Part I (Prima Pars) Part 167 (2/2)
Reply Obj. 3: Intellectual operation and enlightenment can be understood in two ways. First, on the part of the object understood; thus whoever understands or is enlightened, knows that he understands or is enlightened, because he knows that the object is made known to him. Secondly, on the part of the principle; and thus it does not follow that whoever understands a truth, knows what the intellect is, which is the principle of the intellectual operation. In like manner not everyone who is enlightened by an angel, knows that he is enlightened by him.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 111, Art. 3]
Whether the Angels Can Change the Will of Man?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels can change the will of man. For, upon the text, ”Who maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire” (Heb. 1:7), the gloss notes that ”they are fire, as being spiritually fervent, and as burning away our vices.”
This could not be, however, unless they changed the will. Therefore the angels can change the will.
Obj. 2: Further, Bede says (Super Matth. xv, 11), that, ”the devil does not send wicked thoughts, but kindles them.” Damascene, however, says that he also sends them; for he remarks that ”every malicious act and unclean pa.s.sion is contrived by the demons and put into men”
(De Fide Orth. ii, 4); in like manner also the good angels introduce and kindle good thoughts. But this could only be if they changed the will. Therefore the will is changed by them.
Obj. 3: Further, the angel, as above explained, enlightens the human intellect by means of the phantasms. But as the imagination which serves the intellect can be changed by an angel, so can the sensitive appet.i.te which serves the will, because it also is a faculty using a corporeal organ. Therefore as the angel enlightens the mind, so can he change the will.
_On the contrary,_ To change the will belongs to G.o.d alone, according to Prov. 21:1: ”The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, whithersoever He will He shall turn it.”
_I answer that,_ The will can be changed in two ways. First, from within; in which way, since the movement of the will is nothing but the inclination of the will to the thing willed, G.o.d alone can thus change the will, because He gives the power of such an inclination to the intellectual nature. For as the natural inclination is from G.o.d alone Who gives the nature, so the inclination of the will is from G.o.d alone, Who causes the will.
Secondly, the will is moved from without. As regards an angel, this can be only in one way--by the good apprehended by the intellect.
Hence in as far as anyone may be the cause why anything be apprehended as an appetible good, so far does he move the will. In this way also G.o.d alone can move the will efficaciously; but an angel and man move the will by way of persuasion, as above explained (Q. 106, A. 2).
In addition to this mode the human will can be moved from without in another way; namely, by the pa.s.sion residing in the sensitive appet.i.te: thus by concupiscence or anger the will is inclined to will something. In this manner the angels, as being able to rouse these pa.s.sions, can move the will, not however by necessity, for the will ever remains free to consent to, or to resist, the pa.s.sion.
Reply Obj. 1: Those who act as G.o.d's ministers, either men or angels, are said to burn away vices, and to incite to virtue by way of persuasion.
Reply Obj. 2: The demon cannot put thoughts in our minds by causing them from within, since the act of the cogitative faculty is subject to the will; nevertheless the devil is called the kindler of thoughts, inasmuch as he incites to thought, by the desire of the things thought of, by way of persuasion, or by rousing the pa.s.sions.
Damascene calls this kindling ”a putting in” because such a work is accomplished within. But good thoughts are attributed to a higher principle, namely, G.o.d, though they may be procured by the ministry of the angels.
Reply Obj. 3: The human intellect in its present state can understand only by turning to the phantasms; but the human will can will something following the judgment of reason rather than the pa.s.sion of the sensitive appet.i.te. Hence the comparison does not hold.
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THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 111, Art. 3]
Whether an Angel Can Change Man's Imagination?
Objection 1: It would seem that an angel cannot change man's imagination. For the phantasy, as is said _De Anima_ iii, is ”a motion caused by the sense in act.” But if this motion were caused by an angel, it would not be caused by the sense in act. Therefore it is contrary to the nature of the phantasy, which is the act of the imaginative faculty, to be changed by an angel.
Obj. 2: Further, since the forms in the imagination are spiritual, they are n.o.bler than the forms existing in sensible matter. But an angel cannot impress forms upon sensible matter (Q. 110, A. 2).
Therefore he cannot impress forms on the imagination, and so he cannot change it.
Obj. 3: Further, Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii, 12): ”One spirit by intermingling with another can communicate his knowledge to the other spirit by these images, so that the latter either understands it himself, or accepts it as understood by the other.” But it does not seem that an angel can be mingled with the human imagination, nor that the imagination can receive the knowledge of an angel. Therefore it seems that an angel cannot change the imagination.
Obj. 4: Further, in the imaginative vision man cleaves to the similitudes of the things as to the things themselves. But in this there is deception. So as a good angel cannot be the cause of deception, it seems that he cannot cause the imaginative vision, by changing the imagination.
_On the contrary,_ Those things which are seen in dreams are seen by imaginative vision. But the angels reveal things in dreams, as appears from Matt. 1:20; 2:13, 19 in regard to the angel who appeared to Joseph in dreams. Therefore an angel can move the imagination.
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