prepared the minds of men for receiving them. They were performed by priests, or men of rank, to whom the people were accustomed to look up with reverence; generally in temples consecrated by the of ferings of ages, where it was impious for the eye of the worshippers to pry too closely; under the protection of civil government; and in support of a system which antiquity had hallowed, and which the law. commanded the citizens to respect. The miracles of the Gospel, on the other hand, were performed by obscure despised men, in the midst of enemies, as the vouchers of a new doctrine which was accounted an insult to the gods, and which did not flatter the passions of men. It is manifest that the cases are widely different; and before proceeding to any particular examination of the heathen miracles, you are warranted in considering the whole multitude of them as clearly discriminated from the miracles recorded in Scripture, by this circumstance, that they were not wrought for the purpose of procuring credit to a new system of faith. In the seventh century, Mahomet appeared in Arabia, calling himself the chief of the prophets of God, sent to extirpate idolatry, and to establish a new and perfect religion. He acknowledged the divine mission both of Moses and of Jesus. He often mentions the evident miracles which Jesus wrought, and he has preserved the names of the persons whom our Lord raised from the dead. Those who opposed him demanded a sign of his mission. He gave various reasons for not complying with this demand, and in different places of the Koran appears solicitous to obviate the doubts which his refusal excited. But although his reasons were not satisfying, and he was harassed with importunity,-although he lived amongst a barbarous unlearned people, and although he possessed a very uncommon share of ability and address, he had the prudence never to make the experiment of working a miracle, and he confesses that God, in his sovereignty, had withheld from him that power. The Church of Rome claims the power which Mahomet did not assume, and the history of that Church is full of wonders said to be performed at the shrines of saints and martyrs, by the divine virtue residing in a relic, or by the power committed to a religious order, to a particular sect, or to the whole Church. But all these are in support of a system already established, and in conformity to the wishes and expectations of the spectators; and, like the heathen miracles, they extend the prevailing superstition by introducing or confirming doctrines, rites, and practices, exactly similar to those which had been formerly received.

It appears, then, from this review, that the history of the world does not present, out of that multitude of miracles which it has recorded, any that were performed under the disadvantages which attended the Christian, for the purpose of introducing a change upon the religious sentiments of mankind. All the rest were aided by the prevailing opinions; these alone were opposed by them: all the rest found men ready to believe; these alone produced a new faith.

2. As the circumstance which I have mentioned forms, upon a general view of the matter, a clear discrimination of the miracles of the Bible, so, when we enter upon a particular examination, there appears to be the most striking difference between them and all other miracles, in the evidence with which they are transmitted. The tes

timony for a miracle requires to be tried with caution, because it contradicts the presumption suggested by experience; and the more instances there are of imposition or mistake in reports of this kind, there is the more reason for weighing every report with the most scrupulous exactness. When we proved the testimony borne by the apostles to the miracles of Jesus, we found a multitude of circumstances which conspire to render it credible. But when we try, by the same standard of sound criticism, the testimony borne either to heathen or to popish miracles, it is found to be very much wanting. Many of the heathen miracles were prodigies which had no connexion with any religious system, or they were phenomena which appeared wonderful to ignorant men, but which a more enlarged acquaintance with nature has enabled us to explain. Others were extraordinary works, recorded long after the time when they are said to have been performed, and recorded by historians who, while they adorn their writings with popular stories, are careful to distinguish the narration, which they consider as authentic, from the reports which they retail, because they received them. The miracles which Tacitus reports as performed by the Emperor Vespasian, the feats of Alexander of Pontus, which we learn from Lucian, who represents him as an impostor, and the works ascribed to Apollonius of Tyana, whom some of the later Platonists are said to have raised up as a rival to our Lord, all these have been examined by men of learning and judgment; and the most zealous friend of Christianity could not wish for a more favourable display of the unexceptionable testimony upon which its miracles are received, than is obtained by contrasting it with the air of falsehood which runs through all these accounts.

