Wesley Corpus

Permit me to remind you only of a few instances; and to observe that the argument holds a fortiori : For who will ever be impowered 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 pretences?” ..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, 22.) 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. Was all this “an effectual proof of the truth of their pretences,” to the Israelites themselves? It was not. “They were” still “disobedient at the sea; even at the Red Sea !” Was the giving them day by day “bread from heaven,” “an effectual proof” to those “two hundred and fifty princes of the assem bly, famous in the congregation, men of renown,” who said, with Dathan and Abiram, “Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up?” (Numbers xvi. 14;) nay, “when the ground clave asunder that was under them; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up?” (Verse 32.) Neither was this an “effectual proof” to those who saw it with their eyes, and heard the cry of those that went down into the pit; but, the very next day, they “mur mured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord!” (Verse 41.) Was not the case generally the same with regard to the Pro phets that followed? several of whom “stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,” did many mighty works; yet their own people received them not. Yet “they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword;” they were “destitute, afflicted, tormented !” utterly contrary to the commonly received supposition, that the work ing real, undoubted miracles must bring all controversy to an end, and convince every gainsayer. Let us come nearer yet. How stood the case between our Lord himself and his opposers? Did he not work “real and undoubted miracles?” And what was the effect?