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Gerard's Pastoral Care. Macgill's Ad- titude. The most illiterate, the most imdress to Young Clergymen. Chrysostom pudent, those who could most dexterously on the Priesthood. Baxter's Reformed play the hypocrite, who could best adapt Pastor. Burnet's Pastoral Care. Watt's their preaching to the fanaticism of the Humble Attempt. Dr. Edwards' Preach- vulgar, would be the only successful candier. Mason's Student and Pastor Gib- dates for public favour. Thus moderation bon's Christian Minister. Mather's Stu- and literature would soon be banished, dent and Preacher. Ostervald's Lectures and a scene of corruption, confusion, and on the Sacred Ministry. Robinson's Claude. || madness would prevail.” But specious as Doddridge's Lectures on Preaching and these arguments seem, they have but the Ministerial Office. little force on the mind of the Congregationalists, who thus reasons: "The church being a voluntary society, none imposed upon her members by men can be related to them as their pastor, without their own consent. None can so well judge what gifts are best suited to their spiritual edification as Christians themselves. The scriptures allow the election of pastors in ordinary cases to adult Christians, and to none else, Acts i. 15, 26 Acts vi. 1, 6. Acts xiv. 23. Christ requires his people to try the spirits, which supposeth their ability to do so, and their power to choose such only as they find most proper to edify their souls, and to refuse others, 1 John iv. 1. The introduction of ministers into their office by patronage, of whatever form, hath its origin from popery, tends to establish a tyranny over men's conscience, which and whom Christ bath made free, and to fill pulpits with wicked and indolent clergymen Whoever will attentively examine the history of the primitive times, will find that all ecclesiastical officers for the first three hundred years were elected by the people" We must refer the reader for more on this subject to the articles CHURCH, EPISCOPACY, and INDEPENDENTS.

"Man is unquestionably the principal creature in this world, and apparently the only one in it who is capable of being made acquainted with the relation in which he stands to his Creator. We cannot, therefore, doubt, but that such of the laws of nature as extend not their operation beyond the limits of this earth were established chiefly, if not solely, for the good of mankind; and if, in any particular circumstances,

the natural system, and the correspondent || flection must soon satisfy us that all such course of events in it, is called a miracle. conclusions are hasty. ***If this definition of a miracle be just, no event can be deemed miraculous merely because it is strange, or even to us unacCountable: since it may be nothing more than a regular effect of some unknown law of nature. In this country, earthquakes are rare; and for monstrous births. perhaps no particular and satisfactory account can be given: yet an earthquake is as regular an effect of the established laws of nature as any of those with which we are most inti-that good can be more effectally promoted by mately acquainted: and, under circumstan- an occasional deviation from those laws, such ces in which there would always be the a deviation may be reasonably expected. same kind of production, the monster is "We know from history, that almost all nature's genuine issue. It is therefore ne- mankind were once sunk into the grossest cessary, before we can pronounce any ef- ignorance of the most important truths; fect to be a true miracle, that the circum-that they knew not the Being by whom they stances under which it is produced be were created and supported; that they known, and that the common course of na-paid divine adoration to stocks, stones, and ture be in some degree understood; for in the vilest reptiles; and that they were all those cases in which we are totally ig-slaves to the most impious, cruel, and denorant of nature, it is impossible to deter-grading superstitions.

mine what is, or what is not, a deviation "From this depraved state it was surely from its course. Miracles, therefore, are not unworthy of the Divine Being to rescue not, as some have represented them, ap-his helpless creatures, to enlighten their unpeals to our ignorance. They suppose some derstandings, that they might perceive what antecedent knowledge of the course of na- is right, and to present to them motives of ture, without which no proper judgment sufficient force to engage them in the praccan be formed concerning them: thoughtice of it. But the understandings of ignowith it their reality may be so apparent as to prevent all possibility of a dispute.

Thus, were a physician to cure a blind man of a cataract, by anointing his eyes with a chemical preparation which he had never before seen, and to the nature and effects of which we are absolute strangers, the cure would undoubtedly be wonderful; but we could not pronounce it miraculous, because, for any thing known to us, it might be the natural effect of the operation of the unguent on the eye. But were he to recover his patient merely by commanding him to see, or by anointing his eyes with spittle, we should with the utmost confidence pronounce the cure to be a miracle; because we know perfectly, that neither the human voice nor human spittle have, by the established constitution of things, any such power over the diseases of the eye.

