A Present to His Royal Highness - The Prince of Wales — Page 32
32 not be deceived by the false ones. Their signs and wonders must be of a nature different from that of the signs and wonders of the true prophets, for if that were not so, then how can we say that Moses and David and John and even Jesus himself were true prophets? We find, however, that Jesus puts forward his signs and wonders as testimonies of his truth, for we read that when John sent his disciples to Jesus and they asked him, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” he answered and said unto them, “Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. ” ∗ And it is written “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. ”† It is clear, therefore, that signs and prophecies are the testimonies of the truth of a prophet, and the wonders which Jesus attributes to false prophets are of a nature different from those shown by God’s prophets and are of the kind of tricks and sleights of hand, whereas, the signs of true prophets are of a supernatural order which manifest ∗ Matthew xi: 3—6. † Deut. xviii: 21, 22.