the latter regards future contingencies in themselves: and
such things happen in the same way as foretold, for example this
saying of Isa. 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive." Sometimes,
however, the prophetic revelation is an imprinted likeness of the
Divine foreknowledge as knowing the order of causes to effects; and
then at times the event is otherwise than foretold. Yet the prophecy
does not cover a falsehood, for the meaning of the prophecy is that
inferior causes, whether they be natural causes or human acts, are so
disposed as to lead to such a result. In this way we are to
understand the saying of Isa. 38:1: "Thou shalt die, and not live";
in other words, "The disposition of thy body has a tendency to
death": and the saying of Jonah 3:4, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh
shall be destroyed," that is to say, "Its merits demand that it
should be destroyed." God is said "to repent," metaphorically,
inasmuch as He bears Himself after the manner of one who repents, by
"changing His sentence, although He changes not His counsel" [*Cf. I,
Q. 19, A. 7, ad 2].

Reply Obj. 3: Since the same truth of prophecy is the same as
the truth of Divine foreknowledge, as stated above, the conditional
proposition: "If this was prophesied, it will be," is true in the same
way as the proposition: "If this was foreknown, it will be": for in
both cases it is impossible for the antecedent not to be. Hence the
consequent is necessary, considered, not as something future in our
regard, but as being present to the Divine foreknowledge, as stated in
the First Part (Q. 14, A. 13, ad 2).
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QUESTION 172

OF THE CAUSE OF PROPHECY
(In Six Articles)

We must now consider the cause of prophecy. Under this head there are
six points of inquiry:

(1) Whether prophecy is natural?

(2) Whether it is from God by means of the angels?

(3) Whether a natural disposition is requisite for prophecy?

(4) Whether a good life is requisite?

(5) Whether any prophecy is from the demons?

(6) Whether prophets of the demons ever tell what is true?
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FIRST ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 172, Art. 1]

Whether Prophecy Can Be Natural?

Objection 1: It would seem that prophecy can be natural. For Gregory
says (Dial. iv, 26) that "sometimes the mere strength of the soul is
sufficiently cunning to foresee certain things": and Augustine says
(Gen. ad lit. xii, 13) that the human soul, according as it is
withdrawn from the