SECT. XVIII. The objection, of miracles not being seen now, answered.
NEITHER is there any reason why any one should object against
what has been said, because no such miracles are now seen, nor any such predictions
heard. For it is sufficient to prove a Divine Providence, that there ever have been
such. Which being once established, it will follow, that we ought to think God Almighty
forbears them now, for as wise and prudent reasons as he before did them. Nor is
it fit that the laws given to the universe for the natural course of things, and
that what is future might be uncertain, should always, or without good reason, be
suspended, but then only, when there was a sufficient cause: as there was at that
time when the worship of the true God was banished almost out of the world, being
confined only to a small corner of it, viz. Judæa; and was to be defended
from the wickedness which surrounded it, by frequent assistance: or when the Christian
religion, concerning which we shall afterwards particularly treat, was, by the determination
of God, to be spread all over the world.