De Moor IX:12: The Office of Angels, Part 3

Moved unto this end.  The very ones that acknowledge not that Angels with respect to Essence are in a certain Where, deny the same with respect to Essence also to be moved from Place to Place.  Thus WITTICH, Theologia pacifica, § 187:  Just as place is not properly applicable to Angels, so an Angel is neither moved, nor able to be said to be moved, in any other way than to the extent he ceases to operate there, and begins to operate here.  BURMAN, Synopsi Theologiæ, book I, chapter XLV, § 39:  Motion is not able to be attributed to an Angel, in any other way than to the extent he changes his operation.  As we, on the other hand, with our AUTHOR we proved in § 5, that Angels as Finite also have a determinate Space of their Presence, that they they are not at one and the same time here and elsewhere:  so also we believe, that Angels, being about to performed their Ministries, are also moved from place to place, so that they not only operate in various places, but also with respect to Essence change their Definitive Where.  Indeed, the one thing follows from the other.  1.  From the things said on § 5 it is evident, that every action is so of the same condition with the principium from which it flows, that, what cause with respect to Essence is or is able to be nowhere, the same also is able to manifest itself nowhere as the principium of the action; which, as we saw, is especially not able to be denied concerning the operations of Angels even in the Cartesian manner.  Whatever thing, therefore, says VRIESIUS, de Consectariis ex Mente sola Cogitatione, § 9, Exercitationibus Rationalibus, pages 454, 455, now in this part of the world, now in that, reveals its presence by its operation, that thing either is to be thought to be in all those spaces simultaneously, in which it ever acts, or is able to act (which concerning the finite nature of Angels no one, except the exceedingly rash, would affirm), or indeed is to be said to exist now in this Where, now in that; which is certainly not able to be conceived, without an exchange of that Where in which it was just now exercising its operation, with this other in which it hereafter acts.  2.  Scripture goes leads the way, from which, if I might make use of the words of the same VRIESIUS in the passage just now cited, the nature of Angelic intelligences is principally to be drawn, and which in hundreds of places clearly first speaks of the approach and departure of the Angels themselves, then distinctly narrates the operations of the same in the Place into which they had come.  Whoever dares to draw all these evident expressions, with no indication from the Sacred Books, into a merely metonymical sense, only because the Cartesian idea dictates, that an Angel, as a mere cogitation, does not have a Where nor is able to change Place; he should beware, lest he actually establish a novel Philosophy as the interpreter of the Scriptures.  We are pleased with philosophical formulations, that do not make, but rather discover, sacred doctrines agreeing with themselves.  Thus Scripture everywhere evidently testifies concerning Angels, that they are sent from place to place, Hebrews 1:14; Luke 1:26; that they arrive at a place and withdraw from the place, Genesis 18:22; 19:1; Luke 1:38; that they descend from heaven and return to heaven, Matthew 28:2; Luke 2:15; while concerning Devils, and their operations, both moral and especially physical with respect to those Possessed, Scripture also speaks in the same way, 1 Peter 5:8; John 13:27; Luke 8:31-33.  You see Angels changing their Place, appearing both in assumed bodies and without them:  but if they are able to change their Place in bodies put on, why not also without them?  Obviously as our Soul, united with the body, is moved together with the body from Place to Place, but also it, being separated from the body, changes its Place, with the ministry of Angels also intervening, Acts 1:25; Luke 16:22.  Indeed, since the finite nature of Angels necessarily requires this, it is not permitted here to draw back from the propriety of the constant phraseology of the Scripture, and to expound all that I have just now surveyed metaphorically and metonymically; as in the like case it has to be done with respect to God, because of the Infinity and Omnipresence of His Essence.  But, as we saw that Somewhere is applicable to Angels, not circumscriptively after the likeness of Bodies, but in a spiritual manner agreeing with their nature; so neither does their Motion involve anything corporeal, but changes their Where, without any divisibility of the mobile, or any extending of the parts:  this only is certain, that Angels were not able to descend to the earth, without leaving heaven for a time; neither to return to heave, except with the earth left again:  compare VAN MASTRICHT’S Gangrænam Novitatum Cartesianarum, posterior Section, chapter XXIII, § 7, 8, pages 408, 409.

But that Motion is, like all Motion, Successive, but yet the Motion of spirits, particularly of Angels, who are mighty in strength,[1] is by far the Swiftest, nor ought to be compared with the Motion of Bodies; since Angels, penetrating all Bodies, are delayed in their Motion by no object and repelling impediment.  Which Swiftness of the Angelic Motion, together with their Promptness in the ministry of God, is also represented by the Wings attributed to them, Isaiah 6:2, where are found Seraphim covering their faces with two Wings for modesty’s sake, because to no creatures, not even the Angels, is it given to behold the light of the divine glory, in all its brilliance, with eyes unaverted, 1 Timothy 6:16.  With two each was covering his feet.  By feet among the Hebrews is modestly signified those parts of the body that modesty demands to be covered, and that are near to those.  Angels appearing in human form are also able to be said to cover these parts, not because Angel have the same reason for shame that human sinners do; but because even the holiest of creatures, compared with the incomprehensible perfection of the divine holiness, are overwhelmed with the recognition and modesty of their imperfection and imbecility, Job 4:18; 15:15, which, together with the zeal for immaculate holiness in the Angels, is signified by the covering of their feet with their Wings.  But, that the two Wings with which they were flying indicate the Swiftness and Promptness of the Angels in their divine ministry, no one doubts; compare Daniel 9:21.

But if you should say, that you do not conceive of those things that I have thus related concerning the altogether swift Motion of incorporeal Angels; I respond, that neither do I conceive of those things that are revealed concerning the operations of the Angels, now in heaven, now on earth, without a change of the Where:  indeed, contrariwise, I clearly and distinctly perceive that operations of this sort of finite Angels in places widely scattered without a change of Place are contradictory.

[1] Psalm 103:20.