how it could ever have been otherwise.  Yet it appears to me perfectly certain, that the state of thought in the mind of a Jew of our Saviour’s age was totally different from this.  After allowing the reality of the miracle, he had a great deal to do to persuade himself that Jesus was the Messiah.  This is clearly intimated by various passages of the Gospel history.  It appears that, in the apprehension of the writers of the New Testament, the miracles did not irresistibly carry even those who saw them to the conclusion intended to be drawn from them; or so compel assent, as to leave no room for suspense, for the exercise of candour, or the effects of prejudice.  And to this point, at least, the evangelists may he allowed to be good witnesses; because it is a point in which exaggeration or disguise would have been the other way.  Their accounts, if they could he suspected of falsehood, would rather have magnified than diminished the effects of the miracles.

John vii. 21—­31.  “Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel.—­If a man on the Sabbath-day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath-day?  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.  Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek to kill?  But lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing to him:  do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?  Howbeit we know this man, whence he is:  but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.  Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am:  and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom ye know not.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He hath sent me.  Then they sought to take him:  but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.  And many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than those which this man hath done?”

This passage is very observable.  It exhibits the reasoning of different sorts of persons upon the occasion of a miracle which persons of all sorts are represented to have acknowledged as real.  One sort of men thought that there was something very extraordinary in all this; but that still Jesus could not be the Christ, because there was a circumstance in his appearance which militated with an opinion concerning Christ in which they had been brought up, and of the truth of which, it is probable, they had never entertained a particle of doubt, viz.  That “when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.”  Another sort were inclined to believe him to be the Messiah.  But even these did not argue as we should; did not consider the miracle as of itself decisive of the question; as what, if once allowed, excluded all further debate upon the subject; but founded their opinion upon a kind of comparative reasoning, “When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than those which this man hath done?”