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Objection 1: It would seem that the angels are not incorruptible;
for Damascene, speaking of the angel, says (De Fide Orth. ii,
3) that he is "an intellectual substance, partaking of immortality
by favor, and not by nature."
Objection 2: Further, Plato says in the Timaeus: "O gods of
gods, whose maker and father am I: You are indeed my works,
dissoluble by nature, yet indissoluble because I so will it." But
gods such as these can only be understood to be the angels. Therefore
the angels are corruptible by their nature
Objection 3: Further, according to Gregory (Moral. xvi),
"all things would tend towards nothing, unless the hand of the
Almighty preserved them." But what can be brought to nothing is
corruptible. Therefore, since the angels were made by God, it would
appear that they are corruptible of their own nature.
On the contrary, Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that the
intellectual substances "have unfailing life, being free from all
corruption, death, matter, and generation."
I answer that, It must necessarily be maintained that the angels are
incorruptible of their own nature. The reason for this is, that
nothing is corrupted except by its form being separated from the
matter. Hence, since an angel is a subsisting form, as is clear from
what was said above (Article 2), it is impossible for its substance
to be corruptible. For what belongs to anything considered in itself
can never be separated from it; but what belongs to a thing,
considered in relation to something else, can be separated, when that
something else is taken away, in view of which it belonged to it.
Roundness can never be taken from the circle, because it belongs to it
of itself; but a bronze circle can lose roundness, if the bronze be
deprived of its circular shape. Now to be belongs to a form considered
in itself; for everything is an actual being according to its form:
whereas matter is an actual being by the form. Consequently a subject
composed of matter and form ceases to be actually when the form is
separated from the matter. But if the form subsists in its own being,
as happens in the angels, as was said above (Article 2), it cannot
lose its being. Therefore, the angel's immateriality is the cause
why it is incorruptible by its own nature.
A token of this incorruptibility can be gathered from its intellectual
operation; for since everything acts according as it is actual, the
operation of a thing indicates its mode of being. Now the species and
nature of the operation is understood from the object. But an
intelligible object, being above time, is everlasting. Hence every
intellectual substance is incorruptible of its own nature.
Reply to Objection 1: Damascene is dealing with perfect
immortality, which includes complete immutability; since "every
change is a kind of death," as Augustine says (Contra Maxim.
iii). The angels obtain perfect immutability only by favor, as will
appear later (Question 62).
Reply to Objection 2: By the expression 'gods' Plato understands
the heavenly bodies, which he supposed to be made up of elements, and
therefore dissoluble of their own nature; yet they are for ever
preserved in existence by the Divine will.
Reply to Objection 3: As was observed above (Question 44,
Article 1) there is a kind of necessary thing which has a cause of
its necessity. Hence it is not repugnant to a necessary or
incorruptible being to depend for its existence on another as its
cause. Therefore, when it is said that all things, even the angels,
would lapse into nothing, unless preserved by God, it is not to be
gathered therefrom that there is any principle of corruption in the
angels; but that the nature of the angels is dependent upon God as its
cause. For a thing is said to be corruptible not merely because God
can reduce it to non-existence, by withdrawing His act of
preservation; but also because it has some principle of corruption
within itself, or some contrariety, or at least the potentiality of
matter.
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