De Moor IX:6: Angels as Spiritual Substances

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Angels are created Spirits.  For, 1.  thus they are expressly described and defined, Psalm 104:4, where the former expression,עֹשֶׂ֣ה מַלְאָכָ֣יו רוּח֑וֹת , making His angels spirits, appears to pertain to the essence of Angels, and the nature that God gave to them:  but the latter, and His ministers a flaming fire, rather expresses the service that they render to God, in which they show themselves to be fiery, as it were; whence also elsewhere they are set forth as containing fire.[1]  Thus Paul expressly explains this passage and angelic nature, Hebrews 1:7, 14:  see what things I have already taught concerning this sense of the passage on § 4.  2.  Thus Evil Angels especially are time and again in the Scripture of the New Testament πνεύματα/spirits, which is able to be proven from an inspection of Concordances:  compare § 1.

In which very thing he proves before all things, that they are true Substances, subsisting of themselves and existing with accidental properties.  This is taught, α.  by the Names under which they go, Angels, Ministers, gods,[2] sons of God,[3] and πνευμάτων/spirits also; which does not at all mean that Angels are mere phantasms, as Hobbes maintains; see COCQUIUS’ Hobbesianismi Anatomen, locus III, chapter VII, page 70:  but this name is wont to denote rational Substances free from a bodily mass, and also not conjoined with them naturally and always, John 4:24; Luke 24:39; Isaiah 31:3.  β.  By the spiritual and personal Attributes assigned to them, of Intellect, Will, and Power of execution, as we shall see in § 8-10.  γ.  By the spiritual and substantial Operations that are attributed to them, arguing Spirit and true Substance, for example, the desire to look into the mysteries of the Gospel, 1 Peter 1:12; joy over the repentance of a sinner, Luke 15:10; worship of the Christ, Hebrews 1:6; to believe, James 2:19; to lie, John 8:44; to sin, 1 John 3:8; to speak rationally, and thus an evil Spirit is said to have spoken a like through the mouths of the false prophets, 1 Kings 22:22, 23, and Demons through those that they possessed, and also through the serpent in seducing our First Parents, brought forth articulate words, through which they reasoned with others.  But, since to speak and to pronounce articulate and rational words, even by the mouths of others as instruments of speech, are effects of a rational Spirit, and effects ought to correspond to their cause, it is hence also proven that Demons are rational Spirits, and true Substances acting.

Not Mere Cogitations:  which our AUTHOR observes against the followers of Cartesian Philosophy, who, says he, importing at will perverse reasonings of the Human Mind here, with neither Scripture nor right reason dictating, establish the Whole Nature of Angels in Cogitation Alone, which they call General.  Thus WITTICH, Theologia pacifica, § 177:  I have sought my other argument from angelic nature, which consists completely in cogitation.  Now, to the alleged words of an Adversary, That the nature of an Angel is not with sufficient accuracy constituted in cogitation, since it is rather a thinking thing and what is able to do somewhat more than think:  Wittich replies:  These things do not at all differ, that the whole nature of an Angel consists in cogitation and is a thinking thing.  But Scripture nowhere says, that Angels have ability beyond thinking.  Similarly BURMAN, Synopsi Theologiæ, book I, chapter XLV, § 11:  But they are spiritual substances, or intelligences, the essence of which consists in cogitation.  § 15:  As far as their cognition is concerned, its beginning is the Angel’s substance, which, since it consists in cogitation, is distinguished from their intellect only in reason.  Thus as his clear and distinct perception the Most Illustrious Burman pronounces Cogitation to be substance, and holds things differing completely as the some.  Some Scholastics had already prepared the way; for THOMAS AQUINAS, Summa, part I, question LIV, article I, disputes against certain men that would establish, that the understanding of an Ange is its substance; with Aquinas denying this, that to do or to understand is able to be said to be the essence or substance of any Angel or creature.  Now, Commentators note, that afterwards Hervæus[4] and Durandus approved that opinion.

But our AUTHOR rightly observes, α.  That Cogitation in General nowhere exists, since all Cogitations are only Particular and Successive, which agree with each other only in general Concept.  β.  That whatever Cogitation is to be referred to the category of Action, which is altogether diverse from the category of Substance and is opposed to that.  And so to think in general, just like all those special Actions enumerated above, presupposes in the Angel a rational acting Substance:  compare VAN MASTRICHT, Gangræna Novitatum Cartesianarum, posterior Section, chapter XXII, § 7-9, pages 401, 402.

[1] שָׂרַף/saraph signifies to burn:  see Isaiah 6:2, 6.  See also Ezekiel 1.

[2] Psalm 8:5:  “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels (‎מֵאֱלֹהִים, than the gods), and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”

[3] Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7.

[4] Hervæus Natalis (c. 1260-1323) was a Domincan theologian and Thomist, sometimes called Doctor Rarus.  He was an opponent of Durandus (a member of his own order), and Scotism.