And just the same is the case with the Romish church. Their miracles, like those of the Irvingites, are generally done in a corner; in some secluded nunnery, or private apartment, and they consist in restoring a lame hand, or giving strength to a weakened back, or some other dubious sort of proceeding, which fancy or medicine might have effected, without calling in supernatural aid.

And here it is that the truth of the New Testament writers is manifested in such resplendent clearness. Take the case of St. Luke. He, like St. Matthew and St. Mark, records the remarkable fact, that during the hours of Jesus' agony on the cross, there was a supernatural gloom, the sun itself being darkened and that at the moment of his death, there was an earthquake which rent the solid marble veil of the temple; and that these manifestations so struck the centurion and the multitude, that they openly expressed their conviction of the divine character of Christ!

St. Luke then goes on to assert that shortly after our Lord's departure, a supernatural gift of tongues was conferred on the disciples, whereby they, being previously ignorant Galileans, were instantaneously enabled to speak with fluency, the tongues of all the various foreigners who visited Jerusalem. He adds, that on the same occasion, a single sermon of St. Peter's produced so astonishing an effect on the people at Jerusalem, as to convert at once about three thousand souls!

He next tells us that a certain man who had been lame from his mother's womb, and who was well known by all the frequenters of the temple, was, in that great resort, and at the hour when it was most

thronged, publicly and instantaneously cured of his lameness, by a single word from St. Peter!

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Not to particularize each of the supernatural events recorded by him, we will merely add that he distinctly asserts that at Joppa Peter restored to life a woman who had lain some hours dead, and that this was known throughout all Joppa." He tells us that the same apostle, being confined with most extraordinary care in the prison at Jerusalem, was released by an angel in so miraculous a manner, as to leave the keepers without any reasonable account to give, of his escape; another fact which must have been matter of perfect notoriety, if true. And of St. Paul he narrates many equally miraculous circumstances.

Now these narratives, be it remembered, were published, in the face of all, whether friends or opposers, in the very theatre of all these mighty deeds. If all these strange facts were mere inventions, what but shame and confusion of face could have been the lot of the author and his book? Let any one, in the present day, publish a story, that on a certain calamitous day, such as that of the death of the Princess Charlotte, the passing of the Romish Relief Bill, or the death of Mr. Irving, all England was covered with a supernatural darkness, not atmospheric merely, but arising from a visible loss of the sun's brightness. Let him add, that at the same moment the earth shook, and an immense chasm opened in the dome of St. Paul's cathedral. What would be said of such an historian? Would there be a single voice raised in his defence? Would it be possible that at the end of five or ten years, his narrative could be quoted as possessing the least authority? Most assuredly not. The book might be remembered, it is true; but

it would only be mentioned by contemporaries as either the work of a madman, or a most audacious collection of falsehoods.

But what was the fate of St. Luke's narrative? Do we find, in any of the writings of the heathens and Jews of that day, any reproach directed against the evangelists or apostles, as publishing a series of the most monstrous fictions? Not a word-on the

contrary, every allusion that we find is a confirmation of the truth of these records. Josephus confirms many of the principal facts narrated in the gospels. So does Tacitus;—and the early Christian writers, such as Justin Martyr, in appealing to the emperors for justice, constantly refer to the archives of the empire, in which, as they assert, there was deposited under Pilate's own hand, a full confirmation of all the chief facts of their case. Tertullian boldly says, 'Search your own public records; at the moment of Christ's death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noon-day, which wonder is related in your own annals, and is preserved in your archives.' 1

The main feature of the case, however, is, that these books, the gospels and other portions of the New Testaments, were universally received and honoured in the highest degree. They stated facts of the most extraordinary character, and the truth or falsehood of those statements must have been universally known. To suppose that the whole body of the Christians, knowing them to be filled with the most notorious falsehoods,-asserting miracles which never took place, and gifts of tongues and wonderful con

1 Apology, c. 21.

versions of which no one ever heard, would nevertheless have exalted them to divine honours, would be beyond all credibility. To suppose, too, that, if they were so filled with falsehoods, and were generally known to be fabulous, none of the opposers of the gospel, such as Celsus, Porphyry, or Julian, should ever have poured contempt upon them; nay, should even have admitted their statements to be generally correct, is equally out of all reasonable belief. The fact is, that their general reception, and their unimpeached admission even by the enemies of the gospel, fully establishes the fact of their substantial TRUTH.

XII.

THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH.

THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

OUR last essay closed the argument on the genuineness and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, and we now come to speak of their Divine Inspiration.

Such, at least, is the natural course; though, indeed, if their genuineness and authenticity be conceded, their inspiration seems to follow as a necessary consequence.

Not that we would assert, that if a narrative is shewn to be authentic and generally credible, it is therefore to be admitted as of divine authority; but that, considering the things declared in the books in question, and the authority continually assumed therein, we must come to one of two conclusions,— either that the apostles and evangelists were liars and impostors; or that they really wrote under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Now we have already come to the conclusion that it was impossible that they could be liars and impostors, and