them that heard him, God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the holy spirit."*

What was meant by the denunciation, “Whosoever will not hearken to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him," may be learned from the interpretation given to it by Peter, in his application of the prophecy to Jesus Christ. "It shall come to pass, that every soul that will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."+

With what terrible effect this denunciation was executed upon the Jewish nation, who did reject this last messenger, we learn from the judgments which were brought upon them soon after Jesus and his apostles had executed their ministry among them; in the destruction of their city and temple, the captivity and dispersion of their nation, and the long and hopeless continuance of the entire loss of their civil and religious privileges, and the use of their most valued institutions.

Such was the fulfilment of the promise, such has been the execution of the threatening. But let us not forget, that the threatening relates, not only to those to whom the Gospel was first offered with the evidence of miracles, and formally rejected. It relates to all in every age, not only to those, who, like the Jews in our Saviour's time, formally refused to receive him as their prophet and teacher,—but also to all such,

* Hebrews, ii. 2, 3, 4.

† Acts, iii. 22.

as acknowledging his claims, yet fail to hearken to the words which he speaks, in the name of him who sent him; who admit his mission as a divine teacher, yet are regardless of the instructions he has given; who acknowledge his authority as a lawgiver, yet yield not a cheerful obedience to the laws he has appointed.

"See, then, that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him, that speaketh from heaven."

CHAPTER XI.

MIRACLES.

WE come now to the question, whether the account of supernatural events being found, in the Old and New Testaments, interwoven with the history of common events, serves to destroy its credibility, or in any considerable degree to impair it. If it be thought to do it, it must be for one of the following reasons; either because a miracle is in itself incredible, that is, incapable of being entitled to our faith by any degree of evidence whatever; and accordingly to be rejected without inquiring; or that those ascribed to Moses and our Saviour were in themselves, or in their proof, liable to some peculiar objection.

By a miracle we mean "a sensible deviation from the known laws of nature; or, an effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things." Anything short of this, — though it may be above our comprehension, so as to excite wonder, and so as to render it difficult for us to distinguish it from a miracle,

yet is not one in reality. There is thus undoubtedly, arising from our imperfect knowledge of the powers of nature, a difficulty in many cases of distinguishing with certainty what is, and what is not, supernatural. But this is far from applying to all cases, and there are many in which there can be no difficulty, and no

danger of mistake. Some of the miracles of Moses, for example, could be successfully imitated by the magicians of Egypt. By slight of hand, they could appear to change a rod into a serpent, to produce frogs, and to change water into blood, so as to impose on the spectators. But when Moses changed the whole water of Egypt into blood, when he turned, not a handful of dust only, but all the dust of their land into loathsome insects; and when he covered the whole country with darkness for three days, there could be no deception; the Magicians themselves were compelled to confess, that here was "the finger of God." There could be no question, whether, in producing these effects on so large a scale, as to preclude the possibility of deception, a power over the constitution and laws of nature were exercised, such as could only belong to the Author of nature.

Again, we know that blindness, lameness, and almost every disease to which the human frame is subject, are cured by the application of adequate means, and that life itself has sometimes been restored, when its functions have been for a time suspended. These effects are known to be produced by natural causes. We see the blind restored to sight by the removal of the cause of blindness, and persons apparently dead recovered to life by a treatment, which experience has proved to be sometimes effectual, without attributing the effect in either case to violation or suspension of the laws of nature. But were we to see a blind man restored instantly to sight at the word of another, or one who had been four days dead come

forth from the grave alive at his call, we should have no hesitation in pronouncing, that here was an unquestionable exercise of supernatural power.

In all cases, in which the course of nature is understood, it is easy to be seen, whether an event be a deviation from it, and therefore a miracle, or not; and, on the other hand, where the course of nature is not known, it must be admitted, that were a true miracle to be performed, it could not be known as such; because it could not be distinguished from an effect taking place by ordinary means.

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That a miracle is not in itself incredible, on account of any intrinsic absurdity or impossibility in its very nature, can hardly be made a question by any, who acknowledge the being and government of God. He who believes, that the course of nature, and the laws by which all effects take place in the visible universe, were established by the Author of nature, however fixed and invariable they may have been in their operation, and even though there had never happened a single deviation from them from the first, — cannot doubt the power of Him, who first established, to alter, suspend, or depart occasionally or altogether from those laws; if ever he should see sufficient reason for doing it. It cannot be thought to require a greater exertion of power, or a more wonderful display of it, to interrupt the order of nature, than at first to have produced, or constantly to have maintained it. It will surely not be pretended to be in itself a more astonishing exhibition of the divine power to restore life to a dead body, than it was to give life to that body at first.