When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a spirit, and they cried out for fear; but his answer was, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” Here we see the disciples believed the existence of Spectres, and here was a fair opportunity for our Lord to teach them the contrary. But he did not thus improve it: for after his resurrection they discovered the same opinion. He asked one of them to handle him; not to disprove their opinion, but to prove his resurrection. Some time after this, Peter, miraculously delivered from prison, knocked at the house of Mary, where many were gathered for prayer. The damsel Rhoda, constantly affirmed to them that she heard Peter’s voice. Then said they, “It is his angel.” Thus their opinion continued the same through the fairest opportunities of their being taught otherwise by unerring wisdom. But they had never read Voltaire, nor Hume’s observation on the Sprights of the British Fathers.
Arg. 2. “When the Scriptures were written and published, and the christian religion fully established, revelation ceased, and miracles and heavenly messages were no longer requisite.”
How do they know? How can they know these matters, unless by the Scriptures? And where do they say, that after the establishment of christianity, miracles and heavenly messages should be no longer requisite? It is believed that no such passage can be found.
It was the full persuasion of Mr. Addison, that the power of working miracles continued in the church many years after the Apostolic age. He informs us that learned christians of those times, “Confidently assert this miraculous power; nay, tell us that they themselves had been eye witnesses of it at several times and in several instances. Nay, appeal to the heathen themselves for the truth of several facts they relate; nay, challenge them to be present at their assemblies, and satisfy themselves, if they doubt it; nay, we find that pagan authors have in some instances confessed this miraculous power.”[6]
Doubtless the Scriptures contain rules sufficient for salvation. And every opposite rule, though preached by an angel, must be rejected; and the same was true of the Old Testament before the New was revealed. But it will by no means follow that no succeeding age of the world can afford an occasion for any miracle or heavenly message which is consistent with the Scriptures. That “the whole will of God is revealed in the Scriptures,” as it respects our general conduct, is doubtless true; and the same was true of the law of Moses, as it respected the general conduct of Israel in the days of the Judges. He was pronounced cursed, who took away or added thereunto. But hence it did not follow that an angel could not appear to Manoah and his wife, promise them a child, and give directions concerning his education. To say that the whole will of God is so revealed in the Scriptures, that no case whatever can require any extraordinary exhibition of his will, is to say what is never said in that sacred volume, and is no better than begging the question.
There may be miracles and heavenly messages without innovation of Scripture doctrine or worship. “To say that God does not send his angels to any of his saints to communicate his mind unto them, as to some particulars of their own duty according to his word, seems in my judgment, says the great Doctor Owen, to limit unwarrantably the Holy One of Israel.”
Arg. 3. “Can we suppose that the all-wise Governor of the world would permit his angels to render themselves visible to the eye of man, for a purpose which might have been equally well accomplished without their interposition?”
This question is very easy. Another might appear more difficult. Have our authors such perfect knowledge of the universal system, that they can certainly tell us what purposes can be equally well accomplished without the interposition of angels, as with it?
The hairs of the head and the smallest animalculæ are numbered; so are all events. Small events by connection are frequently great events. If therefore, the purposes for which a spirit is said to appear, are as small and trivial as can be conceived of, it would by no means follow that the message did not come from the invisible state. That which appears very trivial in our view, may appear vastly important in the view of those seven eyes which survey the whole system of Providence, and destroy the wisdom of the wise.
Arg. 4. “Death is as great a change as that of our birth. And is it not as improbable that a man should visibly return after death, as that he should return from a state of manhood, to that which preceded his birth?” That is to say; Is it not as improbable that a species of miracle should take place, the existence of which has been taught and believed in all ages and nations, and is the manifest lesson of the Scriptures; as that a species of miracle should take place, which nobody ever believed or heard of?