Further, we know that nothing either agrees with or is contrary to nature,
unless it agrees with or is contrary to these primary ideas; wherefore if we
would conceive that anything could be done in nature by any power whatsoever
which would be contrary to the laws of nature, it would also be contrary to
our primary ideas, and we should have either to reject it as absurd, or else
to cast doubt (as just shown) on our primary ideas, and consequently on the
existence of God, and on everything howsoever perceived. (30) Therefore
miracles, in the sense of events contrary to the laws of nature, so far from
demonstrating to us the existence of God, would, on the contrary, lead us to
doubt it, where, otherwise, we might have been absolutely certain of it, as
knowing that nature follows a fixed and immutable order.

(31) Let us take miracle as meaning that which cannot be explained through
natural causes. (32) This may be interpreted in two senses: either as that
which has natural causes, but cannot be examined by the human intellect; or
as that which has no cause save God and God's will. (33) But as all things
which come to pass through natural causes, come to pass also solely
through the will and power of God, it comes to this, that a miracle, whether
it has natural causes or not, is a result which cannot be explained by its
cause, that is a phenomenon which surpasses human understanding; but from
such a phenomenon, and certainly from a result surpassing our understanding,
we can gain no knowledge. (34) For whatsoever we understand clearly and
distinctly should be plain to us either in itself or by means of something
else clearly and distinctly understood; wherefore from a miracle or a
phenomenon which we cannot understand, we can gain no knowledge of God's
essence, or existence, or indeed anything about God or nature; whereas when
we know that all things are ordained and ratified by God, that the
operations of nature follow from the essence of God, and that the laws of
nature are eternal decrees and volitions of God, we must perforce conclude
that our knowledge of God, and of God's will increases in proportion to our