God? He answered and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him: thou hast both seen him, and it is he who talketh with thee. And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him."

Let the reader remark here, that in the new law, the word "adore," never expresses any other than Supreme Worship, or adoration, properly so called, which is due only to the Supreme Being, as shall be shown hereafter.

Fifth Assertion.

CCXXIII. Jesus Christ has wrought miracles, which cannot be wrought but by the supreme power of God. He has wrought them as God, and while he was working them, he openly declared that he was God, and the same God with the Father. Read the fifth and sixth chapters of St. John, and you will easily recognise the language of a man, who gives himself out for God, and claims to be acknowledged as such. Chap. vi. 36. "I and the Father are one." And you will find, that after the Jews had heard them," they took up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them: many good works I have shown to you from my Father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him: for good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy: and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." John, xii. 44. you will read these words: "He that believes in me, doth not believe in me but in him that sent me. And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me." John, xiv. 7. Christ holds this discourse to his disciples: "If you had known me, you would surely have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him. Philip saith: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus saith to him: have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me, seeth the Father also. How sayest thou show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father whe

abideth in me, he doeth the works.

Believe you not that I

am in the Father and the Father in me? otherwise, believe, for the works themselves."

It is related, Mark, ii. that Jesus Christ, being at Capharnaum, a paralytic was set before him, that he might cure him: "And when Jesus saw their faith, he saith to the sick of the palsy Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And some of the scribes were sitting there, and thinking in their hearts: why doth this man speak thus? He blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins but God only? And Jesus presently knowing in his spirit that they so thought within themselves, saith to them: why think you these things in your hearts? Which is easier; to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins are forgiven thee; or, to say, arise, take up thy bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say to thee: arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thy house. And immediately he arose, and taking up his bed, went his way, in sight of all: so that all wondered and glorified God, saying: we never saw the like."

Jesus Christ, as you see, proves here to the scribes that he is God, by an argument, the more convincing for them, that it is drawn from their own principle. Here is his argument.

According to you, none but God can forgive sins, but now I can forgive sins, and that I can do so, I prove to you by curing with one word before your eyes this paralytic: therefore I am God.

Sixth Assertion.

CCXXIV. Jesus Christ has wrought miracles, which caunot be performed, but by the supreme power of God. He has wrought them as God. And at the same time he wrought them, he appealed to them as proofs of his divinity. You have just seen an example of this, in the cure of the man sick of the palsy.

We see, John, viii. 17. that the Jews persecuted Jesus

Christ because he wrought miracles on the sabbath-day. Jesus, with a view of justifying himself, saith to them: 66 My Father works until now; and I work. Hereupon, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said, that God was his Father, making himself equal to God. Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, Amen, I say unto you: the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner-for as the Father raises up the dead and giveth life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will-that all men may honour the Son as they honour the Father."

Jesus Christ says that he is working his miracles with God his Father, and that God is working them with him, by one and the same action. He saith, that God the Father is working miracles with him, in order to make known to men, that they are to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Is that not saying as much as that his miracles prove that he is God?

The Jews being one day assembled round Jesus, said to him, John, x. 24. "How long dost thou hold our souls in suspense? If thou be the Christ tell us plainly. Jesus answered them I speak to you and you believe not: the works I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me: my sheep hear my voice, and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall snatch them out of my hand-no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one." One in power, and of course, in the divine nature.

You see here, that Jesus Christ proves by his miracles, that he is the Messiah, sent by God, and that he is the same God with him who sent him.

All this goes to prove, that Jesus Christ has wrought his miracles for the direct purpose of proving that he was God, and that he has appealed to his miracles, as to so many incontestable proofs of his divinity.

Now, let us sum up these assertions, and join them together in order to feel better their force. Jesus Christ wrought miracles, which cannot be wrought but by the Supreme power of Vol. II.-No. IX.

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God. He wrought these miracles as God; and whilst he was working them, he gave laws to men with all the authority of a God; styled himself openly the only-begotten Son of God; arrogated to himself all the attributes of God; gave himself out for God and for the same God with his Father; caused himself to be adored as God, and, in fine, appealed to his miracles as to so many proofs of his divinity. These facts are all set down in the gospel, and, of course, they are incontestable.

Now, these facts being supposed, let us attentively consider the conduct which Almighty God observed towards Jesus Christ, whilst these things were coming to pass, in the sight of all Judea. Jesus Christ was working the most astonishing and unheard of miracles: his design in working them was to cause himself to be acknowledged as God, and he did not conceal it. Already, many of the Jews adored him, and the whole universe was to adore him one day, on account of his wonders. God, whom nothing escapes, saw all this. He saw all this, and was silent. Silent, did I say? he favoured, he seconded with all his power, the designs of Jesus Christ, in suffering him to dispose, at pleasure, of all nature. He did not stop there, he gave to Jesus Christ the most authentic and the most solemn approbation, twice he made his voice to be heard from the highest of the heavens, to declare that Jesus Christ was his beloved Son, and to command men to hear him: the first time on the banks of the Jordan, and the second, on mount Tabor, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: Hear him." It is from me he speaks to you, or rather it is I myself who speak to you in him and by him. Hear him ; whether he reveals mysteries, or whether he gives laws to you: Hear him; whether he speaks of me, or whether he speaks of himself; receive his words as oracles of the eternal truth.

Now, I confidently assert: either nothing in the world is susceptible of a demonstration, or it is demonstrated by the series of these facts, and the necessary connexion they have with each other, that Jesus Christ is truly God. We must either grant that Jesus Christ is God, or deny these facts, and in order to deny these facts, it is necessary to admit the cer

tainty of no fact whatever, and to hurl reason, if I dare speak so, into the gulf of universal scepticism.

And, indeed, let us suppose that Jesus Christ is not God, but a mere man ; on that supposition I reason thus: If Jesus Christ be not God, he is then an impostor, and the most criminal of all impostors; for he has given himself out for God, and suffered, or caused himself to be adored as God: all this is evident: but, on the other side, if Jesus be an impostor, he is an impostor against whom God has never reclaimed: an impostor, whose designs and undertakings God has seconded, with all the efforts of his power; an impostor, whom God has solemnly approved from the highest heavens; an impostor, in fine, whom he has suffered to be adored all over the globe these eighteen hundred years, without ever discovering to men in the least, during the long lapse of so many ages, that the impious worship which the world pays him, is displeasing to him. All this is again evident : and this being the case, Jesus Christ is, therefore, an impostor, of whom God hitherto was, and still continues to be the accomplice; an impostor, in whose behalf, God has betrayed all the interests of his deity; an impostor, for whose glory God sports, for eighteen hundred years, with the good faith of men, and that after a manner the most base and the most unworthy of God. All these consequences cause us to shudder with horror. They are so many blasphemies, at which hell itself would feel indignant. Still these consequences are irrresistible; they are unavoidable, if Jesus Christ be not God: therefore, Jesus Christ is God, or there is no God.

Let us conclude this dissertation, by a remark on the character of Jesus Christ, which to me appears very interesting. If Jesus Christ be but a mere man, and nothing more, or if he be God only without being man, he is a being of irreconcilable contradictions. The human mind ingulphs itself, and is lost in this unique and unheard of character. It is an enigma; it is a chimera. But if Jesus Christ be at once God and man, he is the most beautiful whole, and the most beautiful aggre. gate that can be conceived. Alllapparent contradictions of his