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The Miracles of Jesus
131. Christian Religion. Concerning Christ’s Miracles and Judaism. I
think it certain that seeing the miracles of Christ were done, for three
years and a half so publicly all over Judea, and seeing there was such
violent opposition there, so soon after, against the Christians, [then]
if the matters of fact had been false, they would have been denied by
the Jews generally, and if this had been the case, we should have known
it. The Jews afterwards would much more have denied them, which it is
evident they did not. If they had, they would have been also denied by
the heathens who wrote against the Christians. But they were not denied.
It is impossible that the whole world should have turned Christian, in
three hundred years after the facts were so publicly done, if they had
been generally false. If the Jews had denied the matters of fact at
first, they would undoubtedly have denied them at this day, seeing they
are so tenacious of the traditions of their fathers. Christ’s
resurrection was openly published within a few days after his death, on
the day of Pentecost. It is undoubted that the number of the Christians
increased everywhere exceedingly from that time, so that a considerable
alteration was speedily made by it in the face of the world. Whether the
matters of fact were written or no, they were universally talked of. The
conversion of the Roman empire to the Christian religion was the most
remarkable thing that ever happened among the nations of the world. It
would be unaccountable that it should have happened upon the story of a
few obscure men, without inquiring into the matters related. And it
would be a very strange thing, if the Old Testament was true, that there
should be no prophecies of such a change, especially when almost all the
great and general changes of the nations thereabouts (though far less
remarkable) were foretold. It is no wonder that there should be
prophecies of so great a change among the heathen.
140. Christian Religion.
Christ’s Uncommon Insight. It is certain that Jesus Christ had none of
the advantages of education, to get learning and knowledge, and it is
also certain that everywhere in his speeches, he showed an uncommon
insight into things (a great knowledge of the true nature of virtue,
morality, and what was most acceptable to God), vastly beyond the rest
of the nation — take scribes and Pharisees and all. And how did he come
by it? How did he get it at Nazareth? Those who have not an education in
these days, may get much by books, which are so common. But books of
learning were not to be had then. Yea, it is evident that he knew vastly
more than any of the philosophers and wise men in the whole world, by
those rational descriptions which he gave of God and his attributes, of
his government and providence, of man’s nature, business, end, and
happiness, of what is pleasing to God, of the immortality of the soul,
and a future state. How knew he, so exactly, truths perhaps demonstrable
by reason, but never found out before? Hence was it, that his peculiar
doctrines were perfectly consistent with reason, such as the day of
judgment, God’s absolute decrees and predestination, original sin,
reconciliation by his death, salvation by faith [by] mere grace,
regeneration, etc.
236. Christian Religion.
Miracles. Such kind of miracles as healing the sick, the blind, the
deaf, dumb, lame, etc., and creating bread and flesh, and turning water
into wine, are greater than those that are so much more pompous: as
causing universal darkness, dividing the sea, the shaking and burning of
mount Sinai, etc. It is a greater work to give exactly that disposition
of parts to air and earth, that shall cause bread or fish, than to cause
such great motions that are merely the exercise of strength. The healing
of the sick and distracted, do more especially manifest divine power,
for this cause that we have reason to conclude mankind especially are
subject to God’s providence, and that their health and the exercise of
their reason are alone in his hands, and that it is not in the power of
any evil spirit to give them and take them at his pleasure, however
great power he may be supposed to have over the inanimate creatures.
When a person appears that has evidently the whole course of nature at
all times subject to his command, so that he can alter it how and when
he pleases, we have the greatest reason to think that person has divine
authority, and that the author and upholder of nature favors him, and
gives approbation to what he pretends thereby. For we know that the
course of nature is God’s established course of acting upon creatures.
And we cannot think that he would give power to any evil spirit to alter
it when he pleases, for evil purposes. But Christ manifestly had the
course of nature so subject to his will and command.
321a. Christian Religion.
