One man passes away his life without uneasiness, by gaming every day for a trifling stake, that would be rendered unhappy, if you were to give him every morning the sum which he might win in the day, upon condition that he should refrain from play. It will be said, perhaps, that it is the amusement of the play which he seeks, and not the gain. Yet if you make him play for nothing, he will feel no eagerness about it, and becomes dull. It is not, therefore, the mere amusement which he seeks; a languishing amusement without any interest would fatigue him he must be allowed to heat and rouse himself, by imagining that he should be happy in gaining that, which he would not accept, if it were given him on condition of not playing; and that he shall create an object of passion, which shall excite his desire, his anger, his fear, and his hope.

So that these diversions which constitute the happiness of men, are not only contemptible, but false and deceitful: that is to say, their object is merely a phantom and delusion, which would be incapable of occupying the mind of man, if he had not lost the taste and perception of real good, and were he not filled with baseness, vanity, levity, pride, and an infinite number of other vices; and they only relieve us under our miseries, by creating a misery more real, and more injurious. For such is whatever

hinders us from thinking principally about ourselves, and which makes us insensibly lose our time. Without this, we should, indeed, feel dissatisfaction, but this dissatisfaction would lead us to seek some more solid means of escaping. from it. But diversions deceive us, amuse us, and lead us on heedlessly to our graves.

Mankind having no remedy against death, ignorance, and misery, have fancied the way to be happy was to think nothing about them. This is all they have been able to invent to console themselves under their calamities. But a most miserable consolation it is, because it tends not to the cure of the evil, but only to the concealment of it for a very short time; and because by concealing it, it hinders us from having recourse to such means as would really cure it. Thus, by a strange subversion of the nature of man, he finds that disquiet, which is to him the most sensible evil, is in one respect his greatest good, because it may contribute, more than any thing else, to make him seek after real restoration; while his diversions, which he looks upon as his principal good, are indeed his greatest evil, because they are of all things those which most effectually keep him back from seeking the remedy of his miseries. And both the one and the other are admirable proofs, both of the misery and corruption of man, and

at the same time of his dignity. For he only grows weary of every object, and engages in such a multitude of pursuits, because he still retains the idea of his lost happiness; and not finding it within himself, he vainly seeks it in external things, without ever obtaining satisfaction, because it is neither to be found in ourselves, nor in creatures, but in God alone.

XXVII.

THOUGHTS ON MIRACLES.

WE are to judge of doctrine by miracles, and of miracles by doctrine. The doctrine shows the nature of the miracles, and the miracles show the nature of the doctrine. All this is true, and contains no contradiction.

Some miracles are certain evidences of the truth, others are not. There must be a mark by which we may distinguish them, or they would be useless. But they are not useless; they are fundamentally necessary.

The rule, therefore, which is given us, must be such as shall not destroy the evidence which

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real miracles afford of the truth; which it is the principal end of miracles to establish.

Were there no miracles ever joined to falshood, they would be in themselves demonstrative. If there were no rule by which we might distinguish them, they would be useless, and would afford us no reason for our faith.

Moses has given us one rule, which is when the miracle is intended to lead men to idolatry; Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3. And Jesus Christ has given us another; There is no man (says he) which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me: Mark ix. 39. Whence it follows, that whoever speaks openly against Jesus Christ, cannot perform miracles in his name; therefore if he does perform any, they are not performed in the name of Jesus Christ, and he is therefore to be rejected. We see then the grounds for the disbelief of miracles, to which we are not to add any Old Testament is, when they turn us from God; and that in the New, when they turn us from Jesus Christ.

any other.

That in the

So that immediately on the sight of a miracle, we must either submit to it, or have some strong reasons for the contrary. We ought to examine whether the person who performs it, denies God, or Jesus Christ and the church.

Every religion is false, which, as to its faith

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does not worship one God, as the author of all things; and which, as to its morality, does not love one God alone, as the object of all things.

Every religion which does not now acknowledge Jesus Christ, is notoriously false, and miracles would be insufficient to demonstrate it.

The Jews had a doctrine from God, as we have from Jesus Christ; and that was confirmed by miracles, and prohibitions against crediting any workers of miracles who should teach them a contrary doctrine; they were also commanded to have recourse to the chief priests, and to adhere strictly to them. So that whatsoever reasons we have now to refuse our belief to the workers of miracles, it may seem they had likewise, with regard to Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

Nevertheless it is most certain, that they were highly culpable for refusing to credit him on account of his miracles, for Jesus Christ declares, that if they had not seen his miracles, they would not have been guilty. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. John xv. 24.

It follows, therefore, that he judged that his miracles were infallible proofs of his doctrine, and that the Jews were under obligation to be