A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 42
XLII. Miracles.
AS free-will in spiritual things is an essential requisite in the reformation, regeneration, and salvation of man; and as the New Church meant by the New Jerusalem is founded on the Word now opened by the Lord, and will be established on principles of perfect liberty and sound rationality; therefore miracles are not to be looked for in the present day, because they have a direct tendency to close the mind against the perception of truth, to compel assent without rational conviction, and to remove from man that freedom of judgment and self-determination, which are necessary to his becoming an image and likeness of his Creator.
Before and at the coming of the Lord, miracles were indeed wrought among the Jewish and lsraelitish people. But it is evident from their whole history, as recorded in the Old and New Testaments, that the effect produced on their minds by such means was not a rational conviction of divine truth, but a mere superficial impression, which awed them for a moment into a kind of external acquiescence and acknowledgment, that the power competent to perform those wonders was supernatural. By this sentiment of fear, which rather stupified than awakened their rational faculties, they were urged to the observance of the various ceremonies peculiar to their religion, especially to the worship of Jehovah, from which however they were continually declining into open acts of idolatry. Although they had seen so many miracles in Egypt, and afterwards the red-sea divided; the Egyptians immersed therein; the pillar of a cloud going before them by day, and a pillar of fire by night; manna daily rained down from heaven for their particular use, and water gushing out of the rock as soon as it was smitten by the rod of Moses; and although they had seen mount Sinai altogether enveloped in smoke, when Jehovah descended upon it in fire, in the midst of supernatural thunderings, lightnings, and the loud sound of a trumpet; and had heard the voice of Jehovah speaking from the mountain, with other most extraordinary tokens of the divine presence and power; yet how soon did they forget these wonders, and turn to the worship of a senseless calf, the workmanship of their own hands!
The same infidelity and hardness of heart continued with their posterity through every period of their history. Hence neither the miracles of their prophets, nor even those of the Lord himself, when he appeared among them, had the effect of changing their character, or inspiring them with any thing like a pure and genuine faith. It is therefore written of them, that "though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him," John xii. 37.
Miracles then have no such power, as many ascribe to them, of convincing the understanding, or producing in the mind a rational and wholesome faith: neither can they be considered as the sure and proper evidences of a divine mission. For (not to mention the cases of many of the prophets, and among the rest of John the Baptist, who performed no miracle whatever,) we read, that, when Moses and Aaron exhibited before Pharaoh the signs or proofs of their authority, by turning a rod into a serpent, and all the waters of Egypt into blood, and also by bringing up frogs upon all the land, the magicians with their inchantments did the same: Pharaoh therefore hardened his heart, and refused to listen to the message, with which they were charged from Jehovah. Similar, in all probability, would be the conduct of many in the present day, were really divine miracles again to be performed: they would either be referred to some incomprehensible operations of nature, or else be rejected as phantasms and crafty deceptions; and such persons, as ascribed them to a divine power, would be held in derision, or pitied for their simplicity.
The reason why miracles were performed among the Jews in ancient times, and not among Christians in the present day, is, because the former were so immersed in natural and corporeal affections, that they were incapable of discerning the interior spiritual truths of revelation; neither could these be laid before them without danger of profanation: on which account the Lord spake to that people in parables, "that seeing they might see, and not perceive, and hearing they might hear, and not understand Mark iv. 12. Whereas now, since the introduction and establishment of Christianity in the world, the rational faculties of the human mind are more capable than before of being exercised on subjects of a divine nature, especially in respect to the Lord, his Word, the church, and a state of immortality in another life. The miracles, therefore, which were displayed among the Jewish and Israelitish people in the times alluded to, were performed, not with the design of forming them into a real spiritual church, (for this was not done, nor could it possibly be effected, by any such external means as miracles.) but for the purpose of compelling them to become the mere representative of a church, that all their rites, ceremonies, and acts of public worship might typify, shadow forth, and thus represent the Christian dispensation, together with the great process of man's regeneration, and above all that of the Lord's glorification. The miraculous cures, which were performed on the bodies of the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the sick, were in like manner representative of those divine operations upon the spirit of man, whereby his understanding is enlightened, his affections purified, and his whole life renewed, through the medium of a true and genuine faith, directed solely to the Lord in his Divine Humanity.
There appears also to have been a further reason why the dispensation of miracles was formerly given, but is withheld in latter times; namely, that the canon of Sacred Scripture might be written and completed, while the representative church was in a state favourable to it's dictation in ultimates: for it's divine truths could not have been concentrated in the literal form and basis, in which we now behold it, and consequently could not have been accommodated to the capacity of man in all future ages, unless a series of miraculous appearances had been exhibited and registered. From which consideration it follows, that it was chiefly for the sake of the Word, which is the uniting link between heaven and the church, and to point out the divine omnipotence of the Lord, as well in spiritual as in natural things, that such extraordinary miracles, as we find recorded in it, have actually taken effect. But having been transacted before men, with whom the internals of the mind were already closed, and by whom consequently no further spiritual injury was likely to be sustained from the display of supernatural powers, the volume of revelation, couched under the language of history, prophecy, and evangelism, was written in different successive periods, and at length fully completed, it's letter being made perfectly correspondent with it's divine spirit.
Henceforth, therefore, no other miracle is required in the church, than the opening of the eyes of the understanding, the renovation of the heart and affections, a conformity of the life to the holy and divine precepts of the Word, and the actual descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven to earth. Effects like these, wheresoever or with whomsoever they take place, are truly miraculous, because they are supernatural, and plainly bespeak a divine power, which is alone capable of producing them.