Miracles. Raising the dead to life is given in the Old Testament, as a
certain proof of the authority and mission of a prophet, and that what
he says is the truth. 1 Kin. 17:24 “And the woman said to Elijah, By
this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in
thy mouth is truth.” So that if the Old Testament is the Word of God,
Jesus was a true prophet.
g Lazarus from the dead
(John 11:41): that he called upon God before he did it, to do it for
him, and thanked him that he had heard him and told him that he knew
that he heard him always. When he spoke to him he called him Father and
told him that he spoke to him for this end: that others that stood by,
when they should see that what he asked of him was granted in such an
extraordinary thing, might believe that he sent him. Now can it be
imagined that God would thus hear an impostor? Or so order or suffer it
that so extraordinary a thing should be done immediately, in consequence
of the request and act of an impostor, who was so impudent when he asked
it as to call him Father, told him that he always heard him, and told
him that he spoke thus that others might see that he did indeed give a
testimony to his mission and authority, by doing it at his request, in
such a manner?
512. Christ’s Miracles.
Christ joined pardoning sins with his healing the sick. When one came to
be healed, he first told him that his sins were forgiven. When the Jews
found fault that he should pretend to forgive sins, then, immediately,
he heals the person’s disease that they might believe that he had the
power to forgive sins and tells them that he does it for this end. Mat.
9:2; Mark 2:3; Luke 5:18. Now if Christ were an impostor, can it be
believed that God would so countenance such horrid blasphemy as this
would be, to enable him to cure the disease by a word of speaking, a
work which God appropriates to himself as his own, Psa. 103:3. Would God
give an impostor this attestation to a blasphemous lie, when he
pretended to do it as an attestation to his divine mission?
518. Christ’s Miracles.
Christ, by the works which he wrought, showed that he had an absolute
and sovereign power over the course of nature, over the spiritual and
invisible world, and over the bodies and souls of men, as Dr. Sharp
observes. It was not so with other prophets. They could not work what
miracles they pleased and when they pleased. They could work miracles
only when they were excited and directed to it by a special command or
impulse from heaven. But Christ wrought miracles in a constant mouse
from the time of his beginning his public ministry. They sought to him
for this end, and he wrought them as of his own power at all times. They
came to him for it, under the notion that he was able, and Christ
required that they should believe in order to it, to which never any
prophet pretended. Moses was shut out of the land of Canaan, partly for
working a miracle in his own name, and not sanctifying the Lord God.
“Must we fetch water out of this rock?” said he. The prophets never
pretended that they themselves had properly any power to work miracles,
but disclaimed it. God never subjected the course of nature to them, to
work miracles by their own word and command upon all occasions. Care was
taken in all the miracles that God wrought using the prophets, that it
should be visible that what was done was only by God, and that what they
said or did, upon which the miracle was wrought, was by particular
revelation from heaven. They who came to Christ [so] that he might work
miracles for them, did it in the faith, that by his own power and
holiness he was able to do it for them. The leper said, Mat. 8:2, “Lord,
if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.” He believed that Christ could
work miracles when he would. This Christ approved of. Mat. 8:8, “But
speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” Mat. 9:18, “My
daughter is even now dead; but come and lay thine hand on her, and she
shall live.” Mat. 9:21, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be
whole.” Mat. 9:28, “Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto
him, Yea, Lord.” In Mat. 16:9, Christ reproves his disciples, because
they were afraid of wanting bread, not remembering how he had fed
multitudes in the wilderness. This implies that he was able to do the
like again when he pleased. He cast out devils as of his own power and
authority, Mark 1:27, “With authority commandeth he even the unclean
spirits, and they do obey him.” And Christ, as having power of his own
to work miracles, gave power to his disciples, as Mat. 10; Mark 3:14,
and Mark 6:7; Luke 9 and 10, and so miracles were wrought in Christ’s
name by the apostles and many other disciples. Moses did not work those
miracles that were wrought in his time. Nor did he in the least pretend
to any such thing. But Christ did pretend to work his miracles. They are
often spoken of, and he himself speaks of them, as works that he did.
