12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and was cast down to the earth, xii. 9; i. e., he was thrown down from his high place of power. The seven-headed beast rose up out of the sea, xiii. 1, but the two-horned beast rose up out of the earth. They all had an earthly origin; they all belonged beneath; but for the sake of variety in the scenery, one is said to rise from the sea, the other from the land. them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone ;" xix. 20. He is here called a false prophet, a deceiver, a foreteller of future events, a diviner, an oracle, &c. Does not this have reference to the heathen priests? And again: "And the devil [or dragon, for in this connection they mean the same power] that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever;" xx. 10. These quotations let us somewhat into the history of this second beast, who was so much like the lamb in appearance, so much like the dragon in nature. But we will proceed: we shall become better acquainted with him. 12. Exerciseth all the power of the first beast. He was a very successful auxiliary to the first beast, and made use of his power; i. e., the power of the empire was prostituted to aid him. These two powers were mutual friends. They aided each other. They had similar, if not identical, interests. The two-horned beast held a kind of half-way relation between the dragon and the seven-headed beast. They 13. He doeth great wonders.-That is, were all three joined in this one enter- he affected to perform miracles; and prise, opposition to Christianity. The among other things, he appeared to dragon strove to uphold the seven- make fire come down from heaven to headed beast, — i. e., the heathen in-earth in the sight of men. False fluence exerted itself to sustain the imperial power. The dragon and the last named beast represented the heathen and the secular power of Rome; and the two-horned beast, so like a lamb in appearance, and like a dragon in his soul, may well represent those apparently lamb-like priests and false prophets, who, by their influence over the people, sustained both the heathen and secular power. To worship the first beast. He shared with the first beast all the unsubstantial glory of his prosperity, and went down with him to destruction, as we shall have occasion to show. He was the same that was called "the false prophet," xvi. 13, of whom it was said: "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were prophets have often professed to have the power to perform miracles; and have been able, at times, to do their works with so much adroitness as to deceive mankind, and even very intelligent men. That God may perform a real miracle, no man in his senses can doubt. He who framed all the laws of nature, can, if necessary, suspend them. He might also empower any chosen servant of his to do the same thing; but no man of himself can perform a miracle. There is no law of God by which any man can perform a miracle; nor can any man have that power, except by the special communication of it to him by God. Miracles are departures from the course of nature, and are of course beyond the power of man. When men, therefore, actually perform miracles, it is a proof that God is with them; that they are his servants; that he wishes them accredited as such; 13 And he doeth great won ders, so that he maketh fire and for that purpose he bestows a by them; and if it be necessary for a portion of his wondrous power upon man, in an age of great bigotry and them. Such being the definition and unbelief, to be received as a divinely basis of true miracles, it is not to be appointed messenger, is it not perwondered at that false prophets and fectly reasonable to believe that God pretenders should seek to imitate them. would clothe him with power by which It is precisely what we should expect he could attest his claims in the they would do; it is what they have presence of all unbelievers? It is also done from the earliest antiquity. God reasonable to suppose that imposters bestowed on Moses, his servant and would seek to keep themselves in representative on earth, divine power, countenance by attempting the perby which he performed miracles in formance of miracles themselves. attestation of his claims. See the fol- True, they cannot perform miracles, lowing passage: "And Moses an- because no man ever did perform swered and said, But, behold, they them except he had received power will not believe me, nor hearken unto of God for that special purpose; and my voice for they will say, The Lord it is not to be believed that God would hath not appeared unto thee. And bestow such power upon an impostor. the Lord said unto him, What is that But why should an impostor desire to in thy hand? And he said, A rod. perform miracles? or to lead mankind And he said, Cast it on the ground. to believe that he performed them? And he cast it on the ground, and it The only answer that can be given to became a serpent: and Moses fled this question is this: he wishes not to from before it. And the Lord said be regarded as an impostor, but as a unto Moses, Put forth thy hand, and true servant of God. Have not the take it by the tail. And he put forth true servants of God, then, in differhis hand, and caught it, and it became ent ages, had the power to perform a rod in his hand: that they may actual miracles? If they have, we believe that the Lord God of their can see plainly why false prophets fathers, the God of Abraham, the God should desire to be thought able to of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath perform miracles; but if they have appeared unto thee. And the Lord not, then there is no reason for such said furthermore unto him, Put now a desire on the part of false prophets, thy hand into thy bosom. And he since even the real performance of a put his hand into his bosom: and miracle, if they had power to do it, when he took it out, behold, his hand would add nothing