<h2><SPAN name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037"></SPAN> CHAPTER XXXVII.<br/>OF MIRACLES, AND THEIR USE </h2>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0512" id="link2H_4_0512"></SPAN> A Miracle Is A Work That Causeth Admiration </h3>
<p>By Miracles are signified the Admirable works of God: & therefore they
are also called Wonders. And because they are for the most part, done, for
a signification of his commandement, in such occasions, as without them,
men are apt to doubt, (following their private naturall reasoning,) what
he hath commanded, and what not, they are commonly in Holy Scripture,
called Signes, in the same sense, as they are called by the Latines,
Ostenta, and Portenta, from shewing, and fore-signifying that, which the
Almighty is about to bring to passe.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0513" id="link2H_4_0513"></SPAN> And Must Therefore Be Rare, Whereof There Is No Naturall Cause Known </h3>
<p>To understand therefore what is a Miracle, we must first understand what
works they are, which men wonder at, and call Admirable. And there be but
two things which make men wonder at any event: The one is, if it be
strange, that is to say, such, as the like of it hath never, or very
rarely been produced: The other is, if when it is produced, we cannot
imagine it to have been done by naturall means, but onely by the immediate
hand of God. But when wee see some possible, naturall cause of it, how
rarely soever the like has been done; or if the like have been often done,
how impossible soever it be to imagine a naturall means thereof, we no
more wonder, nor esteem it for a Miracle.</p>
<p>Therefore, if a Horse, or Cow should speak, it were a Miracle; because
both the thing is strange, & the Naturall cause difficult to imagin:
So also were it, to see a strange deviation of nature, in the production
of some new shape of a living creature. But when a man, or other Animal,
engenders his like, though we know no more how this is done, than the
other; yet because ’tis usuall, it is no Miracle. In like manner, if a man
be metamorphosed into a stone, or into a pillar, it is a Miracle; because
strange: but if a peece of wood be so changed; because we see it often, it
is no Miracle: and yet we know no more, by what operation of God, the one
is brought to passe, than the other.</p>
<p>The first Rainbow that was seen in the world, was a Miracle, because the
first; and consequently strange; and served for a sign from God, placed in
heaven, to assure his people, there should be no more an universall
destruction of the world by Water. But at this day, because they are
frequent, they are not Miracles, neither to them that know their naturall
causes, nor to them who know them not. Again, there be many rare works
produced by the Art of man: yet when we know they are done; because
thereby wee know also the means how they are done, we count them not for
Miracles, because not wrought by the immediate hand of God, but by
mediation of humane Industry.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0514" id="link2H_4_0514"></SPAN> That Which Seemeth A Miracle To One Man, May Seem Otherwise To Another </h3>
<p>Furthermore, seeing Admiration and Wonder, is consequent to the knowledge
and experience, wherewith men are endued, some more, some lesse; it
followeth, that the same thing, may be a Miracle to one, and not to
another. And thence it is, that ignorant, and superstitious men make great
Wonders of those works, which other men, knowing to proceed from Nature,
(which is not the immediate, but the ordinary work of God,) admire not at
all: As when Ecclipses of the Sun and Moon have been taken for
supernaturall works, by the common people; when neverthelesse, there were
others, could from their naturall causes, have foretold the very hour they
should arrive: Or, as when a man, by confederacy, and secret intelligence,
getting knowledge of the private actions of an ignorant, unwary man,
thereby tells him, what he has done in former time; it seems to him a
Miraculous thing; but amongst wise, and cautelous men, such Miracles as
those, cannot easily be done.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0515" id="link2H_4_0515"></SPAN> The End Of Miracles </h3>
<p>Again, it belongeth to the nature of a Miracle, that it be wrought for the
procuring of credit to Gods Messengers, Ministers, and Prophets, that
thereby men may know, they are called, sent, and employed by God, and
thereby be the better inclined to obey them. And therefore, though the
creation of the world, and after that the destruction of all living
creatures in the universall deluge, were admirable works; yet because they
were not done to procure credit to any Prophet, or other Minister of God,
they use not to be called Miracles. For how admirable soever any work be,
the Admiration consisteth not in that it could be done, because men
naturally beleeve the Almighty can doe all things, but because he does it
at the Prayer, or Word of a man. But the works of God in Egypt, by the
hand of Moses, were properly Miracles; because they were done with
intention to make the people of Israel beleeve, that Moses came unto them,
not out of any design of his owne interest, but as sent from God.
