immediately to raife a perfon 
from the dead in their prefence, merely by calling upon 
him to come out of his grave. Would not the only pof- 
fible objection to the man’s veracity be removed by this 
miracle ? and his affertions, that he had received fuch and 
fuch doflrines from God, be as fully credited, as if it re¬ 
lated to the molt common occurrence ? Undoubtedly it 
would ; for, when fo much preternatural power was vifibly 
communicated to this perfon, no one could have reafon 
to queftion his having received an equal portion of pre¬ 
ternatural Imowledge. A palpable deviation from the 
known laws of nature, in one inftance, is a fenfible proof 
that fuch a deviation is poffible in another; and, in fuch 
a cafe as this, it is the witnefs of God to the truth of 
a man. 
Miracles, then, under which we include prophecy, are 
the only diredl evidence which can be given of divine 
infpiration. When a religion, or any religious truth, is 
to be revealed from heaven, they appear to be abfolutely 
neceffary to enforce its reception among men; and this 
is the only cafe in which we can fuppofe them neceffary, 
or believe for a moment that they ever have been or will 
be performed. 
The hiftory of albnoft every religion abounds with rela¬ 
tions of prodigies and wonders, and of the intercourfe of 
men with the gods ; but we know of no religious fyllem, 
thofe of the Jews and Chriftians excepted, which appealed 
to miracles as the foie evidence of its truth and divinity. 
The pretended miracles mentioned by Pagan hiftorians 
and poets are not faid to have been publicly wrought to 
enforce the truth of a new religion contrary to the reign¬ 
ing idolatry. Many of them may be clearly Ihown ip 
have been mere natural events ; (fee Magic.) Others of 
them are reprefented as having been performed in fec-ret 
on the moil trivial occafions, and in oblcureand fabulous 
ages long prior to the era of the writers by whom they 
are recorded. And fuch of them as at firft view appear 
to be bell attefted, are evidently tricks contrived for in- 
tereiled purpofes; to flatter power, or to promote the 
prevailing fuperftitions. For thefe reafons, as well as 
on account of the immoral charailer of the divinities by 
whom they are faid to have been wrought, they are al¬ 
together unworthy of examination, and carry in the 
very nature of them the completed proofs of falfehood 
and impoflure. 
But the miracles recorded of Mofes and of Chrill bear 
a very different character. None of them is reprefented 
as wrought on trivial occafions. The writers.who men¬ 
tion them were eye-witneffes of the fads; which they 
affirm to have been performed publicly, in attellation of 
the truth of their refpedlive fyftems. They are indeed fo 
VOL. XV. No. 1065. 
incorporated with thefe fyftems, that the miracles cannot 
be feparated from the doftrines; and, if the miracles were 
not really performed, the doftrines cannot poflibly be 
true. Beiides all this, they were wrought in fupport of 
revelations which oppofed all the religious fyftems, lupet - 
ftitions, and prejudices, of tlie age in which they were 
given : a circumftance which of itl'elf fets them, in point 
of authority, infinitely above the Pagan prodigies, as well 
as the lying wonders of the Romilh church. 
It is indeed, we believe, univerfally admitted, that the 
miracles mentioned in the book of Exodus and in the 
four Gofpels, might, to thofe who law them performed, 
be fufficient evidence of the divine infpiration of Moles 
and of Chrift ; but to us it may be thought that they are 
no evidence whatever, as we mull believe in the miracles 
themfelves, if we believe in them at all, upon the bare 
authority of human tellimony. Why, it has been fome- 
times alked, are not miracles wrought in all ages and 
countries ? If the religion of Chrift was to be of perpetual 
duration, every generation of men ought to have com¬ 
plete evidence of its truth and divinity. 
To the performance of miracles in every age and in 
every country, perhaps the fame objeflions lie as to the 
immediate infpiration of every individual. Were thofe 
miracles univerfally received as fuch, men w'ould be fo 
overwhelmed with the number rather than with the force 
of their authority, as hardly to remain- mailers of their 
own conduft; and in that cafe the very end of all mira¬ 
cles would be defeated by their frequency. The truth, 
however, feems to be, that miracles fo frequently repeated 
would not be received as fuch, and of courfe would have 
no authority; beeaufe it would be difficult, and in many 
cafes impoffible, to diftinguilh 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, beeaufe we Ihould have the fame experience for 
the one feries of events as for the other; for the regular 
fucceffion of preternatural effedls, as for the ellablilhed' 
conftitution and courle of things. 
Having explained the nature and evinced the credibi¬ 
lity of miracles in general, we might take occafion to il- 
lullrate the evidence which the miracles, that are recorded. 
by the founders and advocates of Chriftianity, afford in 
attellation of its truth and divine origin. Admitting the 
credibility of miracles in general, and of the Chriftian 
miracles in particular, we might allege many direct, col¬ 
lateral, and prefumptive, arguments in proof of their 
reality. The miracles which the New Teftament records, 
are in their own nature and defign worthy of the wildom, 
power, and benevolence, to which they are aferibed. If 
we coniider thefe miracles in themfelves, in their-number 
and variety as well as their nature, in the Hate and cir- 
cumllances of thofe who were the obje6ts of them, in the 
unoftentatious and yet public manner of their being 
wrought, in the multitude and allb the difpofition and 
character of thofe who witneffed them, in the extent and 
permanence of their effedls, and in their connexion with 
the reception and prevalence of the religion which they 
were intended to introduce and eftabliflt, we cannot quef¬ 
tion their reality : we cannot difeover any traces of col- 
lufion and deceit: we cannot helitate in allowing them 
to be fuch as the evangelical hiftorians have defcribed 
and recorded. As for the hiftorians themfelves, their 
character and conduct, their labours and fufferings un¬ 
dergone and endured-in attellation of the truth of the 
fails which they relate; and- the death which they pre¬ 
ferred to the-infamy of renouncing their belief of them, 
evince, in the moll fatisfailory manner, their integrity, 
and preclude every fufpicion of fraud and impolture. This 
tellimony, tranfmitted to us with every attendant circum- 
ftance.of credibility, claims our confidence; and, whilft we 
believe the reality of the miracles which they record, we 
cannot demur in tracing the religion which, by their 
writings- and teaching, they have communicated to the 
world, to a divine origin. 
7 C 
The 
