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THE

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER;

OR, THE

Churchman's

BIBLICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, & LITERARY

MISCELLANY.

VOLUME II.

JANUARY-DECEMBER.

London:

PRINTED FOR F. C. & J. RIVINGTON,

NO. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD,

AND NO. 3, WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL.

Printed by R. Gilbert, St. John's Square, London.

THE

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER.

No. 13.]

JANUARY, 1820.

The Miracles of Christ considered with Reference to the Divinity of

his Nature.

OUR blessed Lord frequently refers to his miracles as evidences or testimonies, which the Father bore to his divine commission. The same power recommended and attested the authority of Moses and the prophets, but with this important distinction: they acted by permission or request, Christ by his own inherent and independent power. If he prayed or gave thanks upon the occasion, it was because of the people, not from any defect in himself. He healed them that did not even declare their wants; he healed them that were absent, and whom he never saw; he healed them by his word, and it was enough for him to say to the deaf, Hear; to the blind, See; to the dumb, Speak; to the lame, Walk; and to the lepers, Be cleansed; and they heard, they saw, they spake, they walked, they were cleansed, and glorified God. The devils, before he approached them, before he received any petitions, or issued any command concerning them, declared who he was, and besought him to torment them not. The wind and the sea heard him commanding them to be still, and when the astonished disciples exclaimed, What a person is this, that even the winds and the sea obey his voice! they could not but remember whose property it is to make the storm to cease, so that REMEMBRANCER, No. 13.

[VOL. II.

the waves thereof are still: and this property they seem to have actually attributed to Jesus, in the prayer which they used upon the occcasion, Lord, save us, we perish.

It is a stronger instance of the miraculous power inherent in Jesus, that he not only possessed it complete in himself, but that he was able to confer it upon others, and that he gave power to his disciples over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases. They exercised the authority which he gave them, and even the devils were obedient unto them through his name. To the same mighty name they ascribed the miracles which they wrought after his ascension, and for which they claimed no honour to themselves.

Such power belongeth not unto

men. The more illiberal and prejudiced Jews imputed it to Satan : the more ingenuous confessed, that even their expected Messiah could not surpass the works which Jesus did. Nicodemus declared, that no one could perform them except God was with him; and Peter concurs in his testimony, when he speaks of Jesus of Nazareth as a man demonstrated from God, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, and that God was with him in the performance of them.

It was after an exhibition of this miraculous power for the satisfaction of John's disciples; after an affecting reproof of the impenitence of the cities, which considered it B

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