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David, and left Saul; God giving His graces to him He chose to govern His people, and taking them away from him He rejected. So that by the spirit is meant inclination to God's service; and not any supernatural revelation. God spake also many times by the event of lots; which were ordered by such as He had put in authority over His people. So we read that God manifested by the lots which Saul caused to be drawn (1 Sam. xiv. 43) the fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary to the oath taken by the people. And (Josh xviii. 10) God divided the land of Canaan amongst the Israelites, by the "lots that Joshua did cast before the Lord in Shiloh." In the same manner it seemeth to be, that God discovered (Joshua vii. 15, &c.) the crime of Achan. And these are the ways whereby God declared His will in the old Testament.

All which ways He used also in the New Testament. To the Virgin Mary, by a vision of an angel to Joseph in a dream: again, to Paul, in the way to Damascus, in a vision of our Saviour: and to Peter in the vision of a sheet let down from heaven, with divers sorts of flesh; of clean, and unclean beasts; and in prison, by vision of an angel: and to all the apostles, and writers of the New Testament, by the graces of His spirit; and to the apostles again, at the choosing of Matthias in the place of Judas Iscariot, by lot.

Seeing then, all prophecy supposeth vision, or dream (which two, when they be natural, are the same), or some especial gift of God so rarely observed in mankind as to be admired where observed; and seeing as well such gifts, as the most extraordinary dreams and visions, may proceed from God, not only by his supernatural and immediate, but also by His natural operation, and by mediation of second causes; there is need of reason and judgment to discern between natural and supernatural gifts, and between natural and supernatural visions or dreams. And consequently men had need to be very circumspect and wary, in obeying the voice of man, that pretending himself to be a prophet, requires us to obey God in that way, which he in God's name telleth us to be the way to happiness. For he that pretends to teach men the way of so great felicity, pretends to govern them; that is to say, to rule and reign over them; which is a thing that all men naturally desire, and is therefore worthy to be suspected of ambition and imposture; and consequently, ought to be examined and tried by every man, before he yield them obedience; unless he have yielded it them already, in the institution of a commonwealth; as when the prophet is the civil sovereign, or by the civil sovereign authorized. And if this examination of prophets and spirits were not allowed to every one of the people, it had been to no purpose to set out the marks by which every man might be able to distinguish between those whom they ought, and those whom they ought not to follow. Seeing therefore such marks are set out (Deut. xiii. I, &c.) to know a prophet by; and (1 John iv. I, &c.) to know a spirit by: and seeing there is so much prophesying in the Old Testament, and so much preaching in the New Testament, against prophets; and so much greater a number ordinarily of false phophets, than of true; every one is to beware of obeying their directions, at their own peril. And first, that there were many more false than true prophets, appears by this, that when Ahab (1 Kings xxii.) consulted four hundred prophets, they were all false impostors, but only one Micaiah. And a little before the time of the captivity, the prophets were generally liars. "The prophets (saith the Lord, by Jeremiah, chap. xiv. 14) prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor spake unto them; they prophesy to you a false vision, a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart." Insomuch as God commanded the people by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah (chap. xxiii. 16) not to obey them: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets, that prophesy to

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you. They make you vain, they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord."

