Whether in the Demons There Is Faith?
Objection 1: It would seem that the demons have no faith. For
Augustine says (De Praedest. Sanct. v) that "faith depends on the
believer's will": and this is a good will, since by it man wishes to
believe in God. Since then no deliberate will of the demons is good,
as stated above (I, Q. 64, A. 2, ad 5), it seems that in the demons
there is no faith.
Obj. 2: Further, faith is a gift of Divine grace, according to Eph.
2:8: "By grace you are saved through faith . . . for it is the gift
of God." Now, according to a gloss on Osee 3:1, "They look to strange
gods, and love the husks of the grapes," the demons lost their gifts
of grace by sinning. Therefore faith did not remain in the demons
after they sinned.
Obj. 3: Further, unbelief would seem to be graver than other sins, as
Augustine observes (Tract. lxxxix in Joan.) on John 15:22, "If I had
not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they
have no excuse for their sin." Now the sin of unbelief is in some
men. Consequently, if the demons have faith, some men would be guilty
of a sin graver than that of the demons, which seems unreasonable.
Therefore in the demons there is no faith.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (James 2:19): "The devils . . .
believe and tremble."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 1, A. 4; Q. 2, A. 1), the
believer's intellect assents to that which he believes, not because
he sees it either in itself, or by resolving it to first self-evident
principles, but because his will commands his intellect to assent.
Now, that the will moves the intellect to assent, may be due to two
causes. First, through the will being directed to the good, and in
this way, to believe is a praiseworthy action. Secondly, because the
intellect is convinced that it ought to believe what is said, though
that conviction is not based on objective evidence. Thus if a
prophet, while preaching the word of God, were to foretell something,
and were to give a sign, by raising a dead person to life, the
intellect of a witness would be convinced so as to recognize clearly
that God, Who lieth not, was speaking, although the thing itself
foretold would not be evident in itself, and consequently the essence
of faith would not be removed.
Accordingly we must say that faith is commended in the first sense in
the faithful of Christ: and in this way faith is not in the demons,
but only in the second way, for they see many evident signs, whereby
they recognize that the teaching of the Church is from God, although
they do not see the things themselves that the Church teaches, for
instance that there are three Persons in God, and so forth.
Reply Obj. 1: The demons are, in a way, compelled to believe, by the
evidence of signs, and so their will deserves no praise for their
belief.
Reply Obj. 2: Faith, which is a gift of grace, inclines man to
believe, by giving him a certain affection for the good, even when
that faith is lifeless. Consequently the faith which the demons have,
is not a gift of grace. Rather are they compelled to believe through
their natural intellectual acumen.
Reply Obj. 3: The very fact that the signs of faith are so evident,
that the demons are compelled to believe, is displeasing to them, so
that their malice is by no means diminished by their belief.
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