DP 130
(1) No one is reformed by miracles and signs,
because they compel.
The reality of this can be rationally seen as follows.
No one can deny that miracles induce belief
and strongly persuade
that what ever the miracle-worker
says and teaches is true,
and that at the outset this so occupies
the external level of a person's thought
as to virtually bind and enthrall it.
But this deprives a person
of his two faculties called rationality and freedom,
thus of his ability to act in freedom
in accordance with his reason,
and the Lord cannot then flow in
through the internal level of his thought
into the external one,
except to leave to the person the ability
to confirm with his rationality
that which has become a matter of his faith
as a result of the miracle.
DP 132 [1-2, 3]
That such is the nature of miracles
can clearly be seen from the miracles done
before the people of Judah and Israel.
Even though they saw
so many miracles in the land of Egypt,
and afterward at the sea of Suph,
and others in the desert,
and especially on Mount Sinai
when the Law was proclaimed,
still, after a month's time,
when Moses tarried on that mountain,
they made themselves a golden calf
and accepted it as the Jehovah
who had led them out of the land of Egypt.
The same can be seen as well
from the miracles done after that
in the land of Canaan,
and the fact that the people nevertheless
so often lapsed from their prescribed worship.
And it can be seen, too,
from the miracles that the Lord performed
before them when He was in the world,
and the fact that they nevertheless crucified Him.
. . . after the Lord manifested Himself
and was received and acknowledged
in the churches as the eternal God,
miracles ceased.
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