vanity as himself. Therefore do we behold Him, in whom the lost prerogatives of the race were recovered, walking on the stormy waves, or quelling the menace of the sea with his word; incorporating in these acts the deliverance of man from the rebellious powers of nature, which had risen up against him, and instead of his willing servants, were oftentimes now his tyrants and his destroyers. These also were redemptive acts. Even the two or three of his works which do not range themselves so readily under any of these heads, yet are not indeed exceptions. Take, for example, the multiplying of the bread. The original curse of sin was the curse of barrenness,—the earth yielding hard-won and scanty returns to the sweat and labour of man; but here this curse is removed, and in its stead the primeval abundance for a moment re-appears. All scantness and scarceness, such as this lack of bread in the wilderness, that failing of the wine at the marriage-feast, were not man's portion at the first; for all the earth was appointed to serve him, and to pour the fulness of its treasure into his lap. That he ever should hunger or thirst, that he should ever have lack of anything, was a consequence of Adam's sin,-fitly, therefore, removed by Him, the second Adam, who came to restore to him all which had been forfeited by the first. The miracle, then, being this ethical act, and only to be received when it is so, and when it seals doctrines of holiness, the forgetting or failing to bring forward that the divine miracle must, of necessity, move in this sphere of redemption only, that the doctrine also is to try the miracle, as well as the miracle to seal the doctrine, is a dangerous omission on the part of some who, in modern times, have written Evidences of Christianity,' and have found in the miracles wrought by its Founder, and in these mainly as acts of power, well-nigh the exclusive argument for its reception as a divine revelation. On the place which these works should take in the array of proofs for the things which we believe, there will be occasion, by and by, to speak. For the present it may be sufficient to observe, that if men are taught to believe in Christ upon. no other grounds than because He attested his claims by works of wonder, and that they are therefore bound to do so, how shall they consistently refuse belief to any other, who may come hereafter attesting his claims by the same? We have here a paving of the way of Antichrist; for as we know that he will have his signs and wonders' (2 Thess. ii. 9), so, if this argument is good, he will have right on the score of these to claim the faith and allegiance of men. But no; the miracle must witness for itself, and the doctrine must witness for itself, and then, and then only, the first is capable of witnessing for the second; and those books of Christian Evidences are maimed and imperfect, fraught with the most perilous consequences, which reverence in the miracle little else but its power, and see in that alone what gives either to it its attesting worth, or to the doctrine its authority as adequately attested truth. 1 Gerhard (Loc. Theoll. loc. xxiii. 11): Miracula sunt doctrinæ tessera ac sigilla; quemadmodum igitur sigillum a literis avulsum nihil probat, ita quoque miracula sine doctrinâ nihil valent. CHAPTER IV. THE EVANGELICAL, COMPARED WITH OTHER I. THE MIRACLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testa THE ment afford many interesting points of comparison, a comparison equally instructive, whether we trace the points of likeness, or of unlikeness, which exist between them. Thus, to note first a remarkable difference, we find oftentimes the holy men of the older Covenant bringing, if one may venture so to speak, hardly, and with difficulty, the wonder-work to pass; it is not born without pangs; there is sometimes a momentary pause, a seeming uncertainty about the issue; while the miracles of Christ are always accomplished with the highest ease; He speaks, and it is done. Thus Moses must plead and struggle with God, "Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee,' before the plague of leprosy is removed from his sister, and not even so can he instantly win the boon (Num. xii. 13-15); but Christ heals a leper by his touch (Matt. viii. 3) or ten with even less than this, merely by the power of his will and at a distance' (Luke xvii. 14). Elijah must pray long, and his servant go up seven times, before tokens of the rain appear (1 Kin. xviii. 42–44); he stretches himself thrice on the child and cries unto the 1 Cyril of Alexandria (Cramer's Cat. in Luc. v. 12) has observed and drawn out the contrast. for the things which we believe, there will be occasion, by and by, to speak. For the present it may be sufficient to observe, that if men are taught to believe in Christ upon no other grounds than because He attested his claims by works of wonder, and that they are therefore bound to do so, how shall they consistently refuse belief to any other, who may come hereafter attesting his claims by the same? We have here a paving of the way of Antichrist; for as we know that he will have his signs and wonders' (2 Thess. ii. 9), so, if this argument is good, he will have right on the score of these to claim the faith and allegiance of men. But no; the miracle must witness for itself, and the doctrine must witness for itself, and then, and then only, the first is capable of witnessing for the second; and those books of Christian Evidences are maimed and imperfect, fraught with the most perilous consequences, which reverence in the miracle little else but its power, and see in that alone what gives either to it its attesting worth, or to the doctrine its authority as adequately attested truth. 1 Gerhard (Loc. Theoll. loc. xxiii. 11): Miracula sunt doctrinæ tessera ac sigilla; quemadmodum igitur sigillum a literis avulsum nihil probat, ita quoque miracula sine doctrinâ nihil valent. CHAPTER IV. THE EVANGELICAL, COMPARED WITH OTHER I. THE MIRACLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testa THE ment afford many interesting points of comparison, a comparison equally instructive, whether we trace the points of likeness, or of unlikeness, which exist between them. Thus, to note first a remarkable difference, we find oftentimes the holy men of the older Covenant bringing, if one may venture so to speak, hardly, and with difficulty, the wonder-work to pass; it is not born without pangs; there is sometimes a momentary pause, a seeming uncertainty about the issue; while the miracles of Christ are always accomplished with the highest ease; He speaks, and it is done. Thus Moses must plead and struggle with God, Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee,' before the plague of leprosy is removed from his sister, and not even so can he instantly win the boon (Num. xii. 13-15); but Christ heals a leper by his touch (Matt. viii. 3) or ten with even less than this, merely by the power of his will and at a distance' (Luke xvii. 14). Elijah must pray long, and his servant go up seven times, before tokens of the rain appear (1 Kin. xviii. 42–44); he stretches himself thrice on the child and cries unto the 1 Cyril of Alexandria (Cramer's Cat. in Luc. v. 12) has observed and drawn out the contrast. |