n contravention to, or
beyond, Nature, is a mere absurdity; and therefore that what is meant in
Scripture by a miracle can only be a work of Nature, which surpasses, or
is believed to surpass, human comprehension. Before passing on to my
third point, I will adduce Scriptural authority for my assertion that
God cannot be known from miracles. Scripture nowhere states the doctrine
openly, but it can readily be inferred from several passages. Firstly,
that in which Moses commands (Deut. xiii.) that a false prophet should
be put to death, even though he work miracles: "If there arise a prophet
among you, and giveth thee a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder come
to pass, saying, Let us go after other gods ... thou shalt not hearken
unto the voice of that prophet; for the Lord your God proveth you, and
that prophet shall be put to death." From this it clearly follows that
miracles could be wrought even by false prophets; and that, unless men
are honestly endowed with the true knowledge and love of God, they may
be as easily led by miracles to follow false gods as to follow the true
God; for these words are added: "For the Lord your God tempts you, that
He may know whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your
mind."

Further, the Israelites, from all their miracles, were unable to form a
sound conception of God, as their experience testified: for when they
had persuaded themselves that Moses had departed from among them they
petitioned Aaron to give them visible gods; and the idea of God they had
formed as the result of all their miracles was a calf!...

I now go on to my _third_ point, and show from Scripture that the
decrees and mandates of God, and consequently His providence, are merely
the order of Nature--that is, when Scripture describes an event as
accomplished by God or God's will, we must understand merely that it was
in accordance with the law and order of Nature, not, as most people
believe, that Nature had for a season ceased to act, or that her order
was temporarily interrupted. But Scripture does not directly teach
matters unconnected with its doctrine, wherefore it has no care to
explain things by their natural causes, nor to expound matters merely
speculative. Wherefore our conclusion must be gathered by inference from
those Scriptural narratives which happen to be written more at length
and circumstantially than usual. Of these I will cite a few.

In the first book of Samuel (ix. 15, 16), i