One other point has still to be considered, which is the subject of modern miracles. Why, it is said, are there no miracles _now_, when they could be properly tested? If they were really employed by God as helps to the spread of His religion, why should they not have accompanied it at intervals all along, as it is said they did the Jewish religion? They are surely wanted for the support of Christianity at the present day; and if God were, _after due warning_, to work a public and indisputable miracle every half-century, all the other evidences of Christianity might be dispensed with. The answer to this objection is that the Christian revelation does not claim to be a gradual one, like the Jewish; but a final and complete revelation, made once for all through Christ and His Apostles. Therefore, as there is to be no fresh revelation, there can be no fresh miracles to confirm it. The question of _other_ miracles, such as those which are said to have been worked by Christians at various periods, need not be considered here. If _true_, they would of course tend to prove the New Testament ones; while, if _untrue_, they would not disprove them, any more than imitation diamonds would disprove the existence of real diamonds. Of course, it may be replied that God might still work a miracle now by a man, who stated that it was not to confirm anything that he said himself, but merely what the Founder of Christianity had said; and this is no doubt possible. But it would be a different method from that recorded in the Bible, where a messenger from God always brings his own credentials, even though, as in the case of a prophecy, they may not be verified till afterwards. And what reason have we for thinking that God would change His method now? It is also very doubtful whether a public miracle at the present day, would convince everybody. This objection, then, must be put aside, and we therefore conclude, on reviewing the whole subject, that the New Testament miracles are not only _credible_, but that there is extremely strong evidence in their favour. Indeed their marks of _truthfulness_, combined with their alleged _publicity_, form together a very powerful argument. And it is rendered all the stronger by their having been so thoroughly successful. Their object was to establish the truth of Christianity, and this is precisely what they did. The evidence they afforded was so decisive, that a hostile world found it irresistible. Moreover it is doubtful whether any other religion, except, of course, the Jewish, has ever claimed to have been confirmed by public miracles. Christianity thus rests upon a unique foundation. Unlike other religions, it appealed at first not to abstract reasoning, or moral consciousness, or physical force, but to miraculous events, of the truth or falsehood of which others could judge. They did judge, and they were convinced. We decide, then, that the New Testament miracles are probably true. CHAPTER XX.