De Moor IX:10: The Angelic Faculty of Power, Part 1

Finally, because they are Spirits, they are mighty in Power.  Indeed, with the directive principium, the Intellect, and the commanding principium, the Will, is also applicable to Angels, as to all Spirits, the executive principium, Power.  That this is eminent in Angels, speak, α.  both their Names and Descriptions, Psalm 103:20; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Ephesians 6:12, in which Angels, emphatically described by their power, are set in opposition to αἵματι καὶ σαρκὶ, blood and flesh, as that expresses infirmity.  β.  And their Works, many, great and stupendous, which they are said to render and to have rendered.  1.  Appearing in their legations, to which they were attending among men, clothed with bodies, they were not able to move those bodies without Power.  2.  They are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, not so that they might be idle spectators, but active in assistants in executing the business and commandments of God, Hebrews 1:14, which again they are not able to render without Power.  3.  Of old did Evil Angels, certainly not by thinking alone, but by efficacious operation, excite those stupendous and tremendous motions in the δαιμονιζομένοις/demon-possessed.  4.  Works far exceeding human strength are attributed to them; no one shall ever learn how they might accomplish them without Power, even if their causes, namely, the second causes, are to be stated.  For example, the Killing of all the firstborn in Egypt, Exodus 12:29, compared with verse 23; Hebrews 11:28; which, when in the passages cited it is said to have been done by ‎הַמַּשְׁחִית, the destroyer, τὸν ὀλοθρεύοντα τὰ πρωτότοκα, the destroyer of the firstborn, leads us to the work of a created Angel intervening, rather than to a divine Person; compare ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section III, chapter I, § 30, page 359; JAN VAN DEN HONERT on chapter XI Epistola ad Hebræos, chapter XVIII, § 8, 9:  likewise the deadly smiting of one hundred and eighty-five thousand in on night in the camp of the Assyrians, 2 Kings 19:35.  It is not necessary for us to say that such an Angel was not seen or heard by anyone, as far as we read, clothed in a body and furnished with a sword, wherewith he slaughtered so many thousands individually, one after another, so that thus we might render this history all the more incredible:  even from the text itself this is made less likely, since on the following morning the survivors at length discovered their comrades, but perceived no shouts or cries of those wounded, neither are they read to have found them decapitated, etc.; but they were merely seeing that they were corpses.  Therefore, they appear to have been killed in some less violent manner, whether through inhibited motion of their circulation, or through the arrangement of the body so disturbed that life would cease, or through a pestiferous vapor raised, which after the likeness of a cloud passed through the camp of the Assyrians, and struck them more than others; which would be rash to determine with certainty.  However, some by the Angel of Jehovah in this place understand the Uncreated Angel, the Son of God, concerning whom see ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section III, chapter I, § 30, page 359, with the Preface of that work, **** 2 versa, brought in for comparison.

But this Power is actually removed, if it be nothing other than Angels willing, and at their will God producing the effect without another real influx from them, as today’s Philosophers maintain.  Thus WITTICH, Theologia pacifica, § 177:  Scripture nowhere says that Angels are able to do more than think.  It describes them as excelling in strength;[1] but it does not say that that power, that strength, is anything other than their will….  That will is considered under the aspect of power, virtue, and strength.  And § 237:  Angels are able to be said to operate in no other sense, except that, with such a will of those posited, something else follows in creatures, which nevertheless God completely brings to pass with respect to its whole reality; therefore, thus it does not appear, that, should God will, with this or that will of Angels posited, something thence is less able to follow in our mind than in some body.  Likewise BRAUN,[2] Doctrina Fœderum, volume I, part II, chapter XI, § 9:  How Angels act upon bodies, is able neither to be conceived nor to be expressed, unless we should say that God has established such a tie between their will and the motion of certain bodies, so that such a body is necessarily moved when an Angel wills it to be moved….  Certainly in spirits no other manner of working is able to be conceived than through the will.  Because we conceive of nothing in spirits except intellect and will.  Therefore, they also ought to operate, either by intellect, or by will.  But they do not operate by intellect, since that is merely passive, as what only perceives a matter.  Therefore, it ought necessarily to be gathered, that the operate by will, which is active.  Therefore, executing Power beyond the will is sought in vain in spirits….  Whatever we conceive beyond intellect and will, that is purely corporeal, which is to be removed from spirit.

