_Miracle_ does not always signify miracle. I Sam. xiv, 15; _miracle_ signifies _fear_, and is so in the Hebrew. The same evidently in Job xxxiii, 7; and also Isaiah xxi, 4; Jeremiah xliv, 12. _Portentum_ signifies _simulacrum_, Jeremiah l, 38; and it is so in the Hebrew and Vatable. Isaiah viii, 18. Jesus Christ says that He and His will be in _miracles_.
If the devil favoured the doctrine which destroys him, he would be divided against himself, as Jesus Christ said. If God favoured the doctrine which destroys the Church, He would be divided against Himself. _Omne regnum divisum._[325] For Jesus Christ wrought against the devil, and destroyed his power over the heart, of which exorcism is the symbolisation, in order to establish the kingdom of God. And thus He adds, _Si in digito Dei ... regnum Dei ad vos_.[326]
There is a great difference between tempting and leading into error. God tempts, but He does not lead into error. To tempt is to afford opportunities, which impose no necessity; if men do not love God, they will do a certain thing. To lead into error is to place a man under the necessity of inferring and following out what is untrue.
Abraham and Gideon are above revelation. The Jews blinded themselves in judging of miracles by the Scripture. God has never abandoned His true worshippers.
I prefer to follow Jesus Christ than any other, because He has miracle, prophecy, doctrine, perpetuity, etc.
The Donatists. No miracle which obliges them to say it is the devil.
The more we particularise God, Jesus Christ, the Church ...
If 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.
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.
Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. (Q. 113, A. 10, _Ad._ 2.)[327]
John xii, 37. _Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in eum, ut sermo Isayæ impleretur. Excæcavit_, etc.
_Hæc dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de eo._