Yea, he declares himself fellow with God in working, John 5:17, “My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”
584. Christ’s Miracles.
What can be more reasonable than to believe a man when he comes and
tells us that he is sent from God to heal the diseases of our souls, and
in order that we may believe him, he heals all sorts of men, at all
times, of all manner of diseases, by a touch or a word. He plainly shows
that he can do it when he will, let the disease be what it will? He
tells us that he will dispossess Satan of our souls and free us from his
power and dominion. To prove that he has power to do this, he, before
our eyes, dispossesses him of the bodies of men that he has possessed.
[He] does it very often and for a long time together, so as plainly to
show that he has power over those unclean spirits, can conquer them and
eject them at pleasure, and do what he will with them. He tells us that
will deliver us from spiritual and eternal death (and also from temporal
death), that he will raise us from the dead and give us eternal life, so
that we shall live forever and not die. And to prove this he gives us
sensible evidence that he has power over men’s lives by not only
prolonging their lives but even restoring them after they are dead, and
besides, he rises from the dead himself. He tells us that he will bestow
heavenly glory upon us and will translate us to heaven. And to confirm
us in this belief, he tells us that we shall see himself after his death
ascend into heaven. What more could we desire from a man, who pretends
to come from God and to have power to do these things for us, than to
give us such evidences of his power as these? He tells us that he will
undertake for us and appear for us before God, and that he will ask
mercy for us of him, and tell us that we need not doubt but that if he
appears and pleads for us, he shall procure acceptance for us. For God
so loves him that he always hears him and grants what he asks of him. So
that we may see that it is true, he does, in our hearing, ask of God
strange things concerning a man who had been dead four days, that he may
come to life again. And he tells God that he asks it for this end that
we may see that he always hears him and grants what he requests. And
accordingly, at his request, the dead man comes to life.
981. Evidence Concerning
Christ’s Miracles and Resurrection. Before the coming of Christ, there
was a general expectation spread over all the eastern nations that out
of Judea should arise a person who should be governor of the world.
[This] is expressly affirmed by the Roman historians Suetonius and
Tacitus The star that appeared at Christ’s birth and the journey of the
Chaldean wise men is mentioned by Chalcidius the Platonist. Herod’s
causing all the children in Bethlehem, under two years old, to be slain,
and the reflection made upon him on that occasion by the emperor
Augustus, is related by Macrobius (Macrob. lib. ii. cap. 4.) Many of the
miracles that Jesus wrought in his lifetime are, as to the matter of
fact, particularly his healing the lame and the blind, and casting out
devils, expressedly owned by the most implacable enemies of
Christianity: by Celsus, Julian and the authors of the Jewish Talmud.
And that the power of the heathen gods ceased after the coming of Christ
is acknowledged by Porphyry, who attributes it to their being angry at
the setting up of the Christian religion, which he styles impious and
profane. Many particulars of the collateral history, concerning John the
Baptist, Herod and Pilate, are largely recorded by Josephus. The
crucifixion of Christ under Pontius Pilate is related by Tacitus. And
divers of the most remarkable circumstances attending it, such as the
earthquake and miraculous darkness, were recorded in the public Roman
registers, commonly appealed to by the first Christian writers, as what
could not be denied by the adversaries themselves and are, in a very
particular manner, attested by Phlegon. That extraordinary Sybilline
prophecy, referred to by Virgil (so much like Isaiah’s prophecies of
Christ), shows the expectation of the heathen world at that time:
“It was usual for the
Roman deputies, or governors of provinces, to give an account of the
chief things during their administrations, to the emperor. Accordingly,
Pilate gave an account to Tiberius of what had happened in his time
concerning Jesus of Nazareth: an account of his miracles, death,
crucifixion and resurrection, upon which it is said that the emperor
proposed it to the senate that he should be admitted into the number of
their gods and decreed that none should be accused for being a Christian
during his reign. Two things I may remark with reference to this matter,
namely that Pilate’s account was enrolled in the public records at Rome,
and that the fathers, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, afterwards appealed
to the emperor and senate upon his head, in their apologies for the
Christian religion Bennet’s Inspiration of the Scriptures, pp. 103-105.
