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.