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Objection 1: It would seem that the demons have no faith. For
Augustine says (De Praedest. Sanct. v) that "faith depends on
the believer's will": and this is a good will, since by it man
wishes to believe in God. Since then no deliberate will of the demons
is good, as stated above (FP, Question 64, Article 2, ad
5), it seems that in the demons there is no faith.
Objection 2: Further, faith is a gift of Divine grace, according
to Eph. 2:8: "By grace you are saved through faith . . . for
it is the gift of God." Now, according to a gloss on Osee 3:1,
"They look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes," the
demons lost their gifts of grace by sinning. Therefore faith did not
remain in the demons after they sinned.
Objection 3: Further, unbelief would seem to be graver than other
sins, as Augustine observes (Tract. lxxxix in Joan.) on Jn.
15:22, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not
have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin." Now the sin of
unbelief is in some men. Consequently, if the demons have faith,
some men would be guilty of a sin graver than that of the demons, which
seems unreasonable. Therefore in the demons there is no faith.
On the contrary, It is written (James 2:19): "The devils .
. . believe and tremble."
I answer that, As stated above (Question 1, Article 4;
Question 2, Article 1), the believer's intellect assents to that
which he believes, not because he sees it either in itself, or by
resolving it to first self-evident principles, but because his will
commands his intellect to assent. Now, that the will moves the
intellect to assent, may be due to two causes. First, through the
will being directed to the good, and in this way, to believe is a
praiseworthy action. Secondly, because the intellect is convinced
that it ought to believe what is said, though that conviction is not
based on objective evidence. Thus if a prophet, while preaching the
word of God, were to foretell something, and were to give a sign, by
raising a dead person to life, the intellect of a witness would be
convinced so as to recognize clearly that God, Who lieth not, was
speaking, although the thing itself foretold would not be evident in
itself, and consequently the essence of faith would not be removed.
Accordingly we must say that faith is commended in the first sense in
the faithful of Christ: and in this way faith is not in the demons,
but only in the second way, for they see many evident signs, whereby
they recognize that the teaching of the Church is from God, although
they do not see the things themselves that the Church teaches, for
instance that there are three Persons in God, and so forth.
Reply to Objection 1: The demons are, in a way, compelled to
believe, by the evidence of signs, and so their will deserves no
praise for their belief.
Reply to Objection 2: Faith, which is a gift of grace, inclines
man to believe, by giving him a certain affection for the good, even
when that faith is lifeless. Consequently the faith which the demons
have, is not a gift of grace. Rather are they compelled to believe
through their natural intellectual acumen.
Reply to Objection 3: The very fact that the signs of faith are so
evident, that the demons are compelled to believe, is displeasing to
them, so that their malice is by no means diminished by their believe.
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