The words of Phlegon
concerning the eclipse at the time of Christ’s passion, book xiii of his
Chronicon on Olympiads, are these: “In the fourth year of the two
hundred and second Olympiad, there happened the greatest eclipse of the
sun that ever was known. There was such a dark night at the sixth hour
of the day, that the stars were seen in the heavens, and there was an
earthquake in Bithynia, which overturned a great part of Nicea.” These
words are to be seen in Eusebius’s and Hieronymus’s Chronicon, and
Origen mentions it, tract 34 upon Matthew. And Chalcidius the Platonist,
speaking of the star which happened at Christ’s birth, in his commentary
on Timaeus, has these words: “There is another more holy and venerable
history, which relates the appearance of a new star, not to foretell
disease and death, but the descent of a venerable God, to preserve
mankind and to show favor to the affairs of mortals; which star the wise
men of Chaldea observing, as they traveled in the night, and being very
well skilled in viewing the heavenly bodies, they are said to have
sought after the new birth of this God. Having found that majesty in a
child, they paid him worship and made such vows as were agreeable to so
great a God.” Grotius De Verit. lib. iii. Sect. 14.
1026. Christ’s Miracles.
If in the times of Christ and his disciples there had been any such
magical art anywhere, either in Egypt or in other places, whereby those
things related of Christ could be done, such as dumb men’s being
suddenly healed, the lame walking, sight given to the blind, etc., then
the emperors Tiberius, Nero and others, who would not have spared any
cost in inquiring after such things, would undoubtedly have found it
out.
Pliny, book xxx, chap. xi,
in his history of magic says concerning Nero, “He had a greater desire
after music and tragical singing.” And afterwards, “No man favored any
art with greater cost, for these things he wanted neither riches,
abilities, nor disposition to learn.” Presently after, he relates how he
was initiated into the magical suppers of King Tiridates. Grotius De
Verit. book v, sect. 3.
1190. Christ’s Miracles
Greater than Old Testament Miracles. When Moses objected (Exo. 4) that
perhaps the people would not believe his mission, God directed him to
work two miracles to convince them: first, the transmutation of his rod
to and from a serpent, and secondly, the making his hand leprous and
healing the leprosy. And it is to be noted that the preference is given
to the last miracle, as being especially what might well be regarded as
a good evidence of Moses’s divine mission, Exo. 4:8, “And it shall come
to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of
the first sign, that they will believe the latter sign.” By which it is
manifest, that such a sort of miracles as Christ wrought, and which he
most abounded in, viz. his healing the bodies of men when diseased, were
a proper and good evidence of a divine mission. [Kidder’s Demonstration,
part ii. P.5.]
Moses tells Pharaoh, Exo. 8:10-11, “The frogs shall be removed, that
thou mayest know that there is none like the Lord our God.” The
magicians could bring up frogs, but not remove them. They brought
plagues, but took away none. But if the driving out the frogs was such
an evidence of the distinguishing power of the Almighty; how much more
the driving out devils from the bodies and souls of men, silencing their
oracles, turning them out of their temples, and out of those who used
curious arts, as at Ephesus, and afterwards, abolishing their worship
through the Roman empire?
For the gods that were
worshipped in the heathen world, were devils, Psa. 106:37; Deu. 32:17;
Lev. 17:7. Christ, by the prevailing of the Christian religion, cast out
those devils out of the very land of Egypt. And which was the greatest
work: to drive the frogs out of Egypt, or to drive out the impure
spirits that were the gods of Egypt? It is spoken of, Isa. 19:1, as a
glorious manifestation of the majesty of God, that he should ride on a
swift cloud, and should come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt should
be moved at his presence. See also Jer. 43:12. But when Christ came into
Egypt, in the preaching of his gospel, he moved, dispossessed, and
banished the idols of Egypt, and abolished them out of the world. And
not only did Christ thus drive away the devils, the false gods, out of
Egypt, but out of all the nations round about Canaan that were known by
the Israelites, even to the utmost extend of the then known heathen
world. These gods were by Christ dispossessed of their ancient
tenements, which they had holden age after age, time out of mind. They
were utterly abolished, so that they have had no worshipers now for a
great many ages, no temples, no sacrifices, no honors done them. They
are old, obsolete things now, utterly disregarded in the world.
