Question Three of Chapter Three of the Second Decade
To which hierarchy of angels it belongs to guard human beings
It is asked whether it belongs to the angels of all three hierarchies to guard human beings.
To this it is answered negatively, for not all the angels of the three hierarchies are sent into ministry.
For in Daniel, chapter 7, it is set down that thousands of thousands of angels ministered to God, and ten times a hundred thousand stood before him, after the similitude of those who serve some king. We see that some of these hear the king’s commands immediately and never withdraw from his sight, while announcing the king’s commands to others so that they may execute them in the administration of cities; and those to whom such an announcement is made are said to be sent.
In this way, some angels are said always to stand before God, because they receive the secrets of the divine ministries immediately from God; others, however, are said to be sent, namely those who are instructed concerning the secrets by those who stand before him.
And because not all have power, according to Dionysius, to behold the divine secrets immediately in the divine essence itself, but only the superior angels, to whom it is proper to be illuminated immediately by God, therefore only the superior angels of the four orders are said always to stand before him and not to be sent, according to Thomas, First Part, question 112, article 4, in the body of the article.
And those whom he says receive the divine illuminations immediately and perfectly from God, and cooperate with God in the illumination and leading of others toward God, are properly said to stand before him.
And concerning those who stand before him, that saying of Dionysius in The Celestial Hierarchy is understood: “Those superior ranks never withdraw from the innermost things, because they have nothing that pertains to the employment of an exterior office.”
But the others, belonging to the five lower orders, are said to be sent outwardly into ministry in order to perform diverse ministries concerning us or some corporeal creature. These things can be known from the names that signify the properties of the angels.
For angels and archangels are named from announcing, while virtues and powers are named with reference to some act of a prince. And it also belongs, as Gregory says, to exist as the first among other agents.
And on account of these things Gregory says in Book XII of the Moralia that there are more angels who minister than who stand before God.
For this reason the philosophers also posited two kinds of movers of the spheres. Some of these possess participated and determinate conditions, and Avicenna calls these ministering angels. Others he calls separated beings, which they name intelligences, in which there are simple and universal forms; and the same Avicenna calls these assisting angels.
Nor does that saying of Isaiah, chapter 6, constitute an objection, where it is said that one of the seraphim flew to Isaiah, because he was not one of the seraphim, but one of the lesser angels exercising the office of the seraphim.
And when the Apostle says in Hebrews, chapter 1, “All are ministering spirits, sent into ministry,” it is said that sending is twofold: exterior and interior.
Exterior sending occurs when they really descend to us to furnish some ministry concerning corporeal things of this sort; and according to this sending, not all are sent, but only the five orders, as has been said.
The other is interior sending, which is nothing other than a certain illumination from a superior angel to an inferior one, which takes place for our sake; and in this way all are said to be sent.
These things are from Thomas and from the theologians.