things which are done in the order of nature imposed upon the prophet, in order that he
ON THE TRINITY. 63
CHAP. X.]
the greater power of God was present prohibiting them, through the Holy Spirit; which even the magicians themselves confessed, saying, "* This is the finger of God.''* But what they are able to do by nature, yet cannot do, because they are prohibited; and what the very condition of their nature itself does not suffer them to do; it is difficult, nay, impossible, for man to search out, unless through that gift of God which the apostle mentions when he says, '' To another the discerning of spirits."'? Forwe know that a man can walk, yet that he cannot do soif he is not permitted; but that he cannot fly, even if he be permitted. So those angels, also, are able to do certain things if they are permitted by more powerful angels, according to the supreme commandment of God; but cannot docertain other things, not even if they are permitted by them; because He does not permit from whom they cles and signs; yet is not the person of God Himself assumed in all things which are announced to us by the Lord God. When, however, that person is assumed, it is sometimes made manifest as anangel; sometimes in that form which is not an angel in his own proper being, although it is ordered and ministered by an angel. Again, when it is assumed in that form which is not an angel in his own proper being; sometimes in this case it is a body itself already existing, assumed after some kind of change, in order to make that message manifest; sometimes it is one that comes into being for the purpose, and that being accomplished, is discarded. Just as, also, when men are the messengers, sometimes they speak the words of God in their own person, as when it is premised, ''The Lord said," or, ** Thus saith the Lord,''4 or any other such phrase, but sometimes without any such prefix, they take upon themselves the very person of God, as e.g.: °' I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go:''5 so, not only in word, but also in act, the signifying of the person of God is imposed upon the prophet, in order that he may bear that person in the ministering of the prophecy; just as he, for instance, bore that person who divided his garment into twelve parts, and gave ten of them to the servant of King Solomon, to the future king of Israel.© Sometimes, also, a thing which was not a prophet in his own'proper self, and which existed already among earthly things, was assumed in order to signify this; as Jacob, when he had seen the dream, upon waking up did with the stone, which when asleep he had under his head.? Sometimes a thing is made in the same kind, for the mere purpose; so as either to continue a little while in existence, as that brazen serpent was able to do which was lifted up in the wilderness,® and as written records are able to do likewise; or so as to pass away after having accomplished its ministry, as the bread made for the purpose is consumed in the receiving of the sacrament.
have received such and such a measure of natural powers: who, even by His angels, does not usually permit what He has given them power to be able to do.
19. Excepting, therefore, those corporeal things which are done in the order of nature in a perfectly usual series of times, as e.g., the rising and setting of the stars, the generations and deaths of animals, the innumerable diversities of seeds and buds, the vapors and the clouds, the snow'and the rain, the lightnings and the thunder, the thunderbolts and the hail, the winds and the fire, cold and heat, and all like things; excepting also those which in the same order of nature occur rarely, such as eclipses, unusual appearances of stars, and monsters, and earthquakes, and such like;— all these, I say, are to be excepted, of which indeed the first and chief cause is only the will of God; whence also in the Psalm, when some things of this kind had been mentioned,
'Fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind,"' lest any one should think those to be brought about either by chance or only from corporeal causes, or even from such as are spiritual, but exist apart from the will of God, it is added immediately, '' fulfilling His word.' 3
20. But because these things are known to men, in that they are done by men, they may well meet with reverence as being holy things, but they cannot cause wonder as being miracles. And therefore those things which are done by angels are the more wonderful to us, in that they are more difficult and more unknown; but they are known and easy to them as being their own actions. An angel speaks in the person of God to man, saying, **I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
CHAP. 10.—IN HOW MANY WAYS THE CREATURE
1S; TO BE TAKEN BY WAY OF SIGN. THE EUCHARIST.
