perceived from the fixed and immutable order of nature.

(12) III. That by the decrees and volitions, and consequently the providence
of God, Scripture (as I will prove by Scriptural examples) means nothing but
nature's order following necessarily from her eternal laws.

(13) IV. Lastly, I will treat of the method of interpreting Scriptural
miracles, and the chief points to be noted concerning the narratives of
them.

(14) Such are the principal subjects which will be discussed in this
chapter, and which will serve, I think, not a little to further the object
of this treatise.

(15) Our first point is easily proved from what we showed in Chap. IV. about
Divine law - namely, that all that God wishes or determines involves eternal
necessity, and truth, for we demonstrated that God's understanding is
identical with His will, and that it is the same thing to say that God wills
a thing, as to say, that He understands it; hence, as it follows
necessarily, from the Divine nature and perfection that God understands a
thing as it is, it follows no less necessarily that He wills it as it is.
(16) Now, as nothing is necessarily true save only by, Divine decree, it is
plain that the universal laws of nature are decrees of God following from
the necessity and perfection of the Divine nature. (17) Hence, any event
happening in nature which contravened nature's universal laws, would
necessarily also contravene the Divine decree, nature, and understanding; or
if anyone asserted that God acts in contravention to the laws of nature, he,
ipso facto, would be compelled to assert that God acted against His own
nature - an evident absurdity. (18) One might easily show from the same
premises that the power and efficiency, of nature are in themselves the