But  this  intimate  connection  of  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  appeared  still  more  fully  in  the  method  of  revelation  as  expounded  by  Aquinas  with  minutest  care .sx   In  the  first  place  , it  was  only  by  a  special  illumination  of  the  mind  that  God  could  reveal  or  ever  had  revealed  any  truth  to  man .sx   The  error  of  Montanus  and  Priscilla  was  that  they  believed  that  prophets  were  so  possessed  by  the  Spirit  as  not  themselves  to  under-stand  their  own  inspired  utterances .sx   The  touchstone  of  genuine  spiritual  possession  was  a  heightening  of  intelligence  , not  its  supersession .sx   The  truth  which  the  reason  could  not  of  itself  attain  it  must  yet  with  the  aid  of  the  Divine  illumination  clearly  recognise  as  truth .sx   The  result  of  revelation  was  an  intellectual  certitude  , and  it  was  so  because  revelation  itself  was  an  inner  intellectual  light  enabling  the  mind  to  perceive  realities  denied  to  its  own  unaided  vision .sx   The  mode  of  revelation  might  vary .sx   It  might  be  an  actual  audition  or  vision  , an  actual  word  formed  by  the  Divine  power  and  heard  as  such  by  the  human  ear  , or  some  corporeal  appearance  produced  by  that  same  power  and  seen  by  the  human  eye .sx   Or  , again  , it  might  be  an  inner  word  or  vision  , the  co-operation  of  the  Divine  power  with  man's  image-making  faculty  or  rather  the  Divine  use  of  that  faculty  to  communicate  truth .sx   But  neither  outer  nor  inner  audition  or  vision  was  sufficient  of  itself  to  communicate  the  Divine  truth .sx   It  was  apprehended  only  in  virtue  of  the  inner  light  which  heightened  the  actual  powers  of  the  mind .sx   And  that  inner  light  was  sufficient  of  itself  , without  any  adventitious  aid  of  things  seen  or  heard  whether  outwardly  or  inwardly  , to  perceive  the  truth  revealed .sx   
St.  Thomas  , therefore  , in  his  doctrine  of  revelation  carefully  refrained  from  any  and  every  position  which  might  lead  to  a  vital  separation  between  the  natural  and  supernatural  orders .sx   By  mere  reason  , indeed  , of  his  conception  of  revelation  as  the  necessary  satisfaction  of  man's  highest  need  it  was  impossible  that  he  should  do  so .sx   But  , on  the  other  hand  , he  did  not  think  of  the  supernatural  as  simply  given  to  the  natural  to  use  henceforth  as  it  might .sx   The  whole  religious  life  of  man  was  a  continuous  action  of  the  supernatural  upon  the  natural  , eliciting  those  possibilities  of  which  it  had  a  dim  awareness  , yet  could  never  of  itself  have  made  actual .sx   Let  us  see  , then  , how  this  continuous  interaction  of  the  natural  and  the  super-natural  is  illustrated  in  the  further  development  of  the  Thomist  doctrine  of  revelation .sx   And  it  may  be  well  here  to  remind  ourselves  once  again  that  for  St.  Thomas  the  supernatural  is  simply  the  Divine  action  awakening  full  conscious  response  in  that  on  which  it  acts  , while  the  natural  is  the  relatively  independent  activity  of  which  every  created  being  is  capable  in  virtue  of  its  particular  mode  of  being .sx   
We  have  seen  , then  , how  revelation  is  given  through  a  Divine  illumination  which  "  elevates  , " to  use  St.  Thomas's  own  language  , the  mind  to  a  perception  of  truths  of  the  invisible  order  which  are  necessarily  beyond  its  own  reach  as  limited  by  the  sensible  order  through  which  alone  it  operates  by  nature .sx   But  the  revelation  was  not  given  for  the  sake  only  of  those  who  originally  received  it .sx   It  was  given  to  them  only  that  they  might  communicate  it  to  all  others  whom  they  could  reach  , who  in  turn  should  communicate   .sx
