For, first, that most wise man — the great disciple of the great Moses — surely knew this fixed and constant Law of the divine providence in administering the whole world: that, night and day, without any interruption at all, the Sun and Moon should run through all the regions of the world by their assiduous revolutions. How, then, did he dare to ask that the contrary be done — since the Angels (as was said above, question 16) cannot for that reason restrain the stars from their gyres, because they are knowing and aware of the general and everlasting laws and decrees which God fixed for governing the world? Secondly. Then, of a petition of this kind — such an example of the rest of the heavenly bodies — he had, in all past antiquity, neither seen nor heard any. How, then, did he bring himself in mind to ask a thing so unusual, so repugnant to the order of the whole world? Thirdly. But now, to command anything to inanimate things, which feel nothing at all, seems foolish; [and to command] things not subject to our power [seems] bold and arrogant, nay even unjust. Fourthly. The leader of the people ought to have taken care not to commit anything, before those who were entrusted to his care and prudence, whence they might suspect him to be rash, foolish, arrogant, unjust, and vain. How, then, does he pray and command so portentous a miracle — not secretly, by himself, but publicly, in the sight of the children of Israel? How base and notable, how shameful a disgrace, hung over [him], if it had not succeeded according to his heart’s wish!
But in very truth Joshua prayed rightly [and] commanded rightly. For he knew that God, who had laid down the laws of the world’s governance, could do something beside and above them, and had imposed on Himself no necessity of never dissolving and relaxing these. He had seen so many and so great prodigies in Egypt, in the forty-year journey through the vast wildernesses, in the cut-off flow of the Jordan, in the casting down of the walls of Jericho; so many others, and [things] placed so far above nature, he had learned by reading and hearing; the omnipotence of God he had learned so solidly and plainly from the Law, from Moses. He now clearly saw this [event] to be an occasion for demonstrating this divine omnipotence to all, a juncture for illustrating the supreme glory of the Lord, an opportunity for laying the enemies low and for helping and enlarging the people of Israel — so that he broke forth into these prayers and this command most prudently, most zealously, and most religiously. There is a certain faith, which is wont to be called [the faith] “of miracles,” concerning which the Apostle [says] many things in chapter 13 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. This [faith] both shows and inwardly persuades that God can [work] miracles, and that He wills [to work them] at such a time, in such a place, with such other circumstances. Whence, in matters so arduous, so removed from the common use of nature, so opposed to the known order, [by] that [faith]…
(col. 1011)
…[by] that [faith] there is to the saints a confidence to ask these [miracles] from God, [and] to command them even to dull, brute, and inanimate things. So Matthew 17, verse 20: “Amen I say to you,” says the Lord, “if you have faith like a grain of mustard, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Pass from here to there,’ and it shall pass; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” Luke 17, verse 6: The Lord said, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and transplanted into the sea,’ and it would obey you.” So Elijah (3 Kings [1 Kings] 17, 18; 4 Kings [2 Kings] 1); so Moses; so Gregory Thaumaturgus, St. Martin, St. Bernard, and others who were renowned for miracles — all the saints did [so]. St. Jerome, on Isaiah, chapter 28: “By the confidence of God dwelling in him, this man spoke [to the Sun],” he says. St. Ambrose, book 1 On the Offices, chapter 40: “Jesus [Joshua] of Nun, when battle was rising against the Gabaonites, and he feared lest night should hinder the victory, by the greatness of his mind and faith cried out, ‘Let the Sun stand still,’ and it stood still, until this victory should be completed.” St. Bernard, in [the work] by the author of his Life (book 2, chapter 7): when he was urging that one must act constantly against the Leonine schismatics, and pray ardently, “Joshua,” he says, “fights; and, that the day might suffice for the completion of the victory, [the day] being prolonged, he does not so much pray as command that the Sun stand still; and his faith merits both the Sun’s obedience and the victory over the prostrated enemy.”
To the former two contrary arguments, then, an answer has now [been given] — except that it must be added (what was only said in the previous question) that the Angels cannot, by their own decision — even for some advantage of certain men foreseen by them — contravene those Angels who turn the heavens, on account of that knowledge of the manner instituted and preserved by God for guarding and governing this world, by which [knowledge] the aforesaid [Angels] are supreme. And if they did not have this [knowledge], or if, from another [knowledge] of His immense power, they wished to ask that something be done otherwise by Him and through Him, it would be no less permitted to them than to men.
