Whether Bodies Obey the Angels As Regards Local Motion?
Objection 1: It would seem that bodies do not obey the angels in local
motion. For the local motion of natural bodies follows on their forms.
But the angels do not cause the forms of natural bodies, as stated
above (A. 2). Therefore neither can they cause in them local
motion.
Obj. 2: Further, the Philosopher (Phys. viii, 7) proves that local
motion is the first of all movements. But the angels cannot cause
other movements by a formal change of the matter. Therefore neither
can they cause local motion.
Obj. 3: Further, the corporeal members obey the concept of the soul
as regards local movement, as having in themselves some principle of
life. In natural bodies, however, there is no vital principle.
Therefore they do not obey the angels in local motion.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 8,9) that the angels
use corporeal seed to produce certain effects. But they cannot do
this without causing local movement. Therefore bodies obey them in
local motion.
_I answer that,_ As Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii): "Divine wisdom
has joined the ends of the first to the principles of the second."
Hence it is clear that the inferior nature at its highest point is in
conjunction with superior nature. Now corporeal nature is below the
spiritual nature. But among all corporeal movements the most perfect
is local motion, as the Philosopher proves (Phys. viii, 7). The
reason of this is that what is moved locally is not as such in
potentiality to anything intrinsic, but only to something
extrinsic--that is, to place. Therefore the corporeal nature has a
natural aptitude to be moved immediately by the spiritual nature as
regards place. Hence also the philosophers asserted that the supreme
bodies are moved locally by the spiritual substances; whence we see
that the soul moves the body first and chiefly by a local motion.
Reply Obj. 1: There are in bodies other local movements besides those
which result from the forms; for instance, the ebb and flow of the
sea does not follow from the substantial form of the water, but from
the influence of the moon; and much more can local movements result
from the power of spiritual substances.
Reply Obj. 2: The angels, by causing local motion, as the first
motion, can thereby cause other movements; that is, by employing
corporeal agents to produce these effects, as a workman employs fire
to soften iron.
Reply Obj. 3: The power of an angel is not so limited as is the power
of the soul. Hence the motive power of the soul is limited to the
body united to it, which is vivified by it, and by which it can move
other things. But an angel's power is not limited to any body; hence
it can move locally bodies not joined to it.
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