Therefore after God had commanded him to deliver the Israelites from the
Egyptian bondage, when he said (Exod 4.1. &c.) “They will not beleeve
me, but will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto me,” God gave him power,
to turn the Rod he had in his hand into a Serpent, and again to return it
into a Rod; and by putting his hand into his bosome, to make it leprous;
and again by pulling it out to make it whole, to make the Children of
Israel beleeve (as it is verse 5.) that the God of their Fathers had
appeared unto him; And if that were not enough, he gave him power to turn
their waters into bloud. And when hee had done these Miracles before the
people, it is said (verse 41.) that “they beleeved him.” Neverthelesse,
for fear of Pharaoh, they durst not yet obey him. Therefore the other
works which were done to plague Pharaoh and the Egyptians, tended all to
make the Israelites beleeve in Moses, and were properly Miracles. In like
manner if we consider all the Miracles done by the hand of Moses, and all
the rest of the Prophets, till the Captivity; and those of our Saviour,
and his Apostles afterward; we shall find, their end was alwaies to beget,
or confirm beleefe, that they came not of their own motion, but were sent
by God. Wee may further observe in Scripture, that the end of Miracles,
was to beget beleef, not universally in all men, elect, and reprobate; but
in the elect only; that is to say, is such as God had determined should
become his Subjects. For those miraculous plagues of Egypt, had not for
end, the conversion of Pharaoh; For God had told Moses before, that he
would harden the heart of Pharaoh, that he should not let the people goe:
And when he let them goe at last, not the Miracles perswaded him, but the
plagues forced him to it. So also of our Saviour, it is written, (Mat. 13.
58.) that he wrought not many Miracles in his own countrey, because of
their unbeleef; and (in Marke 6.5.) in stead of, “he wrought not many,” it
is, “he could work none.” It was not because he wanted power; which to
say, were blasphemy against God; nor that the end of Miracles was not to
convert incredulous men to Christ; for the end of all the Miracles of
Moses, of Prophets, of our Saviour, and of his Apostles was to adde men to
the Church; but it was, because the end of their Miracles, was to adde to
the Church (not all men, but) such as should be saved; that is to say,
such as God had elected. Seeing therefore our Saviour sent from his
Father, hee could not use his power in the conversion of those, whom his
Father had rejected. They that expounding this place of St. Marke, say,
that his word, “Hee could not,” is put for, “He would not,” do it without
example in the Greek tongue, (where Would Not, is put sometimes for Could
Not, in things inanimate, that have no will; but Could Not, for Would Not,
never,) and thereby lay a stumbling block before weak Christians; as if
Christ could doe no Miracles, but amongst the credulous.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0516" id="link2H_4_0516"></SPAN> The Definition Of A Miracle </h3>
<p>From that which I have here set down, of the nature, and use of a Miracle,
we may define it thus, “A MIRACLE, is a work of God, (besides his
operation by the way of Nature, ordained in the Creation,) done for the
making manifest to his elect, the mission of an extraordinary Minister for
their salvation.”</p>
<p>And from this definition, we may inferre; First, that in all Miracles, the
work done, is not the effect of any vertue in the Prophet; because it is
the effect of the immediate hand of God; that is to say God hath done it,
without using the Prophet therein, as a subordinate cause.</p>
<p>Secondly, that no Devil, Angel, or other created Spirit, can do a Miracle.
For it must either be by vertue of some naturall science, or by
Incantation, that is, vertue of words. For if the Inchanters do it by
their own power independent, there is some power that proceedeth not from
God; which all men deny: and if they doe it by power given them, then is
the work not from the immediate hand of God, but naturall, and
consequently no Miracle.</p>
<p>There be some texts of Scripture, that seem to attribute the power of
working wonders (equall to some of those immediate Miracles, wrought by
God himself,) to certain Arts of Magick, and Incantation. As for example,
when we read that after the Rod of Moses being cast on the ground became a
Serpent, (Exod. 7. 11.) “the Magicians of Egypt did the like by their
Enchantments;” and that after Moses had turned the waters of the Egyptian
Streams, Rivers, Ponds, and Pooles of water into blood, (Exod. 7. 22.)