To the Third. When command is given to things devoid of the sense of life and of reason, the command is borne immediately upon those [things] — but this is improperly called “command”; remotely, however, and ultimately, it is borne upon the intelligent nature [governing them], and thus it is “command” properly. But this intelligent nature is either good or evil; and again, either subject to him who commands, or not subject; finally, command is given either in those things and affairs which openly change the predetermined and ordinary government of the whole world, or in things and affairs which openly contravene nothing of that government, and are, as it were, private. First, then: if the nature to which command is given is good, and subject to him who commands, it will always comply in private matters, [but] not in others — for example, if some one of the higher Angels should command something to one of the lower [Angels]. But in matters which touch the whole world, and are, as it were, public, it will not comply, because these depend on the nod and will of God alone, and in these the lower [Angel] is not subject to the higher Angel. Secondly: if the nature for which [one] acts is good, and is not of itself subject — in any matters, private or public — to him who commands, but he who commands interposes the will and command of God, and truly and rightly indicates [it], that good nature will obey, both in private and in public [matters], in whatever way it can. For example, if a lesser Angel should command, in God’s name, a greater [one]
something; likewise, if a man should command any of the Angels, and interpose this will and command of God, and truly indicate [it] to that Angel. Thirdly: if the nature to which command is given is evil — whether subject to him who commands or not subject — we say that, as often as God’s authority is truly shown, it is right for it to undertake the commands in all things. If God’s authority is not interposed, it will sometimes obey, sometimes not obey, in the matters which it does of its own accord — not in those which are commanded it by God. For example: an evil Angel is now subject to any good [Angel]. If, then, a good [Angel] should command anything in any matter by God’s authority, [the evil one] can in no way resist here. If [the good Angel] should command it something without God’s authority — if indeed this depends on the demon’s power alone, as [when] it tempts someone, [or] afflicts [him] with bodily or spiritual molestations — the unhappy demon will have to obey. But if a demon were commanded by God to harass a nation, or some man, with certain calamities, and a good Angel, without God’s authority, should order it to desist, it would not obey. The like reasoning [holds] concerning some holy man, if he should command anything to one of the demons. See, on Tobit chapter 8 (questions 7 & 8), concerning the manners of binding demons, by which [same] manner a limit can be set upon that [demon] too, by a certain stronger force and quality impressed [upon it].
Now I answer to the argument: it is foolish to command inanimate things properly or simply; but to command in such a way that the command pertains to the intelligences, or Angels, who preside over those things, or can do something in them — that, indeed, is consonant with prudence and wisdom. For so also Christ the Lord commanded calm to the sea and the winds (Matthew 8, verse 26, and following). Again, [to command] things which are in no way subject to our power is indeed bold, arrogant, and unjust. But if things of themselves do not fall under the power of men, but [do] by God’s concession — and [if] men be considered not precisely as men, but as men full of God and furnished with divine authority — they can, without any mark of boldness, arrogance, or injustice, command both good and evil Angels. And thus Joshua commanded: the Sun and Moon improperly [not in the strict sense], the Angel-movers of the Sun and Moon properly; and that, not by his own human power and authority, but by [that] of the Deity, by whose inbreathing and impulse he used the imperative phrase. “In this command,” says the second book On the Marvels of Sacred Scripture (chapter 4), “the luminaries rest not by the authority of a human command, but they obey the command of the Lord commanding that they should stand still. For the creatures of God do nothing on account of the word of a commanding man, but they do that which the Lord, obedient to the prayer of His servant, commanded. For so it is related: ‘The Sun stood still against Gabaon, and the Moon at the valley of Aijalon, the Lord obeying the voice of a man.’” And so, among other things, St. Cyriacus marvels that a charioteer was given by God to the Sun and Moon — namely, Joshua — as the Metaphrast [Symeon Metaphrastes] narrates under September 29. And in the Talmud (tractate Pirke Avoth, chapter 5 [al. 3]), the Rabbis, while they praise the 80 disciples of Hillel himself, say that 30 of them were worthy [men] for whom the Sun would stand still, as Joshua had made it stand. Rambam [Maimonides] repeats this in the Yuchasin, folio 159. But these are Rabbinic bubbles [idle fancies].
(col. 1013)
To the Fourth. The answer is clear from what has now been said. For since he established this command not by his own counsel, or [his own] boldness, but by divine instinct and admonition, he was surely confident that he would not be deceived. And therefore — that the glory might be greater to God, the author of the whole miracle, and greater the eagerness and faith among the people — he willed, openly and publicly, before the eyes of all, with [his] voice, that he might be heard by all, to bind the Sun and Moon, [great] as they are, and to despoil [them] of all motion.