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Seeing then there was in the time of the Old Testament such quarrels amongst the visionary prophets, one contesting with another, and asking, When departed the Spirit from me to go to thee?" as between Micaiah and the rest of the four hundred; and such giving of the lie to one another (as in Jerem. xiv. 14), and such controversies in the New Testament at this day, amongst the spiritual prophets; every man then was and now is bound to make use of his natural reason, to apply to all prophecy those rules which God hath given us to discern the true from false. Of which rules, in the Old Testament, one was, conformable doctrine to that which Moses the sovereign prophet had taught them; and the other, the miraculous power of foretelling what God would bring to pass, as I have already showed out of Deut. xiii. 1, &c. And in the New Testament there was but one only mark; and that was the preaching of this doctrine, "that Jesus is the Christ," that is, king of the Jews, promised in the Old Testament. Whosoever denied that article, he was a false prophet, whatsoever miracles he might seem to work; and he that taught it was a true prophet. For St. John (1 Epist. iv. 2, &c.), speaking expressly of the means to examine spirits, whether they be of God, or not; after he had told them that there would arise false prophets, saith thus: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God;" that is, is approved and allowed as a prophet of God: not that he is a godly man, or one of the elect, for this, that he confesseth, professeth, or preacheth Jesus to be the Christ; but for that he is a prophet avowed. For God sometimes speaketh by prophets, whose persons He hath not accepted; as He did by Balaam; and as He foretold Saul of his death, by the Witch of Endor. Again in the next verse, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of Christ; and this is the spirit of Antichrist." So that the rule is perfect on both sides; that he is a true prophet, which preacheth the Messiah already come, in the person of Jesus; and he a false one that denieth Him come, and looketh for Him in some future impostor, that shall take upon him that honour falsely, whom the apostle there properly calleth Antichrist. Every man therefore ought to consider who is the sovereign prophet; that is to say, who it is that is God's vicegerent on earth; and hath next under God, the authority of governing Christian men; and to observe for a rule that doctrine, which in the name of God, He hath commanded to be taught; and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those doctrines which pretended prophets, with miracle, or without, shall at any time advance and if they find it contrary to that rule, to do as they did that came to Moses and complained that there were some that prophesied in the camp, whose authority so to do they doubted of; and leave to the sovereign, as they did to Moses, to uphold or to forbid them, as he should see cause; and if he disavow them, then no more to obey their voice; or if he approve them, then to obey them, as men to whom God hath given a part of the spirit of their sovereign. For when Christian men take not their Christian sovereign for God's prophet, they must either take their own dreams for the prophecy they mean to be governed by, and the tumour of their own hearts for the Spirit of God, or they must suffer themselves to be led by some strange prince; or by some of their fellow-subjects, that can bewitch them, by slander of the government, into rebellion, without other miracle to confirm their calling than sometimes an extraordinary success and impunity; and by this means destroying all laws, both divine and human, reduce all order, government, and society to the first chaos of violence and civil war.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Of Miracles, and their Use.

By "miracles" are signified the admirable works of God and therefore they are also called "wonders." And because they are for the most part done for a signification of His commandment, in such occasions, as without them, men are apt to doubt, (following their private natural reasoning,) what He hath commanded, and what not, they are commonly, in Holy Scripture, called "signs," in the same sense as they are called by the Latins ostenta and portenta, from showing and fore-signifying that which the Almighty is about to bring to pass.

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 natural means, but only by the immediate hand of God. But when we see some possible, natural 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 natural means thereof, we no more wonder nor esteem it for a miracle.

Therefore, if a horse or cow should speak, it were a miracle; because both the thing is strange, and the natural cause difficult to imagine. 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 it is usual, 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 piece 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 pass than the other.

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 any universal destruction of the world by water. But at this day, because they are frequent, they are not miracles, neither to them that know their natural 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 we know also the means how they are done, we count them not for miracles, because not wrought by the immediate hand of God, but of human industry.

Furthermore, seeing admiration and wonder are consequent to the knowledge and experience wherewith men are endued, some more, some less; 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 eclipses of the sun and moon have been taken for supernatural works by the common people; when nevertheless there were others who could from their natural 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 times; it seems to him a miraculous thing;

but amongst wise and cautelous men such miracles as those cannot easily be done.

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Again, it belongeth to the nature of a miracle that it be wrought for the procuring of credit to God's 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 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 it 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 (Exod. iv. 1), 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 putting it out, to make it whole; to make the children of Israel believe (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 blood. And when he had done these miracles before the people, it is said (verse 31) 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 aud the Egyptians, tended all to make the Israelites believe 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 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 farther 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 their 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 (Matt. xiii. 58), that He wrought not many miracles in His own country because of their unbelief; and (in Mark vi. 5) 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 credɩ lous.

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, by 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.

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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 incantatlon. As for example, when we read that after the rod of Moses being cast on the ground became a serpent (Exod. vii. 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 pools of water into blood (Exod. vii. 22), magicians did so likewise with their enchantments;" and that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land (Exod. viii. 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 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 as 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.

For it is evident enough that words have no effect but on those that understand them; and then they have no other but to signify 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 waters blood, or any other miracle seemeth done by enchantment; if it be not to the edification of God's 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 easy matter to do.

For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all men, but especially of them that have not much knowledge of natural causes, and of the nature and interests of men; as by innumerable and easy 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 darkened? 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 ancient time were called

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