revelation to be always accompanied by
abstraction from the senses.

Obj. 4: _On the contrary,_ It is written (1 Cor. 14:32): "The spirits
of the prophets are subject to the prophets." Now this were
impossible if the prophet were not in possession of his faculties,
but abstracted from his senses. Therefore it would seem that
prophetic vision is not accompanied by abstraction from the senses.

_I answer that,_ As stated in the foregoing Article, the prophetic
revelation takes place in four ways: namely, by the infusion of an
intelligible light, by the infusion of intelligible species, by
impression or coordination of pictures in the imagination, and by the
outward presentation of sensible images. Now it is evident that there
is no abstraction from the senses, when something is presented to the
prophet's mind by means of sensible species--whether these be
divinely formed for this special purpose, as the bush shown to Moses
(Ex. 3:2), and the writing shown to Daniel (Dan. 5:)--or whether they
be produced by other causes; yet so that they are ordained by Divine
providence to be prophetically significant of something, as, for
instance, the Church was signified by the ark of Noah.

Again, abstraction from the external senses is not rendered necessary
when the prophet's mind is enlightened by an intellectual light, or
impressed with intelligible species, since in us the perfect judgment
of the intellect is effected by its turning to sensible objects,
which are the first principles of our knowledge, as stated in the
First Part (Q. 84, A. 6).

When, however, prophetic revelation is conveyed by images in the
imagination, abstraction from the senses is necessary lest the things
thus seen in imagination be taken for objects of external sensation.
Yet this abstraction from the senses is sometimes complete, so that a
man perceives nothing with his senses; and sometimes it is
incomplete, so that he perceives something with his senses, yet does
not fully discern the things he perceives outwardly from those he
sees in imagination. Hence Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii, 12):
"Those images of bodies which are formed in the soul are seen just as
bodily things themselves are seen by the body, so that we see with
our eyes one who is present, and at the same time we see with the
soul one who is absent, as though we saw him with our eyes."

Yet this abstraction from the senses takes place in the prophets
without subverting the order of