The miracle, like any other argument
which only confirms what was before believed, is admitted with little
examination. In the moral, as in the natural world, it is change which
requires a cause. Men are easily fortified in their old opinions, driven
from them with great difficulty. Now how does this apply to the
Christian history? The miracles there recorded were wrought in the midst
of enemies, under a government, a priesthood, and a magistracy decidedly
and vehemently adverse to them, and to the pretensions which they
supported. They were Protestant miracles in a Popish country; they were
Popish miracles in the midst of Protestants. They produced a change;
they established a society upon the spot, adhering to the belief of
them; they made converts; and those who were converted gave up to the
testimony their most fixed opinions and most favourite prejudices. They
who acted and suffered in the cause acted and suffered for the miracles:
for there was no anterior persuasion to induce them, no prior reverence,
prejudice, or partiality to take hold of Jesus had not one follower when
he set up his claim.
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