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Objection 1: It would seem that the angel was produced by God from
eternity. For God is the cause of the angel by His being: for He
does not act through something besides His essence. But His being is
eternal. Therefore He produced the angels from eternity.
Objection 2: Further, everything which exists at one period and not
at another, is subject to time. But the angel is above time, as is
laid down in the book De Causis. Therefore the angel is not at one
time existing and at another non-existing, but exists always.
Objection 3: Further, Augustine (De Trin. xiii) proves the
soul's incorruptibility by the fact that the mind is capable of truth.
But as truth is incorruptible, so is it eternal. Therefore the
intellectual nature of the soul and of the angel is not only
incorruptible, but likewise eternal.
On the contrary, It is said (Prov. 8:22), in the person of
begotten Wisdom: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His
ways, before He made anything from the beginning." But, as was
shown above (Article 1), the angels were made by God. Therefore
at one time the angels were not.
I answer that, God alone, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is from
eternity. Catholic Faith holds this without doubt; and everything to
the contrary must be rejected as heretical. For God so produced
creatures that He made them "from nothing"; that is, after they had
not been.
Reply to Objection 1: God's being is His will. So the fact that
God produced the angels and other creatures by His being does not
exclude that He made them also by His will. But, as was shown above
(Question 19, Article 3; Question 46, Article 1),
God's will does not act by necessity in producing creatures.
Therefore He produced such as He willed, and when He willed.
Reply to Objection 2: An angel is above that time which is the
measure of the movement of the heavens; because he is above every
movement of a corporeal nature. Nevertheless he is not above time
which is the measure of the succession of his existence after his
non-existence, and which is also the measure of the succession which
is in his operations. Hence Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii,
20,21) that "God moves the spiritual creature according to
time."
Reply to Objection 3: Angels and intelligent souls are
incorruptible by the very fact of their having a nature whereby they are
capable of truth. But they did not possess this nature from eternity;
it was bestowed upon them when God Himself willed it. Consequently
it does not follow that the angels existed from eternity.
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