131. From these considerations it may be evident that faith induced by miracles is not faith but persuasion; for there is nothing rational in it, still less anything spiritual, as it is only external without an internal. It is the same with all that a man does from this persuasive faith, whether he acknowledges God, or worships Him at home or at church, or performs good deeds. When a miracle alone leads a man to the acknowledgment of God, to worship, and to piety, he acts from the natural man and not from the spiritual. For a miracle infuses faith by an external and not by an internal way, thus from the world and not from heaven. Now the Lord does not enter by any other way with man than the internal way, which is by the Word, by doctrine and by preaching from it; and as miracles close up this way, at this day no miracles are wrought.
