two concurring evidences, which enlighten one another,
which we shall show, partly from his own works and miracles, and partly
from the more than miraculous success and progress of the gospel after
him.

For the first, John testifies, that not only they saw the baseness of his
outward shape, but "the glory of the only begotten Son of God, full of
grace and truth," John i. 14. John the Baptist sent some of his disciples,
because of their own unbelief, to inquire at Jesus, "Art thou he, or look
we for another?" And what answer gave he them? What reason to convince
them? "Go (saith he) and tell what ye have seen and heard, that the blind
see, the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the poor receive the gospel." And blessed is he whoever
shall not for my outward unseemliness and baseness offend, but go by that
into the glory that shines out in such works. It is said in Luke vii. 21,
that "the same hour he cured many." Before he spoke in answer, he answered
them by his deeds. He gave a visible demonstration of that they doubted
of, for they could not but see a power above created power in these works,
which surpass nature and art, so many wonderful works done, so often
repeated, before so many thousands, even many of his watchful and
observant enemies, and all done so easily, by a word, infinite cures for
number and quality wrought, which passed the skill of all physicians,
devils dispossessed, life restored, water converted into excellent wine,
without the maturation of the sun, or the help of the vine tree, a little
bread so strangely enlarged to the satisfaction of many thousands, and
more remaining than was laid down, the winds and seas obeying his very
word, and composing themselves to silence at his rebuke, and infinite more
of this kind. Are they not in the common apprehension of men of a degree
superior to that of nature? Who could restore life but he that gave it?
Whom would the devils obey but him at whom they tremble? Who could
transubstantiate water into wine, but he that created both these
substances, and every year, by a long circuit of the operations of nature,
turns it into wine? Who could feed seven thousand with that which a few
persons would exhaust, but he that can create it of nothing, and by whose
word all this visible world started out of nothing? Nay, let us suppose
these things to be done only by divine assistance, by some peculiar divine
influence, then cer