But thus, α.  too close a conjunction of Angels with the altogether Simple nature of God is supposed in operating, the being of which is κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν, pre-eminently, said to accomplish things by the bare command of Will:  while nevertheless I taught in Chapter IV, § 16, that even in God, according to our manner of conception, Power is to be distinguished from Will, no less than Will from Intellect.

β.  In this way natural and miraculous works are confounded, and Angels, as if there were nothing but the Miracles that are ascribed to them, in all their works are considered only as Moral Instruments, destitute of all proper strength, physical causality, and true influx in the effects.  We ourselves acknowledge, that the Power of Angels, no less than of Men, depends in all things upon God:  we acknowledge that on account of the Liberty of angelic actions the motion of the Will is also added in their operations:  but we must not do this to remove the Power of Angels, by the influx of which effects are produced:  since otherwise Angels are not able to be said to do anything by transient action, but God alone is to be said to execute their Will:  Angels will not properly be said to be the second Causes of any effects, but God alone ought to be said to furnish them; thus, for example, at my prayer God is able to destroy a hostile army, but this is not done in any respect by me, neither am I able to be said to be the efficient cause of this event.

γ.  If the vehement Will of an Angel is his strength, there will be no measure of that strength, and this Power will be altogether infinite; and whatever divine Works of Creation and Providence are also able to be attributed to Angels, because good Angels, as far as it is given to them to know these divine works, exceedingly desire them for the honor of God, as, after the accomplishment of those things, they glorify God because of them and commend His work.

δ.  The Seduction of Satan unto evil is not able thus to be understood, whether in the Seduction of our first parents, or in the daily temptation of man to sin.  Of God the Apostle affirms, James 1:13, μηδεὶς πειραζόμενος, etc., let no man when tempted, etc.; and yet according to this hypothesis God is truly imagined to be the cause of evil and sin:  and when we read in 1 Peter 5:8, ὁ ἀντίδικος ὑμῶν διάβολος, ὡς λέων ὠρυόμενος, περιπατεῖ ζητῶν τίνα καταπίῃ, your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, and when the Devil is said ἐνεργεῖν ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας, to work in the children of disobedience, these things are going to be said more truly of God most holy:  as if God were stretching forth His hands as the midwife of diabolical malice, and executing the worst desires of an evil spirit.  Similarly, in this way evil Angels did not verily operate upon the bodies of the Demon-possessed; but God Himself, at their Will, executed all those things that are mentioned of the δαιμονιζομένοις/demon-possessed in the Gospels.

ε.  There is no foundation for the Cartesian opinion, other than the altogether false πρῶτον ψεῦδος, fundamental error, and inane hypothesis concerning Spirit as Bare Cogitation, in which then absolutely nothing obtains except Intellect and Will; with their depraved manner added of denying that, the τὸ ποῖον, the nature, of which we are ignorant, although its τὸ ὂν, being, Scripture and Reason clearly show.  But if from our Mind they wish to form a conjecture concerning the nature of Angels, they ought rather to have concluded the contrary, lest an Angel be less perfect than a human Spirit; since through inner consciousness we are persuaded, that there is a Power belonging to our Minds to operate externally and to move bodies, which sort of faculty of Power is rashly supposed to be something corporeal.  The Most Illustrious ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section III, chapter I, § 26, page 345, well observes, that not only to God, altogether simple and perfect Spirit, is applicable consummate Power, whereby whatever He wills, or is able to will with His perfections intact, He is also able to perform; but he adds:  In addition to particular cogitations, are not human minds furnished with power, wherewith they move the members of the body, to which they are joined, and, with these members mediating, other bodies? this they do not by thinking, not by understanding, not simply by willing; but to cogitation and intellect, and even to the will itself (because, when we simply will, the members of our body are not yet moved), power, force, efficacy must be added, which our minds then exert and exercise.

Let us, therefore, cleave to the propriety of the expressions of Scripture, when on so many occasions it ascribes strength, potency, and Power to Angels, rather than, confounding notions altogether distinct, for the sake of the hypothesis assumed, interpreting Power and Strength of the Will:  compare VAN MASTRICHT, Gangræna Novitatum Cartesianarum, posterior Section, chapter XXIV, § 7-10, pages 416-419.

[1] See Psalm 103:20; 2 Peter 2:11.

[2] Johannes Braun (1628-1708) was a German Reformed pastor and theologian.  He served as Professor of Hebrew Antiquities and Oriental Languages at Nijmegen (1661-1672), and then at Groningen (1680-1708).  Braun’s adherence to Cartesian philosophy and Cocceian theology drew the ire of Marckius.