1saac; Nm 22:28, Balaam's donkey reproving him.
Book IX 395
But over and above this natural course and operation of things, the power of the creator has in itself the capacity to make from all these things something other than what their seminal formulae, so to say, prescribe—not however anything with which he did not so program them that it could be made from them at least by him. He is almighty, for sure, but with the strength of wisdom, not unprincipled might; and he makes from each thing in his own time what he first inscribed in it that he could make from it.
So then there is one standard for things according to which this plant germi nates in this way, that one in that, this age gives birth, that one does not, a human being can speak, an animal cannot. The formulae for these and suchlike stan dards are not only in God, but have also been inserted by him in created things and set fermenting in them.35 But that a wooden rod cut out of the ground, quite dead and polished smooth, entirely without roots, without earth and water, should suddenly flower and bear fruit; that a woman barren throughout her youth should give birth in old age; that a donkey should talk,36 and anything else there may be of that sort—all this he did indeed give to the natures he created so that these things too could be made from them. After all, even he would not make from them what he himself had predetermined could not be made from them, since not even he is more powerful than himself. But still he gave it to them in a different way, so that they would not have these possibilities in them according to their natural operation, but in virtue of their being so created that their natures would be more thoroughly subject to his mightier will.
The same, continued, extending the point to the working ofgrace
18, 33. So then, God has in himself the hidden causes of certain deeds and events, which he did not insert in things he had made; and he does not activate them by that work of providence by which he set up natures in order for them to be, but by that other one by which he administers as he may wish the natures he established as he wished. Among these causes too is the grace by which sinners are saved. l mean, as far as a nature distorted by its own wicked will is concerned, it has no recourse in itself, but only in the grace of God, by which it is helped and restored. People should not be despaired of, you see, because of that judgment where it is written: All who walk in it shall not return (Prv 2:19); this was said with regard to the pull of their wickedness, so that the fact that those who will return do return is not something they should attribute to themselves but to God' s grace—notfrom works, lestany should exalt themselves (Eph 2:9).
35. See note 33 above. 36. See Nm 17:8, Aaron's rod blossoming; Gn 18:11,21:2. Sarah's conceiving and giving birth to 1saac; Nm 22:28, Balaam's donkey reproving him.