rant barbarians, cannot be enlightened by arguments; because of the force of such arguments as regard moral science, they are not qualified to judge. The philosophers of Athens and Rome inculcated, indeed, many excellent moral precepts, and they sometimes ventured to expose the absurdities of the reigning superstition: but their lectures had no influence upon the multitude; and they had themselves imbibed such erroneous notions respecting the attributes of the Supreme Being, and the nature of the human soul, and converted those notions into first principles, of which they would not permit an examination, that even among them a thorough reformation was not to be expected from the powers of reasoning. It is likewise to be observed, that there are many truths of the utmost importance to mankind, which unassisted "If miracles be effects contrary to the reason could never have discovered established constitution of things, we are Amongst these, we may confidently reckon certain that they will never be performed the immortality of the soul, the terms upon on trivial occasions. The constitution of which God will save sinners, and the manthings was established by the Creator and ner in which that all-perfect Being may be Governor of the universe, and is undoubted-acceptably worshipped; about all of which ly the offspring of infinite wisdom, pursuing a plan for the best of purposes From this plan no deviation can be made but by God himself, or by some powerful being acting with his permission. The plans devised by wisdom, are steady in proportion to their perfection, and the plans of infinite wisdom must be absolutely perfect. From this consideration, some men have ventured to con clude that no miracle was ever wrought, or can rationally be expected; but maturer re

philosophers were in such uncertainty, that, according to Plato, "Whatever is set right, and as it should be, in the present evil state of the world, can be so only by the particular interposition of God."

"An immediate revelation from heaven, therefore, was the only method by which infinite wisdom and perfect goodness could reform a bewildered and vicious race. But this revelation, at whatever time we suppose it given, must have been made direct

ly, either to some chosen individuals, commissioned to instruct others, or to every man and woman for whose benefit it was

ration, let us suppose him immediately to raise a person from the dead in their presence, merely by calling upon him to come ultimately intended. Were every person out of his grave. Would not the only posinstructed in the knowledge of his duty, by sible objection to the man's veracity be movimmediate inspiration, and were the motives ed by this miracle and his assertion that to practice it, brought home to his mind he had received such and such doctrines by God himself, human nature would be from God, be as fully credited as if it relawholly changed: men would not be moral ted to the most common occurrence? Unagents, nor by consequence be capable doubtedly it would; for when so much preeither of reward or of punishment. It re- ternatural power was visibly communicated mains, therefore, that if Gd has been gra to this person, no one could have reason to ciously pleased to enlighten and reform question his having received an equal por mankind. without destroying that moral na- tion of preternatural knowledge. A palpature which man possesses, he can have bie deviation from the known laws of nadone it only by revealing his truth to cer- tuce in one instance, is a sensible proof that tain chosen instruments, who were the im-such a deviation is possible in another; and mediate instructors of their contemporaries, in such a case as this, it is the witness of and through them have been the instruc-God to the truth of a man. tors of succeeding ages.

Miracles, then, under which we include prophecy, are the only direct evidence which can be given of Divine inspiration. When a religion, or any religious truth, is to be revealed from heaven, they appear to be absolutely necessary to enforce its recoption among men; and this is the only case in which we can suppose them necessary, or believe for a moment that they ever have been or will be performed.

"The history of almost every religion abounds with relations of prodigies and wonders, and of the intercourse of men with the gods; but we know of no religious system, those of the Jews and Christians excepted, which appealed to miracles as the sole evidence of its truth and divinity. The pretended miracles mentioned by Pagan historians and poets, are not said to have been publicly wrought to enforce the truth of a new religion, contrary to the reigning idolatry. Many of them may be clearly shewn to have been mere natural events; others of them are presented as having been performed in secret on the most trivial occasions, and in obscure and fabulous ages long prior to the era of the writers by whom they are recorded; and such of them as at first view appear to be best attested, are evidently tricks contrived for in

"Let us suppose this to have been actually the case, and consider how those inspired teachers could communicate to others every truth which had been revealed to themselves. They might easily, if it were part of their duty, deliver a sublime system of natural and moral science, and establish it upon the common basis of experiment and demonstration, but what foundation could they lay for those truths which unassisted reason cannot discover, and which, when they are revealed, appear to have no necessary relation to any thing previously known? To a bare affirmation that they had been immediately received from God, no rational being could be expected to assent. The teachers might be men of known veracity, whose simple assertion would be admitted as sufficient evidence for any fact in conformity with the laws of nature; but as every man has the evidence of his own consciousness and experience, that revelations from heaven are deviations from these laws, an assertion so apparently extravagant, would be rejected as false, unless supported by some better proof than the mere affirmation of the teacher. In this state of things, we can conceive no evidence sufficient to make such doctrines be received as the truths of God, but the pow-terested purposes, to flatter power, or to er of working miracles committed to him who taught them. This would, indeed, be fully adequate to the purpose; for if there were nothing in the doctrines themselves impious, immoral, or contrary to truths already known, the only thing which could render the teacher's assertion incredible, would be its implying such an intimate communion with God, as is contrary to the established course of things, by which men are left to acquire all their knowledge by the exercise of their own faculties. Let us now suppose one of those inspired teachers to tell his countrymen, that he did not desire them, on his ipse dixit, to believe that he had any preternatural communion with the Deity, but that, for the truth of his assertion, he would give them the evidence of their own senses; and after this decla-l

promote the prevailing superstitions. For these reasons, as well as on account, of the immoral character of the divinities by whom they are said to have been wrought, they are altogether unworthy of examination, and carry in the very nature of them the completest proofs of falsehood and imposture.

