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Since by means of these arts wonders are done which quite surpass human
power, what choice have we but to believe that these predictions and
operations, which seem to be miraculous and divine, and which at the
same time form no part of the worship of the one God, in adherence to
whom, as the Platonists themselves abundantly testify, all
blessedness consists, are the pastime of wicked spirits, who thus seek
to seduce and hinder the truly godly?
On the other hand, we cannot but believe that all miracles, whether
wrought by angels or by other means, so long as they are so done as to
commend the worship and religion of the one God in whom alone is
blessedness, are wrought by those who love us in a true and godly
sort, or through their means, God Himself working in them. For we
cannot listen to those who maintain that the invisible God works no
visible miracles; for even they believe that He made the world, which
surely they will not deny to be visible. Whatever marvel happens in
this world, it is certainly less marvellens than this whole world
itself, I mean the sky and earth, and all that is in them, and these
God certainly made. But, as the Creator Himself is hidden and
incomprehensible to man, so also is the manner of creation.
Although, therefore, the standing miracle of this visible world is
little thought of, because always before us, yet, when we arouse
ourselves to contemplate it, it is a greater miracle than the rarest
and most unheard-of marvels. For man himself is a greater miracle
than any miracle done through his instrumentality. Therefore God,
who made the visible heaven and earth, does not disdain to work visible
miracles in heaven or earth, that He may thereby awaken the soul which
is immersed in things visible to worship Himself, the Invisible.
But the place and time of these miracles are dependent on His
unchangeable will, in which things future are ordered as if already
they were accomplished. For He moves things temporal without Himself
moving in time, He does not in one way know things that are to be,
and, in another, things that have been; neither does He listen to
those who pray otherwise than as He sees those that will pray. For,
even when His angels hear us, it is He Himself who hears us in
them, as in His true temple not made with hands, as in those men who
are His saints; and His answers, though accomplished in time, have
been arranged by His eternal appointment.
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