Part I (Prima Pars) Part 87 (2/2)
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THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 57, Art. 3]
Whether Angels Know the Future?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels know future events. For angels are mightier in knowledge than men. But some men know many future events. Therefore much more do the angels.
Obj. 2: Further, the present and the future are differences of time.
But the angel's intellect is above time; because, as is said in _De Causis,_ ”an intelligence keeps pace with eternity,” that is, aeviternity. Therefore, to the angel's mind, past and future are not different, but he knows each indifferently.
Obj. 3: Further, the angel does not understand by species derived from things, but by innate universal species. But universal species refer equally to present, past, and future. Therefore it appears that the angels know indifferently things past, present, and future.
Obj. 4: Further, as a thing is spoken of as distant by reason of time, so is it by reason of place. But angels know things which are distant according to place. Therefore they likewise know things distant according to future time.
_On the contrary,_ Whatever is the exclusive sign of the Divinity, does not belong to the angels. But to know future events is the exclusive sign of the Divinity, according to Isa. 41:23: ”Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that ye are G.o.ds.” Therefore the angels do not know future events.
_I answer that,_ The future can be known in two ways. First, it can be known in its cause. And thus, future events which proceed necessarily from their causes, are known with sure knowledge; as that the sun will rise tomorrow. But events which proceed from their causes in the majority of cases, are not known for certain, but conjecturally; thus the doctor knows beforehand the health of the patient. This manner of knowing future events exists in the angels, and by so much the more than it does in us, as they understand the causes of things both more universally and more perfectly; thus doctors who penetrate more deeply into the causes of an ailment can p.r.o.nounce a surer verdict on the future issue thereof. But events which proceed from their causes in the minority of cases are quite unknown; such as casual and chance events.
In another way future events are known in themselves. To know the future in this way belongs to G.o.d alone; and not merely to know those events which happen of necessity, or in the majority of cases, but even casual and chance events; for G.o.d sees all things in His eternity, which, being simple, is present to all time, and embraces all time. And therefore G.o.d's one glance is cast over all things which happen in all time as present before Him; and He beholds all things as they are in themselves, as was said before when dealing with G.o.d's knowledge (Q. 14, A. 13). But the mind of an angel, and every created intellect, fall far short of G.o.d's eternity; hence the future as it is in itself cannot be known by any created intellect.
Reply Obj. 1: Men cannot know future things except in their causes, or by G.o.d's revelation. The angels know the future in the same way, but much more distinctly.
Reply Obj. 2: Although the angel's intellect is above that time according to which corporeal movements are reckoned, yet there is a time in his mind according to the succession of intelligible concepts; of which Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii) that ”G.o.d moves the spiritual creature according to time.” And thus, since there is succession in the angel's intellect, not all things that happen through all time, are present to the angelic mind.
Reply Obj. 3: Although the species in the intellect of an angel, in so far as they are species, refer equally to things present, past, and future; nevertheless the present, past, and future; nevertheless the present, past, and future do not bear the same relations to the species. Present things have a nature according to which they resemble the species in the mind of an angel: and so they can be known thereby. Things which are yet to come have not yet a nature whereby they are likened to such species; consequently, they cannot be known by those species.
Reply Obj. 4: Things distant according to place are already existing in nature; and share in some species, whose image is in the angel; whereas this is not true of future things, as has been stated.
Consequently there is no comparison.
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FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 57, Art. 4]
Whether Angels Know Secret Thoughts?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels know secret thoughts. For Gregory (Moral. xviii), explaining Job 28:17: ”Gold or crystal cannot equal it,” says that ”then,” namely in the bliss of those rising from the dead, ”one shall be as evident to another as he is to himself, and when once the mind of each is seen, his conscience will at the same time be penetrated.” But those who rise shall be like the angels, as is stated (Matt. 22:30). Therefore an angel can see what is in another's conscience.
Obj. 2: Further, intelligible species bear the same relation to the intellect as shapes do to bodies. But when the body is seen its shape is seen. Therefore, when an intellectual substance is seen, the intelligible species within it is also seen. Consequently, when one angel beholds another, or even a soul, it seems that he can see the thoughts of both.
Obj. 3: Further, the ideas of our intellect resemble the angel more than do the images in our imagination; because the former are actually understood, while the latter are understood only potentially. But the images in our imagination can be known by an angel as corporeal things are known: because the imagination is a corporeal faculty. Therefore it seems that an angel can know the thoughts of the intellect.
_On the contrary,_ What is proper to G.o.d does not belong to the angels. But it is proper to G.o.d to read the secrets of hearts, according to Jer. 17:9: ”The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable; who can know it? I am the Lord, Who search the heart.”
Therefore angels do not know the secrets of hearts.
_I answer that,_ A secret thought can be known in two ways: first, in its effect. In this way it can be known not only by an angel, but also by man; and with so much the greater subtlety according as the effect is the more hidden. For thought is sometimes discovered not merely by outward act, but also by change of countenance; and doctors can tell some pa.s.sions of the soul by the mere pulse. Much more then can angels, or even demons, the more deeply they penetrate those occult bodily modifications. Hence Augustine says (De divin. daemon.) that demons ”sometimes with the greatest faculty learn man's dispositions, not only when expressed by speech, but even when conceived in thought, when the soul expresses them by certain signs in the body”; although (Retract. ii, 30) he says ”it cannot be a.s.serted how this is done.”
In another way thoughts can be known as they are in the mind, and affections as they are in the will: and thus G.o.d alone can know the thoughts of hearts and affections of wills. The reason of this is, because the rational creature is subject to G.o.d only, and He alone can work in it Who is its princ.i.p.al object and last end: this will be developed later (Q. 63, A. 1; Q. 105, A. 5). Consequently all that is in the will, and all things that depend only on the will, are known to G.o.d alone. Now it is evident that it depends entirely on the will for anyone actually to consider anything; because a man who has a habit of knowledge, or any intelligible species, uses them at will.
Hence the Apostle says (1 Cor. 2:11): ”For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him?”
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