HKB
_Si tu es Christus, dic nobis.[336]
Opera quæ ego facio in nomine patris mei, hæc testimonium perhibent de me. Sed vos non creditis quia non estis ex ovibus meis. Oves meoe vocem meam audiunt._[337]
John vi, 30. _Quod ergo tu facis signum ut videamus et credamus tibi?--Non dicunt: Quam doctrinam prædicas?
Nemo potest facere signa quæ tu facis nisi Deus._[338]
2 Macc. xiv, 15. _Deus qui signis evidentibus suam portionem protegit.
Volumus signum videre de coelo, tentantes eum._ Luke xi, 16.
_Generatio prava signum quærit; et non dabitur.[339]
Et ingemiscens ait: Quid generatio ista signum quærit?_ (Mark viii, 12.) They asked a sign with an evil intention.
Et non poterat facere.[340] And yet he promises them the sign of Jonah, the great and wonderful miracle of his resurrection.
Nisi videritis, non creditis.[341] He does not blame them for not believing unless there are miracles, but for not believing unless they are themselves spectators of them.
Antichrist in signis mendacibus, says Saint Paul, 2 Thess. ii.
Secundum operationem Satanæ, in seductione iis qui pereunt eo quod charitatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent, ideo mittet illis Deus optationes erroris ut credant mendacio.
As in the passage of Moses: _Tentat enim vos Deus, utrum diligatis eum.[342]
Ecce prædixi vobis: vos ergo videte._[343]
842
Here is not the country of truth. She wanders unknown amongst men. God has covered her with a veil, which leaves her unrecognised by those who do not hear her voice. Room is opened for blasphemy, even against the truths that are at least very likely. If the truths of the Gospel are published, the contrary is published too, and the questions are obscured, so that the people cannot distinguish. And they ask, "What have you to make you believed rather than others? What sign do you give? You have only words, and so have we. If you had miracles, good and well." That doctrine ought to be supported by miracles is a truth, which they misuse in order to revile doctrine. And if miracles happen, it is said that miracles are not enough without doctrine; and this is another truth, which they misuse in order to revile miracles.
Jesus Christ cured the man born blind, and performed a number of miracles on the Sabbath day. In this way He blinded the Pharisees, who said that miracles must be judged by doctrine.
"We have Moses: but, as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is."[344] It is wonderful that you know not whence He is, and yet He does such miracles.
Jesus Christ spoke neither against God, nor against Moses.
Antichrist and the false prophets, foretold by both Testaments, will speak openly against God and against Jesus Christ. Who is not hidden ... God would not allow him, who would be a secret enemy, to do miracles openly.
In a public dispute where the two parties profess to be for God, for Jesus Christ, for the Church, miracles have never been on the side of the false Christians, and the other side has never been without a miracle.
"He hath a devil." John x, 21. And others said, "Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?"
The proofs which Jesus Christ and the apostles draw from Scripture are not conclusive; for they say only that Moses foretold that a prophet should come. But they do not thereby prove that this is He; and that is the whole question. These passages therefore serve only to show that they are not contrary to Scripture, and that there appears no inconsistency, but not that there is agreement. Now this is enough, namely, exclusion of inconsistency, along with miracles.
There is a mutual duty between God and men. We must pardon Him this saying: Quid debui?[345] "Accuse me," said God in Isaiah.
"God must fulfil His promises," etc.