Chapter 102 — That God alone works miracles

From what has been said it can be shown that God alone can work miracles.

For whatever is entirely subject to an order cannot do anything above that order. Now, every creature is placed under the order established in things by God. Therefore, no creature can do anything above that order, which is to work miracles.

Again. When a finite power produces its proper effect to which it is confined, it is not a miracle, although it may be wonderful to one who does not understand that power. Thus to an ignorant person it is wonderful that the magnet attracts iron, or that a small fish should stop a ship. (Pliny, Natural History, bk. 32, ch. 1.) Now every creature’s power is limited to one definite effect, or to some. Therefore, whatever is done by the power of any creature whatsoever cannot be properly described as a miracle, although it may be wonderful to one who does not understand the power of the creature in question. But that which is done by the power of God—which, being infinite, is incomprehensible—is truly a miracle.

Moreover. Every creature requires in its action a subject on which to act: for it belongs to God alone to make something out of nothing, as we proved above. (Bk. 2, ch. 16, 21.) Now, that which requires a subject in its action can do nothing but those things to which that subject is in potency, since the agent acts on the subject in order to bring it from potency to act. Therefore, even as a creature cannot create, so neither can it do anything in a thing save what is in the potency of that thing. But in many miracles wrought by God, something is done in a thing that is not in that thing’s potency: for instance, that the dead live again, that the sun recede, that two bodies occupy the same place. Therefore, such miracles cannot be wrought by any created power.

Further. The subject acted upon is ordered both to the agent that brings it from potency to act, and to the act to which it is brought. Accordingly, just as any particular subject is in potency to a particular definite act, and not to any act, so it cannot be brought from potency to a definite act except by some definite agent: for agents must differ according as they introduce different acts. Thus, though air is potentially fire or water, one agent makes it to be actually fire, and another makes it to be actually water. Likewise, it is clear that corporeal matter is not brought to a perfect act by the sole action of a universal power, and there must be some proper agent whereby the action of the universal power is determined to a definite effect. Nevertheless, corporeal matter can be brought to a less perfect act by the universal power alone, without a particular agent: thus perfect animals are not formed by the power of a heavenly body alone, but determinate seed is necessary; whereas the power of a heavenly body, without any seed, suffices for the generation of certain imperfect animals. Accordingly, effects produced among these lower things, if they be of a nature to be wrought by universal higher causes without the action of particular inferior causes, can be produced in this way without any miracle. Thus it is not a miracle that animals be formed from putrefaction without seed. But if they be not of a nature to be produced by superior causes alone, then particular inferior causes are required for their perfect formation. Now there is no miracle if an effect be produced by a higher cause, by means of its proper principles. Therefore, it is altogether impossible for miracles to be wrought by the power of the higher creatures.

Moreover. These seeem to amount to the same: the production of a work out of a subject, the production of that to which the subject is in potency, and the orderly production of something through definite intermediary stages. For a subject is not in proximate potency to the ultimate effect until it has arrived at the middle stage. Thus food is not in immediate potency flesh, but only when it is changed into blood. Now, every creature needs a subject in order to produce something; nor can it produce other than that to which the subject is in potency, as we have shown. Therefore, it cannot produce anything without bringing the subject to act through definite intervening stages. Therefore, miracles which consist in something being done without observing the order in which it is naturally feasible cannot be worked by the power of a creature.

Also. There is a natural order to be observed in the various kinds of movement. The first is local movement; hence it is the cause of other movements, because in every genus that which is first is the cause of all that follows in that genus. (See ch. 82.) Now every effect that is produced in this lower world must result from some generation or alteration: consequently, it must be caused through something that is moved locally, if it be the effect of an incorporeal agent which is incapable of local movement properly speaking. Moreover, no effect that is caused by incorporeal substances through corporeal instruments is a miracle, since bodies have no operation that is not natural. Therefore, created incorporeal substances cannot work miracles by their own power. And much less can corporeal substances, whose every action is natural.

Therefore, it belongs to God alone to work miracles. For he is above the order which contains all things, as one from whose providence the whole of this order is derived. Moreover, his power, being absolutely infinite, is not confined to any special effect, nor to the producing of its effect in any particular way or order.

Therefore, it is said of God in the Psalm: He alone does great wonders (Ps 136[135]:4).