church, and will be useful in preserving it to the coming of Antichrist, and to the end.

Wherefore God, to preserve this evidence to his church, has either confounded false miracles, or foretold them; and has, by one means or the other, raised himself above that which is supernatural with respect to us, and has raised us above it likewise. It will be the same in time to come; either God will not suffer the existence of false miracles, or he will produce greater.

For miracles have so much force and influence, that it was absolutely necessary that God, seeing it is so clear that he exists, should warn us not to credit them, when they were performed in opposition to himself; for else they might have been able to mislead us.

So that the several passages in the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, which prohibit all belief in, or attention to those who work miracles, in order to pervert men from the worship of the true God: and that in St. Mark, chap. xiii. 22. "There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect," and others of the like import, are so far from lessening the authority of miracles, that nothing can more clearly evidence their force.

The reason of men's disbelieving true miracles is want of charity: "Ye believe not," said Jesus Christ to the Jews, "because ye are not of my sheep," John x. 26. The reason of their believing false miracles is the same want of charity. "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they may believe a lie," 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11.

When I have considered whence it is that men give such credit to the pretended remedies of so many impostors, so as often to put even their lives into their hands, it has appeared to me to be no other

than this, that there are such things in the world as real remedies; for it would be impossible that there should be so many false ones, and that they should obtain so great a degree of credit, if there were none that are true. For if there never had been any such things, and were all distempers incurable, it is impossible that men should ever have imagined they could produce any, and still more so, that such numbers should have given credit to those who pretended to possess them. For if a man should give out that he had a medicine that would preserve men from dying, nobody would believe him, there being no example of any such thing having ever existed. But as there certainly is a great number of remedies, the efficacy of which has been proved by the knowledge even of the wisest of men, credit is given to them on that ground: and as the thing cannot be denied in general, on account of particular real effects, the multitude who are unable to distinguish which of these particular effects are real, gives credit to them all. So the reason why some ascribe so many false effects to the moon, is, that she has some real influence on the ebbing and flowing of the sea.

And it appears equally evident to me that there could never have been so many pretended miracles, false revelations, witchcrafts, &c. but from there having been others which were real; nor so many false religions, but because there was one which was the true. For had there never been any thing of this sort, it is next to impossible that any could have imagined it, and still more so that others should have believed them. But because there were very remarkable things which were true, and were therefore believed by the greatest among men, this impression was the cause which made the greater part of mankind so capable of giving credit to those which were spurious. And therefore, instead of concluding that there are no true miracles, because there are false ones, we ought, on the contrary, to infer, that there

are true miracles because there are so many false ones; and that the only reason why there are false ones, is because there are others which are true; and that in like manner the only reason why there are false religions, is because there is a true religion. For the mind of man having been once led to these things by what is true, becomes afterward susceptible of admitting what is counterfeit.

We are commanded to hear the church, but not to believe miracles; because the latter is natural, and not the former. The one required a precept, which the other did not.

There are so very few to whom God makes himself known by these extraordinary interpositions, that it is our duty to profit well by those opportunities he has afforded us. For he only departs from the secrets of nature under which he is veiled, that he may excite in us faith to serve him with more ardour, when we know him with more certainty.

If God were continually to give fresh revelations of himself to men, there be no virtue in believing him; and if he had never given any, faith could scarcely have had any existence. But he is for the most part concealed, and only discloses himself occasionally to those whom he would engage in his service. This wonderful obscurity in which God is hid, impenetrable to human sight, is a powerful motive to solitude, and retirement from the view of the world. Before the incarnation, God remained hidden under the veil of nature which conceals him from us, and when the time was come for his appearance, he was still more hidden by clothing himself with humanity. He was much more easily known while he was invisible, than when he made himself visible. And at length, when he designed to accomplish the promise which he made to his Apostles, to continue with his church till the second coming, he chose the most strange and obscure concealment of all, namely, that under the elements of the Eucharist.

It is this sacrament which St. John calls in the Revelation the hidden manna. Rev. ii. 17. And I think that Isaiah saw him thus, when he said in the spirit of prophecy, “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." Isaiah xlv. 15. This is the greatest concealment he can assume. The veil of nature which conceals God, has been penetrated by many infidels, who, as St. Paul testifies, have seen the invisible God, through visible nature. Rom. i. 20. Many heretical Christians have known him through his humanity, and have worshipped Jesus Christ as God and man. But as for us, we ought to esteem ourselves happy, that it has pleased God to enlighten us to discern him under the elements of bread and wine.

To these considerations we may add the mystery of God's Spirit, who is concealed in the scriptures. For whereas there are two perfect senses of them, a literal and a mystical, the Jews resting in the former, never so much as think there is another, nor apply themselves to search after it; so wicked persons, beholding the operations of nature, ascribe them to nature, without thinking of any other author. And as the Jews, seeing a perfect human nature in Jesus Christ, did not seek for another; "He was despised, and we esteemed him not," says Isaiah, in their name. Isaiah liii. 3. So also Heretics, seeing the perfect appearance of bread in the Eucharist, look for no other substance. Every thing contains some mystery. All things are the veils of their Creator. Christians ought to see him in every thing. Temporal afflictions hide those eternal blessings to which they lead; temporal enjoyments cover those eternal evils which they procure. Let us beg of God to make us know him and serve him in all things; and let us render him infinite thanks, that being hidden in every thing from so many others, he should in so many things, and in so many ways, have disclosed himself to us.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS.

THE ungodly, who abandon themselves blindly to their passions, without either knowing God, or giving themselves the trouble to seek him, verify in themselves this one principle of the faith which they oppose, that human nature is in a state of corruption. And the Jews, who obstinately withstand the Christian religion, verify in like manner this other principle of the same faith, which they oppose, namely, that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, and that he came to redeem mankind, and to rescue them from the misery and corruption into which they were fallen. And this they do as well by the state in which we see them at present, and which was foretold in the prophecies, as by the prophecies themselves, which are still in their hands, and which they inviolably preserve, as containing the marks by which the Messiah is to be known. Thus the evidences of the depravity of men, and of redemption by Jesus Christ, which are the two principal truths which Christianity establishes, may be deduced from the wicked, who live in indifference about religion, and from the Jews, who are its irreconcilable enemies.

The dignity of man, in his innocence, consisted in ruling and making use of the creatures; but, under