Mr. Hume has been solicitous to place the evidence of some popish miracles in the most advantageous light, and he has collected, with an air of triumph, various circumstances which conspired to attest the miracles said to be performed about the beginning of the last century, in the church-yard of St. Medard, at the tomb of Abbé Paris. But although a particular purpose induced him to assume the appearance of an advocate for these miracles, yet the imposture was manifest at the time to many who lived upon the spot, and it has since that time been completely exposed in several treatises. In Campbell's Dissertation, in the Criterion by Dr. Douglas, late bishop of Salisbury, in Macknight's Truth of the Gospel History, and in other books, there is an investigation of many pretended miracles; and I believe it will be acknowledged, without hesitation, that Dr. Campbell and Dr. Douglas have clearly shown, with regard to all the miracles to which their investigation extends, either that the accounts of them, from the circumstances, appear to be false, or that the facts, from their nature, are not miraculous. I am inclined to think that, as far as this investigation can be carried, it will be found uniformly to apply to the miracles recorded in heathen story, or in popish legends; and that, as a person who had been accustomed to read much history and much fable, is at no loss to distinguish the one from the other when they are presented to him, so any one who duly considers the circumstances of the case, will most readily discriminate the precise assured testimony of miracles wrought by Jesus as a divine teacher, which eye-witnesses submitted at the very time and place to the examination of their enemies, from

the hesitating suspicious record of wonders said to be performed for some insignificant purpose, which the historians did not see, or which the rank and characters of the person to whom they are ascribed, preserved from the scrutiny even of those who saw them. The evidence of the miracles of the Gospel, far from being diminished by the number of impostures, is very much illustrated by this contrast. Men indeed cannot perceive the difference with an exercise of understanding.— They are required here, as upon every other subject, to separate truth from falsehood, to "prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good."* Extensive information and enlightened criticism are called in to be the handmaids of religion; and the continued increase of human knowledge, instead of giving Christians any reasonable ground of apprehending danger, enables them to defend the principles which they have embraced, dissipates objections which might occur to the ignorant, and establishes the faith of those who inquire.

I said, I am inclined to think, that if the investigation of which Dr. Douglas and Dr. Campbell have given a specimen, were extended farther, it would be found to apply uniformly to the miracles recorded in heathen story or in popish legends. I used this guarded expression, because I do not consider any man as warranted to say, before he has examined them, that all apparent miracles, excepting those recorded in the Bible, may be accounted for by the dexterity of an impostor, or by the carelessness or ignorance of the spectators.

3. And, therefore, my third observation is, that although we should ascribe some of the extraordinary works recorded in history to the agency of evil spirits, the argument from miracles, for the truth of Christianity, is not impaired.

They who can satisfy their minds that such works are not miraculous, or that the accounts of them are false, leave the argument from miracles entire to Judaism and Christianity. They who cannot satisfy their minds in this manner, and who judge from the nature of the works, or the purpose which they promote, that they did not proceed from God, are led by their principles to ascribe them to some intermediate beings between God and man. But this system, as we have been taught by our Lord to reason,t does not affect the argument from miracles. For thus stands the case: The orders of intermediate beings are wholly unknown to human reason. There may be good, and there may be bad spirits, and their measure of power may be more, or it may be less. But as we infer from all the appearances of nature, and especially from the constitution of our own minds, that this world is not the work of an evil being, so having found that the nature of the revelation contained in the New Testament affords a very strong presumption of its coming from God, we cannot suppose that the miracles, which are the direct proof of this presumption, and which actually were the means of establishing the Gospel, came from an evil being. The conduct of the adversary of mankind was indeed very opposite to the cunning which is ascribed to him, if he gave his sanction to the man who was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and employed his power to undermine his own kingdom, and put an end to his own malicious joy. As far, then, as the argument

from miracles for the truth of Christianity is concerned, the power of evil spirits is merely a speculative point, upon which, as upon many other speculative points concerning which our information is imperfect, different opinions may be held without any injury to the truth. Whatever system we adopt with regard to the power of Satan, howsoever evil spirits may be supposed to have acted at other times, we are as certain as the nature of the thing can make us, that their power was not exerted in the establishment of our faith, and we rest in the miracles of Jesus as wrought by the finger of God.

