hings
to avoid the inconsistency of failing to do what He had done through
others. Yet still He was bound to do something which no other had
done: to be born of a virgin, to rise from the dead, and to ascend
into heaven. If anyone deem this a slight thing for God to do, I know
not what more he can expect. Having become man, ought He to have made
another world, that we might believe Him to be Him by whom the world
was made? But in this world neither a greater world could be made nor
one equal to it: and if He had made a lesser world in comparison with
this, that too would have been deemed a small thing."

As to the miracles worked by others, Christ did greater still. Hence
on John 15:24: "If I had not done in [Douay: 'among'] them the works
that no other men hath done," etc., Augustine says: "None of the
works of Christ seem to be greater than the raising of the dead:
which thing we know the ancient prophets also did . . . Yet Christ
did some works 'which no other man hath done.' But we are told in
answer that others did works which He did not, and which none other
did . . . But to heal with so great a power so many defects and
ailments and grievances of mortal men, this we read concerning none
soever of the men of old. To say nothing of those, each of whom by
His bidding, as they came in His way, He made whole . . . Mark saith
(6:56): 'Whithersoever He entered, into towns or into villages or
into cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that
they might touch but the hem of His garment: and as many as touched
Him were made whole.' These things none other did in them; for when
He saith 'In them,' it is not to be understood to mean 'Among them,'
or 'In their presence,' but wholly 'In them,' because He healed them
. . . Therefore whatever works He did in them are works that none
ever did; since if ever any other man did any one of them, by His
doing he did it; whereas these works He did, not by their doing, but
by Himself."

Reply Obj. 2: Augustine explains this passage of John as follows
(Tract. lxxi): "What are these 'greater works' which believers in Him
would do? That, as they passed by, their very shadow healed the sick?
For it is greater that a shadow should heal than the hem of a garment
. . . When, however, He said these words, it was the deeds and works
of His words that He spoke of: for when He said . . . 'The Father who
abideth in Me, He doth the works,' what works did He mean, then, but
the