human being was an equally sufficient judge; from the very nature of the facts it was impossible that any one could be deceived; the finger of God was so distinctly palpable, that both sense and reason combined to verify the true nature of the events.

Again, the miracles of Christ were done in public, at the doors of the Jewish temple, in the places of public resort, when he had been preaching to thousands, and when thousands were the actual subjects of them.

They were, moreover, of such a nature that no collusion, no magical art, no legerdemain, no kind of deception, could have been practised.

They were wrought in the presence of persons full of enmity and cruel hatred, who would not have failed to lay open the entire imposture, had any existed; but so confounded were the Scribes and Pharisees at the sight of them, that they sought relief from their unhappy impressions, by representing Jesus of Nazareth as in league with the great spirit of darkness.

The accounts of these miracles were, soon after their occurrence, published to the world, in the very places where they happened; yet

no evidence can be adduced to shew that a single contemporary of the Saviour was found bold enough to deny the fact of their occurrence; nor indeed can it be shewn that any attempt of this kind was made* till long after Christ had ascended to heaven. "Here, it may be demanded, When could the belief of such transactions have been obtruded on mankind, if they had never happened? Surely not in the age when they were said to have been witnessed by tens of thousands, who were publicly challenged to deny them if they could! Not in any subsequent age; for the origin of Christianity was ascribed to them, and millions must have been persuaded that they had always believed those things of which they had never till that time so much as heard.Ӡ

Having offered the preceding remarks on the

* The fable that the disciples stole the body of Jesus will be dealt with in its own proper place. It is evident, however, that no use was made of it by the Jews where it could have been most available: in fact, it was too absurd to be gravely referred to.

† See the Rev. Thomas Scott's Works, vol. ii. p. 16.

miracles of Christ, I would just observe, that the miracles recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures belong to the same great system of truth, and are supported by similar evidence. Infidels have spoken of the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations as if altogether distinct from the religion of Christ; but this is a gross mistake, as Christianity is the consummation of all those institutions which are embodied in the Jewish Scriptures. The miraculous fact of a universal deluge is abundantly confirmed by all the researches of geologists, and the organic remains of a former world must leave those inexcusable who reject the data of revelation. And with regard to the miraculous history of the Israelites in Egypt, at the Red Sea, in the Wilderness, and in Canaan, the facts of that history and the national monuments which, from the earliest ages, were fixed on to perpetuate it, combine to relieve the mind from the slightest suspicion as to its genuineness. "Can any man of common sense think that Moses and Aaron could possibly have persuaded the whole nation of Israel that they had witnessed all the plagues

of Egypt, passed through the Red Sea with the waters piled on each side of them, gathered the manna every morning, and seen all the wonders recorded in their history, had no such events taken place? If, then, that generation could not be imposed on, when could the belief of these extraordinary transactions be palmed upon the nation? Surely it would have been impossible in the next age to persuade them that their fathers had seen and experienced such wonderful things when they had never before heard a single word about them in all their

lives, and when an made to them, that

appeal must have been these were things well

known among them! been obtained to such a forgery at any subsequent period? It would have been absolutely necessary, in making the attempt, to persuade the people that such traditions had always been current among them; that the memory of them had for ages been perpetuated by days and ordinances, observed by all the nation; and that their whole civil and religious establishment had thence originated and could this possibly

What credit could have

N

have been effected if they all knew that no such memorials and traditions had ever been heard of among them ?"*

I cannot deny myself the pleasure of furnishing my readers with a remarkably clear and beautiful account of the miracles of the Mosaic dispensation furnished by the ingenious author of "Theological Institutes," who has already been referred to.*

"Out," says he, " of the numerous miracles wrought by the agency of Moses, we select, in addition to those mentioned in chap. ix., the plague of DARKNESS. Two circumstances are to be noted in the relation given of the event. (Exod. x.) It continued three days, and it afflicted the Egyptians only, for " all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." The fact here mentioned was of the most public kind; and had it not taken place, every Egyptian and every Israelite could have contradicted the account.

The phenomenon was not pro

* See the Rev. Thomas Scott's Works, vol ii. pp. 12, 13. * Theological Institutes, vol. i. pp. 157-161.