the credibility of the New Testament witnesses. I must, however,
observe that the force has not departed from the old-fashioned method
of stating the case, namely, that you must accept them as competent
and satisfactory; or you must believe either that they were dishonest
men, intending to deceive, or that they were dupes of their own or of
other people's fancies. I am disposed to extend the dilemma, and to
say, that there is a third supposition, growing out of the junction
of these two, the supposition (according to a not uncommon occurrence
in the mysteries of human nature) that the witnesses might be partly
the victims of delusion, and partly the inventors of fiction, that
credulity and imagination might be both at work, the result being a
fabrication of miracles, having no basis, or but an exceedingly slender
one, in facts occurring before men's eyes. With these alternatives
under our view, the inquiry is, Which shall we apply to the witnesses
of the miracles of Christ? Rénan has applied the composite supposition
to the witnesses of the resurrection. "On the Sunday morning, Mary
Magdalene first came very early to the tomb. The stone was displaced
from the opening, and the body was no longer in the place where they
had laid it. At the same time the strangest rumours were spread in the
Christian community. The cry, 'He is risen,' quickly spread amongst the
disciples. Love caused it to find ready credence everywhere." "Such was
the impression He had left in the hearts of His disciples, and of a few
devoted women, that during some weeks more, it was as if He were living
and consoling them. Had His body been taken away, or did enthusiasm,
always credulous, create afterwards the group of narratives by which it
was sought to establish faith in the resurrection? In the absence of
opposing documents this can never be ascertained. Let us say, however,
that the strong imagination of Mary Magdalene played an important part
in this circumstance. Divine power of love! Sacred moments in which the
passion of one possessed gave to the world a resuscitated God!" No one
is more ready than I am to do justice to the extraordinary literary
merits of the "_Vie de Jésus_," its lucid style, its descriptive
power, its manifold charms; but I cannot conceal my amazement that
the author, with his exquisite genius, should adopt such a travestied
rendering of the noblest of Bible stories. There are no documents,
as he confesses, to work upon but the four Gospels; and from these
Gospels it distinctly appears that, so far from the witnesses produced
being of the character he indicates, so far from their love snatching
at anything within reach, however airy, out of which to weave a web of
wonders, there were men amongst them slow of heart to believe what the
prophets had written, and what Jesus had said about the resurrection;
men who counted the report of that resurrection, when they first heard
of it, as an idle tale,--one of whom even would not yield to sight
itself, but demanded to touch the nail-prints in the holy palms, and
to thrust his hand into the sacred side. And as to the women, when
they came to the sepulchre on the third day, it was not to hail a
risen Jesus, but to anoint a buried one. That persons represented by
the historians as burdened with doubts, and fears, and unbelief, and
demanding demonstrative evidence, should have been finally convinced,
and should have staked their all upon that conviction, removes them
for ever utterly beyond all reasonable suspicion of dreaming strangely
coloured dreams of their Lord's risen life,--to say nothing of
collusion and fraud,--and places them at once amongst witnesses, who
well knew what they said, and whereof they affirmed.
The credibility of the witness borne to another resurrection is also
well established. For evidence of the authenticity of the Gospel of
St. John, I refer to Professor Lightfoot's lecture, and would only
remark upon the narrative in this Gospel--a narrative so full of
pathetic beauty--that it is impossible to explain away its details
by possibilities of misapprehension, and pardonable exaggerations
of extraordinary incidents. Thus much is indisputable, Lazarus was
sick unto death. To all human appearance he died. He died, and was
buried, and remained so long in the grave that it was believed the
corruption of his corpse had commenced. Coincident with the utterance
by Jesus, at the door of the tomb, of the words, "Lazarus, come
forth!" the body moved, arose, came forth, bound hand and foot with
grave-clothes; in consequence of which, "many of the Jews which came
to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him."
