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a supernatural power was most undoubtedly exerted by him, as is related in the New Testament.

When I examined the miracles reported to have been performed amongst the Pagans, and amongst Christians, since the publication of the gospel, I laid down some general rules, by which we may try them, one and all, wherever they occur, and which will set forth the grounds upon which we suspect the accounts of them to be false. And we found that none of these boasted wonders could be assigned, which were not liable to one or more of the following objections, each of which is a sufficient ground for rejecting the particular facts that are affected by it. What then were these objections? First, that they were not published to the world till long after the time when said to be performed; secondly, that they were not published in the places where it is pretended they were wrought, but only propagated at a great distance from the supposed scene of action; thirdly, that if the accounts of them were published at the time when, and at the places where they are reported to be performed, the circumstances under which they were published, favoured their passing without examination, and screened them from detection.

These then being the grounds upon which we suspect those accounts of miracles to be false, I cannot take a more effectual way to convince you that the gospel miracles are true, than to shew that none of the above grounds of suspicion can be applied to them, by proving, first, that they were published at the time when; secondly, they were published at the places where said to be performed; and, thirdly, that the circumstances under which they were

published, are such as satisfy us they underwent a careful examination, and must have been detected, had they been impostures.

And though the establishing of these points will prove that the testimony for the miracles believed by the protestant Christian is stronger than that urged for the miracles he rejects, and consequently will warrant his making the distinction he does between them; in order to remove every ground of cavilling, I shall not rest the merits of my cause here, but proceed still farther, by attempting to prove, first, that the testimony which supports the miracles recorded in the New Testament is not only stronger than that which supports any pretended wonders, but also that it is the strongest that can be supposed, or that from the nature of the thing could be had; and, secondly, that besides the unexceptionable proof from testimony, the credibility of the gospel miracles is strengthened by collateral evidences, peculiar to themselves, and of the most striking nature. I must beg your attention while I go through all these particulars, and shall begin with proving, that the objections which have been shewn to affect the testimony for the miracles which we reject, are not applicable to the testimony for the miracles which we believe.

First, then, the miracles of Jesus were published and appealed to at the very time when said to be performed. We have shewn that many of the most boasted wonders of paganism and popery cannot be traced up to any contemporary witnesses, and were not heard of till length of time had thrown a veil over the imposture. Now we have all the certainty that can be had for a matter of this kind, that the

same objection does not lie against the miracles of the gospel.

It would be extremely impertinent in me to enter upon a proof, that the books in which we have an account of the miracles of Jesus are as old as the time they lay claim to. What was never disputed by the enemies of Christianity in its earliest ages, when opportunities and means of inquiry were to be had, would be denied with a very ill grace, and with very little probability of success, after seventeen hundred years have elapsed. It is sufficient to observe at present, that every rule of criticism, by which the genuineness of ancient books is established, gives testimony to the genuineness of the books of the New Testament, to its being the work of those authors whose name it bears. Internal marks of spuriousness, which have generally overturned the credit of supposititious writings, never have been, nor ever can be produced. External corroborating testimonies cannot be supposed stronger than those we can urge, to prove that our sacred books are not the work of any later age. We can trace them up from century to century, till we arrive at the very period when they are said to have been written. We can trace them up, I say, mentioned by the writers of every age, and quoted by a chain of authors, beginning with contemporary ones, whose works the severest critics cannot set aside, without destroying all certainty, without giving up the genuineness of every ancient production.

c The reader who would see the collateral support of the genuineness and antiquity of the New Testament, as confirmed by other writings, may be satisfied by looking into Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History.

But granting the books of the New Testament to be the genuine productions of those whose names they bear, still you will object, (as I remember you have objected to me,) that it will not follow from this that the miracles of Jesus were published and avowed, till long after the time assigned for them. The Gospel of St. John, you observed, is not thought to have been written, at least not to have been published, till sixty years after the death of Jesus, about the year 97. St. Luke did not write his Gospel, if the evidence of antiquity is to be taken, till after the year of Christ 61; that is, twenty-seven years after his death. St. Mark, indeed, wrote before these two Evangelists, but two years posterior to St. Matthew, the earliest of all the gospel historians; and St. Matthew never was affirmed by any one to have written before the year 41; that is, eight after the death of Jesus, though others, perhaps with better authority, fix the date of his Gospel many years lower. From these facts, admitted by Christians, you inferred, that granting the Gospels to be genuine, still the highest antiquity any of them can boast of comes short, several years, of the time when the miracles there related are said to have been performed; and consequently, that the testimony for the miracles of Jesus cannot be said to have been published, till length of time had rendered an examination of their pretensions difficult to be set about.

I have fairly represented the strength of your objection, and what follows is, in my opinion, a sufficient answer.

Writers in defence of Christianity have indeed contented themselves, in general, with tracing up the testimony of the gospel miracles to the time

when the histories of them were written; and they thought this sufficient, because, though that time be posterior by many years to any of the facts, yet it was not so long after, but that many who had it in their power to detect the fraud, if there was any, must have been still alive. But, sir, it is not merely Christians infer that Je

from the Gospels that we sus's miracles were publicly avowed in his own time: no, though the Gospels had never been written, we should still have had sufficient grounds for affirming this. However paradoxical this assertion may seem, it can be well supported; for grant us only this concession, (if what was never disputed can be called a concession,) that Jesus lived and died at the time Christians say he did; and this, of itself, will prove that his pretension to miracles was coeval with him.

That a new religion was taught by Jesus is confirmed by the concurrent testimony of all antiquity, of Jewish and Pagan, as well as of Christian writers; and is also evident from the change which we know was introduced into the state of religion, which change all history fixes to that very period which Christians assign for it. And that Jesus's claim to miracles was coeval with the first publication of Christianity is obvious; because the whole superstructure of gospel doctrines and precepts is built on this foundation. For unless Jesus had wrought miracles at the very time he taught, he must have defeated his own preaching. Upon no other grounds, but the authority of God being with him, manifested by miracles, could he hope for success amongst the believers of a former revelation, sanctioned by the miracles of Moses and the pro

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