strong against Swedenborg, were it meant to prove, and could it prove with truth, what alone it tends to prove, that the design of the miracles, signs and wonders, wrought by Jesus, was, to induce men to believe the simple preaching of John! But

when the fact is the reverse; when, before Jesus had begun to show himself, there "went out unto John Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins";* and when, without a previous belief in the simple preaching of John, men could not, notwithstanding, the "miracles, signs, and wonders," be brought to believe in Jesus ;† the conclusion is indefeasible, that miracles are not necessary to the authentication of truth: and it will not be easy to deny, that when they were performed it was, as to the outward performance, for a very different purpose.

But Jesus Christ himself, the great teacher of all, “in his own name wrought numberless miracles, signs and wonders." Assuredly he did; for how could God Incarnate do otherwise? When God appeared in a natural body on earth, it was reasonable to expect that his power would be exerted, and his beneficence displayed, in operations extending even to the bodies of his creatures, that from the person in which he dwelt virtue must go out, adapted to operate upon the persons of those, who, by faith in him, were capable of admitting it. But it hence follows, by parity of reason, that at his coming again, not in the flesh but in the spirit, his power would be exerted, and his beneficence displayed, in operations upon the spirits of his creatures,that the virtue which would then go out from. him would be the proper operation of his Holy Spirit, affecting and enlightening the minds of those, who, by their acknowledgment of him should be capable of admitting it. Of what kind, also, were the external miracles which he performed while in the flesh? They consisted almost entirely of cures wrought upon the sick and possessed, and of the sudden production, to support or refresh his creatures, of bread, or of wine. "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Who does not see in these operations, something shadowed out of far more importance than the relief of the body? Who does not

*Matt iii. 5, 6.

"And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John: but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." Luke vii. 29, 30. Luke vi. 19. § Matt. xi. 5.

behold, in him who wrought them, the Physician of the soul, the Dispenser of spiritual health and life? Who then can doubt that the miracles to be looked for at his spiritual coming, are such and such only, as those which he performed while in the flesh represented? that they will consist in the opening of the spiritual eye, or the illustration of the understanding, and the straightening of the spiritual limb, or the restoration to order of the natural mind and life; in the cleansing of the spiritual leper, or of those who, through ignorance, falsify the truth, and the opening of the spiritual ear, or the bringing into obedience of the disobedient will; in the raising up of the spiritually dead, or of those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and the preaching of the gospel to the poor, or the conmmunication to the ignorant of the instructions of the life-giving Word? Thus the miracles wrought by the Lord at his coming in the flesh, by no means lead to the conclusion, that similar miracles must be performed at his coming in the spirit: they in fact prove such an expectation to be unfounded: but they intimate that divine works may then be looked for, as far superior to the former in importance, as the soul is superior to the body.

Still then we find that there was nothing, in the circumstances attending the introduction of former dispensations, that authorizes the expectation of miracles to be performed by the Human Instrument who should announce the last. If, as we see, the external miracles performed by the Lord at his first coming, do not lead to the inference, that he would perform miracles of the same kind at his second; in no degree whatever can they lead to the inference, that such would be performed by his "harbinger." Who will be so mad as to run a parallel between the Lord himself and any Human Instrument whatever? Who then will advance the monstrous false inference; that because the Incarnate God wrought miracles in perthe Human Announcer of his second coming should do the same?

son,

But in answer to this it will probably be urged, that the Lord not only wrought miracles himself, but empowered his apostles to do so too. He did so, most certainly; and, in both cases, for the same reason. "The Word was made flesh;* and showed himself to men; and, as the natural consequence, he wrought miracles that effected men's bodies. To extend the knowledge of this fact, he sent forth Apostles; and by them, for the same reason, he wrought similar miracles. To evince "that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh," was the main point of their testimony: the burthen of their preaching, was, pentence towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ;"

*John i. 14.

'John iv. 3.

Acts xx. 21.

66

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that is, faith that he, who was known on earth by the name of Jesus Christ, was the Word made flesh, was God Incarnate. It was to this that they were to "bear witness."* There was, then, precisely the same reason that "the Word made flesh" should work miracles affecting the bodies of men, by the witnesses of the great truth, that the Word was made flesh, as that he should do them by his own immediate agency. It still was not the Apostles, but the Incarnate God, who was the sole operator: and the operations in both cases were effects from the same cause, and were but parts of the same whole. To argue, then, from what was done in this way by the preachers of the Lord's advent in the flesh, to what ought to be done by the Human Instrument for announcing his advent in the spirit, is again to draw a complete false inference. The legitimate conclusion is directly the reverse. We have seen that there must be the same difference between the operations produced at the Lord's second coming and at the first, as there is between the whole nature of the second advent and of the first. We have seen that, as it was agreeable to order that the Lord at his coming in a human body should perform cures on the hu man bodies of men, it would be contrary to order that he should do the same at his coming in the spirit and power of his Word, but that then the internal operations should take place, of which the external were figures. We now see that it was agreeable to order that the preachers of his coming in the flesh should do similar miracles to those which he performed himself. Would it not then be a palpable violation of all order, that the announcer of his spiritual coming should do such miracles as were performed by those "who companied with the apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them;" and were "ordained to be witnesses with them of his resurrection ?†" Is it not a most clear requirement of order and consistency, that the miracles to be performed by the announcer of the Lord's coming in the spirit and power of his Word, should be such, as the Lord Himself will alone then perform? miracles relating solely to the illumination of the understanding and the rectification of the heart, and which cannot appear as miracles before the outward eye? These are only to be performed by instruction in genuine truths drawn from the Holy Word: and of such instruction, by such truths there is ample store in the writings of Swedenborg. These are found, by the humble and sincere, efficacious to the performance of genuine m racles. The restoration of sight to the naturally blind is productive of less delight, than many have *John xv. 27; Acts i. 8, 22; iv. 33. † Acts i. 21, 22.

