Section XIII: The Confirmation of the Good Angels in Goodness, § 62
SECTION XIII: ON THE CONFIRMATION OF THE GOOD ANGELS IN GOODNESS
§ 62. Just as the evil angels have fallen without hope of restoration, so also the good angels, because they persevered in the truth, were confirmed in goodness so that they now cannot fall. For this reason they are called God’s “elect angels” (1 Tim. 5:21), “who always see the face of the Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10). They are the “holy angels” (Mark 8:38) and “the angels of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). The elect will at some time be “equal to angels” (Luke 20:36). However, this confirmation in goodness neither diminished nor removed their free will. In fact, it has made the freedom [of their will] more perfect because their will is more free. It can neither depart nor fall from goodness, as Augustine proves beautifully (Enchirid., ch. 105). Prosper writes correctly (De vita contempl., ch. 3): “God’s just judgment brought about a necessary perseverance that is both voluntary and blessed.”
The merits of the angels.
§ 63. Scotus declares boldly (Sent. 2, dist. 5, q. 2), as does Thomas ([ST,] part 1, q. 64, art. 4), that the angels earned their blessedness, or confirmation in goodness. However, Lombard argues (Sent. 2, dist. 5) that “the reward preceded merit in their case.” What is required for the “conditions of merit” in the proper sense will be explained in its own commonplace [On Good Works (Commonplace XX), § 131], where it will be shown that a mere creature can earn nothing with his obedience, which is already owed to the Creator beforehand. Therefore their confirmation in goodness is not the adequate and due compensation for any merit, but the free gift of God, who rewards beyond what is deserved.
The argument of the Scholastics is: everything reaches its goal through effort, which effort either accomplishes its goal, when the goal does not surpass the might of that which strives for the sake of the goal, or [is] meritorious, when the goal surpasses the might of that which strives for the sake of the goal. In this case the goal is awaited from the gift of another. But now, ultimate blessedness surpasses the angelic nature. Therefore they received it by merit.
To this argument we respond that it is an insufficient description of the meritorious act to say that its goal surpasses the might of that which strives. Certainly, more things are required for merit, as we shall explain in the question: Are the good works of the regenerate meritorious of eternal glory? [On Good Works (Commonplace XX), §§ 126–30].
§ 64. Bonaventure argues: “The angels merit something when they minister to us men because they stoop down to us out of their extreme generosity and because their ministry is not the act of one who has finished the race, but of one still on the way.”
However, Biel asserts more correctly (Sent. 2, dist. 5, q. 1) that their acts of obedience superabound from the perfection of the blessedness that they have, like the act of delighting in God in the case of the blessed. Scotus proves this with the following argument: “If man was not going to be created, the angels would not have had blessedness. However, this is unbefitting, for one angel does not depend on another in merit, much less on a human.” Also: “If a man deserves a gift through the fact that he intends to make good use of the gift, then a man could earn grace, and then grace would not be grace.” (Note that Scotus clearly puts merit and grace in opposition to each other. We shall use this observation in our article On Justification [Commonplace XIX].)
§ 65. The Scholastics laboriously investigate that in which the angels’ confirmation in goodness consists. They say that the beatific act, which consists in the clear vision and perfect love of God, conflicts in form with every act of sin; that this beatific act of the angels depends on their being created and preserved by God alone; and that this cannot be hindered by any created power. They also say that, since the act is in the will of an angel, that will cannot produce an act of sinning, and that such a confirmation in goodness consists in this: “While God preserves that beatific act, a created will cannot produce an act contrary to it.”