19. Hence too is solved that
question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which
are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an interest in
the affairs of men, if the dead know not what the quick are doing.
For not only by effects of benefits, but in the very beholding of
men, it is certain,2760
that the Confessor
Felix (whose
denizenship among you thou piously lovest) appeared when the
barbarians were attacking Nola, as we have heard not by uncertain
rumors, but by sure witnesses. But such things are of
God
exhibited,
far otherwise than as the usual order hath itself, unto
each
kind of creatures apportioned. For it does not follow because
water was, when it pleased the
Lord, in a moment changed into
wine,
that we are not to regard the worth and efficacy of
water in
the
proper order of the
elements, as distinct from the rarity, or
rather singularity, of that
divine work: nor because
Lazarus rose
again, therefore that every dead man rises when he will; or that a
lifeless man is
raised up by a living, in the same way as a
sleeping man by one who is
awake. Other be the limits of human
things, other the
signs of
divine virtues: other they be that are
naturally, other that be miraculously done: albeit both unto
nature
God is present that it may be, and unto
miracles nature is not
lacking. We are not to think then, that to be interested in the
affairs of the living is in the
power of any departed who please,
only because to some men’s healing or help the Martyrs be
present: but rather we are to understand that it must needs be by a
Divine power that the Martyrs are interested in affairs of the
living, from the very fact that for the departed to be by their
proper nature interested in affairs of the living is
impossible.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
