“The effect of miracles upon the good, however, is different from what it is upon the wicked. The good do not desire miracles, but they believe the miracles which are recorded in the Word; and if they hear anything of a miracle, they attend no otherwise to it than as a light argument which confirms their faith; for they think from the Word, consequently from the Lord, and not from a miracle. It is otherwise with the wicked: they indeed may be driven and forced into faith, and even into worship and piety, but only for a short time; for their evils being shut in, the inclinations thereto, and the delights thence derived, continually act against the external of their worship and piety; and in order that these evils may escape from confinement and break out, they think about the miracle, and at length call it a delusion, or an artifice, or an operation of nature, and so return into their evils; and he who returns into his evils after worship, profanes the truths and goods of worship, and the lot of profaners after death is the worst of all. Besides, if miracles were to be wrought before those who do not believe in consequence of the miracles recorded in the Word, they must be continually performed, and constantly presented to their view. From these considerations, the reason may appear why miracles are not performed at this day.” It is thus seen that the Lord will not force a man to lead a good life; because, in forcing him, his humanity would be destroyed, and all that makes life worthy and manly would be lost, seeing that the exercise of rationality and liberty would be annihilated. It is a law of the Divine Providence, that a man should be led and taught from the Lord out of heaven by the Word, and by doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this in all appearance as from himself. The Lord, as we have before seen, is the Word; and when man reads the Word, he brings his thought into contact with the Divine Wisdom, and when he obeys its teachings he is in very truth led by the Lord. Yet we all see that this teaching and leading of the Lord is effected without any violation of man’s freedom, for he is led and taught in externals to all appearance as of himself.