fuaded. I judge better of our Divines than Mr. Rouffeau does. None of them in fuch a Cafe would have detached himself from his Mafter; not even him who faid, *« Let " me be fhewn Miracles, and I will believe in "Miracles ;" fince, if he had been in the Jews' Cafe, he would have feen Miracles. + Mr. Rousseau goes on; "Though we ‡ "should grant that the Sign of Jonah is not "his Preaching to the Ninevites, the ut"most that Jefus Chrift reprefents will be "his own Death: Now the Death of a "Man is not a Miracle; nor is it one, that "a body should be taken from the Earth, "after having remained there three Days." I know not what Mr. Rouffeau calls wrefting Scripture, if the explaining it thus is not; nor do I know whether I ought to anfwer him seriously: Shall I tell him that there may be a Miracle in the Manner of a dead Body's iffuing from the Earth; that this depends upon the State of that Body; that if the Body, when taken from the Earth, is but a Carcase, there is no Miracle in the Cafe; that if, having been in * Letter to the Archbishop, &c. p. 106. See John vi. 26. terred terred dead, it comes forth alive, the Miracle is certain; and that Jefus, fpeaking of what should happen to him as of a Sign, i. e. of a great Miracle, did announce fomething extraordinary when he declared, that he fhould be put in the Earth, and that he Should ifue from thence at the End of three Days?-But all this is to be understood of himself. It is no lefs eafy to comprehend what Jefus alludes to in the Hiftory of Jonah. It is not so much to his Preaching in Nineveh, as to that miraculous Deliverance which in a Manner fealed and confirmed it. When therefore the Pharisees demanded a Sign of our LORD, it would have been to elude their Request by a vain Evafion, to alledge his own Preaching: The Pharifees did not doubt of his Preaching, they only defired it might be countenanced by a new Sign.But I am again falling into the Inconvenience of repeating Things too clear. There remains but one Doubt, which is easily refolved; "What Kind of Proof. "would this be, to authorize himself du ring his Life, by a Sign which could not "take Place till after his Death ?" * *P. 79 There There would be fomething in the Objection, if Jefus Chrift during his Life-time had given no Proof of the Divinity of his Miffion, and had limited himself to the Promise of fuch Proof. But how many Miracles, in divers Kinds, had Jefus already performed? Of this the Pharifees were not ignorant; they, who had just been witness to a miraculous Cure, while they were not ashamed to give the Honour of that Cure to the Father of Lies! We must not be furprised therefore that Jefus fhould refer them to a Prodigy,-which was not what they chofe, I grant, but which was not for that Reason lefs wife, and which formed an essential Part of the Plan of the Gospel Oeconomy, I look upon his own Refurrection, as the true Sign of the Mefliah; and a Miracle the most striking and the most decifive in Favour of his Miffion. Indeed, as St. Paul obferves, Jefus declared himself the Son of God in a powerful Manner, by his Refurrection from the Dead. * As his Course was already very far advanced, when he gave them this Refufal, to refer them to his approaching Refurrection was not to refer to a very remote Period. Be this however as * Rom. i. 4. it may, this Refurrection having arrived, and with Circumftances which place it cer tainly beyond all Exception, is it right to fay, that to promise them a Sign which could not be visible till after his Death, was to attempt only to deceive Infidels, "and to hide the Candle under a Bufhel ?” * CHAP V. Why Jefus required Faith in those whom he T σε cured. HIS is a new Argument of Mr. Rouf feau's. "Miracles, fays he, are so "much the less proper to establish Faith, as they pre-fuppofe Faith: Indeed, Jefus required Faith before he performed the Miracle; nay, it is faid in Mark vi. 5, that Jefus could work no Miracle in his own Country, on account of the Unbelief of "its Inhabitants." -66 In order to answer this Objection, we must fee the Paffage itfelf. There Jefus could do no mighty work, fave that he laid his Hands upon a few fick Folk, and healed them. The Omiffion of thefe Words is liable to lead *P. 79. + P. 83. the 1 1 the Reader into a Mistake; who might conclude from the Objection proposed, that Jefus was under fome natural Incapacity to perform any Miracle upon this Occafion. But if he did perform, tho' ever fo few, then he had the Power to perform them : And there is a great Difference betwixt doing no Miracles at all, and doing but a few. If in certain Places Jefus performed but few Miracles, the Evangelifts inform us, that the Unbelief of Men was the Cause. This Unbelief confifted not only in not believing, but in obftinately refusing not to believe. Thus it is joined to Hardness of Heart, Mark xvi. 14. Infidelity in the New Testament almost always fignifies that Difpofition of Mind and Heart, which caufes Men to reject the most convincing Proofs. Jefus did not perform Miracles out of Oftentation, but with Views worthy of his Wifdom. He did not go in Search of Sick in order to cure them ; but he cured those whom their Confidence in him, and their Eagerness to seek him out, rendered moft worthy of that Favour *. Few Perfons at Nazareth had this Eagernefs; ac *P. 83. cord. |