Whether the Angels Know All Things by Their Substance?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels know all things by their
substance. For Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii) that "the angels,
according to the proper nature of a mind, know the things which are
happening upon earth." But the angel's nature is his essence.
Therefore the angel knows things by his essence.
Obj. 2: Further, according to the Philosopher (Metaph. xii, text. 51;
_De Anima_ iii, text. 15), "in things which are without matter, the
intellect is the same as the object understood." But the object
understood is the same as the one who understands it, as regards that
whereby it is understood. Therefore in things without matter, such as
the angels, the medium whereby the object is understood is the very
substance of the one understanding it.
Obj. 3: Further, everything which is contained in another is there
according to the mode of the container. But an angel has an
intellectual nature. Therefore whatever is in him is there in an
intelligible mode. But all things are in him: because the lower
orders of beings are essentially in the higher, while the higher are
in the lower participatively: and therefore Dionysius says (Div. Nom.
iv) that God "enfolds the whole in the whole," i.e. all in all.
Therefore the angel knows all things in his substance.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that "the angels are
enlightened by the forms of things." Therefore they know by the forms
of things, and not by their own substance.
_I answer that,_ The medium through which the intellect understands,
is compared to the intellect understanding it as its form, because it
is by the form that the agent acts. Now in order that the faculty may
be perfectly completed by the form, it is necessary for all things to
which the faculty extends to be contained under the form. Hence it is
that in things which are corruptible, the form does not perfectly
complete the potentiality of the matter: because the potentiality of
the matter extends to more things than are contained under this or
that form. But the intellective power of the angel extends to
understanding all things: because the object of the intellect is
universal being or universal truth. The angel's essence, however,
does not comprise all things in itself, since it is an essence
restricted to a genus and species. This is proper to the Divine
essence, which is infinite, simply and perfectly to comprise all
things in Itself. Therefore God alone knows all things by His
essence. But an angel cannot know all things by his essence; and his
intellect must be perfected by some species in order to know things.
Reply Obj. 1: When it is said that the angel knows things according
to his own nature, the words "according to" do not determine the
medium of such knowledge, since the medium is the similitude of the
thing known; but they denote the knowing power, which belongs to the
angel of his own nature.
Reply Obj. 2: As the sense in act is the sensible in act, as stated
in _De Anima_ ii, text. 53, not so that the sensitive power is the
sensible object's likeness contained in the sense, but because one
thing is made from both as from act and potentiality: so likewise the
intellect in act is said to be the thing understood in act, not that
the substance of the intellect is itself the similitude by which it
understands, but because that similitude is its form. Now, it is
precisely the same thing to say "in things which are without matter,
the intellect is the same thing as the object understood," as to say
that "the intellect in act is the thing understood in act"; for a
thing is actually understood, precisely because it is immaterial.
Reply Obj. 3: The things which are beneath the angel, and those which
are above him, are in a measure in his substance, not indeed
perfectly, nor according to their own proper formality--because the
angel's essence, as being finite, is distinguished by its own
formality from other things--but according to some common formality.
Yet all things are perfectly and according to their own formality in
God's essence, as in the first and universal operative power, from
which proceeds whatever is proper or common to anything. Therefore
God has a proper knowledge of all things by His own essence: and this
the angel has not, but only a common knowledge.
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