to their claims. was leprous as snow. And he said, The existence of false, or pretended Put thy hand into thy bosom again. miracles, therefore, is a proof of And he put his hand into his bosom genuine miracles, as the existence of again, and plucked it out of his bosom, false coin is a proof of the existence and behold, it was turned again as of genuine coin. Would there ever his other flesh. And it shall come to have been any counterfeit money, if pass, if they will not believe thee, there never had been any that was neither hearken to the voice of the genuine? It was not long after Mofirst sign, that they will believe the ses was empowered of God to perform voice of the latter sign;" Exodus iv. miracles in attestation of his appoint1-8. This covers all the ground we ment as the servant of God, that the have here taken in regard to miracles. Egyptian sorcerers and magicians atGod has the power to suspend the tempted the performance of the same laws of nature; he can create and things. They had the appearance of destroy; he can communicate this turning ther rods into serpents like power to others; he can work in and Moses. Now, unless Moses was him come down from heaven on the self a deceiver, he wrought a real miracle; but this the magicians of Pharaoh could not have done; though they might have thrown serpents from beneath the folds of their garments in such a manner, as to give the appearance of having changed their rods into those animals. Not only the Egyptians, but also the children of Israel were commanded to believe on Moses, not on account of his private character, but on account of the miracles which he performed; Num. xiv. 22; Deut. xi. 1-8; Judges vi. 13. These miracles were not only such as we have already described, but various other wonderful works, such as leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea, feeding them forty years in the wilderness with miraculous manna; smiting the barren rock, and bringing out water for their drink, &c. &c. Now these facts were such as men's outward senses, their eyes and ears, were judges of. They were done publicly in the face of the world. Public monuments have been kept up, and outward actions have been performed in commemoration of them. These monuments and actions have existed from the time the acts were done. Imposition, in these cases, therefore, is impossible. (Leslie.) Could Moses have persuaded hundreds of thousands of men that he had done these things, led them across the bed of the Red Sea, on dry land, and fed them with manna, &c. &c., if he had done no such thing? Could he have thus imposed upon their senses? The thing was impossible. Could he have made them receive his five books as true, which told of these things, if they had known that such things had not been done? See how positively he speaks to them, Deut. xi, 2-8. Could Moses have persuaded the Jews to believe that they themselves had seen these things, if they never had seen them? Shall we say then that the books purporting to be the books of Moses were written earth in the sight of men, some ages after his day, and were put forth in his name? If so, there must have been a time when they were invented and first put forth. But this supposition is incredible, as they profess to have been put forth by Moses. "And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee;" Deut. xxxi. 24-26. A copy of this work was also to be given to the king, that he might study it and live by it. "And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;" Deut. xvii. 18, 19. Now, in whatever after age the book may be supposed to have been forged, it would have been impossible to have made the people receive it as truth; because, on that supposition, it would not have been found in the ark, or with the king, or anywhere else. For, when first invented, it must have been known by all, that it never had been heard of before. Leslie asks, (and we have copied this argument from him,) "Could any man now, at this day, invent a book of statutes or acts of parliament for England, and make it pass upon the nation as the only book of statutes that ever they had known? As impossible was it for the books of Moses (if they were invented in any age after Moses) to have been received for what they declared themselves to be, viz., the statutes and municipal law of the nation of the Jews; and to have persuaded 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means the Jews that they had owned and uments were designed to commemacknowledged these books all along, orate (and we take them as a sample from the days of Moses to that day in of the whole) never took place, how which they were first invented; that can we account for the building of the is, that they had owned them before monument, and the establishment of they had ever so much as heard of the festivals? If it be said, the monuthem. Nay, more, the whole nation ment was built for some other purmust, in an instant, forget their for-pose, and the festivals were established mer laws and government, if they for some other purpose at first, and could receive these books as being afterwards came to be considered as their former laws. And they could proofs of these things, then we ask, not otherwise receive them, because would not the people have said, “We they vouched themselves so to be. never heard of this reason for them Let me ask the deist but this one short before? We have observed the festiquestion, Was there ever a book of vals, and seen the monuments from sham laws, which were not the laws our earliest days; but never before of the nation, palmed upon any peo- did we hear that these things were ple, since the world begun? If not, designed for the purpose for which with what face can they say this you now cite them." Suppose (if we of the book of laws of the Jews? may for a moment entertain the supWhy will they say that of them, which position) that in some distant future they confess impossible in any nation, age