It is abundantly spoken of
in the Old Testament as a future glorious work of God, greatly
manifesting his power and majesty, and that he should prevail against
and destroy the gods of the heathens, and abolish their worship. But our
Jesus has the honor of this glorious work.
Again, when Korah and his
company charged Moses and Aaron with taking too much upon them, Moses
says, Num. 16:5, “To-morrow, the Lord will show who are his, and who is
holy, and will cause him to come near unto him; even him whom he hath
chosen, will he cause to come near unto him.” And again, Num. 16:28-30,
“Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works;
for I have not done them of my own mind: if these men die the common
death of all men,” etc. If the miraculous taking away of men’s lives be
so great an evidence of Moses and Aaron’s divine mission, and of their
being holy, and chosen and appointed of God, how much more is raising
men from the dead and evidence of the same work! Which is the greatest
work, to take away men’s lives, or to restore them to life after they
are dead; or, indeed, miraculously to save them from death, when they
are sick with mortal diseases? Again, God’s causing the earth to open
and swallow up those wicked men, is no more an evidence of a divine
hand, than Christ’s preventing the sea from swallowing up those that
were in the ship, by immediately quieting the winds and sea by a word
speaking, when the ship was even covered with waves, through the
violence of the tempest, and at another time, upholding Peter from
sinking and being swallowed up by the tempestuous sea, when walking on
the water. Elisha’s causing iron to swim, is mentioned in the Old
Testament as a great miracle. But this was not greater than Christ’s
walking on the water, and causing Peter to walk upon it.
When Elijah had restored to life the widow’s son, she says, 1 Kin.
17:24, “By this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of
the Lord in thy mouth is truth.” But this sort of miracles Christ
wrought, besides rising from the dead himself.
Let Christ’s feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes, be
compared with Elisha’s miracle in 2 Kin. 4:42-44, and also that miracle
recorded in the same chapter, verse 1-7. Curing the leprosy of Naaman is
one of the most celebrated of Elisha’s miracles. The king of Israel
speaks of healing the leprosy, as a peculiar work of God, 2 Kin. 5:7.
Naaman himself was convicted by it, that the God of Israel was the only
true God.
Moses speaks of God’s stilling the tempest in Egypt, and causing the
thunder and hail to cease, as that which will convince Pharaoh that the
earth was the Lord’s, Exo. 9:29. Then by parity of reason, Christ’s
stilling the tempest and causing the winds and seas to obey him, is an
evidence that the seas and earth were his. Moses, to convince the people
of his divine mission, took some of the water of the river, and poured
it out on the dry land, and it was turned to blood, Exo. 7:17-20. But
this was not a greater work, not so glorious, as Christ’s turning water
into wine.
It greatly affected Melchizedek, king of Salem, and convinced him that
Abraham was God’s chosen friend: chosen that he and his posterity might
be blessed as God’s people. But what is this to Jesus’s conquering the
world in its...(?)
Abraham’s conquering the
four kings and their armies, with his armed servants and confederates,
greatly affected Melchisedek, king of Salem, and convinced him that
Abraham was God’s chosen friend: chosen that he and his posterity might
be blessed as God’s people. But what is this to Jesus’ conquering the
world in its greatest strength, and when united under that which by the
prophet Daniel is represented as the greatest, and by far the strongest
monarchy, by his handful of poor, weak, illiterate disciples?
Christ’s victory over the
false gods of the nations, in this conquest, was far more conspicuous,
as the opposition was to them. The strife was more directly with them.