it  to  others  until  it  became  known  to  all  mankind .sx   It  might  seem  that  this  at  least  was  a  work  which  man  could  accomplish  in  virtue  of  his  own  unaided  nature .sx   But  a  moment's  reflection  will  convince  us  that  this  is  not  at  all  the  case .sx   No  revelation  of  God  can  be  simply  handed  on  by  man .sx   In  every  instance  of  its  reception  the  same  kind  of  Divine  illumination  which  first  made  it  a  revelation  is  required .sx   It  does  not  become  less  a  revelation  because  spoken  by  human  lips  or  heard  by  human  ears .sx   The  faith  by  which  alone  it  can  be  received  is  also  an  immediate  gift  of  God  , a  gratia  gratis  data .sx   Revelation  is  always  and  in  each  particular  instance  transmitted  from  faith  to  faith  , from  a  Divine  act  to  a  Divine  act  , whatever  the  human  medium  may  be .sx   In  the  Divine  economy  of  revelation  man  can  never  be  more  than  an  instrument  of  the  Divine  purpose  , and  at  best  , too  , an  instrumentum  separatum .sx   Only  in  the  Incarnation  did  man  become  an  instrumentum  conjunctum  of  the  Divine  will  , an  instrument  organically  united  with  it  as  a  man's  arm  , for  instance  , is  the  instrument  of  his  will .sx   
But  even  though  faith  as  an  adhesion  of  the  mind  to  revealed  truth  is  a  gift  of  grace  , it  yet  reasonably  asks  for  guarantees  that  the  truth  to  which  it  adheres  is  really  of  God .sx   These  guarantees  , therefore  , must  themselves  bear  the  unmistakable  Divine  signature .sx   That  all  legitimate  doubt  as  to  the  revealed  character  of  that  which  claims  to  be  a  revelation  may  be  removed  , it  must  be  accompanied  in  those  who  originally  received  and  transmitted  it  by  gifts  of  power  whose  origin  was  unmistakably  Divine .sx   Such  were  the  gifts  of  miracles  and  prophecy  bestowed  upon  those  whowere  sent  forth  to  proclaim  the  original  Gospel .sx   When  our  Lord  commissioned  the  disciples  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  imminence  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  , He  empowered  them  also  to  heal  the  sick  , cleanse  the  lepers  , raise  the  dead  , cast  out  devils .sx   For  Aquinas  and  his  age  these  works  were  all  on  the  same  miraculous  level .sx   They  witnessed  to  a  power  which  was  immediately  of  God  and  were  themselves  the  sufficient  witness  that  the  truth  proclaimed  by  those  who  were  empowered  to  work  them  was  of  God .sx   So  , too  , the  gift  of  prophecy  , whether  in  the  sense  of  foreseeing  and  foretelling  future  events  or  in  that  of  reading  the  secret  thoughts  and  desires  of  others  , was  manifest  evidence  of  the  Divine  illumination  of  him  who  possessed  it .sx   In  the  "  signs  following  "  God  set  His  authentic  seal  upon  His  revelation  , distinguishing  it  convincingly  for  faith  from  all  spurious  claimants  to  that  character .sx   
But  Revelation  as  a  Divine  gift  to  mankind  had  also  to  enter  into  history .sx   And  that  it  might  be  saved  from  becoming  a  mere  thing  of  history  , it  needed  here  once  again  a  continuous  Divine  protection .sx   The  imperfection  of  human  language  was  but  the  first  of  the  hampering  conditions  from  which  the  integrity  of  the  revealed  truth  had  to  be  defended .sx   Even  when  committed  to  a  fixed  written  form  there  was  the  continual  risk  of  misinterpretation .sx   At  every  point  a  special  Divine  grace  was  present  to  preserve  the  fully  revelational  character  of  the  truth  originally  revealed .sx   The  labour  of  patristic  interpretation  was  invested  with  authority  only  because  believed  to  be  conducted  throughout  with  a  protective  Divine  assistance .sx   The   .sx
duty  of  the  Christian  preacher  , again  , was  a  sacred  responsibility  which  depended  for  its  due  discharge  upon  the  sincere  and  disciplined  desire  of  that  same  assistance .sx   Throughout  all  the  accidents  of  history  Revelation  was  thus  preserved  by  the  continuous  action  of  that  Divine  grace  through  which  it  was  originally  given .sx   
But  this  merely  objective  preservation  of  revealed  truth  was  nothing  more  than  a  protective  preparation  for  its  due  use .sx   Only  in  its  actual  appropriation  by  human  souls  was  it  fully  and  worthily  preserved .sx   And  here  grace  took  on  a  new  character .sx   Faith  as  the  initial  act  of  that  appropriation  was  possible  only  through  Divine  assistance .sx   The  most  fatal  virus  of  the  Pelagian  heresy  was  its  assertion  that  man  was  of  1  his  own  natural  power  capable  of  making  an  act  of  faith  in  Divine  Revelation  , that  he  could  of  himself  believe  what  of  himself  he  could  never  have  known .sx   But  even  faith  was  only  preparatory .sx   It  was  nothing  more  than  the  acceptance  as  true  , and  as  Divine  truth  , of  that  which  had  been  revealed .sx   Yet  in  being  such  an  acceptance  it  had  in  it  the  seeds  of  the  whole  super-natural  life .sx   