I shall occasionally use the term “superhuman” instead of “divine,” as applied to Jesus Christ, because for the purposes of this argument it will be unnecessary for me to define the precise degree of divine character which the evangelists intended to attribute to him. To ascertain this is the proper function of the theologian, by comparing together the facts and statements of the New Testament. It is sufficient for my present purpose to observe that the perusal of the Gospels leaves the inevitable impression on the mind that it was the purpose of their writers to depict a divine character in union with a human one—a supernatural power acting within the regions of the natural. This covers alike the aspects of character presented of him both in the Synoptic and the Johannine Gospels.
Although our Lord speaks of his actions by the [pg 052] common name of “works” (ἔργα), when the sacred authors speak generally of miracles, they apply to them, as I have observed, three distinct terms, signs, mighty works, and wonders (σημεῖα, δυνάμεις, τέρατα). Each of these denotes different aspects in which they contemplated miracles. The sign included the supernatural fact wrought on external nature with the whole of its moral environment. In this point of view, the “sign” was the direct proof of a divine mission. It is worthy of observation that the author of the fourth Gospel has uniformly described the supernatural actions which he has ascribed to Jesus Christ by this term. The expression “mighty works” is intended to bring under our notice the power which was displayed in the performance of a miracle, thereby directly connecting it with a superhuman agency. The term “wonder” contemplates a supernatural event in its simple aspect as an occurrence pre-eminently fitted to command attention to the person who was capable of performing it. We may therefore conclude that the writers of the New Testament considered that these were the three special functions of miracles. It is quite possible that the same miracle might have fulfilled all three at the same time: but as three such functions of supernatural occurrences are distinctly stated, it is quite conceivable that there were occasions when they were limited to some one of these in particular.
It is evident that our Lord attached the highest importance to a miracle contemplated as a “sign,” i.e. to the moral environment with which it was connected. This, although more definitely brought out in St. John's Gospel, is also distinctly borne witness to by the Synoptics. It forms the ground of the reiterated refusal of our Lord to comply with the demand of the Pharisees that he would show some sign from heaven, [pg 053] as a proof of his divine mission. His miracles combined in one the two conceptions of signs and mighty works. None of them were mere prodigies devoid of a moral aspect.
It is worthy of consideration whether our Lord's primary purpose in performing supernatural actions was always directly evidential. I have already drawn attention to their twofold aspect, as divine manifestations, and as evidential miracles. A considerable number of the miracles recorded in the Gospels are represented as performed by him because he was moved with compassion. These evidently belong to the former class of his supernatural workings. But although this was their primary object it did not deprive them of an evidential value. But there is also another remarkable class of supernatural actions attributed to him, viz., those in which he is recorded to have expressly forbidden the persons whom he healed to publish the fact. As it is evident that these miracles could only have become extensively known by the persons cured disobeying his orders, it is clear that they could not have been directly performed for evidential purposes, but were the manifestations of the divine which resided in his person.
Such are the supernatural actions attributed to Jesus Christ in the New Testament, respecting which as a whole, whether performed for purposes avowedly evidential or not, he himself affirms, that they bore witness of him, that the Father had sent him. Two other classes of miracles, affirmed to have been performed by his followers, require notice.
The whole of these are stated to have been performed by a delegated power and commission. The great majority of them are described as having been performed in the name of Jesus Christ. They are [pg 054] affirmed to have been performed for two purposes; to prove the divine commission of those who wrought them, and to attest the reality of their Master's resurrection, by giving exhibitions of his present power. These therefore are distinctly affirmed to have been evidential miracles. A few others were providential interferences in favour of the infant Church. There is also another class of supernatural actions referred to in the Acts of the Apostles, such as the passing of St. Peter's shadow, and the supposed supernatural effects resulting from it, and the conveyance from St. Paul's person of handkerchiefs and aprons to the sick, and one or two other instances. These involve special manifestations of supernatural power, and belong to supernatural occurrences in their aspect of wonders, or very extraordinary events, and as such were specially adapted for drawing attention to the message of the Apostles. But the New Testament also affirms another and very peculiar form of the manifestation of the supernatural, as then actually existing in the Apostolic Church. I need hardly say that I allude to the various gifts of the Spirit, with which large numbers of its members believed themselves to be endowed. I shall not consider them any further here, as it will be necessary for me to enter largely on the subject in a subsequent portion of this work. Their use and purpose was to lay deep the foundations of the Christian Church. All that will be necessary in this place is to draw attention to them as a distinct order of supernatural manifestations, to the existence of which the writers of the New Testament are pledged.
There is also one further form of supernatural manifestation affirmed by them, namely, a great moral and spiritual transformation effected in those who cordially embraced the Gospel. This is most positively stated [pg 055] by St. Paul to have been a fact constantly taking place under his own observation. It is only necessary for me to notice its existence, as it is a form of supernatural manifestation, the truth or falsehood of which forms no portion of the present controversy.
Such then are the various forms of the supernatural, to the existence of which the writers of the New Testament are pledged as objective facts. To these only, and not to any conceivable or possible ones, is the defender of Christianity committed. If their occurrence can be shown to have been impossible, either on grounds of science or philosophy, or because human testimony is of so fallible a character that it cannot establish the truth of a supernatural occurrence, it follows that the whole of Christianity must have been an invention of a purely human origin, that it can have no claim to the designation of a divine revelation, and that it is hardly possible to free its inventors from the charge of fraud. No mere paring down of its supernatural elements will enable us to escape from this conclusion.
I must now proceed to consider whether the writers of the New Testament rest the truth of Christianity on the evidence of miracles alone, and what position they occupy respecting it.
If we assume for the sake of argument that the fourth Gospel is the work of the Apostle John, it is evident that neither Jesus Christ nor the Apostle accepted the theory which has been propounded by some divines, and readily accepted by unbelievers, that the evidence of his divine mission was exclusively founded on the testimony of miracles. To state the point distinctly:—This Gospel places the evidence afforded by our Lord's own divine person, i.e. the moral [pg 056] evidence of his mission, in the first rank, and his miraculous works in the second.