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individual experience, of at once deciding for themselves as to the propriety or impropriety of our Saviour's appeal to his miracles. Christians and men of later ages, on the other hand, have only an opportunity of learning their nature and number from the testimony of the first disciples, and, of course, the credit due to those disciples becomes a previous question, which it is absolutely necessary to our faith to determine. For, if they be liars, both your hope and our preaching are in vain. If the things to which the Evangelists have borne record be not true, our assurance of salvation rests only upon the airy basis of conjecture and uncertainty. When once, however, we have become convinced of the credibility of their testimony, as we must undeniably be by the various arguments which I laid before you in my two last Discourses; when once the truth of the facts detailed in the Gospel has been admitted, we, who are here assembled, are as capable, as any men in any age, of sitting in judgment upon the great controversy, and determining whether the pretensions are justified by the actions of Jesus; whether he was really that Prophet "that should come, or we are to look for another;" whether we have already been freed from the dominion of sin and the powers of darkness, or are still liable to the sentence of heavenly condemnation, and must look for

redemption, only through the merits of a greater and more worthy Saviour.

But further, it is extremely necessary, not only to be assured of the reality, but also to distinguish with accuracy that particular portion of the whole burthen of Christianity, which the miracles of our Lord, when considered simply as miracles, were intended and calculated to bear; neither attributing too much nor too little to their power-not too much, by maintaining them to be alone sufficient to convince us that "Jesus was the Christ”—not too little, in excluding them from any influence at all, and attributing every thing either to the prophecies or the doctrines of Scripture. To point out this relative importance of our Saviour's works, shall, therefore, be the object of the present Discourse; and May God Almighty bless its weakness.

Under the character of the Messiah, as applied to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, are comprehended these two particulars; first, that he was a prophet, and secondly, that he was the prophet; first, that he was a prophet sent from God, and secondly, that he was that special and predicted prophet, whose coming had been promised in the law, and whose doctrines and actions, whose sufferings and circumstances,

the holy men of old had so accurately described.

For a proof of the former of these propositions that he was A PROPHET sent from God -our Saviour refers, in the words of my text, to a consideration of the works, which the Father had given him to accomplish. "The same works that I do," says he, "bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me." Nor is this a solitary instance. He uses the same argument upon a variety of occasions and in numerous other passages. Take the following as an example. When the Jews, exasperated by his repeated and explicit claims to a divine commission, took up stones to cast at him, for what they conceived to be his blasphemy, in making himself the Son of God, and therefore equal with God, the only way in which he attempted to defend himself was by a recapitulation of what he had done. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do-though ye believe not me-believe the works." Such also appears to have been the general idea prevalent among the Jews. For when Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and one, who, as a Pharisee and a teacher in Israel, was, of course, intimately acquainted with the doctrines of his church and *John x. 37, 38.

the opinions of his countrymen, came to Jesus by night, he said unto him, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; because no man can do the miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."* Lastly, we find the Apostles, in justification of their faith, every where preaching Jesus of Nazareth, as "a man ap proved of God, by miracles, and signs, and wonders, which he did in the presence of all the people."t

So much I have said, to show the sense which our Saviour and the sacred writers themselves entertained, of the proper application and power of miracles in the establishment of the Christian religion. They held them to be proofs of the divine authority of Jesus; that he was a prophet commissioned and approved by God. And so much may serve, at the same time, to mark the flagrant ignorance or incorrectness of Rousseau, when he asserts, that Jesus laid the whole stress of his divine authority upon the doctrines which he preached, and never referred to the wonders which he wrought, as the signs and evidences of his being a heavenly Messenger; but wrought them only from motives of general benevolence to the afflicted, or of particular kindness to his friends. 'Tis true, that when, in the

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Gospel " a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign," we read, in the answer of our Lord, that "no sign shall be given unto them." But why? Because they were a wicked and adulterous generation," and threw the tempting question in his way, with notions as sensual, and from motives as unrighteous as themselves. Therefore did he refuse to gratify their request, lest he might seem to countenance their unreasonable desires, or give currency to their erroneous opinions upon his character, as a temporal prince. But when the Baptist, with humbler and correcter views, represented his natural difficulties, without presumptuously prescribing the mode of their solution, Jesus both willingly wrought and specially referred to his miracles. "In that same hour, he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.' Then answering, he said unto them, " Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard." But it is needless to enter into any further multiplication of testimonies upon a point so clear. Let us now pass on to the more arduous and important task of demonstrating, by an inquiry into the merits and tendency of our Saviour's works, that the opinion he held upon

*Matt. xii. 39.

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