ually holding it spellbound. But one is deprived
by this of the two faculties called rationality and liberty, thus cannot
act in freedom according to reason, nor can the Lord then inflow into the
external of man's thought through the internal save only to leave man to
confirm from his rationality what has been made a matter of his belief by
the miracle.

[2] The state of man's thought is such that from the internal of thought
he can see a piece in the external of his thought as in a mirror--for as
was said above, one can behold one's own thought, which is possible only
from more interior thought. Beholding the item as in a mirror he can turn
it this way and that and shape it to look attractive to him. If there is
truth in it, it may be likened to an attractive and animated maiden or
youth. But if a man cannot turn it this way and that and shape it, but
only believe it persuaded of it by a miracle, then if there is truth in
it, it may be likened to a maiden or youth carved in stone or wood, in
which is nothing alive. It may also be compared to an object which is
constantly in view and looked at alone, keeps one from seeing what is to
either side and behind it. It can also be compared to a continual sound
in the ear, which does away with perceiving the harmony of many sounds.
Such are the blindness and deafness induced on the mind by miracles. It
is the same with anything confirmed but not regarded from rationality
before it is confirmed.

131. Plain it is from this that a faith induced by miracles is not faith,
but persuasion. For it has nothing rational in it, still less anything
spiritual, as it is only external without an internal. This is true of
everything a man does from such persuasive faith, whether he is
acknowledging God, worshiping Him at home or in church, or doing good
deeds. When only a miracle leads a person to acknowledgment of God and to
adoration and piety, he acts from the natural and not the spiritual man.
For a miracle infuses belief by an external and not an internal way, thus
from the world and not from heaven. The Lord enters man by an internal
way, by the Word and by doctrine and preaching from it. As miracles close
this way, no miracles are done today.

132. That miracles are of this nature can be clearly established from
those performed in the presence of the people of Judah and Israel.
Although they beheld many miracles in the land of Egypt and later at the
Red Sea and others in the Wilderne