: whole system of revelation. The consequence, ac cordingly, has been, that the simple and beautiful scheme, which might originally have been brought home to the breast of the most ignorant and illiterate, when inculcating, exclusively, the two great fundamental truths of justification and sanctification, has, from an inevitable necessity, become fenced round with its peculiar technical phraseology and precise definitions and in proportion as experience has shown how numerous are the passages to error, the necessity of superintendence, not so much, indeed, for the purpose of coercive control, as of friendly admonition, has become daily more and more manifest. It is on this account that the continual recurrence to the first principles of Gospel truth, abstracted from their incidental accompaniments, has become in later times of increasing importance to the Christian student. The complexity of character which attaches to the modern science of theology can, as has been already remarked, be effectually diminished only by a due care in discriminating between the essentials of religion as points of doctrine, and those accessories which, however sanctioned by divine authority, are are after all to be considered solely as defensive superadditions. : The apostolical rule on the subject of minor differences in ecclesiastical opinions is a wise and salutary one; that we should keep the devotional feeling of the heart right, and the judgment of the understanding will, under the Divine blessing, follow in the right direction. "Let us, as many as be perfect, be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." Attend mainly to the great and essential propositions, and all the minor inferences will, of their own accord, fall into their proper place, and present themselves to our view in their just proportions. The simplicity of the primitive age, indeed, can be no more maintained in this advanced period of the world, than the artless sentiments of boyhood can be retained in the business-like maturity of life. But integrity of intention may still enable us, to the last, to unite the harmlessness of the dove to the wisdom of the serpent. Even now, notwithstanding the necessary complexity of our knowledge, our faith may be as pure as that of the early Christians, provided only that our devotional feelings are as earnest as theirs: nor need the many safeguards which legislative wisdom, having God's oracles for its guide, has, from time to time, established for the encouragement of the sound doctrine, prove a greater cause of offence to the fervent believer in revelation, than are the wholesome restraints of secular law to those who voluntarily measure their conduct by those great rules of morality, the practice of which it is the object of the legislator and of the magistrate to enforce. CHAPTER XXVI. Of the Miracles recorded in the New Testament. THE object of the present dissertation being to remark upon the singular consistency of design and contrivance which marks the whole system of revelation, from first to last, it will be necessary, in order to make our survey complete, that we should take notice of that series of preternatural events which accompanied the final promulgation of Christianity. On the supposition that the covenant of the Gospel is a continuation and the final completion of that system of special providential interference which the books of the Old Testament assert to have been in operation from the very commencement of the world, it might naturally be expected that its Almighty Contriver should signalize this momentous consummation of his mysterious purpose by some display of his favour, not less striking than those attending on his earlier and less perfect dispensations. This circumstance, in fact, would be nothing more than maintaining that uniformity of general character which is always found to pervade the different works of the same author. Now, not only do the books of the New Testament assert that such a course of miracles as might, from analogy, have been presumed upon, did actually take place on that latter occasion, but we may observe also, that the actual miracles recorded, whilst they bear testimony to the reality of the Mosaic dispensation, are distinguished from the earlier ones by a peculiar character of beneficence which exactly accords with the more merciful purport of that purer law which they were intended to confirm. The whole design of the institutions of Moses was confessedly of a harsher description than that of Christianity. They required strict ritual obedience in all points. "The man that doeth them shall live in them," was their unbending injunction; and, accordingly, the miraculous powers of the legislator were as often employed in inflicting tremendous judgments upon the disobedience of his followers, as in rescuing them from danger, or in relieving the pressure of their daily wants. Christ came in a meeker and milder spirit, announcing the great fact of man's reconciliation with his Maker, by gratuitous redemption communicated through the medium of faith; and the miracles which he performed were all of a benevolent description. Both arrangements, therefore, were severally apposite to the respective times, and circumstances, and designs of the laws thus promulgated. The Levitical ritual was given from Sinai, in thunders and earthquakes, and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." The coming of the Messiah was announced by angels proclaiming 66 peace on earth, and good will towards men." large portion of the miraculous machinery of the earlier covenant, again, consisted of prophetic antici A pations of the future spiritual prospects of mankind. This, as has been already observed, was peculiarly well fitted to the character of a merely provisional law, the most important declarations of which were all of them prospective. The prophecies of the New Testament, on the contrary, with the exception of the Apocalypse of St. John, are thinly scattered, and even where they occur resemble rather the incidental overflowings of a super-human knowledge, extending over futurity, than special forewarnings, given for some yet undeveloped purpose. The probable reason of this would seem to be, that the Divine arrangements being now complete, the attention of mankind, which previously required to be turned in a forward direction, was now more suitably rendered retrospective. But if, for the causes now alleged, the gift of prophecy would appear to have been a less appropriate qualification of the inspired teachers of the new dispensation than of those of the old, the same argument would not apply to the question respecting miracles of another description. It may be confidently asserted that the human mind could be aroused from the inveterate associations of worldly habits, and have its attention turned away from that system of selfish indulgence so natural to its feelings, to pursuits of a directly opposite description, only by the astounding thunder-clap of a voice confessedly speaking with more than mortal authority. It is in vain to quote, in contradiction to this remark, the trite aphorism, that truth requires only to be stated in order to be assented to. The whole history of human nature is a refutation of this observation, if intended to apply to the inculcation of moral and religious truth. The conscience of every systematic sinner must be alarmed before it can be effectively awakened: the appeal to the attention of the worldly-minded must come in the form of an authoritative demand, and not of an humble request for a hearing. For the truth of this remark we challenge that intuitive knowledge of the heart of man which every person who has been thrown into much practical intercourse with general society cannot fail, in some degree, of possessing. Miracles, accordingly, we are informed by Scripture, have, both under the former and the latter covenants, accompanied all special communications from heaven. Admitting the fact of such communications being not otherwise improbable, (a point which it has been the aim of the foregoing observations to prove,) it is so far from unreasonable that they should have been specially ratified by the evidence of miracles, that, in fact, we cannot conceive their effecting their intended object without such adventitious aid. If such extraordinary testimony was necessary for the establishment of the religion of Moses, it was, clearly, not less so for the supersedence of that same religion by the Gospel of Christ. Institutions which had been sanctioned by the most portentous deviations from the ordinary course of nature, could not, and in strictness ought not, to be expected to give way to the preaching of a few individuals, producing no equivalent authority in proof of their Divine mission. Thus much, then, may be confidently urged in reply to the objections of those persons who profess to be startled and offended by the miraculous phenomena which we read of as having attended the appearance of Christ. Grant his mission to have been a real one, and it were a mere gratuitous scepticism to dispute the supernatural powers either of himself or of his authorized followers. The facts in question, be it remembered, are vouched for, unless the whole series of revelation be a fiction, not merely by their own peculiar attesting witnesses, but substantially also by those who bore testimony to the prodigies wrought by Moses and the Jewish prophets. If the attestation confirmatory of the miracles of the Old Testament is strong, the affirmative inference is, by a necessary course of argument, reflected onward |