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imparted to all; the work of general con"version must be carried on by rational and "historical evidence." It must be acknowledged that this occurrence is extremely remarkable, and seems to have been disposed by our Lord on purpose to lay open to us, in one striking incident, the whole doctrine of the origin of faith.

If then this inward illumination did not take place even in the age of miracles, and in the times of the most plentiful effusions of the Holy Spirit, we can have no reason to expect it in these days, when his extraordinary communications are withdrawn. And if evidence gave birth to the christian faith, even in its first production, we cannot suppose it to be derived from another original in its succession and increase.

Thus is this doctrine established upon the fullest and clearest proof; a proof resting not upon some casual expression, which might be liable to various constructions, but upon a series of facts which cannot be mistaken; upon the uniform practice of our Lord and his apostles throughout their whole ministry. A proof of this nature can hardly leave room for any doubt or exception. We might safely therefore rest the matter here, were it not that this subject hath been unhappily obscured, more perhaps than any other, by the number of unintelligible things that have been advanced concerning it. This will be my apology for offering some farther considerations in sup

port of that plain and simple account of the origin of faith which we have from the gospels.

Many observations to our purpose will arise from the nature of the human mind; the nature of that evidence by which the gospel is accompained; and the nature of faith.

The Creator hath appointed stated ways of acting upon the mind, as well as upon the body. If we would excite belief in the mind, we reason, persuade, and prove. And we

have no more doubt that belief will arise from conviction, than that motion will follow from impulse.

Our Saviour did not alter the nature of man, but dealt with him agreeably to what his Creator had made him. He sought access to the mind in the natural way, neither giving it any new powers, nor setting aside those which it originally possessed, nor, introducing any change in its train of operations. When therefore he wanted to bring mankind to a faith in him as the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, he did not leave this faith to be generated by some new and hidden communication within, but had recourse to the established method of argument and external evidence. He poured conviction into the mind by that channel which the Creator had originally opened; passing through a series of unheard-of labors and distresses, and voluntarily dying, that by returning in triumph from the grave, he might show himself to be the

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Lord of life, and thus furnish a proof, which all might understand, of his being sent by God. The nature of this evidence is next to be considered.

The material world is always made subservient to the intellectual. The standing wonders of the creation prove a God, and an overruling providence. This was the basis of all religion as it stood in the original state of man. But after his fall from innocency, and the rights of the first covenant, the system of religion was to be changed. To this great change the regular course of nature could not bear witness. The heavens above, and the earth beneath, proclaimed to each other a Creator's power, and wisdom, and goodness. Thus far their language was clear and expressive. But it could go no farther. They could not tell the superior wonders of mercy that were to be displayed in the new dispensation. To authenticate this, and to show that the giver of this dispensation was still the Lord of nature, it was necessary that nature, with all her laws, should appear to be under his control. The new revelation of God's will was therefore attested by many new appearances in nature. And thus were miracles introduced.

Accordingly we find them still employed to their original end of witnessing the truth of revelation. Wherever any new discovery of the will of heaven was made, it was still attested by miracles; and the power working of miracles

devolved from prophet to prophet throughout the whole course of revelation. Let us lay all these wonders together, and weigh well that system of evidence by which the whole of revelation is supported. If we look back to paradise, we see it first rising there, and springing up with revelation itself. Thence do their kindred streams flow on together, miracles still succeeding miracles, and the mighty tide of evidence increasing as it descends through all future times. Behold the amazing pomp of wonders that surrounds mount Sinai, and by which the Mosaic dispensation was introduced! Behold the grand but pleasing scene of miracles, displayed in the ministry of our Saviour and his apostles; miracles all the offspring of benevolence and heavenly goodness, all suited to the spirit of that gospel which they accompanied! In our own times behold, if not miracles, at least the manifest effect of miracles, which do not yet cease to operate. The Jewish people are preserved in a wonderful state of dispersion amongst all nations, to tell to all the world the miraculous production of their law; and christianity proves, by its very existence at this day, that the hand of heaven must have guarded it in its infant and oppressed state. Behold all these miracles uniting in one design, interwoven with prophecies, and thus forming a system of evidence equally admirable for the symmetry, the just dispositions of the parts; and the grandeur, extent, and harmony of the whole!-Behold all this, and then

say to what end all this wonderful apparatus, this consent of all ages, this testimony of all nature, this concord of earth and heaven; if not to produce faith, or a belief of christianity by the power of evidence offered to our reason? Was this distribution of grand events throughout all ages no more than a vain ostentation of omnipotence, exhibited only to alarm and astonish the world, without serving any purpose of religion? Then indeed may we justly inquire, "to what purpose was all this "waste of the precious ointment made;" to what end all this profusion of the miraculous power? For if conviction in the believer's mind be always produced by the immediate impression of the Holy Spirit, without the help of external evidence, then are all the miracles, and all the records of them, at once rendered superfluous. The visible descent and appearance of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, with all those glorious demonstrations of " power "from on high" that followed, might have been spared, if the world was to be converted, not by the visible and public operations of the Spirit, but by its inward and secret impressions working conviction in the mind of every individual. And we must remark upon our Lord's miracles in general, that if they were not intended for the conviction of mankind, their noblest end is destroyed. Beneficent as they were, we see but half their lustre, if we consider them only as so many prescriptions to relieve a few individuals from bodily pain, and