lieve me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." Miracles, then, are the seals of God, by which he ratifies his Covenants with man. They are the proper and direct proof to us of his sovereign commission ; and he will not give his glory to another. We may rest in the satisfactory assurance that no created being whatever has power to interfere at pleasure in the course of human affairs, and that the whole train of pretended miracles are false from beginning to end-that the universe in all its arrangements is still in the hands of its Creator, and that his power only is competent to suspend or control its laws.

The general character of the miracles of the Old Testament is that of facts, plain, palpable, in their nature, at the same time inseparably connected with other facts and histories, and always immediately necessary to the occasion on which they were exhibited. The end to be attained by them was obvious, and in general previously and distinctly announced, and the attention of the beholders was often particularly directed to their progressive, and frequently long protracted completion. The universal deluge, the confounding the language at Babel, and the destruction of the cities of the plain by fire from heaven, were visible and immediate interpositions of God for the punishment of wicked men, different from his usual mode of procedure in the government of the world. The design and tendency of these awful displays of Divine indignation, of the first of which 120 years' premonition was given, were of a public and permanent nature, peculiarly adapted to the state of the world, when the knowledge of God was transmitted by oral tradition.

On the separation of Israel, as a nation, from the rest

of mankind, a remarkable train of miraculous interpositions, interwoven with their history and laws, commenced. In the wilderness, Moses beheld the burning bush, which was not consumed, and was enabled, with his rod, to work miracles, to convince both his countrymen and Pharaoh, that he was appointed the leader of the people of Israel. When the nation of Israel, under his guidance, at length went up out of Egypt, a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, preceded their camp. When encompassed by the mountains on each side, and by the army of the Egyptians, the Red Sea, which was before them, divided at the stretching out of the rod of Moses, and opened to the whole multitude a safe passage, while the Egyptians, pursuing them, were overwhelmed by its returning waters. On their way to the promised land, God led them "through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water,"" a land that was not sown,"-" a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt." By the daily falling of manna, and by the supply of water that followed them, they were supported, during forty years, in a situation where, without a miracle, so great a multitude of people (computed to have been at that time between two and three millions), could not have subsisted forty days. And from their continuance in the wilderness, these prolonged miracles were not only evident to themselves, but likewise to the surrounding nations.

Soon after they had left Egypt, the law was delivered to them from Mount Sinai. At the foot of the mountain, standing at a distance beyond the reach of any human voice, the whole nation heard the sound of the

trumpet, and the voice of God, accompanied with thunder and lightning from the midst of the fire and the cloud, the tokens of the divine presence. Of this appearance formal intimation was given to them some time before. The whole scene was so awful, that Moses trembled, and the people removed and stood afar off. The authority of Moses, afterwards employed as their lawgiver, was supported during their journey by miraculous appearances and events on every necessary occasion. When they came out of Egypt, there was not a feeble person among them, so that not one was left behind. And at the end of their journey, Moses, after forty years, could appeal to them that their feet had not swelled, neither had their raiment waxed old. When arrived at the borders of Canaan, and when a supply of food could be obtained in the usual manner, the manna ceased.

In

On the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, a way was opened for them to pass through the river Jordan, as they had formerly passed through the Red Sea, of which enduring memorials were set up at the time in presence of the whole nation. And in order to encourage them in the war in which they were about to engage, and to assure them of that Divine assistance which they should experience, the walls of the first city they invested fell down on the blowing of horns. one of their great battles, their enemies were destroyed by hail-stones poured down upon them; and the sun was stopped in his course for the space of a whole day, that they might be enabled to follow up their victory. Thus in the conquest of Canaan, God wrought four distinguished miracles in their favour;-one in the water in Jordan, one on the earth, in throwing down the walls of Jericho, one in the air, in destroying

their enemies with hail, and one in the heavens, in stopping the course of the sun and moon. These wonders happening successively in the above order, and in the different parts of the universe, proved the universal power of the God of Israel. Like other idolaters, the Canaanites acknowledged only particular gods in one or other of the elements, or in certain parts of the world; but these miracles showed them that the God of the Hebrews reigned universally over all-in the water, -in the earth,-in the air,-and in the heavens. Here, too, it may be remarked, that three memorable passages of the Israelites took place by the turning of waters. To open to them a way out of Egypt, the sea was divided. To open to them a way into Canaan, the river Jordan was divided; and to bring them out of Babylon, the waters of the Euphrates were turned from their course. Visible miraculous interpositions were continued long after they came to be established in the land which God had given them as an inheritance. Miracles were likewise wrought among them occasionally in more private instances, and sometimes with signal publicity, as in those performed by their great prophets Elijah and Elisha, the former of whom was, like Enoch, translated to heaven.

Such as has been described being the nature of the miracles wrought among the Israelites, they cannot, it is evident, be separated from the history which records them. Both their character and the relation in which they stand to that history, of which they form so essential a part, mark the total contrariety between them and all pretended miracles, the falsity of which never disturbs the train of those histories in which they are narrated. But either the whole of the history of the Iraelites is false, or the accounts of the miracles

which it records must be true. If that people passed through the sea, as the history testifies, it must have been by miracle. If they remained forty years in the wilderness, they must have been miraculously fed while there. All the events related in the history depend upon the truth of that public and long continued miraculous agency, without which they could not have had place. These miracles were recorded at the time when they occurred, and are not only minutely detailed in a way that stamps their authenticity, but are constantly appealed to both in the acts of public government, in the legislation, and in the execution of the laws. Unless the people of Israel had seen and known them to be facts, they never could have been influenced by such appeals.

The whole train of miraculous interposition from the beginning, before there was any written revelation, materially contributed to maintain the knowledge and worship of God in the world. To Israel, as separated from the other nations, it was essential to the circumstances in which they were placed. Miracles were necessary to authenticate the Scriptures as the oracles of God, of which the Israelites were appointed the depositaries. They were also necessary to preserve the nation in subjection to that burdensome ritual, which served at once to restrain them from idolatry, and to shadow forth the good things to come. The spiritual import of their law they might not all comprehend; but it was indispensably requisite that they all should be fully convinced, that its outward form which they received was from God. Without miraculous interposition, the Israelites never would have continued in their state of seclusion, and in that separation from the idolatrous rites of other nations to which they had been