all the world with infinite other miracles which they wrought in his name, and which they continued to work for several ages together; as is evident, not only from the wondrous success of their ministry, which, without being attested with such miraculous effects, could never have propagated in so short a time such a hated religion over all the world, but also from the confident appeals which the Christian writers frequently make to their heathen enemies, in which they subpoena them in as daily spectators of their wondrous works, and for the truth of them challenge their own eyes and ears. So then, that there have been such miraculous effects can no more be doubted, than that there have been such men as Pompey the Great, or Julius Cæsar, the former being attested, all things considered, with much more evidence than the latter.

And if this attestation be true, there must be a providence; for how is it possible that blind nature, which neither deliberates nor chooses, should of itself ever vary or interrupt its course, without rushing into utter confusion and disorder? How should any part of it, when it is once moved either faster or slower than ordinary, so restrain or quicken its own motion as to reduce itself back again to its established course? For if it once move faster, it must have some degree of motion superadded to it, and till that is withdrawn, it must move faster for If it move slower, it must have some degree of motion withdrawn from it; and till that be restored, it must move slower for ever. How then is it possible that nature, or any part of it, which moves by a blind necessity, should of its own accord either hasten and then slacken, or slacken and then hasten

ever.

the course of its motion, as it must do in the production of miraculous effects, without being influenced by an almighty providence? We have several miraculous instances of the diverting natural causes from their course, and stopping them in it; such as causing the waters to divide and stand still, and the sun to move backward. Now how is it conceivable that any natural cause, that hath no will of its own to move and determine it, should either stop its own motion and then move again, or divert from its course and then return again, if it were not under the command of some will without it, that guides and disposes it according to its own counsel ? But besides these scripture miracles, there are sundry miraculous instances of the rewarding good men and punishing bad, publicly recorded in the histories of all ages; some of vindicating the innocence, others of restoring the lives, others of relieving the necessities of good men; some of detecting the crimes of bad men, others of striking them dead in their impious facts, others of punishing them in kind, and others of inflicting on them those very plagues which they have imprecated on themselves to give credit to a falsehood; of some or other of which, there is scarce any age in the world which hath not been furnished with sundry notorious instances. So that unless we give the lie to all human testimony, and condemn the records of all ages for public cheats and impostures, we cannot deny but that there have been sundry miracles in the world; and if of all these miracles, that have been so strongly attested, there be but any one true and real, that one is a sufficient argument of an overruling providence. For, if ever any thing hath been effected that is either

above the power, or contrary to the established course of natural causes, it must be brought to pass by the power of God; and if God doth sometimes visibly exert his own immediate efficacy on this world, that is a plain evidence that he always governs it for whenever he thus exerts it, it is for some reason to be sure; and for what other reason should he thus strip his arm, and visibly exert his power upon or before us, but either to awaken our attention, or to confirm our faith, or alarm our fear, or encourage our hope? and if ever he had any such design upon us, it must be in order to his governing us; for to what other purpose can an almighty Being be supposed to address himself to our hope and fear, and faith and attention, but to subdue and reduce us under his rule and government?

VI. And lastly, another visible evidence of a divine providence is, predictions of future and remote contingencies. That there have been such things, hath been universally acknowledged by heathens as well as Jews and Christians. As for the heathens, Tully gives numerous instances of it in his two books of Divination; in the first of which he sets down this as the great principle of prediction: Esse deos, et eorum providentia mundum administrari, eosdemque consulere rebus humanis, nec solum universis,verum etiam singulis: i. e. "That there are gods, " and that by their providence the world is governed; "that they take care of human affairs, and this not "only in general, but in particular." And of these predictions he tells, there was one Chrysippus who wrote a large book, in which he gives innumerable instances of them, all confirmed by very good authority. Besides which, there were their oracles and

their sibylline writings, among which, if there had not been a great many true predictions, it is not to be imagined that ever the wiser and more inquisitive part of men should be so far imposed on as they were, to pay such a mighty respect and veneration to them, and that not only for a little while, but for several ages together. But as for their oracles, there are sundry of them recorded in ancient historians, together with their punctual accomplishments; and Tully in particular tells us of one of Apollo his oracles, which foretold a thousand years before, that Sypselus the tyrant should reign at Corinth. And Varro makes mention of one Vectius Valens, an augur in the time of Romulus, who, when Rome was building, foretold, by the flying of twelve vultures, that the city should continue a thousand two hundred years, which accordingly happened. But as for the reality of predictions, we need seek no farther than the holy scriptures, in which you have sundry prophecies of things which happened a long time after, as particularly of the deliverance of the Jews from those two captivities, the one in Egypt, the other in Babylon; the former of which was foretold four hundred years, and the latter above seventy years before it came to pass; and yet both of them accomplished punctually to a day, as you may see in Gen. xv. 13. compared with Exod. xix. 41. Jer. xxv. 12. compared with 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21, 22. which latter prophecy is not only recorded in scripture, but mentioned by Eupolemus, an heathen historian, cited by Eusebius, Præpar. p. 454. Thus also you have Esay his prophecy of Cyrus, whose name and achievements he most exactly foretells long before he was born, Isaiah xlv. 1, &c. And then for Daniel's pro

phecies of the grand revolutions of the empires of the world, they do so punctually describe what happened long after, that Porphyry himself, though a mortal enemy to Christianity, is forced to confess the exact agreement of his prophecies with the succeeding events, (vid. St. Chrysost. cont. Jud. tom. vi. p. 326.) and hath no other way to evade the force of them, but by affirming, without any colour of reason or authority, that they were written afterwards in or near the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; though it is evident that the LXX. interpreters, who translated the Old Testament a hundred years before, translated this prophecy of Daniel with it. And Josephus expressly tells us, that Jaddus the high priest shewed this very prophecy to Alexander the Great, who lived long before Antiochus, Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11. But, to name no more, there are the prophecies of the Messias, of the place and most particular circumstances of his nativity, and ministry, and life, and death, and resurrection, and ascension; all which were so punctually accomplished in our blessed Saviour, that did not the Jews, in whose hands they have been always preserved, own and acknowledge them, one would be apt to suspect that they were forged on purpose by some Christian to countenance our Saviour's pretence of being the true Messias.

And if there be any such thing as prophecy, if but any one of all these instances be real, (and that none of them should would be very strange,) this one will be a sufficient evidence of a divine providence for to foresee things at a distance, and before the causes are in being, so as to describe beforehand the precise time, and place, and manner of their