“the Magicians of Egypt did so likewise, with their Enchantments;” and
that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land,
(Exod. 8. 7.) “the Magicians also did so with their Enchantments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt;” will not a man be apt to
attribute Miracles to Enchantments; that is to say, to the efficacy of the
sound of Words; and think the same very well proved out of this, and other
such places? and yet there is no place of Scripture, that telleth us what
on Enchantment is. If therefore Enchantment be not, as many think it, a
working of strange effects by spells, and words; but Imposture, and
delusion, wrought by ordinary means; and so far from supernaturall, as the
Impostors need not the study so much as of naturall causes, but the
ordinary ignorance, stupidity, and superstition of mankind, to doe them;
those texts that seem to countenance the power of Magick, Witchcraft, and
Enchantment, must needs have another sense, than at first sight they seem
to bear.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0517" id="link2H_4_0517"></SPAN> That Men Are Apt To Be Deceived By False Miracles </h3>
<p>For it is evident enough, that Words have no effect, but on those that
understand them; and then they have no other, but to signifie the
intentions, or passions of them that speak; and thereby produce, hope,
fear, or other passions, or conceptions in the hearer. Therefore when a
Rod seemeth a Serpent, or the Water Bloud, or any other Miracle seemeth
done by Enchantment; if it be not to the edification of Gods people, not
the Rod, nor the Water, nor any other thing is enchanted; that is to say,
wrought upon by the Words, but the Spectator. So that all the Miracle
consisteth in this, that the Enchanter has deceived a man; which is no
Miracle, but a very easie matter to doe.</p>
<p>For such is the ignorance, and aptitude to error generally of all men, but
especially of them that have not much knowledge of naturall causes, and of
the nature, and interests of men; as by innumerable and easie tricks to be
abused. What opinion of miraculous power, before it was known there was a
Science of the course of the Stars, might a man have gained, that should
have told the people, This hour, or day the Sun should be darkned? A
juggler by the handling of his goblets, and other trinkets, if it were not
now ordinarily practised, would be thought to do his wonders by the power
at least of the Devil. A man that hath practised to speak by drawing in of
his breath, (which kind of men in antient time were called Ventriloqui,)
and so make the weaknesse of his voice seem to proceed, not from the weak
impulsion of the organs of Speech, but from distance of place, is able to
make very many men beleeve it is a voice from Heaven, whatsoever he please
to tell them. And for a crafty man, that hath enquired into the secrets,
and familiar confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to another of his
actions and adventures past, to tell them him again is no hard matter; and
yet there be many, that by such means as that, obtain the reputation of
being Conjurers. But it is too long a businesse, to reckon up the severall
sorts of those men, which the Greeks called Thaumaturgi, that is to say,
workers of things wonderfull; and yet these do all they do, by their own
single dexterity. But if we looke upon the Impostures wrought by
Confederacy, there is nothing how impossible soever to be done, that is
impossible to bee beleeved. For two men conspiring, one to seem lame, the
other to cure him with a charme, will deceive many: but many conspiring,
one to seem lame, another so to cure him, and all the rest to bear
witnesse; will deceive many more.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0518" id="link2H_4_0518"></SPAN> Cautions Against The Imposture Of Miracles </h3>
<p>In this aptitude of mankind, to give too hasty beleefe to pretended
Miracles, there can be no better, nor I think any other caution, than that
which God hath prescribed, first by Moses, (as I have said before in the
precedent chapter,) in the beginning of the 13. and end of the 18. of
Deuteronomy; That wee take not any for Prophets, that teach any other
Religion, then that which Gods Lieutenant, (which at that time was Moses,)
hath established; nor any, (though he teach the same Religion,) whose
Praediction we doe not see come to passe. Moses therefore in his time, and
Aaron, and his successors in their times, and the Soveraign Governour of
Gods people, next under God himself, that is to say, the Head of the
Church in all times, are to be consulted, what doctrine he hath
established, before wee give credit to a pretended Miracle, or Prophet.
And when that is done, the thing they pretend to be a Miracle, we must
both see it done, and use all means possible to consider, whether it be
really done; and not onely so, but whether it be such, as no man can do
the like by his naturall power, but that it requires the immediate hand of
God. And in this also we must have recourse to Gods Lieutenant; to whom in
all doubtfull cases, wee have submitted our private judgments. For
Example; if a man pretend, that after certain words spoken over a peece of
bread, that presently God hath made it not bread, but a God, or a man, or
both, and neverthelesse it looketh still as like bread as ever it did;
there is no reason for any man to think it really done; nor consequently
to fear him, till he enquire of God, by his Vicar, or Lieutenant, whether
it be done, or not. If he say not, then followeth that which Moses saith,
(Deut. 18. 22.) “he hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not fear
him.” If he say ’tis done, then he is not to contradict it. So also if wee
see not, but onely hear tell of a Miracle, we are to consult the Lawful
Church; that is to say, the lawful Head thereof, how far we are to give
credit to the relators of it. And this is chiefly the case of men, that in
these days live under Christian Soveraigns. For in these times, I do not
know one man, that ever saw any such wondrous work, done by the charm, or
at the word, or prayer of a man, that a man endued but with a mediocrity
of reason, would think supernaturall: and the question is no more, whether
what wee see done, be a Miracle; whether the Miracle we hear, or read of,
were a reall work, and not the Act of a tongue, or pen; but in plain
terms, whether the report be true, or a lye. In which question we are not
every one, to make our own private Reason, or Conscience, but the Publique
Reason, that is, the reason of Gods Supreme Lieutenant, Judge; and indeed
we have made him Judge already, if wee have given him a Soveraign power,
to doe all that is necessary for our peace and defence. A private man has
alwaies the liberty, (because thought is free,) to beleeve, or not beleeve
in his heart, those acts that have been given out for Miracles, according
as he shall see, what benefit can accrew by mens belief, to those that
pretend, or countenance them, and thereby conjecture, whether they be
Miracles, or Lies. But when it comes to confession of that faith, the
Private Reason must submit to the Publique; that is to say, to Gods
Lieutenant. But who is this Lieutenant of God, and Head of the Church,
shall be considered in its proper place thereafter.</p>
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