Excepting, therefore, all these things as I just now said, there are some also of another kind; which, although from the same corpoteal substance, are yet brought within reach of our senses in order to announce something from God, and these are properly called mira-
5 Ps. xxxiil 8. 7 Gen. xxviii. 18. 4 Jer. xxxi, 1, 2. 61 Kings xi. "30, al 8 Num. xxi. 9.
1 Ex, vii. 12, and viii. 7, 18, 19. 21 Cor. xii. 10. 3 Ps, exlviii. 8.
64 THE WORKS OF
ibe eAU Gr Uo LLNS [Boox III.
deed of the magicians was much more wonderful. But these things in this way are no hindrance to the understanding of the matter; just as if the name of a man were written in gold, and that of God in ink.
and the God of Jacob;'' the Scripture having said just before, '' The angel of the Lord appeared to him.'** Anda man also speaks in the person of God, saying, *' Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel: lam the Lord thy God."'?. A rod was taken to serve as a sign, and was changed intoa serpent by angelical power; but although that power is wanting to man, yet a stone was taken also by man for a similar sign. There is a wide difference between the deed of the angel and the deed of the man. The former is both to be wondered at and to be understood, the latter only to be understood. 'That which is understood from both, is perhaps one and the same; but those things from which it is understood, are different. Just as if the name of God were written both in gold and in ink; the former would be the more precious, the latter the more worthless; yet that which is signified in both is one and the same, And although the serpent that came from Moses' rod signified the same thing as Jacob's stone, yet Jacob's stone signified something better than did the serpents of the magicians. For as the anointing of the stone signified Christ in the flesh, in which He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows;5 so the rod of Moses, turned into a serpent, signified Christ Himself made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Whence itis said, °° And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life;''? just as by gazing on that serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness, they did not perish by the bites of the serpents. For '*' our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.''® For by the serpent death is understood, which was wrought by the serpent in paradise,? the mode of speech expressing the effect by the efficient. Therefore the rod passed into the serpent, Christ into death; and the serpent again into the rod, whole Christ with His body into the resurrection; which body is the Church;* and this shall be in the end of time, signified by the tail, which Moses held, in order that it might return into a rod." But the serpents of the magicians, like those who are dead in the world, unless by believing in Christ they shall have been as it were swallowed up by," and have entered into, His body, will not be able to rise again in Him. Jacob's stone, therefore, as I said, signified something better than did the serpents ot the magicians; yet the
21, What man, again, knows how the angels made or took those clouds and fires in order to signify the message they were bearing, even if we supposed that the Lord or the Holy Spirit was manifested in those corporeal forms? Just as infants do not know of that which is placed upon the altar and consumed after the performance of the holy celebration, whence or in what manner it is made, or whence it is taken for religious use. And if they were never to learn from their own experience or that of others, and never to see that species of thing except during the celebration of the sacrament, when it is being offered and given; and if it were told them by the most weighty authority whose body and blood it is; they will believe nothing else, except that the Lord absolutely appeared in this form to the eyes of mortals, and that that liquid actually flowed from the piercing of a side,*3 which resembled this. But itis certainly a useful caution to myself, that I should remember what my own powers are, and admonish my brethren that they also remember what theirs are, lest human infirmity pass on beyond what is safe. For how the angels do these things, or rather, how God does these things by His angels, and how far He wills them to be done even by the bad angels, whether by permitting, or commanding, or compelling, from the hidden seat of His own supreme power; this I can neither penetrate by the sight of the eyes, nor make clear by assurance of reason, nor be carried on to comprehend it by reach of intellect, so as to speak thereupon to all questions that may be asked respecting these matters, as certainly as if I were an angel, or a prophet, or an apostle. '°' For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind, that museth upon many things. And hardly dowe guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labor do we find the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven, who hath searched out?'' But because it goes on to say, ''And Thy counsel who hath known, except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above; " ** therefore we refrain indeed from searching out the things which are in heaven, under which kind are contained both angelical bodies according to their proper
I Ex. iii. 6, 2. 2 Ps. Ixxxi. 8, ro. 3 Ex. vii. ro. 4 Gen. xxviii. 18. 5 Ps..xlv. 7. 6 Phil. ii. 9. 7 John iii. 14, 15. 8 Rom. vi. 6. 9 Gen. iii. te Col. i. 24. 11 Ex, iv. 4. 12 Ex, vii. 12.
13 John xix. 34. 14 Wisd, ix. 14-17.