By this means are produced the signs and wonders we read of in the Epistles of our modern missionaries; for, how conclusive soever the evidence may be, which the assertions they employ might call in for their support,--conclusive to every reasonable mind by which it was received,--assuredly it is not by the evidence, but by the unsupported assertion, that, on the occasion of those exploits of theirs,--whatever credence has place, is produced. CHAPTER XIII. _Paul's supposable Miracles explained._ SECTION 1. OBJECTIONS, APPLYING TO THEM IN THE AGGREGATE. But, it may be said, Paul's alleged commission from God was certainly genuine; for it is proved by his miracles. Look at the Acts, no fewer than twelve miracles of his you will find. If then taken by themselves, for want of that accurate conception of the probative form of evidence, to which maturer ages have given birth, the account of the miracle by which his conversion was wrought fails of being completely satisfactory,--look at his miracles, the deficiency will be filled up. The man, to whom God had imparted such extraordinary powers--powers so completely matchless in these our times,--can such a man have been a liar--an impostor? a liar for the purpose of deceit--of giving support to a system of deception--and that a lucrative one? An imposition so persevering as to have been carried on, from youth to death, through, perhaps, the greatest part of his life? The observation is plausible:--the answer will not be the less satisfactory. The answer has two branches: one, _general_, applying to all the alleged miracles in question, taken in the lump: the other _particular_, applying to the several miracles separately considered. Observations applying to the whole together are, the following: 1. Not by Paul himself, in any one of his own Epistles, is any such general assertion made, as that he had received from God or from Jesus,--or, in a word, that he was in possession of, any such power, as the power of working miracles. 2. Nowhere in the account given of his transactions by the author of the Acts, is he in any of his speeches represented as making reference to any one act of his in the character of a miracle. 3. Nowhere in that same account, is he represented as stating himself to be in possession of any such powers. 4. Not by the author of the Acts, is he spoken of as being in possession of any such power. 5. Nowhere by the author of the Acts, is he in any general terms spoken of, as producing any effects, such as, in respect of the power necessary to the production of them, approach to those spoken of as having been produced by Simon Magus; by that declared impostor, in whose instance, no such commission from God is represented as having been received.