The thing professedly sought and aimed at by Christ in the conflict, was
the utter destruction of these false gods, the entire rooting of them
out, and the abolition of their worship out of the world. And such a
victory was obtained: those false gods were forsaken, their oracles
silenced, their temples destroyed, their images every where burnt, and
their remembrance made to cease. So that now, for many ages, they have
not been remembered any otherwise, than as instances of the great
blindness and folly of their votaries.
And it is further to be observed that in the 41st chapter of Isaiah,
this very victory of Abraham is spoken of as a representation of this
great victory of the Messiah over the idols of the nations.
Elisha’s smiting the army of the Syrians with blindness is mentioned as
a great miracle, 2 Kin. 6:18, etc. But opening the eyes of the blind, as
Christ did, is a much greater miracle.
Moses and other prophets wrought many miracles, whereby they brought
great judgments on men. But miracles of the beneficent kind were ever
noted in the church of God, as greater, and more distinguishing of a
divine hand, than of the contrary kind. See Pool’s Synopsis on Exodus
7:12.
How often are the miracles
wrought in Egypt spoken of as clear evidences that he that wrought them,
was the Supreme God, and the only true God; Exo. 7:3-5; chap. 8:10, 19,
22; chap. 9:14, 29; Exo. 10:2; chap. 12:12; chap. 14:18.
The work of Gideon in
conquering the Midianites and the multitudes that were joined with them,
by three hundred men, with the light of lamps and sound of trumpets, is
celebrated as a great work of God’s power, Jdg. 6:14, and Jdg. 7:2, 7.
But this is but a mere type of Christ’s conquering the world by the
preaching of the gospel. This victory over Midian is spoken of in the
Scripture, as representing the conquests of the Messiah, Isa. 9:4.
1285. Healing Leprosy. The
curing the leprosy was a special manifestation of the power of God. The
leprosy which appeared among the Jews seems not to have been a disease
that came by natural means, but a special plague sent by God, as was the
leprosy of a garment and of an house. Therefore it was not to be removed
but by the same hand that sent it.
1286. Christ’s Miracles.
God was very jealous for his own honor with respect to the miracles that
were wrought by the prophets in his name: that his power should be
acknowledged in the miracle and all the glory ascribed to him and none
assumed by the instrument. Therefore, God was so provoked with Moses and
Aaron because they sanctified him not as they ought to have done, in
bringing water out of the rock, that he refused, in his account, to
suffer them to enter into the promised land, Num. 20:11-12. Therefore,
if Jesus had been an impostor, as the Jews charged him with being, John
5:17-23, it is altogether incredible that God would have so countenanced
and in such a degree winked at Jesus’s working miracles in his own name
and by his own power, claiming the power to work the same works that the
Father wrought, and so making himself equal with God.
1288. Healing the Gadarene.
What was wrought with respect to Nebuchadnezzar, when he was driven from
men, becoming like a wild beast so that no man could confine or tame him
and afterwards in restoring him to his right mind, is represented as a
very great miracle, a divine work, remarkably demonstrating the infinite
and uncontrollable power of God and the supreme and most absolute
dominion of Him whose work this was. It was wrought for that end as is
manifested by Dan. 4:2, 3, “I thought fit to shew the signs and wonders
that the Most High hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs, and
how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and
his dominion is from generation to generation.” See also Dan. 4:17,
25-26, 34-35, 37.
But if this work wrought
on Nebuchadnezzar was so great a miracle, so evidently divine, and so
clearly demonstrating the divinity of the author of it, his infinite
power and superior dominion, then this is a clear proof that the miracle
of Christ wrought on the poor Gadarene, was a divine work and a
sufficient evidence of the divinity and the infinite, supreme and most
absolute power of Jesus, who wrought it. He was no less wild and
untamable than Nebuchadnezzar, Mat. 8. “He was exceeding fierce, so that
no man might pass by that way.” See also Mark 5:3-5; Luke 8:27. This man
Christ restored perfectly and of his own power and authority. The devils
that possessed him by their behavior appeared to be sensible that they
were under his power. They spoke to him as one that had power to expel
them, to confine, punish and torment them.
