to whom the fame favours were granted. This was an indication that the Gospel should be more readily received by the Gentiles than by the Jews, and this our Saviour intimates, faying, when he had commended the Centurion's faith, Many fhall come from the caft and from the weft, from the north and from the fouth, and fhall fit down with Abraham and Ifaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom fhall be caft out into utter darkness.

He cured fome perfons at a distance, without vifiting and feeing them, to fhew that he fhould convert and fave by his facred word those who fhould not fee and converfe with him here on earth.

The darkness which was fpread over the land, fhewed the spiritual blindness of the Jews which continued when the Gospel shone in the Gentile world, and was an omen of their deftruction.

The veil of the temple which was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, portended the abolition of the ceremonial law, and of the feparation between Jews and Gentiles, and an entrance for believers by the death of Chrift into the Holy of holies.

The earthquakes at the death and refurrection of Chrift fhewed the great revolutions which should come to pafs in the establishment of the Gofpel, and in the fall of Judaism and Paganism; for in the facred Writers great changes in the political world are foretold and

denoted

denoted by earthquakes, by shaking heaven and earth and fea and dry land.

If Chrift never wrought a miracle, and his disciples, mean and illiterate perfons, feigned all these things, they were extremely ingenious to fix upon miracles, which fo exactly fuited the character that he affumed; and amazingly fortunate to invent miracles which so aptly prefigured events that came to light in later times.

We have falfe Legends concerning the miracles of Chrift, of his Apoftles, and of ancient Chriftians; and the writers of these fables had in all probability as good natural abilities as the difciples of Chrift, and fome of them, as the author of the Recognitions, wanted neither learning nor craft; and yet they betray themselves by faults against chronology, against history, against manners and cuftoms, against morality, and against probability. A lyar, of this kind, can never pass undiscovered; but an honeft relater of truth and matter of fact is safe, he wants no artifice and fears no examination, and if the miracles related by him are found to be 'indications of future and remote events, this circumstance adds no small strength to his testi

mony.

Of the fame prophetic kind was alfo one of St. Paul's miracles: At Paphos they found a certain forcerer, a Jew-Then Paul fet his eyes upon him and faid-The band of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind for a season. Then the Deputy, when he faw what was done, believed. Acts xiii.

By this miracle of the Apoftle was confirmed the prediction of Chrift, I am come into the world, that they who fee not, may fee; and that who fee, may be blind. The eyes of the wicked Jew are closed, and the understanding of the Pagan Proconful is illuminated. The one reprefents the impenitence and the rejection of the Jews, the other the docility and the calling of the Gentiles; and as the false prophet is only condemned to blindness for a season, so the Jews are to remain in darkness for a certain period, and to be converted in God's appointed time.

Origen therefore, who was ever inclined to judge candidly, and Chryfoftom, were of opinion, that the punishment, which St. Paul inflicted upon the forcerer Barjefus, brought him to a fenfe of his guilt, and to a fincere repentance. And indeed a man must have been hardened to a strange degree, upon whom a double miracle, first of severity, and then of clemency, would have no effect. See S. Bafnage, Annal. i. p. 549.

The miracles by which St. Paul was inftructed and converted have been thought by some to be of the emblematic and prophetic kind, and to indicate the future calling of the Jews, fo that Paul the perfecutor and Paul the Apostle was a type of his own nation.

St. Paul, though the Apoftle of the Gentiles, never caft off his care for his own brethren, and always expreffed himself on that fubject with the warmest affection, and he

alone

alone of the writers of the New Testament, hath spoken clearly of the future restoration of the Jews: he earnestly wished for that happy day, and saw it afar off, and was glad.

St. Paul was extremely zealous for the Law, and a perfecutor of the Christians: fo were the Jews.

St. Paul, for oppofing Jefus Chrift, was ftruck blind, but upon his repentance he received his fight: fo were the Jews for their rebellion fmitten with fpiritual blindness, which shall be removed when they are received again into favour.

St. Paul was called miraculously, and by the glorious manifeftation of Christ himself, and he was inftructed by the fame divine Master: such will perhaps be the converfion and the illumination of the Jews.

St. Paul was called laft of all the Apostles: the Jews will certainly enter late into the Church.

St. Paul was the most active, laborious, and fuccessful of all the Difciples: fuch perhaps the Jews also shall be after their converfion. But these are rather conjectures of what may be, than discoveries of what must come to pass.

OUR Saviour foretold that false Chrifts and false prophets should arise and fhew signs and wonders. This fomewhat perplexed the ancient Chriftian writers; but if the objection had been made to the Apoftles, when they first preached

T 3

preached the Gospel, they would perhaps have replied;

As to the wonders, which our Mafter fays shall be done by falfe Chrifts and falfe prophets; Either, upon examination, fome of those wonders will appear to be tricks and impostures;

Or they will not be wrought publicly and before proper witneffes, but will be attefted by feditious Ruffians, whofe oath fhould not be admitted in any court of judicature;

Or they will be wrought to defend fomething that is manifeftly falfe, and therefore will be of no weight;

Or they will be wrought to prove that God will protect and defend the Jews, which will be foon confuted by the deftruction of Jerufalem;

Or they will not be fuch miracles as the ancient prophets declared that the Meffias would perform, miracles beneficial to mankind;

Or they will not be wrought with a declared purpose to difprove the truth of Christianity, or to establish any thing good and commendable, but only to amaze people, and excite them to rebellion;

Or they will be wrought at a time when the fervants of Chrift frequently and openly perform miracles of a more noble and amiable kind; fo that it will be impoffible for an impartial man not to fee on which fide the advantage lies;

Or they will be wrought by the permiffion of the divine Providence, to infatuate and fe

duce