For  that  which  was  revealed  to  it  was  the  secret  of  man's  deepest  need  , of  his  innermost  desire  , a  need  and  a  desire  which  on  the  plane  of  mere  nature  continually  eluded  him .sx   Through  Revelation  not  only  the  true  nature  and  urgency  of  his  own  need  was  made  manifest  to  man  , but  also  the  true  nature  of  its  satisfaction .sx   And  the  faith  by  which  he  merely  accepted  Revelation  as  the  only  sufficient  guide  to  the  end  for  which  he  was  made  was  at  least  a  beginning  of  his  supernatural  life .sx   By  the  grace  of  faith  he  at  least  knew  on  Divine  authority  the  nature  of  that  life  inwhich  his  true  blessedness  consisted .sx   The  know-ledge  of  faith  , indeed  , so  long  as  it  remained  mere  faith  , was  only  the  knowledge  of  the  alumnus  instructed  by  his  master  in  the  first  principles  of  his  special  sphere  of  study  and  accepting  them  solely  on  his  authority .sx   It  was  a  knowledge  which  had  not  yet  attained  to  a  real  intelligence  of  the  truth  taught  , but  was  none  the  less  the  indispensable  preliminary  to  such  intelligence .sx   Out  of  the  knowledge  of  mere  belief  on  authority  a  fully  personal  knowledge  could  grow  and  was  always  meant  to  grow .sx   If  faith  did  not  lead  to  that  fully  personal  knowledge  of  God  , it  had  denied  the  Divine  purpose  in  giving  it .sx   Yet  it  remained  that  merely  as  faith  it  was  adhesion  to  truth  at  the  undeveloped  stage  of  belief  on  authority .sx   
In  what  , then  , did  the  development  of  which  it  was  capable  and  to  which  it  was  divinely  destined  consist   ?sx   It  was  , as  we  have  seen  , the  development  of  belief  into  real  knowledge  , such  knowledge  as  can  be  perfected  only  in  the  immediate  vision  of  God .sx   Now  it  has  been  made  a  subject  of  reproach  against  St.  Thomas  that  he  conceives  this  vision  in  excessively  intellectual  terms .sx   And  it  is  quite  true  that  for  him  the  beatific  vision  which  can  only  be  approached  , never  fully  attained  , here  in  state  viatoris  consists  in  that  intuitive  knowledge  of  God  which  is  the  exclusive  privilege  of  pure  intelligences .sx   But  we  must  remember  that  it  is  a  first  principle  of  his  thinking  , a  principle  which  is  surely  fundamentally  sound  , that  all  love  depends  on  knowledge  , that  not  only  can  we  not  love  what  we  do  not  know  but  also  that  we  can  only  love  aright  in  proportion  as  we  know  aright .sx   And  as  matter  of   .sx
fact  St.  Thomas  conceives  of  the  knowledge  of  God  throughout  in  the  light  of  this  its  one  controlling  motive .sx   The  very  purpose  of  that  embryonic  know-ledge  which  we  obtain  by  bare  faith  , by  an  as  yet  unintelligent  adhesion  to  revealed  truth  , is  to  release  the  will  into  action .sx   That  elementary  kind  of  faith  enables  us  to  know  just  enough  of  the  supernatural  order  to  awaken  real  desire  of  that  order  , to  evoke  into  an  active  awareness  the  suppressed  and  ever  baffled  desire  of  it  which  existed  on  the  plane  of  mere  nature .sx   
It  was  the  Divine  purpose  in  the  gift  of  faith  to  illumine  the  mind  just  so  far  , that  the  will  might  of  itself  move  towards  God .sx   But  that  movement  of  the  will  , again  , is  not  a  mere  natural  spontaneity  provoked  by  faith .sx   It  is  the  continuation  of  faith  on  to  a  still  higher  level .sx   It  is  that  same  response  to  the  self-revealing  act  of  God  which  on  the  lower  plane  was  faith  only  , now  uplifted  to  its  fulfilment  in  real  , if  still  but  incipient  , communion  with  the  truth  revealed .sx   It  is  man's  authentic  entrance  into  the  order  of  charity  , the  consummation  of  his  faith  , and  therefore  also  the  completion  for  him  of  the  Revelation  to  which  he  had  at  first  adhered  only  by  faith .sx   This  final  adhesion  of  the  will  to  revealed  truth  , in  which  alone  it  has  fully  become  revealed  truth  , is  the  supreme  gift  of  God  , no  longer  like  faith  a  gratia  gratis  data  only  , but  a  gratia  gratum  faciens    the  free  act  of  God's  love  which  makes  man  objectively  pleasing  to  God  and  subjectively  grateful  to  Him .sx   
Revelation  , then  , has  its  history  , and  throughout  its  history  it  is  the  self-revealing  , self-communicating  , self-evidencing  act  of  God .sx