Wesley Corpus

3. But what if there were now to be wrought ever so many ‘real and undoubted miracles’ (I suppose you mean by ‘undoubted’ such as, being sufficiently attested, ought not to be doubted of.) Why, ‘this,’ you say, ‘would put the controversy on a short foot, and be an effectual proof of the truth of your presences.’ By no means. As common as this assertion is, there is none upon earth more false. Suppose a teacher were now on this very day to work ‘real and undoubted miracles’; this would extremely little ‘shorten the controversy’ between him and the greater part of his opposers: for all this would not force them to believe; but many would still stand just where they did before, seeing men may ‘harden their hearts’ against miracles as well as against arguments. So men have done from the beginning of the world, even against such signal, glorious miracles, against such interpositions of the power of God, as may not be again till the consummation of all things. Permit me to remind you only of a few instances, and to observe that the argument holds a fortiori; for who will ever be empowered of God again to work such miracles as these were Did Pharaoh look on all that Moses and Aaron wrought as an 'effectual proof of the truth of their presences' even when 'the Lord made the sea dry land and the waters were divided'; when 'the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left' (Exod. xiv. 21-2.) Nay, The wounded dragon raged in vain, And, fierce the utmost plague to brave, Madly he dared the parted main, And sunk beneath the o’erwhelming wave. [See Poetical Works of J. and C. Wesley, iv. 303.]