BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

On miracles
but cannot to be made or produced by it). 5 For since a miracle does not
occur outside of nature butwithin nature itself, even if it is said to be above
nature, it must still necessarily interrupt the order of nature which otherwise
we conceive to be ¢xed and unalterable by God’s decrees. If therefore
something happened in nature which did not follow from its laws, this
would necessarily con£ictwith the order that God established in nature for 87
ever by the universal laws of nature; it would hence be contrary to nature
and its laws and, consequently, it would make us doubt our faith in all
things and lead us to atheism.
Hence, I think that I have proved with su⁄ciently strong arguments the
second point that I proposed to discuss, and thus we may conclude again
on additional grounds that a miracle, whether contrary to nature or above
nature, is a plain absurdity. Therefore, the only thing that we can understand
by a miracle in Holy Scripture is, as I have said, a phenomenon of
nature that surpasses human understanding, or is believed to do so.
[10] Now, before turning to my third point, I should like ¢rst to con-
¢rm my claim that we cannot achieve a knowledge of God from miracles
with Scripture’s authority. Even though Scripture nowhere explicitly tells
us this, it may readily be inferred, especially from the command of
Moses in Deuteronomy 13 to condemn a false prophet to death even if
he performs miracles. He says: (even though) ‘the sign and the wonder
that he foretold to you shall come to pass, etc., do not’ (nevertheless)
‘listen to the words of that prophet, etc., for the Lord your God is testing
you’, etc. It plainly follows from this that miracles can also be performed
by false prophets, and that unless men are duly strengthened by a true
knowledge and love of God, they may just as easily embrace false gods as
a consequence of miracles as the true God; for he adds: ‘since Jehovah
your God is testing you so as to know whether you love him with all your
heart and with all your soul’. The Israelites, moreover, were unable to
form a sound conception of God despite all those miracles, as experience
itself testi¢ed. For when they were convinced Moses was away, they asked
Aaron for visible gods, and the idea of God which they ¢nally arrived at
5 It was basic to Spinoza’s system that nothing can be postulated to be ‘above’ nature or ‘above’
reason which is not also ‘contrary to nature’ and ‘contrary to reason’; in this he is closely followed
by Bayle but directly opposed by Locke, Leibniz and Malebranche, who all accept the principle
that there are ‘mysteries’above reason and ‘above nature’ which, however, are not contrary to nature
or to reason.
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