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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.
Objection 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 passion 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.
Objection 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 appetite 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 God 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, God 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 God
alone Who gives the nature, so the inclination of the will is from
God 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
God alone can move the will efficaciously; but an angel and man move
the will by way of persuasion, as above explained (Question 106,
Article 2).
In addition to this mode the human will can be moved from without in
another way; namely, by the passion residing in the sensitive
appetite: thus by concupiscence or anger the will is inclined to will
something. In this manner the angels, as being able to rouse these
passions, can move the will, not however by necessity, for the will
ever remains free to consent to, or to resist, the passion.
Reply to Objection 1: Those who act as God's ministers, either
men or angels, are said to burn away vices, and to incite to virtue by
way of persuasion.
Reply to Objection 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 passions.
Damascene calls this kindling "a putting in" because such a work is
accomplished within. But good thoughts are attributed to a higher
principle, namely, God, though they may be procured by the ministry
of the angels.
Reply to Objection 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 passion
of the sensitive appetite. Hence the comparison does not hold.
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