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. 13:58), that He wrought not many miracles in His own country because of their unbelief; and (in Mark 6:5) 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 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,