Again : God having done so many and great wonders for his people, may see fit to try their faith and love, in order that the faithful amongst his people may display their fidelity, and the hypocritical their hypocrisy. And for this end we may conceive him to suffer some impostor to assume the character of a prophet, and, by the performance of some sign or wonder, and the prediction of some event that shall come to pass, to give occasion for his people to manifest what is in their hearts. Indeed, he warned his people that he would suffer such occurrences, i?i order to try their fidelity to hima.
But we cannot conceive that he should suffer such a trial to
a Deut. xiii. 1 — 3.
proceed so far as to impose on those who were truly upright. We can have no doubt, but that to a humble and prayerful soul there would appear, at the same time, very abundant evi- dences of the imposture : for otherwise the true prophets would be unable to prove the divine authority of their mission.
Admitting, however, that such occurrences may, for wise and gracious purposes, be permitted, we still must regard mi- racles, when wrought expressly in confirmation of the divine authority, as sufficient attestations to the mission of him who works them. These were the credentials whereby Moses was to authenticate his mission to the Israelites in Egypt b. By this test the worshippers of Baal agreed to have the contest decided between Elijah and them : " The God that answereth by fire, let him be God :" and, on seeing the testimony borne from heaven to Elijah, they exclaimed, " The Lord, he is the God ! the Lord, he is the God ! " To this test he referred the disciples of John, who were sent to inquire whether he were
the Christ0 — ■ And to the same he continually referred,
as beyond all possibility of contradiction decisive of his own mission d ]
And, beyond all doubt, the miracles which Jesus wrought were sufficient for this end —
[They were altogether innumerable ; insomuch that the inspired historian says of them, that " if they should be written every one of them (with all their attendant circumstances), the world itself would not contain the books that should be writ- ten." But we need not go further than the miracle before us. The Disciples, so far from being confederate with their Master to impose upon the multitude, acknowledged, with the utmost simplicity, the impossibility of providing for such a multitude in that wilderness. Our Lord had made the inquiry of them for the express purpose of calling their attention, and the attention of all around them, the more fully, to the miracle which he was about to work. The five thousand men were all placed in ranks, a hundred in length and fifty in breadth, that every thing might be done in their sight, and without a possi- bility of collusion. The food having been blessed by our Lord, was committed to the Apostles for distribution ; and, as fast as they disposed of it, the remainder was augmented in their hands, and all were supplied to the full : and after all had eaten and been satisfied, the fragments which were taken up far exceeded in quantity the original measure which they pos- sessed. All the people were themselves witnesses of what passed before their own eyes: and if there had been any
b Exod. iv. 1 — 9. c Matt. xi. 3—6.
d John iii. 36. and x. 24, 25, 37, 38. and xiv. 10, 11.
1635.] Christ's messiahship proved. 369
deception, it could not but have been discovered. This miracle, therefore, gave them a very just ground for the conclusion which they instantly formed ; namely, that Jesus must be the Messiah, who had been predicted, and was at that time expected to make his appearance in the world.]
Concluding Jesus, then, to be the true Messiah, let us consider,