But, although speculations concerning the power of evil spirits are in no degree necessary to a rational belief of Christianity, yet they will naturally fall in your way, when you are investigating the argument from miracles, and you ought not to be strangers to the grounds upon which the different opinions rest. It has been said, that God alone can work miracles, because the sovereign of the universe never will permit any evil spirit to encroach so far upon the prerogative of his majesty, as to produce any work contrary to the order of nature. This opinion seems to present the most honourable view of the Almighty; it professes to afford security against many delusions, which, according to other systems, are practicable; it leaves the argument from miracles clear and unembarrassed, and it has been supported by much ingenious reasoning. But it appears to me presumptuous, because it assumes more, and pronounces with a more decisive tone concerning the conduct of the divine government, than is competent to our ignorance. It contradicts the obvious interpretation of several passages of scripture, and the attempts to give those passages a meaning not inconsistent with it, have tortured scripture in a manner which is not justifiable. It has been said, on the other hand, that evil spirits have been accustomed, in all ages, to exercise their power in astonishing, deluding, and misleading the minds of men; that all false religions have been supported by their influence, and that they are continually busied in corrupting true religion. Even the able and profound Cudworth represents it as unquestionable, that Apollonius of Tyana was made choice of by the policy, and assisted by the powers of the kingdom of darkness, for the doing some things extraordinary, in order to derogate from the miracles of our Saviour, and enable Paganism to bear up against the attacks of Christianity. When the matter is thus stated, a most uncomfortable view of the moral state of the universe is presented to us; a view which, without some qualification, approaches very near to the Manichæan system, by subjecting the feeble race of man, in their most important concerns, alternately to the dominion of opposite powers. safe opinion upon this subject appears to me to lie in the middle between these two. We cannot pretend to say that an intermediate being never is allowed to suspend the laws of nature. But we are certain, that all power is dependant upon the Lord of nature. should be careful not to bewilder ourselves, by carrying the ideas suggested by the weakness of human government into our speculations concerning the ways of God; and we should always remember, that, in the administration of Him, whose eyes are in every place, there can be no delay or opposition to his purpose from the multitude of his ministers. "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven."

The

We

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God is all in all. The power of working miracles may descend from the Almighty through a gradation of good spirits; and he may commission evil spirits, by exercising the power given to them, to prove his people, or to execute a judicial sentence upon those who receive not the love of the truth. But both good and evil spirits are absolutely under his control; they fulfil his pleasure, and he works by

them.

This is the system which appears to be intimated in Scripture, as far as the Spirit of God hath seen meet to reveal a speculative point which is not essential to our improvement or comfort. It is indeed very remarkable, that at the introduction of both the Jewish and the Christian dispensations, there seems, according to the most natural interpretation of Scripture, to have been a certain display of the power of evil spirits-I mean in the works of the Egyptian magicians, and in the demoniacs of the New Testament. But in both cases the display appears to have been permitted by God, that it might be made manifest there was in nature a superior power. The magicians, after they had imitated some of the works of Moses, could go no farther, but said," This is the finger of God;" and therefore God says to Pharaoh," For this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."* The evil spirits which had afflicted the bodies of men, owned, in like manner, the power of Jesus, and retired at his command. Therefore, he says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven;" and again," If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come to you." Both dispensations give warning of false prophets who should show signs. Moses says, "If there arise among you a prophet and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, saying, let us go after other gods, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love him with all your soul." Our Lord says, "There shall arise false christs, and shall show great signs and wonders ;" and, it is part of the description which his Apostle gives of Antichrist, "His coming is after the working of Satan; with all power, and signs and lying wonders." || Even although you suppose it to be meant by these warnings, that the signs and wonders were to be performed with the assistance of evil spirits, still the miracles upon which the two dispensations are founded, afford a clear demonstration of the supremacy of their Author; and if evil spirits had permission given them to exercise a certain power at those times, it was only to prepare for the destruction of their power.

In the very constitution of the evidence of the two religions, provision is made for preserving the true disciples from the dread of evil spirits. Whatever opinions may have been entertained concerning their power, they manifestly stand forth in the Bible, confessing their inferiority, and furnishing by this confession, to all whose understandings are sound, and whose hearts are upright, a perpetual antidote against the fears of superstition.

It appears, then, that the system which ascribes many of the mira

Exod. viii. 19; ix. 16. § Matt. xxiv. 24.

† Luke x. 18; xi. 20.
12 Thess. 2, 9.

Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3.