aign,
for Gods Prophet; they must either take their owne Dreams, for the
prophecy they mean to bee governed by, and the tumour of their own
hearts for the Spirit of God; or they must suffer themselves to bee lead
by some strange Prince; or by some of their fellow subjects, that can
bewitch them, by slander of the government, into rebellion, without
other miracle to confirm their calling, then sometimes an extraordinary
successe, and Impunity; and by this means destroying all laws, both
divine, and humane, reduce all Order, Government, and Society, to the
first Chaos of Violence, and Civill warre.

CHAPTER XXXVII. OF MIRACLES, AND THEIR USE

A Miracle Is A Work That Causeth Admiration

By Miracles are signified the Admirable works of God: & therefore they
are also called Wonders. And because they are for the most part, done,
for a signification of his commandement, in such occasions, as
without them, men are apt to doubt, (following their private naturall
reasoning,) what he hath commanded, and what not, they are commonly in
Holy Scripture, called Signes, in the same sense, as they are called by
the Latines, Ostenta, and Portenta, from shewing, and fore-signifying
that, which the Almighty is about to bring to passe.

And Must Therefore Be Rare, Whereof There Is No Naturall Cause Known

To understand therefore what is a Miracle, we must first understand what
works they are, which men wonder at, and call Admirable. And there be
but two things which make men wonder at any event: The one is, if it
be strange, that is to say, such, as the like of it hath never, or very
rarely been produced: The other is, if when it is produced, we cannot
imagine it to have been done by naturall means, but onely by the
immediate hand of God. But when wee see some possible, naturall cause of
it, how rarely soever the like has been done; or if the like have been
often done, how impossible soever it be to imagine a naturall means
thereof, we no more wonder, nor esteem it for a Miracle.

Therefore, if a Horse, or Cow should speak, it were a Miracle; because
both the thing is strange, & the Naturall cause difficult to imagin: So
also were it, to see a strange deviation of nature, in the production
of some new shape of a living creature. But when a man, or other Animal,
engenders his like, though we know no more how this is done, than the
other; yet because 'tis usuall, it is no Miracle. In like manner, if a
man be metamorphose