the object for which the Bunker or among any people?" It is further Hill monument was erected shall be to be said, in regard to the wonderful forgotten. Nobody then shall know works of Moses, performed in behalf why it had been built. We will then of the children of Israel, that public suppose that some designing person monuments and acts were set up to should say, that the settlers of New commemorate them, such as sacri- England came down from the north fices, feasts, fasts, &c. &c. A whole country, and on arriving on the bank class of people were set apart as of the Mystic, they found it impossipriests to teach the nation these things ble to cross over; that on the 4th forever. Monuments were built that day of July, upon a certain year, the existed for ages, to hand down the river divided, and they passed across remembrance of these events to future its bed, without even wetting the soles generations. "And he spake unto of their feet; and that the monument the children of Israel, saying, When had been erected to commemorate your children shall ask their fathers that event, and that the festival on in time to come, saying, What mean the 4th of July had been regularly these stones? Then ye shall let your observed all over the nation ever children know, saying, Israel came since for the same purpose. Could he over this Jordan on dry land. For succeed in such a design? Would the Lord your God dried up the wa- not the people say, we know not why ters of Jordan from before you, until this monument was built, (if the memye were passed over, as the Lord your ory of it had been lost,) but if the God did to the Red Sea, which he account you give us be true, how does dried up from before us, until we it happen that we never heard of it were gone over: that all the people before? We have the annals of our of the earth might know the hand of nation in the public archives, and no the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye such thing is mentioned there. Would might fear the Lord your God for- it be possible for any man under ever;" Joshua iv. 21-24. Now sup- heaven to persuade the people to pose that the wonders which these mon- believe any such thing? The festi of those miracles which he had | power to do in the sight of the vals, therefore, of the children of Israel, must have been commenced at the time alleged in the Scriptures, and for that purpose, for they could not have been commenced at any other time. How could the commemoration of the 4th of July, for the purposes for which we hallow the day, ever have been begun, if the independence of the nation had not been declared on that day? How could the festivals of the Jews, on their holy days, ever have begun, if the high, sacred, remarkable events they were designed to commemorate, had never happened? Will any man in his sober senses say, that the religious books, festivals, and regular observances of the Jews, are all so many cheats put upon the people; and that they were commemorative of things that never occurred? We cannot. There are no false miracles substantiated like the miracles of Moses, and those of the New Testament. These miracles were outward, tangible, undeniable works, such as men's outward senses may take cognizance of; they were done in the most public manner; monuments have been kept up in memory of them, and outward acts have been performed by the thousands of Israel for the same purpose; and these monuments and acts must have commenced from the time the acts were done. He who, after all this, can believe that the account of the wonders performed before the face of the children of Israel is all false, may be led even to doubt his own existence. The Jews themselves are a standing monument of the truth of the Bible; and he who can study carefully the history of that people, and still disbelieve the Old Testament account of them, must be diseased in mind, with such a passion for doubting, that he is invulnerable to all evidence. As to the miracles of the New Testament, we have not room to go into the consideration of them here. Those who wish to examine whether Christ and his apostles performed miracles, and what was the nature of those miracles, and why they performed them, and for what purposes they referred to them, may consult Mark vi. 52; ix. 39; Luke xxiii. 8; John ii. 11, 23; iii. 2; iv. 54; vi. 2, 26; vii. 31; ix. 16; x. 41; xi. 47; xii. 37; Acts ii. 22; iv. 16, 22; vi. 8; viii. 6, 13; xv. 12; xix. 11; 1 Cor. xii. 10, 28, 29; Gal. iii. 5; Heb. ii. 4. We have already shown, that false or pretended miracles are presumptive evidences of genuine miracles; and we have therefore thought it not improper, in considering the false miracles or wonders, or signs, of the Roman pagan priests, to go into the consideration of real miracles so far as we have done. If we believe there is a God, we have no doubt of his power over nature. He, therefore, can perform a miracle (or what is to men a miracle) if he please. If he were to send a messenger to the world, in what way could he better satisfy the world of his true character, than by proving that the power of God was with him, power beyond the power of man. This God did in the case of Moses, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their miracles bore every mark of honesty, - they were performed publicly, in the presence of enemies, not to gain the favor of men, but in the sacred performance of duty, when it was known that those who performed them thereby incurred the wrath of the leading men in power, and perilled all they held dear on earth, and even life itself. They have been attested in every age since, as the miracle of our Lord's resurrection has been attested by the festival of the Lord's supper, which forms an unbroken chain of evidence from the time of the resurrection to the present day. It is not to be wondered at, then, that false teachers have sought to keep up the appearance of the power to work miracles. Such was the case |