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It is of faith that the devils are in fact obstinate in
evil. We read: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his
angels."[1228] The words of the Psalmist are
referred to the bad angels: "The pride of them that hate
thee ascendeth continually,"[1229] that is, this
pride always produces new effects.
St. Thomas, Scotus, and Suarez differ in their
explanations of the obstinacy of the devils' will.
Scotus explains this obstinacy by an extrinsic cause
alone, namely, because God denies the devils grace.
St. Thomas assigns also an intrinsic cause, namely,
the connatural mode according to which the angel judges
irrevocably and adheres to an end in such a way that its
decision is inflexible.
Suarez explains that because of the angel's nature it is
merely difficult to retract what the angel has once willed
deliberately.
St. Thomas proves his opinion as follows: the
appetitive faculty is in all things proportionate to the
apprehending faculty, by which it is moved. But the
angel apprehends immovably and intuitively those things
that we apprehend discursively. This is particularly true
when the angel judges something to be an end to be loved
above all things. The angel sees intuitively and not
successively all those things that pertain to the choice of
a thing, and once the choice has been made the angel can
say, "I have already considered everything."
Therefore the will of the angel is affixed immovably to
the end. St. Thomas remarks in this article that it was
customary to say that man's free will was flexible with
regard to opposites both before and after the choice, but
that the angel's free will was flexible to the opposites
before the choice but not after it.
Objection. But the angel remains free after the choice
and is therefore not inflexible.
Reply. Liberty does not require the possibility of
changing a proposition, for example, the most free
decrees of God are immutable.
Objection. It appears then that free will is predicated
univocally of God and of the angels.
Reply. The predication is only analogical, for in God
alone is this immutability from eternity, and in God it
is never in evil.
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