"But the miracles recorded of Moses and of Christ bear a very different character. None of them are represented as wrought on trivial occasions. The writers who mention them were eye-witnesses of the facts; which they affirm to have been performed publicly, in attestation of the truth of their respective systems They are, indeed, so incorporated with these systems, that the miracles cannot be separated from the doctrines; and if the mira

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cles be not really performed, the doctrines || being uniform, and can therefore never cannot possibly be true. Besides all this, preponderate against that experience which they were wrought in support of revelations admits of no exception.' This boasted which opposed all the religious systems, and plausible argument has, with equal. superstitions, and prejudices, of the age in candour and acuteness, been examined by which they were given: a circumstance Dr Campbell, in his Dissertation on Mira which of itself sets them, in point of autho- cles, who justly observes, that so far is exrity, infinitely above the Pagan prodigies, perience from being the sole foundation of as well as the lying wonders of the Romish the evidence of testimony, that on the conchurch. trary, testimony is the sole foundation of by far the greater part of what Mr. Hume calls firm and unalterable experience; and that if, in certain circumstances, we did not give an implicit faith to testimony, our knowledge of events would be confined to those which had fallen under the immedi

"It is indeed, we believe, universally admitted, that the miracles mentioned in the book of Exodus, and in the four Gospels, might, to those who saw them performed, be sufficient evidence of the Divine inspiration of Moses and of Christ, but to us it may be thought that they are no evidence what-ate observation of own our senses. ever, as we must believe in the miracles themselves, if we believe in them at all; upon the bare authority of human testimony. Why, it has been sometimes asked, are not miracles wrought in all ages and countries? If the religion of Christ was to be of perpetual duration, every generation of men ought to have complete evidence of its truth and divinity.

"We need not waste time here in proving that the miracles, as they are presented in the writings of the New Testament, were of such a nature, and performed before so many witnesses, that no imposition could possibly be practised on the senses of those who affirm that they were present. From every page of the Gospels this is so evident, that the philosophical adversaries of the "To the performance of miracles in every Christian faith never suppose the apostles age and in every country, perhaps the same to have been themselves deceived, but boldly objections lie, as to the immediate inspiration accuse them of bearing false witness. But of every individual. Were those miracles if this accusation be well founded, their tesuniversally received as such, men would be timony itself is as great a miracle as any so overwhelmed with the number rather which they record of themselves, or of their than with the force of their authority, as Master. For if they sat down to fabricate hardly to remain masters of their own con- their pretended revelation, and to contrive a duct; and in that case the very end of all series of miracles to which they were unanimiracles would be defeated by their fre- mously to appeal for its truth, it is plain, quency. The truth, however, seems to be, since they proved successful in their daring that miracles so frequently repeated would || enterprise, that they must have clearly forenot be received as such, and of course would seen every possible circumstance in which have no authority; because it would be dif- they could be placed, and have prepared ficult, and in many cases impossible, to dis- consistent answers to every question that tinguish them from natural events. If they could be put to them by their most inveterrecurred regularly at certain intervals, we ate and most enlightened enemies; by the could not prove them to be deviations from statesmen, the lawyer, the philosopher, and the known laws of nature, because we should the priest. That such foreknowledge as have the same experience for one series of this would have been miraculous, will not events as for the other; for the regular surely be denied; since it forms the very succession of preternatural effects, as for the attribute which we find it most difficult to established constitution and course of things. allow even to God himself. It is not, how"Be this, however, as it may, we shall ever, the only miracle which this suppositake the liberty to affirm, that for the real-tion would compel us to swallow. The very ity of the Gospel miracles we have evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind, though not so striking to vulgar apprehension, as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and actually saw the mighty works which he performed. Mr. Hume, indeed, endeavoured to prove, that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle; and the reasoning employed for this purpose is, that a miracle being a violation of the laws of nature, which a firm and unalterable experience has established, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can be: whereas our experience of human veracity, which (according to him) is the sole foundation of the evidence of testimony, is far from

resolution of the apostles to propagate the belief of false miracles in support of such a religion as that which is taught in the New Testament, is as great a miracle as human imagination can easily conceive.

