and although the ministry of his apostles continued many years longer, during which time they are said to have been attested by "divers miracles," no case is mentioned in which an attempt was unsuccessful, or in which an applicant was denied. The language of the history in relation to the multitudes that applied to Christ is continually, "He healed them ALL." The enemies of the gospel, who were eye-witnesses of these applicants, did never maintain that the power of Christ or of his disciples was exerted unsuccessfully in a single instance. Had such an event taken place, would they not have discovered it? Had they discovered it, would they not have proclaimed it far and wide? Would any of the books written against Christianity in the first centuries have omitted so important a fact? The total absence of all insinuation of such a thing in the whole controversy between the primitive Christians and their adversaries, is certain evidence that an unsuccessful attempt was never made, and that an unsuccessful applicant was not known.*

Now, on the supposition that the miraculous doings recorded in the gospel were all a cheat, what a miracle is here! That all was contrivance and imposture and accident, and yet not an enemy ever detected an instance of failure; that the machinery was never out of place, out of time, or out of order;

The case mentioned in Matthew 17: 14-21, would have been an example of failure, had the narrative ended with the inability of the disciples. But the Master performed what they, being as yet in their noviciate, had attempted in vain.

that it was equally successful in all cases, equally ready at all seasons, always invisible, yet always at hand, and always instantaneously effectual-what a miracle! Who is the man of weak credulity? the believer, or the infidel?

7. The length of time during which the Saviour and his apostles professed to perform miracles, should be specially considered. Seventy years elapsed between the commencement of the ministry of Christ and the death of the last of the apostles. During all this interval the miraculous gifts in question were exercised. Now, as every repetition in case of imposture multiplies the dangers of detection, and every extension of time makes it the more difficult to keep up the confederated plan, it is no inconsiderable evidence of the genuineness of the miracles of the gospel, that they continued to be wrought and inspected during a period of so many years, and yet so securely.

This consideration is the more important when you reflect that the miracles were not confined to one or two places-were not wrought in little villages, or among the poor and ignorant only, but that the scenes of most of them were in the chief cities of the Roman empire. Instead of remaining together in one place, or moving together wherever they desired to produce an impression, and then confining themselves to such places as might be most easily deceived, the apostles, with singular folly, on the supposition that they were confederated for an imposture, separated to all parts of the world. They

went alone to the most populous, polished, and enlightened cities. They put themselves in the most public places of those cities; thus making combination impossible, and rendering their success, as mere counterfeiters, perfectly miraculous.

8. We have the most perfect certainty that the miracles of the gospel at the time they were wrought, and for a long time after, were subject to the most rigid examination from those who had every opportunity of scrutinizing their character. Forged miracles may pass current where power and authority or the favorable dispositions of the people protect them from too close an inspection. But let the power of the magistrate, the authority of public opinion, and the partialities of those concerned, be once leagued in opposition, and the imposture cannot escape. Such was the league against the miracles in question. Never was the power of the state in more perfect alliance with public opinion, or more zealously supported by all the envy, hatred, and malice of which popular feeling is capable, than when it set its face against the gospel. Not only were these miracles exposed by their great publicity to universal examination, but they were of such a nature that any mind was capable of examining them. Not only did they present themselves to the wise and the great, in the chief places of concourse, and in the great cities of the world, but they were such as necessarily provoked every description of scrutiny. Being performed in avowed support of a religion which could not be successful without destroying the whole

hierarchy of the Jews, and advancing its victories over the ruins of heathenism, they roused at once into united and stern opposition all the civil power of the governments, all the enmity of Jewish and pagan priesthoods, all the partialities and prejudices and national attachments of all people. The enmity of the scribes and Pharisees, of the doctors and lawyers and priests, of the Jews, must have been fired with peculiar indignation. As miracles multiplied and disciples increased, the deepest interest must have been awakened in relation to them among all classes of society. This we know to have been the case. Hence, it is certain that they did not escape the most thorough examination; that all the ingenuity and diligence of contemporaries and eye-witnesses, animated by the strongest motives, and favored by every conceivable advantage, were enlisted in the trial; and this not for a day or a week or a month, but as long as miracles were professed and a hope of detection remained.

9. It is a matter deserving of special remembrance, that the adversaries of the gospel were placed in the most favorable circumstances for a thorough investigation of the reality of its miracles, by their being published and appealed to immediately after, and in the very places where they occurred. The miracles ascribed to the founder of the society of Jesuits are sufficiently answered by the fact, that during his life, and for many years after his death, nothing was heard of them. Those of Francis Xavier, one of the first disciples of Loyola, are deficient in

evidence, because having been wrought, it is stated, in the far distant East, they were first published in the western world; and the narratives, if they ever reached the places to which they relate, could not have been known there till long after the opportunity of a close investigation had passed away, and must have been published among a people too indifferent to be at the pains of inquiring into their truth or falsehood. But the miracles of the gospel were published immediately after, and in the very places of their occurrence. It is true, indeed, that the earliest gospel, that of St. Matthew, is not by any supposed to have been published earlier than the seventh or eighth year after the death of Christ. Supposing this to have been the first publication of the miracles, it was sufficiently near their date to afford every reasonable opportunity of investigation.

But we know from the gospel history, that during the three years of the Saviour's ministry, and all the while the apostles labored, their miracles were notorious. The scribes and Pharisees met in council on the subject. Many, unable to deny them, ascribed them to demoniacal power. Herod, when he heard of them, said, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen. from the dead; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him."* The fame of the miracles of Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, "went throughout all Syria;" so that multitudes, with all kinds of afflictions, flocked to him from all quarters to be healed, and when healed, returned to publish *Matt. 14: 2.