there were no false miracles, there would be certainty. If there were
no rule to judge of them, miracles would be useless, and there would be
no reason for believing.

Now there is, humanly speaking, no human certainty, but we have reason.

823

Either God has confounded the false miracles, or He has foretold them;
and in both ways He has raised Himself above what is supernatural with
respect to us, and has raised us to it.

824

Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. (Q. 113, A. 10, _Ad._
2.)[327]

825

_Reasons why we do not believe._

John xii, 37. _Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in eum, ut
sermo Isayae impleretur. Excaecavit_, etc.

_Haec dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de eo._

_Judaei signa petunt et Graeci sapientiam quaerunt, nos autem Jesum
crucifixum. Sed plenum signis, sed plenum sapientia; vos autem Christum
non crucifixum et religionem sine miraculis et sine sapientia._[328]

What makes us not believe in the true miracles, is want of love. John:
_Sed vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus._[329] What makes us
believe the false is want of love. II Thess. ii.

The foundation of religion. It is the miracles. What then? Does God
speak against miracles, against the foundations of the faith which we
have in Him?

If there is a God, faith in God must exist on earth. Now the miracles of
Jesus Christ are not foretold by Antichrist, but the miracles of
Antichrist are foretold by Jesus Christ. And so if Jesus Christ were not
the Messiah, He would have indeed led into error. When Jesus Christ
foretold the miracles of Antichrist, did He think of destroying faith in
His own miracles?

Moses foretold Jesus Christ, and bade to follow Him. Jesus Christ
foretold Antichrist, and forbade to follow him.

It was impossible that in the time of Moses men should keep their faith
for Antichrist, who was unknown to them. But it is quite easy, in the
time of Antichrist, to believe in Jesus Christ, already known.

There is no reason for believing in Antichrist, which there is not for
believing in Jesus Christ. But there are reasons for believing in Jesus
Christ, which there are not for believing in the other.

826

Judges xiii, 23: "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have
shewed us all these things."

Hezekiah, Sennacherib.

Jeremiah. Hananiah, the false prophet, dies in seven months.

2 Macc. iii. The temple, ready for pillage, miracu