and Augustine, * affirm concerning Plato, and Clement of Alexandria, † concerning Pythagoras, Aristotle, Numa Pompilius; whether Pythagoras had been the disciple of Ezekiel, which the same writer asserts was the opinion of many. It is certain that the most ancient authors of the Ionian and Italic philosophy derived many things from the Egyptians, and all the Greeks, from the Phenicians; both these nations, however, not to mention that they might have learned many things from the patriarchs, with whom they had daily intercourse, (as the former, without doubt, learned much from Joseph, a person of great authority among them,) were near neighbours, and well known to the Jews. Laertius speaks truly of that philosophy; “Some say that philosophy originated among the barbarians," a confession which had long before been made by Plato, respecting letters and words, when he says, “ We have received these from some of the barbarians, for the barbarians are more ancient than we.” How great travellers most of the philosophers were, we learn from Laertius ;; and it is not possible but in their peregrinations they must have heard much from the Jews, or concerning the Jews. After the time of Alexander the Great, indeed, there was a constant intercourse between the Jews and the Greeks. It is also known to all, that the Holy Scriptures were in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus translated into Greek; and many are of cpinion that a translation of the Pentateuch existed before Alexander, nay, before the Persian empire. I say nothing here of the later Platonists and Peripatetics ; Apuleius, Maximus Tyrius, Plotinus, Porphyry, Jamblichus, Proclus, Symplicius, Alexander Aphrodiensis, and others, whose intercourse with the Christians, and use of the sacred books, taught them to speculate more accurately concerning God. Hence there was much believed by the Greeks concerning the circumstances of the creation, the state of innocence, the fall of man, the deluge and other things, which being matters of fact could be known only by tradition ; many of which are collected by P. D. Huet,g so that I cannot understand how that eminent man has entitled another of his books, “ Of the harmony of reason and faith,” seeing that very few of those things in which he shews the heathen agree with believers, have proceeded from reason, the greater number of them being the result of tradition ; unless perhaps reason taught the heathen what they knew of the frequent appearances

De Civitate Dei, viii. + Stromata. lib. v. # In Cratylo. p. m. 425. § Demonstratio Evangelica, and Alnetanis quæst.

of God, of the creation of man in the image of God, of the ancient giants, of the longevity of the first men, of the ark and the deluge, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of the miracles of Moses, and of many other things which he has collected with great diligence. These very things induce us to conjecture that the greater part of the just sentiments concerning God and his worship, which were known among the heathen, had come to them by the same channel of tradition.

Let us now, having attended to these things as their importance demands, suppose that no part of the sacred Scriptures had ever existed in the world, that there had been no patriarchs to whom the Scriptures ascribe a special intercourse with God, that there had been no Moses, no law given from Sinai, no David, no Solomon, no prophets, that no Jesus had come in the flesh, that no apostles had existed, and, in a word, none of those holy writers or men of God of whom the Scriptures take notice; what I ask would have been the appearance of the world at this time? what kind of knowledge and worship of God would there have been ? where would his glory have dwelt among men? What would be, or would have been the religion, not only of all (how numerous soever they are, or would have been) Christians, Jews, Mahometans; but of the greater number of the heathen, of whom there are, or have been, very few whom nothing of the revelation contained in the Scriptures has reached ? What would be the institutions of the nations, their customs, their laws, their policy, all of which are also much indebted to the religion of the sacred Scriptures ? How many people, which this religion alone could have civilized, would have continued in their former savage state ? What would we have been ? What our Deists with their rational religion? They might still perhaps have been reasoning concerning God, and other things, like the inhabitants of the new world when they were first visited by the Spaniards. O strange! We

very cultivation of reason in a great measure to the Christian religion, and yet there are found some who abuse its acuteness to lessen the authority of this religion, though, were it taken away, we might well tremble lest we should fall back into the same savageness and barbarism from which it has rescued us.

