Whether the Morning and Evening Knowledge Are One?
Objection 1: It would seem that the morning and the evening knowledge
are one. For it is said (Gen. 1:5): "There was evening and morning, one
day." But by the expression "day" the knowledge of the angels is to be
understood, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 23). Therefore the
morning and evening knowledge of the angels are one and the same.
Obj. 2: Further, it is impossible for one faculty to have two
operations at the same time. But the angels are always using their
morning knowledge; because they are always beholding God and things in
God, according to Matt. 18:10. Therefore, if the evening knowledge were
different from the morning, the angel could never exercise his evening
knowledge.
Obj. 3: Further, the Apostle says (1 Cor. 13:10): "When that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." But,
if the evening knowledge be different from the morning, it is
compared to it as the less perfect to the perfect. Therefore the
evening knowledge cannot exist together with the morning knowledge.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 24): "There is a
vast difference between knowing anything as it is in the Word of God,
and as it is in its own nature; so that the former belongs to the day,
and the latter to the evening."
_I answer that,_ As was observed (A. 6), the evening knowledge is
that by which the angels know things in their proper nature. This
cannot be understood as if they drew their knowledge from the proper
nature of things, so that the preposition "in" denotes the form of a
principle; because, as has been already stated (Q. 55, A. 2), the
angels do not draw their knowledge from things. It follows, then, that
when we say "in their proper nature" we refer to the aspect of the
thing known in so far as it is an object of knowledge; that is to say,
that the evening knowledge is in the angels in so far as they know the
being of things which those things have in their own nature.
Now they know this through a twofold medium, namely, by innate ideas,
or by the forms of things existing in the Word. For by beholding the
Word, they know not merely the being of things as existing in the
Word, but the being as possessed by the things themselves; as God by
contemplating Himself sees that being which things have in their own
nature. It, therefore, it be called evening knowledge, in so far as
when the angels behold the Word, they know the being which things have
in their proper nature, then the morning and the evening knowledge are
essentially one and the same, and only differ as to the things known.
If it be called evening knowledge, in so far as through innate ideas
they know the being which things have in their own natures, then the
morning and the evening knowledge differ. Thus Augustine seems to
understand it when he assigns one as inferior to the other.
Reply Obj. 1: The six days, as Augustine understands them, are taken
as the six classes of things known by the angels; so that the day's
unit is taken according to the unit of the thing understood; which,
nevertheless, can be apprehended by various ways of knowing it.
Reply Obj. 2: There can be two operations of the same faculty at the
one time, one of which is referred to the other; as is evident when
the will at the same time wills the end and the means to the end; and
the intellect at the same instant perceives principles and
conclusions through those principles, when it has already acquired
knowledge. As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 24), the evening
knowledge is referred to the morning knowledge in the angels; hence
there is nothing to hinder both from being at the same time in the
angels.
Reply Obj. 3: On the coming of what is perfect, the opposite
imperfect is done away: just as faith, which is of the things that
are not seen, is made void when vision succeeds. But the imperfection
of the evening knowledge is not opposed to the perfection of the
morning knowledge. For that a thing be known in itself, is not
opposite to its being known in its cause. Nor, again, is there any
inconsistency in knowing a thing through two mediums, one of which is
more perfect and the other less perfect; just as we can have a
demonstrative and a probable medium for reaching the same conclusion.
In like manner a thing can be known by the angel through the
uncreated Word, and through an innate idea.
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