have a most authentic, exact, and circumstantial account of the fiege and destruction of that city by the Romans, written by Josephus, a Jewish and contemporary historian; and the defcription he has given of this terrible calamity fo perfectly correfponds with our Saviour's prophecy, that one would have thought, had we not known the contrary, that it had been written by a Christian, on purpose to illustrate that prediction. This power of foretelling future events is a plain proof that Christ came from God, and was endued with this power from above. PROPOSITION ΧΙ. THE HE MIRACLES PERFORMED BY OUR LORD, DEMONSTRATE HIM TO HAVE POSSESSED DIVINE POWER. ALTHOUGH the preceding propositions contain very convincing proofs of the divine mission of Christ, and the divine authority of his religion, yet, undoubtedly, the strongest evidence of this arifes from the wonderful and well-attested miracles which he wrought from the beginning to the end of his ministry. He cured the most inveterate diseases; he made the lame to walk; he opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf; he cast out devils; he walked upon the fea; he fed five thousand persons with a few small loaves and fishes; and even raised the dead to life again. These miracles were all wrought in open day, in the fight of multitudes of witnesses, who could not be impofed upon in things which they saw plainly with their own eyes, who had an opportunity of scrutinizing them as much as they pleased, and who did actually fcrutinize them with a most critical exactness, as appears from the very remarkable instance of the blind man restored to fight by our Lord, in the ninth chapter of St. John, a tranfaction which I recommend very earnestly to the attention of my readers. It is true, that miracles being very unusual and extraordinary facts, they require very strong evidence to fupport them; much stronger, it must be owned, than common events, that are recorded in history: and accordingly the miracles of Christ have this very strong and extraordinary evidence to support them; evidence fuch as is not to be equalled in any other instance, and such as is fully competent to prove the reality of the greatest miracle that ever was performed. Befides a multitude of other perfons, who were eye-witnesses to these miracles, and who were actually convinced and converted by them, there were twelve perfons, called apostles, plain, honest, unprejudiced men, whom our Saviour chose to be his conftant companions and friends, who were almost always about his perfon, accompanied him in his travels, heard all his discourses, faw all his miracles, and attended him through all the different scenes of his life, death, and refurrection, till the time of his afcenfion into Heaven. These persons were perfectly capable of judging whether the works which they saw Jesus perform were real miracles or not; they could tell whether a person whom they had known to be blind all his life was fuddenly restored to fight by our Saviour's only speaking a word or touching his eyes; they could tell whether he did actually, in open day-light, walk upon the fea without finking, and without any visible support; whether a perfon called Lazarus, whom they were well acquainted with, and whom they knew to have been four days dead and buried, was raised to life again merely by Chrift faying, Lazarus, arife. In these, and other facts of this fort, they could not poffibly be deceived. Now these, and many other miracles equally aftonishing, they affirm that they themselves actually faw performed by our Saviour. In confequence of this, from being Jews, and of course strongly prejudiced against Chrift and his outward appearance, which was the very reverse of every thing they expected in their Meffiah, they became his disciples; and on account of their converfion, and more particularly on account of their afferting the truth of his miracles and his refurrection, they endured for a long course of years the severest labours, hardships, fufferings, and perfecution, that human nature could be expofed to, and at last submitted to the most cruel and excruciating deaths; all which they might eafily have avoided, if they would only have faid that Chrift was not the Son of God, that he never worked any miracles, and never rose from the dead. Yet this they refused to say, and were content to die rather than fay it.* Is not this giving the strongest proof of their fincerity, and of the reality of Christ's miracles, that human nature and human teftimony are capable of giving. The concurrent and uncontradicted testimony of twelve such witnesses is, according to all the rules of evidence, sufficient to establish the truth of any one fact in the world, however extraordinary, however miraculous. * No man ever laid down his life for the honour of Jupiter, Neptune, or Apollo; but how many thousands have fealed their Chriftian teftimony with their blood? Beattie, v. 2. If there had been any powerful temptation thrown in the way of these men; if they had been bribed, like the followers of Mahomet, with fenfual indulgences; or, like Judas Iscariot, with a sum of money, one should not have been much surprised at their perfifting, for a time at least, in a premeditated falsehood. But when we know that, instead of any of these allurements being held out to them, their master always foretold to them, and they themselves foon found by experience, that they could gain nothing, and must lose every thing in this world, by embracing Christianity; it is utterly impossible to account for their embracing it on any other ground than their conviction of its truth from the miracles which they saw. In fact, must they not have been absolutely mad to have incurred voluntarily fo much mifery, and fuch certain destruction, for affirming things to be true which they knew to be false; more especially as their own religion taught them, that they would be punished most severely in another world, as well as in this, for fo wicked a fraud ? Is it usual for men thus to sport with their own happiness, and their very lives, and to bring upon themselves, with their eyes open, such dreadful evils, without any reason in the world, and without the least poffible benefit, advantage, credit, or pleasure resulting from it? Where have you ever heard of any instance of this fort? Would any twelve men you ever knew, especially men of credit and character, take it into their heads to affert that a perfon in the neighbourhood raised a dead man to life, when they knew that no such thing had ever happened; and that they would all, with one confent, fuffer themselves to be put to death rather than confefs that they had told a lie? Such a thing never happened fince the world began. It is contrary to all experience and all credibility, and would be, in itself, a greater miracle than any of those that are recorded in the Gospel. It is certain then (as certain as any thing can be that depends on human testimony) that real miracles were wrought by Christ; and as no miracles can be wrought but by the power of God, it is equally certain that Christ and his religion drew their origin from God.* PROPOSITION XII. T HE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD FROM THE DEAD, IS A FACT FULLY PROVED BY THE CLEAREST EVIDENCE, AND IS THE SEAL AND CONFIRMATION OF HIS DIVINITY AND OF THE TRUTH OF HIS RELIGION. THE refurrection of Christ being one of those miracles which are recorded in the Gospel, the truth of it is, in fact, already proved by what has been advanced respecting those miracles in the * On the clear and evident marks of difcrimination between the real miracles of the Gofpel and the pretended miracles of Paganism and of Popery, see Bishop Douglas's Criterion, and Dr. Paley's most masterly observations, in his View of the Evidences of Chriftianity, prop. i. ch. ii. b. i. p. 329. F |