by the hand of Moses, and all the rest of the prophets, till the captivity; and those of our Saviour, and his apostles afterwards; we shall find, their end was always to beget or confirm belief, that they came not of their own motion, but were sent by God. We may farther observe in Scripture, that the end of miracles, was to beget belief, not universally in all men, elect and reprobate; but in the elect only; that is to say, in such as God had determined should become his subjects. For those miraculous plagues of Egypt, had not for their end, the conversion of Pharaoh; for God had told Moses before, that he would harden the heart of Pharoah, that he should not let the people go: and when he let them go at last, not the miracles persuaded him, but the plagues forced him to it. So also of our Saviour, it is written (_Matth._ xiii. 58), that he wrought not many miracles in his own country, because of their unbelief; and (in _Mark_ vi. 5) instead of, _He wrought not many_, it is, _He could work none_. It was not because he wanted power; which to say, were blasphemy against God; nor that the end of miracles was not to convert incredulous men to Christ; for the end of all the miracles of Moses, of the prophets, of our Saviour, and of his apostles was to add men to the church: but it was, because the end of their miracles, was to add to the church, not all men, but such as should be saved; that is to say, such as God had elected. Seeing therefore our Saviour was sent from his Father, he could not use his power in the conversion of those, whom his Father had rejected. They that expounding this place of _St. Mark_, say, that this word, _He could not_, is put for, _He would not_, do it without example in the Greek tongue: where _would not_, is put sometimes for _could not_, in things inanimate, that have no will; but _could not_, for _would not_ never: and thereby lay a stumbling block before weak Christians; as if Christ could do no miracles, but amongst the credulous. [Sidenote: The definition of a miracle.] From that which I have here set down, of the nature and use of a miracle, we may define it thus: A MIRACLE _is a work of God, (besides his operation by the way of nature, ordained in the creation) done, for the making manifest to his elect, the mission of an extraordinary minister for their salvation_. And from this definition, we may infer; first, that in all miracles, the work done, is not the effect of any virtue in the prophet; because it is the effect of the immediate hand of God; that is to say God hath done it, without using the prophet therein, as a subordinate cause.