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miracles on the bodies of brute animals. And so much the less that,
as to their sensible and corporeal nature, the same reason applies to
both men and animals, especially terrestrial. But fish, from living
in water, are more alien from human nature; wherefore they were made
on another day. On them Christ worked a miracle in the plentiful
draught of fishes, related Luke 5 and John 21; and, again, in the
fish caught by Peter, who found a stater in it (Matt. 17:26). As to
the swine who were cast headlong into the sea, this was not the
effect of a Divine miracle, but of the action of the demons, God
permitting.

Reply Obj. 2: As Chrysostom says on Matt. 21:19: "When our Lord does
any such like thing" on plants or brute animals, "ask not how it was
just to wither up the fig-tree, since it was not the fruit season; to
ask such a question is foolish in the extreme," because such things
cannot commit a fault or be punished: "but look at the miracle, and
wonder at the worker." Nor does the Creator "inflict" any hurt on the
owner, if He choose to make use of His own creature for the salvation
of others; rather, as Hilary says on Matt. 21:19, "we should see in
this a proof of God's goodness, for when He wished to afford an
example of salvation as being procured by Him, He exercised His
mighty power on the human body: but when He wished to picture to them
His severity towards those who wilfully disobey Him, He foreshadows
their doom by His sentence on the tree." This is the more noteworthy
in a fig-tree which, as Chrysostom observes (on Matt. 21:19), "being
full of moisture, makes the miracle all the more remarkable."

Reply Obj. 3: Christ also worked miracles befitting to Himself in the
air and water: when, to wit, as related Matt. 8:26, "He commanded the
winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm." But it was not
befitting that He who came to restore all things to a state of peace
and calm should cause either a disturbance in the atmosphere or a
division of waters. Hence the Apostle says (Heb. 12:18): "You are not
come to a fire that may be touched and approached [Vulg.: 'a mountain
that might be touched, and a burning fire'], and a whirlwind, and
darkness, and storm."

At the time of His Passion, however, the "veil was rent," to signify
the unfolding of the mysteries of the Law; "the graves were opened,"
to signify that His death gave life to the dead; "the earth quaked
and the rocks were rent," to signify that man's