Chapter V. The Laws Of The Working Of Signs.
I have already, in the introductory Chapter, given my view of the principles which guided our Lord in the exercise of His superhuman powers. He is tempted to employ them when He saw they should not be employed, and the Laws are drawn from His refusals. Consequently they all take the form that, for such and such a purpose, or under such and such circumstances these superhuman powers are not to be brought into action.
I will recapitulate the Laws before stated—
(1) Our Lord will not provide by miracle what could be provided by human endeavour or human foresight. He Himself, as far as we can see, never employs superhuman power or illumination to effect what could be arrived at by human effort.
(2) Our Lord will not use His special powers to provide for His personal wants or for those of His immediate followers.
(3) No miracle is to be worked merely for miracles' sake, apart from an end of benevolence or instruction.
(4) No miracle is to be worked to supplement human policy or force—as (for instance) those of Joshua were.
(5) No miracle is to be worked which should be overwhelming in point of awfulness so as to terrify men into acceptance, or which should be unanswerably certain, leaving no loophole for unbelief.
Before going into particulars about these Laws there is something to be said about the narrative of the Temptation itself, and the form in which it has come down to us.