And here the circumstance that most, or
many, of those miracles were performed subse-
quently to the doctrine revealed, and in direct
and professed attestation of it, refutes imme-
diately every such supposition. Supposing that
Moses, on his declaring to Pharaoh that he had
a divine commission to conduct the Israelites
out of Egypt, had, instead of working some
miracle on this occasion, only appealed to a mi-
racle formerly performed, that miracle, I appre-
hend, if quite incontestable, might still have
given him his alleged authority *. But if Pha-
raoh had replied, that though he professed not
to detect the precise fallacy of the pretension
advanced, or the arts which had produced an
effect apparently arising from the exertion of
superhuman power, he must yet distrust the
<;laim which was rested on it : that he could not

* See Prelixninary Dissertation, Sect. Ill*



74



THE MIRACLES WERE ACTS CHAP. t.
