3. On one occasion, when certain spirits were discussing the subject of miracles and signs, and those without faith were eagerly demanding them, there was perceptible something Divine, as of some indescribable sphere. There was in it something averse to, and destructive of, faith, with a sort of foreseen productiveness of disbelief, together with a removal of any power to implant goods and truths in those who love to ascribe to nature even those things that are Divine. It was evident from this that manifest miracles of Divine origin do not take place in these days. Those miracles are Divine which are wrought by the Lord and which signify and involve Him, His Kingdom and the church; they descend from Him through heaven, and spirits bring them into effect, whose self-hood has no part at all in the operation. These are Divine miracles, and they are called the Finger of God. All the miracles described in the Word were of this kind. The Lord's miracles are but lightly esteemed if we think merely that some blind persons received their sight, some deaf their hearing, and so on; for they all signify and involve Divine things, namely the heavenly state of His Kingdom and His church. This is a mystery hitherto unknown.
