nature, as is the case with those who
are possessed or out of their senses; but is due to some well-ordered
cause. This cause may be natural--for instance, sleep--or
spiritual--for instance, the intenseness of the prophets'
contemplation; thus we read of Peter (Acts 10:9) that while he was
praying in the supper-room [*Vulg.: 'the house-top' or
'upper-chamber'] "he fell into an ecstasy"--or he may be carried away
by the Divine power, according to the saying of Ezechiel 1:3: "The
hand of the Lord was upon him."

Reply Obj. 1: The passage quoted refers to prophets in whom imaginary
pictures were formed or coordinated, either while asleep, which is
denoted by the word "dream," or while awake, which is signified by
the word "vision."

Reply Obj. 2: When the mind is intent, in its act, upon distant
things which are far removed from the senses, the intensity of its
application leads to abstraction from the senses; but when it is
intent, in its act, upon the coordination of or judgment concerning
objects of sense, there is no need for abstraction from the senses.

Reply Obj. 3: The movement of the prophetic mind results not from its
own power, but from a power acting on it from above. Hence there is
no abstraction from the senses when the prophet's mind is led to
judge or coordinate matters relating to objects of sense, but only
when the mind is raised to the contemplation of certain more lofty
things.

Reply Obj. 4: The spirit of the prophets is said to be subject to the
prophets as regards the prophetic utterances to which the Apostle
refers in the words quoted; because, to wit, the prophets in
declaring what they have seen speak their own mind, and are not
thrown off their mental balance, like persons who are possessed, as
Priscilla and Montanus maintained. But as regards the prophetic
revelation itself, it would be more correct to say that the prophets
are subject to the spirit of prophecy, i.e. to the prophetic gift.
_______________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 173, Art. 4]

Whether Prophets Always Know the Things Which They Prophesy?

Objection 1: It would seem that the prophets always know the things
which they prophesy. For, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii, 9),
"those to whom signs were shown in spirit by means of the likenesses
of bodily things, had not the gift of prophecy, unless the mind was
brought into action, so that those signs were also understood by
them." Now what is understood cannot be u