§ 84. Connexion of Christ’s Miracles with his Mode of Teaching.

WE have before remarked that what most distinguished the Teaching of Christ was, that it was his self-revelation, and in this view it embraces both his Words and Works. His Miracles, then, must be spoken of in connexion with his mode of Teaching. Although they are not to be sundered from their connexion with his whole self-revelation, yet, as an especially prominent feature of it, they served the highest purpose, in a certain sense, in vividly exhibiting the nature of Christ, as Son of God and Son of Man. They have also an additional claim to be mentioned in this connexion, as they served as a basis and support of his labours as a teacher, as a preparatory means of leading from sensible phenomena to Divine things, and of rendering souls, as yet bound to the world of sense, susceptible of his higher Spiritual influences.

In regard to the Miracles, three distinct inquiries present themselves: (1.) What was their real objective character and relation to the universe, and the Divine government thereof? (II.) In what view, and with what impressions, did the contemporaries of Christ receive them? (III.) What decision did Christ himself pronounce as to their nature, their value, and the ends he sought to accomplish by them?

(A.) THE OBJECTIVE CHARACTER OF MIRACLES.