And therefore,though the creation of the world,and after that the destruction of all living creatures in the universal 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 could be done,because men naturally believe the Almighty can do 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 believe that Moses came unto them,not out of any design of his own interest,but as sent from God Therefore after God had commanded him to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage,when he said,"They will not believe 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 bosom,to make it leprous,and again by pulling it out to make it whole,to make the children of Israel believe 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 blood.And when he had done these miracles before the people,it is said that "they believed him."Nevertheless,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 believe in Moses,and 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 afterwards,we shall find their end was always to beget or confirm belief that they came not of their own motion,but were sent by God.We may further observe in Scripture that the end of miracles was to beget belief,not universally in all men,elect and reprobate,but in the elect only;that is to say,in 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 go:and when he let them go at last,not the miracles persuaded him,but the plagues forced him to it.So also of our Saviour it is written that He wrought not many miracles in His own country,because of their unbelief;and instead 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 the prophets,of our Saviour and of his Apostles was to add men to the Church;but it was because the end of their miracles was to add 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 was sent from His Father,He could not use His power in the conversion of those whom His Father had rejected.They that,expounding this place of St.Mark,say that this word,"He 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 do no miracles but amongst the credulous.
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.
And from this definition,we may infer:first,that in all miracles the work done is not the effect of any virtue 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.
Secondly,that no devil,angel,or other created spirit can do a miracle.For it must either be by virtue of some natural science or by incantation,that is,virtue of words.For if the enchanters do it by their own power independent,there is some power that proceedeth not from God,which all men deny;and if they do it by power given them,then is the work not from the immediate hand of God,but natural,and consequently no miracle.
There be some texts of Scripture that seem to attribute the power of working wonders,equal to some of those immediate miracles wrought by God Himself,to certain arts of magic and incantation.As,for example,when we read that after the rod of Moses being cast on the ground became a serpent,"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 pools of water into blood,"the magicians of Egypt did likewise,with their enchantments";and that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land,"the magicians also did so with their enchantments,and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt";will not 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 an 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 supernatural,as the impostors need not the study so much of natural causes,but the ordinary ignorance,stupidity,and superstition of mankind,to do them;those texts that seem to countenance the power of magic,witchcraft,and enchantment must needs have another sense than at first sight they seem to bear.