Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/127

Rh in Egypt, and afterwards the red-sea divided; the Egyptians immersed therein; the pillar of a cloud going before them by day, and a pillar of fire by night; manna daily rained down from heaven for their particular use, and water gushing out of the rock as soon as it was smitten by the rod of Moses; and although they had seen mount Sinai altogether enveloped in smoke, when Jehovah descended upon it in fire, in the midst of supernatural thunderings, lightnings, and the loud sound of a trumpet; and had heard the voice of Jehovah speaking from the mountain, with other most extraordinary tokens of the divine presence and power; yet how soon did they forget these wonders, and turn to the worship of a senseless calf, the workmanship of their own hands!

The same infidelity and hardness of heart continued with their posterity through every period of their history. Hence neither the miracles of their prophets, nor even those of the Lord himself, when he appeared among them, had the effect of changing their character, or inspiring them with any thing like a pure and genuine faith. It is therefore written of them, that "though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him," John xii. 37. Miracles then have no such power, as many ascribe to them, of convincing the understanding, or producing in the mind a rational and wholesome faith: neither can they be considered as the sure and proper evidences of a divine mission. For (not to mention the cases of many of the prophets, and among the rest of John the Baptist, who performed no miracle whatever,) we read, that, when Moses and Aaron exhibited before Pharaoh the signs or proofs of their authority, by turning a rod into a serpent, and all the waters of Egypt into blood, and also by bringing up frogs upon all the land, the magicians with their