Whether the Angels Were Created in Grace?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels were not created in grace.
For Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ii, 8) that the angelic nature was
first made without form, and was called "heaven": but afterwards it
received its form, and was then called "light." But such formation
comes from grace. Therefore they were not created in grace.
Obj. 2: Further, grace turns the rational creature towards God. If,
therefore, the angel had been created in grace, no angel would ever
have turned away from God.
Obj. 3: Further, grace comes midway between nature and glory. But the
angels were not beatified in their creation. Therefore it seems that
they were not created in grace; but that they were first created in
nature only, and then received grace, and that last of all they were
beatified.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xii, 9), "Who wrought
the good will of the angels? Who, save Him Who created them with His
will, that is, with the pure love wherewith they cling to Him; at the
same time building up their nature and bestowing grace on them?"
_I answer that,_ Although there are conflicting opinions on this
point, some holding that the angels were created only in a natural
state, while others maintain that they were created in grace; yet it
seems more probable, and more in keeping with the sayings of holy
men, that they were created in sanctifying grace. For we see that all
things which, in the process of time, being created by the work of
Divine Providence, were produced by the operation of God, were
created in the first fashioning of things according to seedlike
forms, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii, 3), such as trees,
animals, and the rest. Now it is evident that sanctifying grace bears
the same relation to beatitude as the seedlike form in nature does to
the natural effect; hence (1 John 3:9) grace is called the "seed" of
God. As, then, in Augustine's opinion it is contended that the
seedlike forms of all natural effects were implanted in the creature
when corporeally created, so straightway from the beginning the
angels were created in grace.
Reply Obj. 1: Such absence of form in the angels can be understood
either by comparison with their formation in glory; and so the
absence of formation preceded formation by priority of time. Or else
it can be understood of the formation according to grace: and so it
did not precede in the order of time, but in the order of nature; as
Augustine holds with regard to the formation of corporeal things
(Gen. ad lit. i, 15).
Reply Obj. 2: Every form inclines the subject after the mode of the
subject's nature. Now it is the mode of an intellectual nature to be
inclined freely towards the objects it desires. Consequently the
movement of grace does not impose necessity; but he who has grace
can fail to make use of it, and can sin.
Reply Obj. 3: Although in the order of nature grace comes midway
between nature and glory, nevertheless, in the order of time, in
created nature, glory is not simultaneous with nature; because glory
is the end of the operation of nature helped by grace. But grace
stands not as the end of operation, because it is not of works, but
as the principle of right operation. Therefore it was fitting for
grace to be given straightway with nature.
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