Here were presented to the senses of witnesses phenomena involving
the performance of a miracle. A distinction has been justly drawn
between testimony to phenomena cognizable by the senses, and miracles
completely considered on their invisible and divine side, as well as
their visible and human one. "Testimony," it is said, "can apply only
to apparent sensible facts; testimony can only prove an extraordinary
and perhaps inexplicable occurrence or phenomenon; that it is due
to supernatural causes is entirely dependent on the previous belief
and assumption of the parties."[49] With the omission of the words
"previous belief and assumption," and the substitution of the words
"reflection and conviction,"--whether exercised and experienced at the
time or afterwards,--I accept the statement. Phenomena are immediately
apprehensible; the cause is not so. A persuasion that the cause is
miraculous arises in the mind as an inference from what is directly
witnessed. But what is directly witnessed may be of such a nature
as to compel the witness, as a reasonable person, to believe that
what has taken place results from a supernatural interposition. This
conviction implies, indeed, that the person believes in the existence
of supernatural power--in other words, believes in the existence and
agency of God--which belief may be described as a "previous belief:"
but a conviction that particular phenomena are the result of a
supernatural cause, depends on the exercise of reason in regard to
the phenomena themselves. "No testimony," I admit, "can reach to the
supernatural," directly, but it may reach it by implication.
Keeping in view the distinction laid down, we say of the narrative
of the resurrection of Lazarus, that no natural solution of the
event recorded is within reach. Fraud, collusion, trickery,[50] are
excluded by the character of Christ and of Lazarus: no reference to
accidental coincidences, or to mesmerism, or to electric influences,
or to any known physical agencies, meets the case. Nor is there room
for the anticipation that the advancement of science will ever solve
this problem. If a solution be attainable, we are shut up to the
one solution accepted by Christians. To leave it unsolved, to refer
it to the class of unaccountable phenomena, through a persistent
determination not to believe in anything supernatural, in the face
of all which can be said in reply to antecedent objections, is most
unphilosophical.
Let me here add, in reference to narratives of the miraculous, that
it is easy to marshal a number of general reflections together,
casting a slur upon evidence, and to invest with some plausibility its
denial or non-acceptance. But, when we think how fallaciously, yet
plausibly, general reflections may be employed for the contradiction
of evidence,--how, by reference to the proverbial exaggerations of
travellers' stories, accounts of other countries, of their customs and
productions, may be discredited; how, by insisting upon men's liability
to illusion, the observations of scientific inquirers may be set aside;
how, by dwelling on credulity and passion, party spirit, and the
like, historic doubts may be conjectured respecting the existence of
Napoleon I., and how, in the same way, historic doubts may be hereafter
raised respecting a large part of the career of Napoleon III.; we see
how little such general reflections are to be trusted, how much more
they may do to hinder the interests of truth than to help them.[51] The
absurdity of the conclusions in such cases discredits the process by
which they are reached.
Let us not pass from this part of the subject without saying one word
as to the presumption in favour of the New Testament narratives of
miracles, when compared with narratives of miracles found elsewhere.
Place side by side with the Scripture narratives the miraculous stories
in the Apocryphal Gospels, in the writings of the Fathers, in mediæval
chronicles, in modern legends of Saints, and one sees the force of
a remark by an eminent German theologian: "The critical acumen of
Niebuhr was, as is admitted, inferior to that of no man, and he has
done away with only too much of the ancient history of Rome. Yet he
acknowledged, 'with respect to a miracle, in the strictest sense of
the word, it needs but an unprejudiced and searching investigation
of nature to perceive, that the miracles related are anything but
absurd, and a comparison of them with the legends or so-called miracles
of other religions, to recognize what a different spirit dwells in
them.'"[52] To take only one step farther in this direction, when it is
asked, "What, if so many apparently competent witnesses were to assure
you, that they had seen such and such a miracle--mentioning the most
monstrous absurd, fantastic, and ludicrous confusion of nature--would
you believe them?" We answer in the words of a modern Writer: "We are
only concerned with the miraculous under that form and those conditions
under which it has actually by trustworthy report taken place, as
subordinated to what has been called 'a general law of wisdom,'
_i.e._ to a wise plan and design in the Divine mind under which check
the course of miracles has, so to speak, kept near to nature, just
diverging enough for the purpose, and no more."[53]
II.
It is time to attend to the second part of our subject, the _value_ of
the miraculous testimony to Christianity.
1. The miracles must not be taken alone; they form a part of
Christianity; and therefore, to be rightly understood, they should
hold in the mind an inseparable relation to the rest of Christianity.