They fell down before him
as before the Son of God Most High, beseeching him not to torment them
and not to command them to go into the deep, but to suffer them to enter
into the herd of swine. And Christ “commanded the devil, saying ‘Come
out of the man, thou unclean spirit,” Mark 5:8; Luke 3:29. But the man
who had been possessed of the devils was perfectly delivered and sat at
Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind.
1306. Miracles of Jesus.
It adds to the evidence which is given to the truth of Christianity by
the multitude of miracles wrought by Christ, his apostles and followers
in the first century, that there were no pretenses of inspiration, or
miracles, among the Jews (at least none worth notice) in Judea, or any
other part of the world. If all that multitude, and that long-continued
series of miracles, recorded to be wrought in confirmation of
Christianity, were fictions, vain pretenses, or enthusiastic
imaginations, why were there no pretenses or imaginations of the same
sort, on the other side, among the Jews, in opposition to these? Those
of the Jews that were opposed to Christianity, were vastly the greater
part of the nation. — And they had as high an opinion of the
honorableness of those gifts of prophecy and miracles, as Christians.
They had as much in their notions and tempers, to lead them to a
fondness for the claim of such an honor to their party. They were
exceedingly proud of their special relation to God, and of their high
privilege as the peculiar favorites of heaven, and, in this respect,
were exalted far above all the world: which is a temper of mind (as we
see abundantly), above all others, leading men to pretenses of this
nature.
There could be nothing
peculiar in the constitution of the first Christians, tending to
enthusiasm, beyond the rest of the Jews: for they were of the same
blood, the same race and nation. Nor could it be because they wanted
zeal against Christianity, and a desire to oppose and destroy it, or
wanted envy and virulent opposition of mind to any pretenses in the
Christians to excel them in the favor of God, or excellency of any gifts
or privileges whatsoever. They had such zeal and such envy, even to
madness and fury.
The true reason,
therefore, why so vast a multitude of miracles were said, and believed,
to be openly wrought among Christians for so long a time, even for a
whole age, and none among the Jews, must be that such was the state of
things in that age, that it was not possible to palm false pretenses of
such a kind upon the world, and that those who were most elated with
pride, and most ambitious of such an honor, could see no hope of
succeeding in any such pretenses. And because the Christians indeed were
inspired, and were enabled to work miracles, and did work them, as was
pretended and believed in great multitudes, and this continued for so
long a time. But God never favored their adversaries with such a
privilege.
1342 Evidence for True
Miracles. “The miracles reported to have been done in the heathen world
are unworthy of God, either in themselves or the end proposed by them.
For let it be observed that God never works miracles merely to astonish
and surprise people but always to serve some great end of providence.
And though he has, in favor of his people and sometimes even of
particular persons, wrought miracles, yet when he published the law and
the gospel, he did not rest the authority upon one or more single
miracles but upon a long series of miracles exhibited from day to day,
for years together. And if miracles are properly applied as a proof of
the purposes and will of God, miracles wrought without being attended
with any declaration of God’s will, in which we have any concern, are
very improper instances to be set up in opposition to those of Moses and
Christ, upon which the happiness of mankind depends in this life, and in
that light which is to come. This consideration gives weight and
authority to the miracles of the gospel. For it was a design worthy of
God to restore mankind to that happiness worthy they had forfeited, and
it was a work, in every view, of equal dignity and benevolence with the
creation.
With what color of reason
can the pretended miracles of the heathen world be brought into this
question, which were done upon trifling occasions, unworthy the
interposition of God? Look into all the ancient oracles. See to what
mean purposes they are applied, and how often they prove destructive to
those who relied on them. And then tell what marks you see of divine
wisdom and goodness in them, that should set them upon an equal foot
with the miracles of Christ Jesus. — Shall I undertake to prove that it
exceeds the power of man to raise the dead, and give sight to the blind,
and cure all diseases by the word of his mouth? No, never was any such
attempt set up.
