52. The manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, surpass all miracles. This has not been granted to anyone since the creation, as it has been to me. The men of the golden age, indeed, conversed with the angels; but it was not granted to them to be in any other than natural light; but to me it is granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same time. By this means it has been granted to me to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be together with the angels like one of them, and at the same time to draw forth truths in light, and thus to perceive and teach them; consequently to be led by the Lord. But as concerns miracles, they would have been nothing else than snares for seducing men; as the Lord says (Matt. 24:24); and as is related of the magician Simon, that:
He bewitched the nations in Samaria, who believed that these things were done from the great power of God (Acts 8:9 seq.).
What else are the miracles among the Papists, than snares and deceptions? What else do they teach, than that they themselves should be worshipped as deities, and that they should recede from the worship of the Lord? Have wonder-working images any other effect? Have the idols or corpses of saints throughout the papal dominion any other purpose? Those of Anthony of Padua, of the three wise men at Cologne, and of all the rest, whose miracles fill the monasteries? What have these miracles taught concerning Christ? What concerning heaven and life eternal? Not a syllable.
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