Christianity is its own evidence. Each portion harmonizes with the
other portions. They yield mutual support. Miracles, therefore, are
concurrent with other proofs. "External" and "internal" are convenient
words, but they are liable to mischievous application. One objection to
the word "external," as designating the evidence of miracles, is that
it assumes them to be outside the Gospel--only bulwarks for defence,
not pillars identical with the inner structure. It is curious that
opposite classes of persons have attributed to miracles an externality
which their place in Scripture will not allow. By one class, consisting
of advocates for the evidence, miracles are presented as the chief
part of the evidence, as marks indispensable for the authentication
of Divine truth, yet quite _ab extra_ things, placed round about the
temple to ward off evil-disposed persons who would dare to violate the
shrine. By another class, consisting of those who take exception to the
miracles, they are also treated as things _ab extra_, things which may
well be cut off from Christianity--burdens which there is no necessity
it should be made to bear--a dress which disfigures it rather than
otherwise, and which, for the sake of its progress in the world, had
better be stripped off and cast away. These two modes of assuming one
and the same thing, are as objectionable in themselves, as they are
curious in their coincidence.
The miracles really run into and intersect the lines of New Testament
teaching from end to end. They are not seals externally attached,
but contents deposited inside--not post-marks showing simply whence
the letter comes, but paragraphs written in the folded sheet. The
"_internal_" and the "_external_"--if we may use the words in their
popular currency--must occupy our attention together. Miracles cannot
be torn from the life of Christ. His nature, character, teaching,
wonders, constitute an unparalleled spiritual unity. Criticism here,
of course, has its own department of duty to fulfil. What really
constitute the synoptical Gospels and the Gospel of St. John, is
its province to determine. Readings of MSS. require to be examined
with an honest desire to render the _textus receptus_ as perfect as
possible--a desire which a reverential regard for the genuine contents
of the record must serve to stimulate. When all that labour has been
accomplished, the miracles of the genuine rolls of Scripture are to be
regarded as integral elements of faith. "The facts of Christianity,"
says Archdeacon Lee, "are represented by some as forming no part of
its essential doctrines; they rank, it is argued, no higher than its
external accessories. It is impossible to maintain this distinction. In
the Christian Revelation the fact of the Resurrection is the cardinal
doctrine, the doctrine of the Incarnation is the fundamental fact.
Christianity exhibits its most momentous truths as actual realities, by
founding them upon an historical basis, and by interweaving them with
transactions and events which rest upon the evidence of sense."[54]
2. Miracles are reasonable attestations of a Divine mission. As such
our Lord appeals to them, they "bear witness of me, that the Father
hath sent me." As such Nicodemus received them: "We know that Thou art
a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou
doest, except God be with him." As such the poor blind man regarded
them in that exquisite piece of _naïveté_, in which he says, "Why
herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence He is, and
yet He hath opened mine eyes." As it is reasonable, in the case of an
ambassador, to refer to his credentials in proof of his legitimate
authority; so it is reasonable, in the case of a professedly Divine
teacher, to refer to signs and wonders he is capable of working, in
proof of his Divine commission.
Of vast importance is it that we should note precisely the point
touched by the finger of miraculous evidence. It may be said, not only
are miracles incapable of enforcing a train of argument, but they
are incapable of establishing any moral or religious proposition. No
physical demonstration, it may be alleged, can ever link itself on to
a spiritual truth, because the two things belong to totally different
spheres. We should get involved in metaphysical subtleties, were I
to inquire thoroughly into this position. It is enough to say, that,
admitting it, the exact point touched by miraculous evidence, is,
according to the teaching of Scripture itself, the _office_ sustained
and the _commission_ borne by a person. "The works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of _me_." "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by
miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by _Him_." In these
passages, the witness of miracles is attached to a person. "My works
bear witness of _me_," says Jesus. They are the approval of "_a man_,"
says Peter. The evidential force of them bears on Christ Himself, the
sent of God. Thus considered, miracles free themselves from objections
made to their competency to serve as direct proofs of spiritual truths.
The miracles of Moses afford evidence of his Divine legation: in like
manner the miracles of Jesus afford evidence of His Divine Messiahship.
It is said of Him that "He taught them as one having authority, and
not as the scribes." Authoritativeness is characteristic of His mode
of teaching. "Verily, verily, I say unto you." He claimed a right to
speak, as one who had power to command men that they should obey. There
is in His utterance little of argument, but much of law. Miracles can
add no force to a chain of reasoning, and you may say they cannot
immediately demonstrate spiritual truth, but they afford a basis for
the enunciation of a Divine message, a mandate of the Divine will.
