SERMON XX.

TESTIMONY NEVER INSUPERABLE TO

UNBELIEF.

ST. MATTHEW, viii. 27.

The men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

SUCH was the very natural expression of surprise and admiration that burst forth from the disciples of our Lord, when, by a single word, the tumultuous waves of the sea of Galilee were hushed to peace, and there was instantly and preternaturally a great calm. Such, also, would our exclamation

of wonder and amazement have been, had we been enabled to see the miracle wrought; to hear the humble and lowly Jesus utter his authoritative mandate, "Peace and be still," and to behold the instant submission of the angry elements :-wind and wave became hushed to peace, and in a moment all was still.

There is something in the nature of a miracle, at least so it now appears to us, so convincing, so overwhelming in the evidence it affords, that nothing short of a wilful determination not to be convinced, and scarcely even that, could, as we should be tempted to think, possibly resist its influence. To behold the established course of the natural world suspended suddenly by a word; to witness the most inveterate diseases completely and instantly cured by a touch; to have watched the departure of the vital spirit from the now lifeless form, and then suddenly to see its reunion effected perfectly by the operation of a thought or look; these are wonders so strange, so far exceeding any thing with which we are now familiar, that the most obstinate objector would, as it should seem, be compelled to admit the finger of God in such mighty operations of power, and to humble himself to the cross of his Redeemer.

But, notwithstanding the reasonableness of this expectation, the history of our Lord's life abundantly shows that the testimony even of miracles could be effectually resisted, and the evidence they afforded could be neutralised, by an evil heart and a wicked desire to find them false. They could be denied; or, worse still, they could be attributed to the agency of the spirit of all evil, the devil himself. The influence they exerted upon the minds of the witnesses of them was evidently not of that excessive and overpowering nature it appears to us, at the present day, to have been there was sufficient room for scepticism left, to avoid the consequence of too great an accumulation of evidence. The Jews could, if they pleased, doubt or disbelieve; they could therefore exercise to the full the freedom of will, and independence of judgment, which seem to be essential to the notion of a responsible agent. Had it been otherwise, the practice of that virtue of faith, so invariably required by our Redeemer, would have been suspended; and to believe in him who did such great things, would have been an act but little short of blind necessity, The provision thus made for the full exercise of free will and sober judgment, in those before

whom the multiplied miracles of our Lord and his apostles were performed, offers to our reflections some interesting and profitable subjects of enquiry, such as might be carried on to almost any extent with still increasing advantage. We might ask ourselves what would our emotions probably be, if we were to behold a man raised on a sudden to life, by the mere word of one like ourselves; what should we not feel ready to do at the bidding of such a one, especially if the miracle were declared to be wrought for the express purpose of proving his authority to be derived from God. Suppose, moreover, he were to tell us that he came to inform us of those things, which we were most desirous to know, and to clear up those doubts under which we felt ourselves most to labour; how should we feel towards such a one, and what terms would be sufficiently strong in which to express our gratitude and joy? To witness what the Jews of our Lord's day were permitted to witness; not merely one solitary work of power which might, possibly, lie open to suspicion, but miracle upon miracle, wonder upon wonder, without a single failure, or the appearance of limitation;-can we conceive the possibility of our faltering, or

doubting, or asking for more proof before we would believe? And yet this the Jews did. Is it not possible, therefore, that something of a painful or repulsive kind, something of a character revolting to our weak and imperfect natures, might be added; such as to try severely the sincerity of our faith, and to put to the test the obedience we are prepared to make a tender of? Is it not possible that some condition so hard (as we might feel it) as scarcely to be in any way endurable might be attached; and might not many weak minds falter in their assurance, when so searching a proof is demanded of their belief? Whence was it, if not from this cause, that any did, at any time, disbelieve? Whence was it that all the mighty works to which the Lord Jesus so confidently, and so repeatedly ap pealed, could not effect the conversion of his furious and bigoted countrymen, nor stay their hands from the shedding of innocent blood? If, however, this supposition be the true one; and if it be possible to resist, successfully, any accumulation of evidence, which goes to prove a fact or a doctrine we are unwilling to admit or receive: then have we, in this single assurance, both a key to the otherwise inexplicable conduct of the

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