because the word is applied to other events; and the sign here particularly specified, the making fire to come down from heaven, if understood figuratively, agreeably to the style of St. John's prophecy, was not miraculous. Moreover, true miracles are never represented as means of delusion, but of conviction.

We have now distinctly examined the several passages of Scripture which are generally thought to allow the claims of false prophets to inspiration and miracles; and I hope it appears, either that those passages do not refer to any such claims, or expressly deny their validity. Whether these prophets spoke in the name of the true God, or in the name of false gods, the Scriptures represent them as totally destitute of supernatural knowledge and power, and expressly resolve all their pretences to them into human artifice and falsehood. This has been already shewn,

both

pearances (such as the bowing of crucifixes, the shaking and stirring their hands and feet, motions performed by secret springs; and a thousand other things of the like kind;) which, though mere human artifices, are represented as the effects of the divine power. The fraud practised by the Roman clergy with regard to these things was exposed in some remarkable instances at the Reformation. See Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 232.

* Some of our latest and most approved writers upon miracles affirm that God will not suffer false prophets to work miracles so as to lay men under a necessity of being deceived, or without giving bonest men plain evidence of the imposture. See Mr. Hallet on Miracles, and Dr. Benson's Life of Christ, p. 202, 203, 219, 220, 222, 234, 235, 236. The Scriptures seem to me to deny the power of false prophets to perform miracles under any circumstances whatever. And indeed, if the whole nature of miraclës lay in being such things ar are above the power of“

both with respect to their pretended miracles and prophecies. I will here add a few passages which more immediately refer to the latter. Moses ascribes them to the arrogance or presumption of the prophet. Jeremiah calls them the vision of his own heart ↑, not the supernatural suggestions of the devil. And Ezekiel describes the false prophets as prophesying out of their own hearts, and following their own spirit, and as having seen nothing ‡.

Before we proceed any farther, let us recollect how far we are advanced in examining into the sense of Scripture concerning the author of miracles, whether of power or knowledge. We have attempted to shew that the Scripturc denies the ability of performing any miracles, to angels, whether good or evil; to the spirits of departed men; to the Heathen deities; to magicians, who pretended to an intercourse

men, (as the doctor affirms, p. 236, compare p. 204;) if they may be performed by false prophets, when they do not necessarily subject honest men to delusion; and, if performed by such prophets, are to have no regard paid to them, (p. 202 ;) how are they, in their own nature, signs of a divine interposition and a divine mission? Besides, there could be very little danger of any man's being deceived by the miracles of a false prophet, if he was clearly and certainly persuaded that these works are no distinguishing test of a divine interposition; (as was shewn above, p. 85.) There would, in this case, be more probability of men's rejecting the miracles of a true prophet, from an apprehension that infinite wisdom would not employ ambiguous proofs of a divine mission.

* Deut. xviii. 22. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, (1712 per superbiam vel tumorem animi sui.

Ch. xxiii, 16. In ch. xiv. 14, he says, They prophesy unto you a false vision, and the deceit of their beart.

Ezek. xiii. 2, 3. See also Zechar, xiii. 4.

with them; and lastly, to all false prophets, upon whatever principles they grounded their pretensions. Now these are the only agents who have ever been conceived as capable of working miracles, either in opposition to God or without an immediate commission from him. And consequently the Scripture, by denying the miraculous power of all these, does in effect deny that any single miracle has ever been formed without the immediate interposition of God. Farther evidence of this important point will occur in the following sections.

per

SECTION V.

The Scriptures represent the one true God as the sole creator and sovereign of the world, which he governs by fixed and invariable laws. To him they appropriate all miracles, and urge them as demonstrations of his divinity and sole dominion over nature, in opposition to the claims of all other superior beings. The antient controversy between the prophets of God and idolaters stated.

IN direct opposition to the numerous fictitious deities of the Pagans, whether they were supposed to possess an original, or only a delegated power and authority; the prophets of the true God affirm that he alone is God: He is Jehovah, and there is no God besides him: He is Jehovah, and there is none else. The Heathens maintained the existence of local † deities,

*Deut. iv. 35. Is. xlv. 5, 6, 18, 21, 22. Compare ch. xliii. 10-13. ch. xliv. 8. 2 Sam. vii. 22.

tKings XX. 23.

whose

whose power and presence were circumscribed within narrow bounds. Aristotle very justly observes, "that it was by no means agreeable to the system of religion established by law, to suppose God to be one most powerful and excellent being; the gods in that system being mutually better one than another, as to

*"

many things Accordingly we find, that as each nation + had its chief deity, so several of the gods held by the same people were each of them supreme in their respective provinces, and independent of the rest. One was supreme ruler over the heavens, another over the air and winds, and others still different from these over the sea and earth and hell. But the language of revelation is, Jehovah he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none. else he exists and operates in all places, without limits, and without control §. To understand this language, it is necessary to recollect, that the word, God in Scripture denotes a governor or king; nor is more included in the general idea than authority and dominion. Moses is called a god to Pharaoh ; because he was appointed to control and govern him, Judges and kings are frequently called gods with re

:

* When arguing against Zeno, Aristotle says, ELEP άπαντα επικρά τιστον τον θεον λαμβάνει, τοῦτο δυνατωτατον και βελτιστον λεγων, οὐ δοκεῖ δὲ τουτο κατα τον νομον, αλλα πολλά κρείττους είναι αλληλων οι θεοι. De Xenophano, Zenone, et Gorgia, c. 4. inter Oper. vol. ii. p. 841,

842, ed. Paris.

+ Judges xi. 24.

+ Deut. iv. 39.

$1 Kings viii. 27. Ps. cxxxix. 1-iz. Is. xliii. 13.

|| Exod. vii. 1.

spect

spect to their subjects, over whom they rule. And therefore when the sacred writers assert that there is no other God but Jehovah, they mean that there is no superior being besides him, who has any power or dominion over mankind. Had there been other superior beings who were vested with power over the human race, the Scripture, we have seen†, would have allowed that they were our gods or rulers.

The Heathens either believed the eternity of the world, or ascribed its origin, and the generation of animals §, to elementary and sidereal deities. According to the established system of theology, the world was begotten, not created; at once the offspring and the parent of gods, and itself a god. On the other hand, the sacred penmen ascribe its creation to the sole operation (or rather to the almighty fiat 4) of the one eternal Jehovah : He made the sea, his hand formed the dry land**. He formed the light, and created darkness tt. He created the heavens, and the earth, and all the host of them ‡‡; that is, the whole world, all the parts which compose, and all the crea

*Exod. xxi. 6. ch. xxii. 9, 28. Ps. lxxxii. 1, 6. Compare John X. 34, 35.

† Ch. iii. sect. ii. p. 151, 152.

Diodorus Siculus, p. 6, ed. Rhodomani.

§ See above, p. 163.

See above, 106-9. What we call the creation or formation of the world, was in the Pagan system its generation, or a cosmogony. And their cosmogony or generation of the world was a theogony, or generation of gods.

1

Ps xxxiii. 6, 9. Ps. cxlviii. 5. Gen. i. 3. ++ Is. xlv. 7. Gen. i. 1. ch. ii. 1.

** Ps. xcv. 5.

Ps. xxxiii. 6.

tures