Miracles, no doubt, come within relations to spiritual truth, through
the medium of the miraculously demonstrated authority of its utterer;
but spiritual truth has other distinct and appropriate marks of its
Divine origin and character. It contains an inward witness--it shines
by its own light. It commends itself to men's consciences in the sight
of God, and when believed, vindicates the justness and wisdom of such
belief.
It cannot be too much insisted on, that miraculous evidence comes not
out in Scripture _by itself_. The works of Jesus include more than His
miracles. The whole beneficent influence of His life is covered by the
words, "who went about doing good." With the thought of what He did,
stands associated the thought of what He was; and with the character
of His matchless life is interwoven the character of His matchless
teaching. Miracles form but one strand in the cable which binds the
Church's faith to Him who is the Anchor of her hope; and _they_ expose
the ship to peril who untwist the rope, and lay upon that single strand
the whole amount of strain--the entire stress of tension. Holy Writ
warrants no such course; but warns against it. "If there arise among
you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a
wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake
unto thee, saying, 'Let us go after other gods which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them;' thou shalt not hearken unto the words
of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams." Moses, himself a worker
of miracles, appeals to something beyond miracles as essential to the
final establishment of religious authority. The moral proof is put
in the foremost place, and no mere physical achievement can exercise
exclusive force apart from that. And, as if to remind us of these words
in Deuteronomy, we read in the last chapters of Revelation of men being
deceived by the miracles of the beast, of the spirits of devils working
miracles, and of the false prophet that wrought miracles. Thus the
New Testament teaches us to bind the evidence of Christian miracles
to that which shows how utterly different they are from all the
pretensions of deceivers, from all the delusions of fanatics. To dwell
on extraordinary incidents, apart from other considerations, is to open
a door to superstition, and even revolting credulity. In this way, a
belief in witchcraft, sanctioning most unrighteous and cruel laws,
maintained its ground in England to the end of the seventeenth century.
From anything like the unreasonableness of staking religious faith upon
physical events or historical circumstances, _simply because_ they are
unaccountable upon any ordinary hypothesis of human affairs, the Gospel
is perfectly free. He who appeals to His own mighty works, appeals also
to His own self-evidencing words, and to the moral disposition of His
disciples. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of
the truth heareth my voice." "My doctrine is not mine, but His that
sent me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine
whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of
himself, seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh his glory that sent
him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him."
The solitary position assigned to the evidence of miracles in the
controversies of the last century was mischievous to the interests of
religion. I believe with Coleridge, "how little of divine, how little
fitting to our nature a miracle is, when insulated from spiritual
truths, and disconnected from religion as its end:"--and I would ask
with him, "What then can we think of a theological theory, which,
adopting a scheme of prudential legality, common to it with 'the sty
of Epicurus,' as far at least as the springs of moral action are
concerned, makes its whole religion consist in the belief of miracles!"
There is some room for this severe censure of theologians in the
last century, who failed to insist "on the creating of a new heart,
which collects the energies of a man's whole being in the focus of
the conscience--the one essential miracle, the same, and of the same
evidence to the ignorant and the learned, which no superior skill can
counterfeit, human or demoniacal." I should assign a higher place to
the physical miracle than Coleridge did,--but there is to my mind a
true and deep sense in what he asks respecting the moral one:--"Is it
not that implication of doctrine in the miracle, and of miracle in
the doctrine, which is the bridge of communication between the senses
and the soul?"[55] Christianity as a whole, at the present time,
establishes its claims by the new spiritual creation which it effects
in its sincere disciples. And here, let me add: looking at the position
of our inquiry at the present day, it appears of great importance, not
to lay down as a principle, that miracles are indispensable in the
authorization of a Divine message. To do so hampers our argument. To
do so contradicts Scripture,--"John did no miracle." If one eminent
servant of the Most High could make good his authority without
effecting any physical marvel, so might another. Regarding Jesus simply
as a Divine Teacher, there would, then, be no absolute necessity for
His working wonders in the fields of material nature. His moral acts,
His freedom from moral defects, and the whole moral tenor of His life,
would evince the holiness of His character, and the oneness of His own
spirit with that of the Father of spirits, the fountain of love and
truth; for what He said of men applied to Himself, "By their fruits
ye shall know them." Yet, though I cannot see that miracles, as some
think, were essential to the proof of what He said respecting Himself,
they are, as indicated already, what might be expected in one who was
all that Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be; they also corroborate claims
to spiritual authority, resting on other grounds; and, still further,
the manner in which some of them were performed, points to the higher
nature which tabernacled in His humanity.
