De Moor IX:7: Angels as Incorporeal Substances, Part 1

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With our AUTHOR we additionally hold that these Spirits are Incorporeal:  that is, that Angels do not only have it in common with the human Mind, that their entire spiritual Essence does not consist in the Body, or is not a corporeal thing; but that a Body is not joined to their Essence through the constitution of a Union with the Spirit, since they are Complete Spirits, in which they differ from the human Mind.

We prove this, α.  by those arguments, wherewith we just now asserted the spirituality of the same; more specifically, that, when a description of Angels is to be given, they are called Spirits, and they often go under the name of Spirits, as natural to them, and which exhausts the entire essence of them.

Neither is Exception to be taken at this point:  that, when Angels are called πνεύματα/spirits, the denomination is taken from the better part, just as when whole men are called Souls, נְפָשׁוֹת, ψυχαὶ, Genesis 46:26;[1] Acts 27:37.[2]

For, I Answer, 1.  That the very thing is question is presupposed; 2.  That neither is this proven by a comparison of dissimilar things, since it is more certainly evident concerning Man, that he is made up of a soul and a body.  3.  That by a common Synecdoche ‎נֶפֶשׁ or ψυχὴν, soul, is taken for the whole man:  but with learned Men observing that Man is every called πνεῦμα/spirit in Scripture thus absolutely.  4.  That, if Bodies were natural and perpetual to Angels, mention of them ought to have been made in the angelic definition, Hebrews 1:7, 14.

But, whether it be proven with sufficient clarity that Angels are Incorporeal from Luke 24:39, as thinks our AUTHOR following other Theologians, who everywhere in their Systems make use of this argument, concerning which inquiry is able to be made.  In his Historia Exaltationis Jesu Christi, book I, chapter XI, § 8, our AUTHOR sets forth observations, whereby he is able destroy what things concerning the phantasm here designated by Spirit, as also concerning every Body not excluded by the denial of Flesh and Bones, others object against this argument.  Of course, he absolutely thinks that the Argument from these words of Christ for the Incorporeal nature of Spirits is able and ought to prevail; insofar as, 1.  the name Spirit, both of itself and by the use and opinion of the Hebrews, even in that very Phantasm which is not at all able to be touched, leads us to a Spiritual Substance, whether Human, or Angelic especially, concerning which in His own case our Lord speaks hence universally and without any limitation; and insofar as, 2.  in the denial of Flesh and Bones regard is directly paid to this, that Christ was plainly pointing to the fact that He has a Body, so that by that very fact He might exclude every other Body, even the subtlest, as of the same common nature opposed to Spirit, while also the Human Body more than all others appears in other respects to be required, both on account of that species assumed and represented by those appearing, and on account of the operations attributed to Human operations and altogether similar to them.  What value, I say, is to be placed upon this argument, let the Reader judge.

β.  Our AUTHOR observes that all Body is removed from Angels implicitly rather, when Scripture attributes to them Ingenerability and Immortality, Luke 20:35, 36, which is κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν, pre-eminently, applicable to a Spiritual Essence.  Likewise Penetration, where multiple Demons are said to have entered into one man, Luke 8:30:  but now, if they have even the slightest and most rarified Bodies, those would require some quantity and determinate location, which they occupy and fill with their mass, and there would be no mutual Penetration of Bodies; many Demons could not be present in the body of one man, if Bodies were naturally and always adjoined to them.

Neither ought Exception to be taken:  If those Spirits were mere Spirits, in no manner could they occupy a man, because a Spirit neither moves, nor occupies a place:  but, if these Demons be said to be furnished with the most rarified Bodies, then all things become plain.

I Respond, that the Contrary is in fact true:  but these things are pled on account of Cartesian prejudices; since an Angel is able to change place and to be present definitively in a certain place, even if it be incorporeal, no less than our spirit, which, being joined to a body, when with it it is transferred to another place, changes location.

Our AUTHOR also appeals especially to the Invisibility of Angels asserted in Colossians 1:16, since τὰ ἀόρατα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, the things invisible in the heavens, are Angels.  Should you say, that their Bodies are so subtle that they are not able to be seen; you presuppose what is in question, that is, whether Angels are naturally clothed with a Body, which you are not able to conclude with greater probability than from the Apparitions of the same.  But then they are read to have appeared quite frequently in a visible, and also in a denser, Body; since Paul calls them Invisible, we are certainly persuaded that a body was not natural and always joined to Angel, for otherwise they would have been Visible.  But, that Angels, besides the visible Body in which they often appeared, have a certain subtle and invisible Corpuscle, over which at the time of the Apparitions is clothed a denser Body of this sort; or that one and the same natural Body of Angels was made visible or invisible according to emergent circumstances:  these are great postulates, not rashly to be presupposed, but to be most firmly proven.

γ.  If the Bodies in which Angels were seen were natural to them, all those, as it obtains among Men, would have had a similar figure and form, and would have been of the same material.  But Angels appeared to have the figure and form, now of men, now far different, for example, of Seraphim, Isaiah 6, see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XIV, Part VI; or of Cherubim, Ezekiel 1; 10, see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XXIV, Part VI; or of fiery Horses and chariots, 2 Kings 2; 6, compared with Psalm 68:17.  Now the bodies of Angels were seen as fiery, sometimes resplendent, sometimes airy or composed of denser, earthy matter.  Wherefore, those Bodies in which Angels appeared seem to have been adapted to them only for a specific time, adapted to accomplish representations, ministries, and business in the present.

δ.  The Son of God, the Angel in whose midst is the name of Jehovah,[3] frequently appeared in a visible form under the Old Testament.  Now, if to Angels are attributed the proper and natural Bodies in which they appeared, scarcely is a solid reason given, why that Body in which the Son of God appeared is not also to be said to be proper and natural to Him.  But if it be so, He would not at length have assumed His Body from the Virgin Mary, but would already have had such a Body as is proper and natural to Himself.  As this is altogether contrary to Scripture, so it is most certain, that the Son of God took to Himself that Body in which He appeared only at that time.  Now, it is altogether probable, that with the Bodies of Angels the matter stands in the same way.

ε.  If the Devil had had a proper and natural Body, it is hardly able to be grasped, how and by what artifice He took possession of the Serpent, and by it was able to speak to the woman.  For that Body, however subtle and slight you imagine it to be, but to it attribute the form and magnitude of a human body, wherein Angels frequently appeared, to the Devil would be an obstacle and impediment to His ability to penetrate and occupy the body of the Serpent, and to play his part through the Serpent so dexterously and expeditiously.  Therefore, as the Devil was not at that time joined with a Body, so it appears closer to the truth that the rest of the Angels also are not joined always and naturally with Bodies.

[1] Genesis 46:26:  “All the souls (‎כָּל־הַנֶּפֶשׁ; πᾶσαι δὲ ψυχαὶ, in the Septuagint) that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls (‎כָּל־נֶפֶשׁ; πᾶσαι ψυχαὶ, in the Septuagint) were threescore and six…”

[2] Acts 27:37:  “And we, all the souls (αἱ πᾶσαι ψυχαι) in the ship, were two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.”

[3] See, for example, Exodus 3; 23:21.