grand basis of Christ's authority as a truthful and divine instructor.

A clergyman, to whom I have already alluded once or twice, speaks thus, in treating of Christ's mission : "Deny the miraculous in his character and works, and you take away his authority as the infallible teacher of the ultimate religion."*

Says another, "God's seal of Christ's Messiahship lies in the powers he bestowed upon him-in the mira cles he enabled him to perform."t

Will these logical reasoners condescend to inform us in what manner the same power which was exercised by Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, and several others, may be said to constitute Jesus a personage superior to all the rest of mankind? If his highest characteristic-his distinctive, official "SEAL"-was nothing greater than what had been exhibited many hundred years previous, what reason had the people to suppose that he was any other than one of their old prophets, Moses or Elias, returned from the dead?

The seal of a King generally bears an emblematic device, a combination of several expressive figures. What are the designs enstamped upon the alleged miraculous "seal" of Christ? Let us look at a few of them. 1. A wedding scene: turning water into wine. This was hardly equal to the wonder performed by Eli*Rev. S. Cobb, in his Beverly Dedication Sermon.

† Rev. A. A. Miner, in the "Universalist Quarterly," for July, 1846. Of the volume, Art. xix. p. 309.

sha, when he miraculously filled several empty vessels with oil. 2. Healing the sick. That was done by Christ's disciples, who certainly were not immaculate Messiahs. They misunderstood the very nature of the true Messiah's kingdom! Yet, at the same time, they could heal the sick and cast out devils. 3. Feeding more than five thousand persons with only five loaves and two fishes. No greater than replenishing the cruise of oil and filling the barrel of meal, as Elijah did,—repeating the miracle from day to day, so as to supply the wants of a whole family, for two years!† 4. Stilling the waves of a stormy sea. How much greater was this than the division of Jordan, which parted its waves when "the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water"? 5. Fasting forty days. Moses and Elijah both did the same.§ 6. Raising the dead. Elijah and Elisha performed that miracle, a long while before the time of Jesus. 7. Ascension. was by no means unheard-of. Christ had been preceded, in this respect, by Enoch and Elijah. I have omitted, from this enumeration, the resurrection of Christ; be cause that is a miracle alleged to have been performed upon, rather than by him. "This Jesus hath God raised up," &c.**

This

Verily, this "seal," which has been declaimed about

2 Kings, iv. 1-7. †1 Kings, xvii. 12-16. Joshua, iii. 15-17. § Exod. xxxiv. 28. 1 Kings, xix. 8. ||1 Kings, xvii. 17-23, and 2 do. iv. 32-35. ¶ Genesis, v. 24. Heb. xi. 5. 2 Kings, ii. 11, 12. **Acts, ii. 32; iii. 15; iv. 10; x. 40. Rom. x. 9. 1 Cor. vi. 14. 1 Pet. i. 21.

so pompously, is a borrowed one, and withal very oldfashioned! Would it not be well to style it a coat-ofarms, rather than a seal,-as its possessor might thereby establish a claim to royal descent? If the Messiah was to come from David's "royal line," I wonder the power of casting out devils, has not been regarded as a species of heraldry, to prove its possessor's lineage from SOLOMON (David's son) who, according to Josephus, had the power to exorcise demons.

If our religion rests entirely, or principally, upon reputed miracles, it is based upon a weak and mutable foundation. I say this, because all past history unites with present observation in showing us that it is not the most inconceivable task for Enthusiasm to conjure up marvellous narrations; which, if the real or imagined wonders they treat of be regarded as purely natural, may have some foundation in solid fact; but if considered otherwise, may be reasonably looked upon as the offspring of Imagination, when unduly excited, and which, in growing older, have likewise, in accordance with a natural law, increased in bulk and stature, sometimes reaching a state of gross corpulency.

Every system of religion, prevalent on this globe, has its records of past miracles; and some teach that the ability to perform such works is perpetually conferred upon the faithful.

The continuance of miracles was, as I have before

remarked, a cardinal doctrine of the Christian Church, from the middle of the second century till the great Protestant Reformation; and it was supported by the uniform and even minutely specific testimony of Churchhistorians. Nay, even a long while after the Reformation, it was accredited in the Church of England; insomuch that when Dr. Middleton published his celebrated work, from which I have quoted, which appeared as late as 1749, he was most vehemently opposed by learned church-dignitaries, and regarded as a dangerous heretic who was seeking to undermine the very foundations of Christianity!

The Hindoos will tell you of miracles, in comparison with which those of the New Testament are as nothing. And what is the story of the Ascension of Jesus, when ranged by the side of the account of Mahomet's nightjourney to Heaven ?*

Travellers inform us that they have encountered a belief in miracles of various sorts, in all quarters of the habitable world which they have visited; but especially in those countries where the people are low in the scale of mental culture and civilization. In such regions, the tension of credulity is illimitable-nothing is too great to pass down the capacious throat of implicit faith. Even ordinary natural phenomena, the producing causes of which are not understood, are regarded as the direct

*See an allusion to this night-journey, in Sale's English translation of the KORAN, chapter xvii; and, for an extended account of the same, see Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 43.

and special work of the gods. To the North American Indian, an eclipse of the moon was a miracle. And among that race, now almost extinct, as well as among the rude inhabitants of other climes, legends and traditions of various supernatural appearances, have been handed down from sire to son, from time immemorial, and most sacredly believed.

Among the many superstitions prevalent in various parts of the East, is the one mentioned in the following extract from the narrative of Bruce, the celebrated oriental traveller:

"Much has been wrote about a miraculous drop, or dew, called Gotta, or Nucta, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. John's day, and is believed to be the peculiar gift of that saint; it stops the plague, causes the dough to leaven, or ferment, and annouces a speedy and plentiful inundation.”*

It is related, that during the persecution of the infant church, by the cruel emperor Domitian, in the latter part of the first century, the apostle John was cast alive into a caldron of boiling oil, but miraculously preserved from all injury. This was generally believed in the early ages of the church; and I think it as credible as the story of the wonderful preservation of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.†

Another incident related of John, is, that some heretics attempted to take his life, by offering him poi

* Bruce's Travels, vol. iii. p. 716. Daniel, iii. 19-26.