The place in the sphere of evidence occupied by the miracles of
Jesus, is not exactly the same to us that it was to the multitudes
who witnessed them. I fully agree in the remark, "We do not ask any
one to begin with the miracles,--to regard power, and still more the
record of power, centuries afterwards, as the one irresistible proof of
the truth and Divine origin of a Revelation. This has been done--done
perhaps too long--done certainly in this age without conviction."[56]
A miracle never was _the one_ irresistible proof. It never was more
than one amongst others. But at first it had a power of awakening
attention, which it does not possess now. _Seen_, it irresistibly
produced excitement, which led to inquiry. _Recorded_, it fails of that
effect. It is wise, at this time of day, to begin the exposition of
Christian evidence by insisting on Christianity as a fact--as a moral
spiritual power in the world; and then, examining its principles, and
tracing its achievements to the beginning, to bring out the evidential
worth of Christ's miracles as a crown on the head of other proofs. At
the same, time it should be observed, that their pertinency as proofs
remains unaltered. They are not less true for being old. They are as
good witnesses now as they were eighteen centuries ago. What was done
by Julius Cæsar, what was done by Alexander the Great, as it appears
on record, is still as valid an indication as ever, of the genius and
prowess which the men possessed. So, what Jesus did, as we find it
recorded in His fourfold memoirs, produces undiminished assurance of
His superhuman character. If any one asks for miracles now, I reply,
they are not wanted, they could not be used as credentials of one who
left the world ages since. His own miracles, ascertained by history,
will, to the end of time, in connection with His whole life, avail as
guarantees for faith in His Divine might and goodness.
3. And, finally, the miracles promote the acceptance of Christian
truths by the illustrations of them which they afford. Christ's
miracles are of the same description as the principles and precepts
in Christ's teaching. They are animated with benevolence, instinct
with love. The Gospel perpetually offers to men a spiritual salvation;
Miracles at the beginning brought them salvation of a lower kind, which
nevertheless pointed to a higher. Of the author of Christianity it
might be said literally, "He is the Saviour of the body." His wondrous
works of healing sparkled with a tenderness, compassion, and help, like
those with which His main mission to mankind was filled. And, as they
were eminently beneficial to human beings, and so were of the same
class as the other bestowments the Christ of God came to confer, they
exhibited types of the nobler blessings themselves. They are mirrors
reflecting larger and better gifts. Signs they are as well as wonders;
parables as well as proofs. In cures of the blind, there are parables
of spiritual illumination; in the cleansing of lepers, parables of
spiritual purification; and in exorcisms, parables of spiritual
disenthralment.
The benevolent animus, and the didactic form of the miracles of Jesus
seized the attention of early Christian writers, and were employed by
them for the purpose of establishing and recommending the Christian
religion. They used them much more under their illustrative than under
their strictly evidential aspect. Arnobius (A.D. 306), in ten chapters
of his seven books, "_Adversus Gentes_," lays special stress upon
their kind and beneficent tendency.[57] Lactantius, his contemporary
in his "Institutions," whilst regarding Christ's miracles as proofs
of His higher nature, manifests particular delight in searching
out their ethical significance. He goes through the mighty works
of our Lord in order, and points out, how they demonstrated the
renewal of the human soul, the opening of its eyes, the unstopping
of its ears, the loosening of its tongue.[58] And Athanasius (A.D.
326) takes special pains to show that the miracles of Jesus were
revelations--self-representations of His Person as Divine Creator,
not mere credentials of His doctrine, but veritable victories over
nature, so that no one can doubt who Christ is, when once he beholds
His works:--and moreover, that by the manner of His working miracles,
He at once proved his Divinity, and His humanity, His Godhead and
His incarnation.[59] And Augustine insists much on their design as
symbolical of redemption, as instructive acts, charged with prophetical
import, and calculated to inspire delight more than wonder.[60]