In conclusion, we ask those who affirm that we are indebted to reason for whatever is peculiarly excellent in the religion of the sacred Scriptures, whether the Hebrew nation alone has produced men endowed with reason, whether they cultivated reason more than others, whether they alone knew how to reasen correctly?-_whether the other nations received less natural

owe the

capacity from God, or laboured less in improving it? Is not the very opposite the truth, that the Hebrews in every thing that requires great power of reason were far inferior to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and other nations ? From these we have received arts, sciences, eloquence, and almost every invention useful to the human race. Why then was it that in religion alone, this shrewdness in reference to all other subjects could avail nothing ? Why does that single religion which is both the most perfect and the most agreeable to reason, come to us from the illiterate country of the Hebrews, where has flourished none of those arts by which reason is usually excited and improved ? Why are the Hebrews as much wiser than other nations in religion, as they are more ignorant than these nations in every thing else ? Why are the other nations ignorant of scarcely any thing except the true God and his worship ? Why does that people know almost nothing but that very thing of which the others are ignorant ? Why, in fine, do shepherds, herdsmen, fishermen, artizans, speak more pertinently than philosophers about divine things ? Let us acknowledge that here there is something more than human; let us acknowledge that religion is not the invention of reason; that the cause of the wonderful superiority which appears in Scripture is the fact that there is a God, who made known his ways unto Moses, his aćts unto the children of Israel ;** who “ shewed his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation, and therefore they have not known his judgments."{ By some the style, the method, the simplicity of the sacred writers are little esteemed. Such persons know not what they wish; these very things shew how illiterate they were ; how unfit to devise those things which the brightest genius could not have discovered, seeing they were destitute of that to which an ordinary capacity is equal. This confirms us in the divine truth, as often as we attentively consider the simplicity of the manner in which such things have been communicated by such men.

Let us then adore the Divine providence which has omitted nothing ealculated to establish the pious; and let us say with our Saviour, “ We thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight."

DISSERTATION II.

ON THE TRUTH OF THE MIRACLES RECORDED

IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE MIRACLES WHICH ARE RECORDED IN THE SACRED

SCRIPTURES IN GENERAL.

The religion contained in the sacred Scriptures, whether you consider its scope, or the worship of God which it enjoins, or the motives by which it persuades to the observation of it, is of such a nature, that no correct thinker, who is unbiassed by prejudice and depraved affections, can hesitate to acknowledge that it is greatly superior to every other religion in the world ; or to obey with the utmost diligence all its precepts, if it is his desire to live in that manner which is at once the most agree able to reason, and the safest for himself. But how greatly would the influence of this very religion over his mind be increased, were he thoroughly convinced, by indubitable evidence, that it had proceeded immediately from God.

Our former dissertation respecting the excellence of this religion, might perhaps be a sufficient proof of its divine origin, if men were what they ought to be. But the perverse disposition of their mind and heart, their prejudices and inclinations, their indolent neglectfulness of those things which relate to God and the true happiness of man; these things, I say, and many more of a similar description, render it necessary to employ for the purpose of their conviction other evidence, such extraordinary evidence as will awaken them from their stupor,

produce not merely attention but astonishment, and sensibly and palpably demonstrate the divinity of religion. This evidence is furnished by miracles, which are in reality the credentials given by the King of kings to those whom he counts worthy to be missioned in an extraordinary manner to men, that thereby he may secure confidence in their communications and submission to their authority.

We are not very anxious here to mark the distinction between miracles truly divine, and other wonders. It is obvious to every person that those which are recorded in Scripture far surpass

the
power

of man. Should any one suspect that they have all been performed by some deceiving spirit possessed of more than human power, I ask him first accurately to examine the doctrine which has been confirmed by these miracles, and then to tell me what infernal spirit that could be, who has thought it so conducive to his interests that this religion should prevail and triumph over all others, as on that account to confirm it by so many and so great miracles ? The prince of this world knows what the interest of his government requires, and will do nothing which tends to the overthrow of his dominion.* I ask him further to tell me, why he is so credulous as to imagine that any finite spirit has performed so many and so great works in confirmation of what is false ; and at the same time is on the other hand so incredulous as to be unwilling to acknowledge that God has performed any miracles in confirmation of what is true ; as to be able to believe that God has

permitted the devil so often by the most wonderful works to establish his authority over men ; God himself, in the meanwhile, continuing altogether quiescent, and never doing any thing to vindicate his own glory? But I will not insist on these things, for the greater number of our modern infidels believe as little in miracles wrought by the devil as in miracles wrought by God; so that the only difficulty is to convince them of the truth of the miracles recorded in Scripture ; which, being accomplished, it will be easy to bring them to acknowledge that they have proceeded from God.

“ But how,” they will ask, “ can we ascertain that these things have in reality taken place ?" They are recorded in Scripture. “ But the present business is to prove the divine authority of that book, and you cannot as yet make use of its testimony, as if it were infallible, to prove the truth of the miracles. For this would be, as logicians speak, a petitio prin.

• Matt. xii. 25.