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"inspire and ashamed to avow," who lived the life of a libertine and Atheist; but who, agreeably to the testimony of Bishop Burnet, died the death of a "penitent Christian." The perusal of this chapter, the meditation upon its complete fulfilment, and upon the beautiful summary it contains of the most peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity, so operated on the mind of this profligate, though able man, as to lead (in the opinion of the prelate just mentioned) to an unfeigned faith in Him "who was wounded "for his transgressions, and by whose stripes he was "healed."

Such then, my friend, being the cogency of the evidence resulting from prophecy, let us not attempt to resist it; such the purity and heavenly tendency of the precepts and doctrines often blended with the predictions, let us yield ourselves to their influence. Let us gather food for meditation from the animating language of those who

"th' inspiring breath

"Ecstatic felt; and, from this world retir'd,
"Convers'd with angels and immortal forms
"On gracious errands bent."

THOMSON.

Let us implant the delightful anticipations of faith, upon the triumphant declarations of prophecy, and hail that happy period foretold by Isaiah, when

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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be "brought low;

"And the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places a "smooth plain ;

"And the glory of JEHOVAH shall be revealed;

"And all flesh shall see together the salvation of our GOD."

Infidelity, every where active, though always baffled, will suggest the improbability of the completion of the prophecies yet unfulfilled: but when it is considered that many of the predictions, long ago realized, were delivered at the same time, and by the same prophet, as those for whose accomplishment we are waiting, it would be the height of absurdity and impiety. to encourage a doubt. It may happen naturally enough, that the true meaning of a prediction may be disguised, in order that the wayward wills of men may not operate for its prevention; but this is no reason for its rejection. Prophecies are like writings in cipher, which require either tutors or events to explain their hidden meaning, and render them natural and intelligible. This, with regard to the Old Testament predictions," is what Jesus Christ and his Apostles have "done. They have opened the seal, they have rent "the veil, and developed the spiritual sense. They "have taught us, that our enemies are our passions, "that our Redeemer is a spiritual Redeemer: that "he is to have a first and a second coming, the one in "humility to abase the proud, the other in glory to "exalt the humble; that Jesus Christ is God as well 66 as man." (g)

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(g) Pascal's Thoughts: "The Law figurative."

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LETTER VII.

On the Evidence deducible from Miracles; and on the Credibility of Human Testimony.

THE advocates of Revealed Religion affirm, without any fear of refutation, that the argument resulting from the completion of Prophecy is one that is continually increasing in force; while they are often as ready to admit, that the argument from Miracles diminishes in proportion as we recede farther from the Apostolic times. I hope, my friend, to be able to convince you, in the course of the present letter, that this is a concession which need not be made: but that we have as good reason to believe the miraculous facts of Scripture, as any except eye-witnesses, or those who received their information immediately from the lips of eye-witnesses.

The evidence flowing from the performance of miracles is indeed so summary and convincing, that it may be stated satisfactorily in very few words: for this reason, however, as it should seem, it has been selected by ingenious unbelievers to exercise their dexterity and acumen upon; and thus it becomes requisite to discuss this branch of our subject with a minuteness and comparative prolixity which might, otherwise, have been altogether avoided.

By miracles, I do not mean " juggling tricks," but supernatural events. This genuine notion of miracles

has been sometimes obscured by definition; yet a candid inquirer after truth cannot well mistake. Most of the opinions entertained by men of good sense, apart from any controversial views as to this topic, are correct. No man would think that curing lameness, by a regular surgical or medical process, was miraculous: every man would say that the instantaneous production of a limb, and "making the maimed "whole," was miraculous. And this exactly reaches the logical scientific notion of miracles: for, when "such effects are produced as (cæteris paribus) are usually produced, God is said to operate according "to the common course of nature: but when such "effects are produced as are (cat. par.) contrary to, "or different from that common course, they are said "to be MIRACULOUS."

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Now no man will presume to affirm that it is impossible a teacher should be sent from God. It may be necessary that one should be sent; and I think the train of observation and deduction of facts in my second and third letter, establish that necessity. If one or more be sent, they must bring credentials to evince that their mission is divine; and what can those credentials be but miracles? In fact, the very idea of a revelation includes that of miracles. A revelation cannot be made but by a miraculous interposition of Deity: so that the probability of a revelation implies a correspondent probability of the occurrence of miracles; and the necessity of a revelation a like necessity of miracles. Nay, I may venture to affirm farther, that there is a mutual and necessary

correlation between the two: for as, on the one hand, miracles (or prophecies, which are in fact miraculous, being contrary to the course of nature) are necessary to prove the divine authority of an agent; so, on the other hand, the performance of uncontrolled miracles, or the delivery of true predictions, immediately suggests to the mind the conviction that they have been permitted solely for the purpose of proving that the person, by whom they are performed, is employed by God to do something, or reveal something, which mankind would not have known in any other way.

It is, one would suppose, almost an intuitive truth, that, when a person performs evident and uncontrolled miracles in proof of any doctrine, those who have sufficient evidence of the reality of such miracles ought to admit the doctrine to be true, or from God. At all events, the proposition is easily deduced from a few steps of obvious reasoning; limiting it, as I have done, with Baxter, Barrow, and Chandler, to uncontrolled miracles, or those the apparent design of which is not contradicted either by the absurdity of the thing they are intented to prove, or by some equal or greater miracles opposed to them. We thus exclude every thing like juggling from the idea of miracles; and at the same time free ourselves from all consideration of pretended miracles, such as those performed by the Egyptian magicians, with the permission or the performance of which, as they were controlled, we have nothing to do. The reasoning from which our proposition flows is simply this: a genuine miracle cannot be performed without an extraordinary divine

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