But must they, you will
say, of necessity, proceed from God, because they could not be wrought
by men, especially considering that no effects, neither the miracles of
the gospel, nor the works of nature, can prove directly an infinite
power or wisdom? For who will be bold to say that the wisdom and power
of God were exhausted in the visible works of the creation, so that
there is nothing either wiser or greater, that infinite wisdom and power
can contrive or execute?
Let this matter be rightly
stated. — The first and most natural notion of God is that he is the
Maker of the world, and all things in it. This is the notion the Jews
had of God, and when they distinguished the true God from the heathen
gods, they defined him to be the Maker of the world and of mankind. Look
then into the miracles of the gospel, and you will see this attribute of
God as clearly demonstrated by them, as by the works of nature. For
there you will find that the author of the Christian miracles is the
Maker of mankind. For by Him men were made, that is, dead bodies were
made into living men. For to raise a dead man and to make a new man, are
much the same thing. If we believe that we received our senses, our
reason, our natural strength and vigor from the true God at first, look
into the gospel, and you will find the miracles of Christ are from the
same hand. For to the blind he gave sight; to the deaf, hearing; to the
lame and sick, strength and soundness; to the demoniacs and lunatics, he
gave reason and a right mind. Or if you choose rather to look into a
material world for a proof of a God, if you think the beauty, order, and
regularity of the world speak God to be both the author and governor of
nature, then search the gospel and you will find the miracles of Christ
derive themselves from the Governor of the world, and speak the same
language with the works of nature. For at his word the stormy winds were
laid, the sea obeyed his voice. When he suffered, all nature trembled,
the earth shook, the veil of the temple was rent, and the sun and the
moon were darkened.
If you appeal to the natural sense and notions of mankind for the idea
of the true God, and thence collect his essential attributes, justice,
righteousness, holiness and goodness, let the voice of nature be still,
and the gospel shall speak more plainly how just, how righteous, how
holy and good God is, who is the Author of the salvation and redemption
which is by Christ Jesus. Take what way you will to prove the being or
the attributes of God, and in the same way, with equal advantage, you
will prove the God of the world to be the Author of Christianity, which
all who believe the being of a God are bound to admit as a proof of the
truth of Christianity. And when our Savior styled the wonders that he
performed, the works that the Father had given him to finish, he plainly
appealed to the power of the Creator, as manifested in the works that
bare witness to him.
There is a question
commonly asked upon this occasion, to which it may be proper to give an
answer: That is, how shall we know that these miracles did not proceed
from an evil power, since we have instances, as some think, of miracles
wrought?
The answer is that we know this the same way that any man knows the
works of nature to proceed from a good being. For how do you know the
Creator of the world was a good being? If you answer that the Maker of
mankind, the Author of nature must of necessity be a good and holy
Being, because he has woven into the nature of man the love of virtue
and hatred of vice (it might more properly have been said, a conscience
approving virtue and disapproving vice), and given him distinct notions
of good and evil, by which reason unerringly concludes the author of
this nature, and these principles to be himself good and holy, — I
answer the same for the gospel of Christ. The love of virtue and hatred
of vice is as inseparable from the gospel of Christ, as from the reason
of man. And the gospel of Christ more distinctly teaches to know and
acknowledge the holiness and goodness of God, than reason or the works
of nature can do. And therefore, those who acknowledge the Author of
nature to be a good Being, have much more reason to acknowledge the
Author of the Christian miracles as to be a good Being.
But then we are told this
is arguing in a circle, proving the doctrines first by miracles, and
then the miracles again by the doctrines. But this is a great mistake,
and it lies in this: Men do not distinguish between the doctrines we
prove by miracles, and the doctrines by which we try miracles, for they
are not the same doctrines.
The doctrines which are to
be proved by miracles are the new revealed doctrines of Christianity,
which were neither known nor knowable to the reason of man. Such are the
doctrines of salvation and redemption by Jesus Christ, of sanctification
and regeneration by the Spirit of God. And whoever brought these
doctrines to prove the truth or divine original of miracles?” From Dr.
Sherlock’s Disc. Preached at the Temple Church.
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