"When they formed this design, either they must have hoped to succeed, or they must have foreseen that they should fail in their undertaking; and, in either case, they chose evil for its own sake. They could not, if they foresaw that they should fail, look for any thing but that contempt, disgrace, and persecution, which were then the inevitable consequences of an unsuccessful endeavour to overthrow the established religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter upon the supposition of their success. As they knew themselves to be false witnesses, and impious

deceivers, they could have no hopes beyond derived from heaven. On the other hand, if the grave; and by determining to oppose all that testitmony were false, either God must the religious systems, superstitions, and pre- bave miraculously effaced from the minds of judices of the age in which they lived, they those by whom it was given all the associawilfully exposed themselves to inevitable tions formed between their sensible ideas misery in the present life, to insult and im- and the words of language, or he must have prisonment, to stripes and death. Nor can endowed those men with the gifts of preat be said that they might look forward to science, and have impelled them to fabripower and affluence, when they should, cate a pretended revelation for the purpose, through sufferings, have converted their of deceiving the world, and involving them. Countrymen; for so desirous were they of selves in certain and foreseen destruction. obtaining nothing but misery, as the end of "The power necessary to perform the their mission, that they made their own one series of those miracles may, for any persecution a test of the truth of their doc- thing known to us, be as great as that which trines. They introduced the Master from would be requisite for the performance of whom they pretended to have received these || the other; and, considered merely as exerdoctrines as telling them, that they weretions of preternatural power, they may seem sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; to balance each other, and to hold the mind that they should be delivered up to councils, in a state of suspense but when we take and scourged in synagogues; that they into consideration the different purposes for should be hated of all men for his name's which these opposite and contending mirasake; that the brother should deliver up cles were wrought, the balance is instantly the brother to death, and the father the destroyed. The miracles recorded in the child; and that he who took not up his Gospels, if real, were wrought in support cross, and followed after him, was not wor- of a revelation which, in the opinion of all thy of him' The very system of religion, by whom it is received, has brought to light therefore, which they invented and resolved many important truths which could not to impose upon mankind, was so contrived, otherwise have been made known to men; that the worldly prosperity of its first preach- and which, by the confession of its adversaers and even their exemption from perse- ries, contains the purest moral precepts by cution, was incompatible with its success. which the conduct of mankind was ever Had these clear predictions of the Author directed. The opposite series of miracles, of that religion, under whom the apostles if real, was performed to enable and even acted only as ministers not been verified, all to compel, a company of Jews, of the lowest mankind must have instantly perceived that rank and of the narrowest education, to fabtheir pretence to inspiration was false, and ricate, with the view of inevitable destructhat Christianity was a scandalous and im- tion to themselves, a consistent scheme of pudent imposture. All this the apostles falsehood, and by an appeal to forged miracould not but foresee when they formed cles to impose it upon the world as a reve their plan for deluding the world. Whence | lation from heaven. The object of the forit follows, that when they resolved to sup- mer miracles is worthy of a God of infinite port their pretended revelation by an ap- wisdom, goodness, and power; the object of peal to forged miracles, they wilfully, and the latter is absolutely inconsistent with with their eyes open, exposed themselves wisdom and goodness, which are demonto inevitable misery, whether they should strably attributes of that Being by whom succeed or fail in their enterprise; and alone miracles can be performed. Whence that they concerted their measures so as it follows, that the supposition of the aposnot to admit of a possibility of recompence tles bearing false testimony to the miracles to themselves, either in this life or in that of their Master, implies a series of deviawhich is to come. But if there be a law of tions from the laws of nature infinitely less nature, for the reality of which we have probable in themselves than those miracles: better evidence than we have for others, it and therefore, by Mr. Hume's maxim, we is, that no man can choose misery for its must necessarily reject the supposition of own sake,' or make the acquisition of it the falsehood in the testimony, and admit the ultimate end of his pursuit. The existence reality of the miracles. So true it is, that of other laws of nature we know by tes-for the reality of the Gospel miracles we timony, and our own observation of the regularity of their effects. The existence of this law is made known to us not only by these means, but also by the still clearer and more conclusive evidence of our own consciousness.

have evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and were actual witnesses to their mighty works.”

The power of working miracles is suppos ed by some to have been continued no lon"Thus, then, do miracles force them-ger than the apostles' days. Others think selves upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting subject. If the testimony of the first preachers of Christianity were true, the miracles recorded in the Gospel were certainly performed, and the doctrines of our religion are "

that it was continued long after. It seems pretty clear, however, that miracles universally ceased before Chrysostom's time. As for what Augustine says of those wrought at the tombs of the martyrs, and some other places, in his time, the evidence is