"For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jor"dan from before you, until ye were passed over, as "the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he "dried up from before us until we were gone over: "that all the people of the earth might know the hand "of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear "the Lord your God for ever." (a)

Now to frame our argument, let it be supposed that there never was any such occurrence as that passage over Jordan; that these stones at Gilgal were set up on some other occasion, in some after age; and then that some designing man invented this book of Joshua, and pretended that it was written by Joshua at this time; adducing this erection of stones at Gilgal as a testimony of the truth of it. Would not the Israelites say to him, "We know the stonage at Gilgal, but we reason assigned for it: nor Where has it been all this

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never before heard this "of this book of Joshua.

"while? and where, and how came you, after so many

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ages, to find it? Besides, we are told in this book, "that this same passage over Jordan was ordained to "be taught our children, from age to age; and therefore "that they were always to be instructed in the mean❝ing of that stonage at Gilgal, as a memorial of it. "But we were never taught it when we were children; 66 nor did we ever teach our children any such thing. "And it is not at all likely that could have been for

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gotten, while so remarkable a stonage continued, "which was set up for that and no other purpose." If, then, for the reasons before assigned, no such im(a) Josh. iii. 15-17. iv. 18–24.

position could be practised successfully upon us as to the Stonehenge upon Salisbury Plain, how much less could it be with regard to the erection at Gilgal?

And farther, if, when we know not the reason of an insulated monument, such a delusive reason cannot be imposed; how much more impossible is it to impose on us in actions and observances which we celebrate in memory of particular miraculous events? How impossible to make us forget those passages which we daily commemorate; and to persuade us that we had always observed such institutions or ceremonies in memory of what we never before heard of; that is, that we knew it before we knew it! And if it be found thus impossible to practise an imposition upon us, even in some things which have not all the four criteria before-mentioned, how much more impossible is it that there should be any deceit with regard to particulars in which all those criteria actually meet.

Similar reasoning is applied with equal success by this acute writer to the principal facts, including the miraculous ones, recorded in the Evangelical history. The works and the miracles of Jesus Christ are said, by the Evangelists, to be done publicly in the face of the world; and so, indeed, himself affirmed in reasoning with his accusers: "I spake openly to the world, and "in secret have I said nothing." (b) We learn also in the Acts of the Apostles, that three thousand at one time, and more than two thousand at another, (c)

(6) John, xviii. 20. See on this point, Horne on the Study of the Scriptures, vol. i. p. 541, 1st edit.

(c) Acts, ii. 41. iv. 4.

were converted, upon conviction of what themselves had seen and known, what had been done publicly before their eyes, and in particulars respecting which it was impossible to impose upon them. So that here we find the two first of Mr. Leslie's criteria.

Then for the two second: Baptism and the Lord's Supper were instituted as perpetual memorials of these things: they were not instituted in after ages, but at the very time when the circumstances to which they relate took place; and they have been observed without interruption, through the whole Christian world, in all ages down from that time to the present. Besides, Christ himself ordained apostles, and other ministers of his Gospel, to preach and administer the sacraments: and that always “even unto the end of the world.” (d) Accordingly, they have continued by regular succession to this day. So that the Christian ministry is, and always has been, as notorious in point of fact, as the tribe of Levi among the Jews. The Gospel also is as much a law, a rule of conduct to the Christians, as the books of Moses to the Jews: and it being part of the matters of fact or truths related in the Gospel that 66 pastors and teachers" (e) were appointed by Christ, and to continue till the end of the world; consequently if the Gospel history and doctrines were invented (as they must be, if forged at all) in some ages after Christ; then, at the time of the invention, there could be no such order of clergy or ministers as derived themselves from the institution of Christ; a circumstance which must give the lie to the Gospel, and demonstrate the whole (d) Matt. xxviii. 20. (e) Ephes. iv. 11.

to be false. The miraculous actions of Christ and his Apostles being affirmed to be true no otherwise than as there were at that identical time (whenever the Deist will suppose the Gospel history to be forged), not only sacraments or ordinances of Christ's institution, but an order of Christian pastors, &c. to administer them; and it being impossible there could be any such things before they were invented, it is as impossible they should be received and accredited when invented. Hence it follows that it was as impossible to have imposed these miraculous relations upon mankind in after ages, as it would have been to make persons believe they saw the miracles, or were parties concerned in the beneficial effects resulting from them, if they were not.

IV. Notwithstanding all that has been said, however, by Leslie and others, since there is no making a fence high enough to keep out extravagant conjectures and surmises, we find unbelievers exclaiming after all, that still men's senses might be imposed upon. To reasoning we may always oppose reasoning; and it is often perfectly legitimate to oppose conjecture to conjecture; yet, with regard to the New Testament miracles, we cannot have so ill an opinion of the intellects of infidels as to conjecture that they really believe.

"That persons afflicted with the most excruciating "maladies and diseases should be juggled into perfect “ease and health, and cured (as Celsus pretended) by "legerdemain :

"That blind men should see, the lame walk, the ❝deaf hear, the dumb speak, lepers be cleansed, and

"dead men come to life, merely by the play of fancy, "and the force of imagination:

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"That the senses of whole multitudes should be "imposed upon to such a degree that they should all fancy together, they saw, heard, spake, ate and "drank, repeated these actions many times over, and "that in different places and circumstances, too, and "yet, after all, did nothing of all this; but were either "asleep, or in ecstasy, or under the influence of some strange charm all the while :

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"That five thousand men, for example, at one time "and four thousand at another (besides women and children), should persuade themselves they fed only upon a few loaves and fishes; should publish it "to all the country that they did so; refer to time, "place, and persons present; and yet, instead of this, "have been in fact at a splendid and magnificent feast, "where plenty and variety of all provisions, fit to "entertain such multitudes, were set before them."

If these things may be, of what utility are our senses? What dependence can be placed upon them? or what credit can be due to a Deist who attests nothing but upon experience, and yet admits that thousands together may be deceived in reference to some of the most common and frequent actions and functions in human life?

In truth, there are but four hypotheses that can be assumed with respect to the miracles of Jesus Christ, one or other of which a reasonable being must adopt.

Either, first, the recorded accounts of those mira