experienced in the enjoyment of that clear light of truth, which through the instrumentality of those writings, has burst on their mental sight. Through their means, the spiritually lame has leaped as a hart, and the tongue of the spiritually dumb has burst out into singing; for through their means, notwithstanding the state of desolation into which the professing church of the day has declined, in the wilderness waters have broken out, and streams in the desert.*

Again, then, we see, from all the circumstances attending the introduction of former dispensations, that there is no reason whatever for supposing that the Human Instrument appointed to announce the last, should accompany his announcement by the performance of natural miracles: on the contrary, they afford the most conclusive grounds for presuming, that the time is completely gone by in which the performance of miracles could form any part of divine economy.

But, further: who that frees himself for a moment from the shackles of prejudice, and allows himself to think from judgment, and from a regard to the present state of mankind, does not see herein the wisdom of the Almighty? Who is there that seriously believes, that a dispensation ushered in by miracles would be at all suited to the present state of the world ? Does any one actually think, that a man who should appear working miracles, would at this day obtain any serious attention? When miracles were literally performed, it was among a people to whose habits of thinking they were congenial. The Jews scarcely looked upon miracles as things extraordinary. Among a people then of such a turn of mind, it is reasonable to suppose that some of the messengers of Jehovah would be authorized to gratify the popular expectation by miracles. But if, as is certain, to the performance of miracles, a disposition to acknowledge their reality is necessary in the persons among whom they are wrought; if, as is certain, the incredulity of his countrymen was capable of restraining the wonderworking energies of the Saviour in person ;† who can imagine that, in these times, in this age of incredulity, Divine Wisdom would rest its communications on such a basis? Would not,

in these days, a man working miracles be treated as a mountebank? And would he be respected much more, even by those who believed his miracles to be real? Would not the cures he might perform be resolved into collusion, or, where this was proved to be impossible, be imputed to the agency of unknown natural causes, or of that power which modern infidelity has invested with omnipotence, the more

*Isa. xxxv. 6.

"And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed them." (Mark vi. 5.)

than magic power of imagination? It may be affirmed, that a repetition of the miracles of the Saviour himself would at this day, and in Christian countries, obtain but little attention: they were all such as might either be denied altogether or imputed to one of the above causes: and if he did not choose to silence his numerous gainsayers by the more terrible prodigies of Moses, we cannot suppose that he would cause such interruptions of the course of nature to be produced by the herald of his second advent. Indeed, it may be doubted whether even the prodigies exhibited by Moses would now command belief. Were a modern teacher to conduct an army from Calais to Dover, few, probably, would be convinced, by any testimony, that they had marched through the sea. Many, in fact, who would be loth to be thought infidels, confess as much. Even they who are loudest in demanding miraculous evidence, often, almost in the same breath, admit its inefficacy in altering the principles of a man's religious belief: while they object to Swe denborg that he did no miracles, they inform us, that they would not have believed him if he had. Thus the celebrated Dr. Priestly, after having said a good deal on the indispensable necessity of miracles to authenticate a divine commission, at last overturns his whole argument by this ebullition of Unitarian firmness: "Should any being, in the complete form of an an gel, tell me that God had the form of a man, and that this God was Jesus Christ, I should tell him that he was a lying spirit!"* And the Rev. W. Roby, relying on the stability of the decrees which Calvin has framed for the Almighty, affirms, that "even miracles themselves could not confirm the truth of Swedenborgian doctrines.Ӡ What inconsistency! to call upon us to authenticate our doctrines by miracles; and then to acknowledge that they agree with us in thinking that miracles are not proper evidences of doctrinal truth!

This sentiment, that miracles are not the proper evidences of doctrinal truth, is, assuredly, the decision of the Truth itself; as is obvious from many passages of Scripture. We have seen that the design of the miracles of Moses, as external performances, was, not to instruct the Israelites in spiritual subjects but to make them obedient subjects of a peculiar species of political state. And though the miracles of Jesus Christ served collaterally as testimonies to his character, he repeatedly intimates that this was not their main design, and that they were only granted, in this respect, in accommodation to the hardness of Jewish hearts: and he condemns and laments the gross state of the people that could require them. He ever *Letters to the Members of the New Jerusalem Church, p. 60. † Anti Swedenborgianism, &c. p. 27.