Food, naturally sufficient for five thousand men only, women and children being excluded, at the rate of a pound weight to each man, would considerably exceed two tons. To convey this food to the place, where the multitude was assembled, would at the least require two stout carts. But these carts could not be brought unseen to the place of meeting: and, if the people had merely seen the disciples serving them with food from the carts (which they clearly must have done, had such an action ever really taken place); nothing could have persuaded them, that a miracle had been wrought, and that they had all been fed from only five loaves and two fishes which some one happened to have brought with him in a wallet. Collusion, therefore, in the present instance is manifestly impossible. Equally impossible also is deception. No sleight of hand, no dexterity of juggling, could convince a fasting multitude, that they had all eaten and were satisfied. Hunger would be too potent for imposture. Not a single man, woman, or child, would be persuaded, that they had eaten a hearty meal; if, all the while, they had received no sustenance. The same remark applies to the sudden acquisition of languages by the apostles, on the day of Pentecost. They had assembled together, it seems, with one accord, in one place when there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind; and cloven tongues, like as of fire, sat upon each of them. The consequence was, that R they were instantaneously endowed with the power of speaking languages which were previously unknown to them *. This was the miracle: and here again, as in the former case, there was no room either for collusion or deception. No juggling confederacy could enable men to speak suddenly a great variety of languages, with which they had previously been unacquainted: nor could any deception be practised upon those, who heard them speak. Jews and proselytes, from many different parts of the world, were then assembled at Jerusalem; to each of whom was obviously familiar the language of the country, where he ordinarily resided, When a man addressed them, they would severally know, whether he spoke in their native tongue or not. A Roman Jew or proselyte could not be ignorant, whether what he heard was Latin: nor could any argument convince a Cretan Jew or proselyte, that an apostle, though speaking his native Syriac, was yet all the while uttering Greek. Deception was plainly quite out of the question. A Phrygian Jew might rashly fancy, that the men were full of new wine and were mere unintelligible babblers, so long as he heard any of them addressing the Roman strangers in Latin; and the same opinion might be hastily taken up by a Cretan Jew, if listening to an apostle as he spoke to a Mede or an Ela ** Acts ii, 1-4. mite in their respective tongues. But, when each heard himself addressed in his own language by this apostle or by that apostle; he could have no doubt as to the language which was employed. He must know, whether he heard his own tongue, or whether he did not hear it. However the faculty might have been attained, he could not but see that it was actually possessed. The fact, presented to the general attention of all Jerusalem, was this. Twelve illiterate Jews, most of them Galilean fishermen unacquainted with any language but their own, are suddenly enabled to address the various strangers then assembled at the feast of Pentecost, each in his own national dialect. That any trick should have been practised, is impossible; that any groundless pretence should have been made, is equally impossible. The strangers understand them; and declare, that they severally hear themselves addressed in their own languages: yet it is notorious, that these Galilèans but yesterday knew no tongue, save the Hebrew-Syriac. How is the fact to be accounted for? Magic, we know, was the ordinary solution of such difficulties on the part of the Jews and the Pagans: for, as to miraculous facts, they denied not their occurrence. But it will be doubted in the present day, whether magic could enable an ignorant Galilean suddenly to speak Greek and Latin. Admit only the reality of the occurrence, and its proper miraculousness follows as a thing of course. The matter plainly cannot be accounted for without a miracle. Now, for the reality of the occurrence, both the Jews and the Pagans are our vouchers : nor is this all; in truth, the history cannot proceed without it. We find these ignorant Galileans travelling to various parts of the world, both within and without the Roman Empire. Wherever they go, without the least difficulty or hesitation they address the natives in their own languages. The natives understand them: and, through their preaching, Christianity spreads in every direction with astonishing rapidity *. How could this be, if the men knew no tongue save the Syriac? Or, if they knew various other tongues, how did they acquire their knowledge? How came John and James and Peter and Jude to write in Greek, when we are quite sure that originally they could have been acquainted only with a dialect of Hebrew? To deny the miracle * According to the fathers and early ecclesiastical historians, Andrew preached the Gospel in Scythia, Greece, and Epirus; Bartholomew, in India, Arabia Felix, and Persia; Lebbèus or Jude, in Lybia and Edessa; and Thomas, in India and Asiatic Ethiopia. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. c. 1. Theodoret. in Psalm cxvi. Nazian. Orat. 25. Hieron. Epist. 148. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. c. 10, 11. Hieron. de viris illust. c. 36. Paulin. carm. 26. Hieron. in Matt. x. 4. Nazian. Orat. 25. Hieron. Epist. 148. Ambros. in Psalm. xlv. Chrysost. vol. vi. Append. Homil. 31. For these references I am indebted to Calmet. John presided as a metropolitan in the lesser Asia: and Peter, after governing the church of Antioch, is said to have been the first bishop of Rome, |