Angel in Combination with the Rules

19. With rule B we ask if angels exist. This rule combined with the principles shows that they do exist; and to give examples of this proof by mixing the principles, let us go back to some things we said in part 8, section 1, chapter 1 about goodness. At the beginning of this chapter, we say that goodness is a reason for good to do or to produce good, and as it is great in greatness, there is a dual reason for good to produce great good, and divine wisdom knows this because it is good and great. Hence, as divine will is equal in greatness to divine goodness, wisdom etc. it wills that there be angels, and therefore angels exist.

20. In #4 of said chapter, we say that goodness is knowable to wisdom. Divine goodness is knowable and as such it is lovable to the full magnitude of its knowability and lovability; consequently, its act is knowable and lovable, and so is its effect, namely the angels; therefore, angels exist because they are a great and good effect, indeed the greatest and best effect that can exist among created beings. And if angels did not exist, knowing the effect of divine goodness would be a mere possibility, or something potential that the divine will does not want to become actual, which is impossible and contrary to the lovability of the effect of God's goodness, therefore etc.

21. In #5 of said chapter we say that goodness is loved by the will etc. Indeed, if angels exist, then the entire universe is perfectly complete. In the universe we have inanimate bodies like stones, animate bodies like plants, men, lions, and then there is spirit joined to a body, or the rational soul, so that we must also have spirit that is higher and closer to God because it is not joined to a body, and this is known to divine wisdom. If there were no angels or spirits that are not joined to bodies, then the divine will would prevent them from existing because it would not want them to exist. This would be contrary to the great action of divine goodness in things above but not in things below, which is impossible and contrary to the knowability of divine wisdom, and so we have proved, with reference to higher causes, that angels do exist.

22. We proved with three reasons that angels exist, which is sufficient here for the sake of brevity. We showed that the mixture of principles is a subject matter where the artist can discover many things at will and apply them to the issue at hand.

23. With the first species of rule C we ask what an angel is. We answer with the first species that an angel is the creature most similar to God because it is a spirit not joined to a body, who can act upon things below without using any physical organs and so forth.

24. With the second species of rule C we ask what innate, natural and co-essential things an angel has. We answer that it has its innate constitutive parts, like its innate goodness, greatness etc. with the exception of contrariety, which is not an innate quality of angels. As an angel has its innate goodness with its natural bonifier, bonifiable and bonifying, and as it has greatness along with the other principles, it also has its innate actions and passions. With its actions it acts both inwardly and outwardly, and with its innate passions it inwardly receives what comes from outside, as when it receives peregrine intelligibilities in its own innate intelligibility.

25. With the third species of rule C we ask what an angel is in other things. We answer that it is active and passive when it acts upon things below with understanding and loving etc. The angel’s power carries out the desires of its will while its intellect understands them and its memory remembers them; and all this proceeds without any intervening succession and without any phantasma, but with the help of the divine goodness, greatness etc. received in God's close presence from which the angel passionately receives causal influences; and this passion is the angel's salvation and perfection. To the contrary, an evil angel suffers passions from outside when it is unable to commit sinful deeds, and it suffers the most intense passions when it is void of its final purpose and empty of divine grace.

26. With the fourth species of rule C we ask what an angel has in other things. We answer that an angel has power in things below whereby it acts without using touch, sight, hearing or imagination. It has this power due to its presence in the things in which it exists in the same way that a soul joined to a body has power over the lower faculties because it is joined to them. Good angels also have glory in God and in the other holy angels, whereas evil angels have suffering, but it would take too long to enumerate all these things here.

27. With the first species of rule D we ask what an angel originates from. We answer that it exists on its own and does not derive from anything else, so that its innate goodness, greatness etc. constitute its own indissoluble innate principles and so that its essence is permanent and incorruptible. Nonetheless, we say that God created it.

28. With the second species of rule D we ask what an angel consists of. We answer that an angel consists of its own innate principles, namely its natural goodness, greatness etc. Each principle has a triple presence in the angel: goodness has its bonificative, bonifiable and bonifying, and greatness has its magnificative, magnifiable and magnifying etc. These principles are essentially different so that an angel is composed of its goodness, greatness etc. as well as of all its "tives", namely the bonificative, magnificative etc. that constitute one common form in the angel with which it is active, and of all its "ables", namely its bonifiable, magnifiable etc. that constitute one common matter with which it is passive. All its "ings" such as bonifying, magnifying etc. constitute one common act with which it causes intrinsic acts, and all three unite and compose its substance spiritually, independently from any corporeal matter.

29. With the third species of rule D we ask to whom an angel belongs. We answer that it belongs to God because it is God's creature; but a good angel belongs to God with blessings, glory and glorification whereas an evil angel belongs to God with contradiction, pain and sorrow.

30. With the first species of rule E we ask why angels exist. We answer that an angel consists of its natural principles as we said above in the second species of rule D. As the principles combine with each other, they necessarily compose one common being just as the joining of a soul to a body must compose a man and the joining of the elementative to the vegetative must compose a vegetal being.

31. With the second species of rule E we ask why angels exist. We answer that angels exist for the ultimate purpose of understanding, loving, remembering and honouring God. In addition, they exist to complete the universe, because without angels, a part of the universe would be empty, as we proved above in rule B #21.

32. With rule F we ask about the quantity of an angel. We answer that an angel has the quantity that the being of its essence has; its being has continuous quantity inasmuch as it is one substance, and it has discrete quantities because its composition consists of many principles. The second species of rule D, which asks what an angel consists of, shows that this is true.

33. With rule G we ask what qualities an angel has. We answer that an angel has two kinds of qualities, namely innate proper qualities, and appropriated qualities that are not innate to it. What we call proper qualities are its own constitutive, natural and substantial goodness, greatness etc. The angel’s acquired goodness, greatness, justice etc. are what we call appropriated qualities. In an evil angel, the appropriated qualities are malice, envy, iniquity etc.

34. With rule H we ask about time and angels. We say that an angel exists in time because it has a beginning in time without which it could not begin, and this is because something that is and was not cannot exist without time. In addition, an angel exists in time through its participation in aeviternity without any succession or movement; but when it acts externally, it acts in different "nows" when it does on Sunday what it did on Saturday, and it exists at one time when it is in Rome during the day, and at another time when it is in Paris at night. However, when it leaves Rome and arrives in Paris, it travels without any movement or succession; just as it needs no eyes to see colours, so it needs neither movement nor succession to travel, but it can be wherever it wants to be.

35. With rule I we inquire about angels and locus. We answer that an angel exists in a locus because it was created in a locus, but it does not occupy space in its locus because a locus cannot be occupied without lines, angles and figures, things of which all angels are completely independent. It is in a locus, because when it is in one place, it is not in another place. It exists in the locus where it acts, it cannot act in a locus without being present in it, and this is because it acts with its essence and without any organs.

36. With the first rule K we ask how an angel exists and how it acts. We answer that an angel derives its mode of existence from the composition of its principles as shown in the second species of rule D, #28. In addition, it has a way of acting with its principles whereby it causes outward acts by causing bonified being with its goodness, empowered being with its power and so on with the other principles.

37. With the second rule K we ask what an angel exists and acts with. We answer that it exists and acts with the aggregate of its own natural principles, as shown in the second species of rule D, #28. As it acts with them, it understands with its intellect, loves with its will, remembers with its memory, and if it is good, it bonifies with its goodness, and empowers with its power etc. To the contrary, an evil angel perverts its understanding, remembering and loving along with the acts of its other principles. An angel acts inwardly and outwardly with its principles so that its act causes what is inside to exist outside, just as a man mentally gives rise to the words he utters outwardly.