a by Hierocles and Simplicius, and other of the latter Pagan writers, sometimes used indifferently as synonymous); viz. That these demons or angels are not pure, abstract, incorporeal substances, devoid of vital union with any matter; but that they consist of something incorporeal, and something corporeal, joined together: so that, as Hierocles writeth of them, τὸ μὲν ἄνω αὐτῶν ἀσώματος οὐσία, τὸ δὲ κάτω σωματική, They have a superior and an inferior part in them; and their superior part is an incorporeal substance; their inferior corporeal. In a word, that they all, as well as men, consist of soul and body, united together, there being only this difference betwixt them, that the souls of these demons or angels never descend down to such gross and terrestrial bodies, as human souls do; but are always clothed either with aërial or ethereal ones. And, indeed, this Pythagoric cabala was universal, concerning all understanding beings, besides the supreme Deity, or trinity of Divine hypostases; that is, concerning all the Pagan inferior gods; that they are no other than souls vitally united to some bodies, and so made up of incorporeal and corporeal substance, joined together. For thus Hierocles plainly expresseth himself in the forecited place; λoγικὴ οὐσία παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ εἰς τὸ εἶναι οὕτω παρῆλθεν, ὡς μήτε τὸ σῶμα εἶναι αὐτὴν μήτε ἄνευ σώματος, &c. The rational nature (in general) was so produced by God, as that it neither is body, nor yet without body; but an incorporeal substance, having a cognate or congenite body.--Which same thing was elsewhere also thus declared by him, tσrı yap a Comment. in Aurea Pythagor. Carmina, sect, 67, p. 210, πᾶς μὲν ὁ λογικὸς διάκοσμος, μετὰ τοῦ συμπε p. 17. [p. 19.] φυκότος αὐτῷ ἀφθάρτου σώματος, εἰκὼν ὅλου TOU Enuovoyou, the whole rational order, or rank of being, with its congenite immortal body, is the image of the whole Deity, the maker thereof.Where, by Hierocles's rational nature or essence, and by the whole rational order, is plainly meant all understanding beings created, of which he acknowledgeth only these three kinds and degrees; first, the immortal gods, which are to him the animated: stars; secondly, demons, angels, or heroes; and thirdly, men, called also by him xarax@óvioi daiμovεç, terrestrial demons ;-he pronouncing of them all, that they are alike incorporeal substances, together with a congenite immortal body; and that there is no other understanding nature than such, besides the Supreme Deity, which is complete in itself, without the conjunction of any body. So that, according to Hierocles, the ancient Pythagoric cabala acknowledged no such entities at all, as those intelligences of Aristotle, and the noes of some high-flown Platonists (that is, perfectly unbodied minds); and much less any rank of henades, or unities, superior to these noes. And, indeed, such particular created beings as these, could neither have sense or cognizance of any corporeal thing existing without them (sense, as Aristotle hath observed, resulting from a complication of soul and body, as weaving results from: a complication of the weaver and weaving instruments): nor yet could they act upon any part of the corporeal universe. So that these immovable beings would be but like adamantine statues, and things unconnected with the rest of the world, having no commerce with any thing at all but the Deity; a kind of insignificant metaphysical gazers or contemplators. Whereas the Deity, though it be not properly ʊxǹ ¿ykóσmos, a mundane soul,such as, together with the corporeal world, as its body, makes up one complete and entire animal; yet because the whole world proceeded from it, and perpetually dependeth on it, therefore must it needs take cognizance of all, and act upon all in it; upon which account it hath been styled by these Pythagoreans, ʊx τερкóσjuos, (not a mundane, but) a supra-mundane soul. Wherefore this ancient Pythagoric cabala seems to be agreeable to reason also, that God should be the only incorporeal being in this sense, such whose essence is complete, and life entire within itself, without the conjunction or appendage of any body; but that all other incorporeal substances created should be completed and made up by a vital union with matter, so that the whole of them is neither corporeal nor incorporeal, but a complication of both; and all the highest and divinest things in the universe, next to the Supreme Deity, are animals consisting of soul and body united together. And after this manner did the ancient assertors of incorporeal substance, as unextended, decline that absurdity objected against them, of the illocality of all finite created spirits, that these being incorporeal substances, vitally clothed with some body, may, by reason of the locality and mobility of their respective bodies, truly be said to be here and there, and to move from place to place. Wherefore we are here also to shew what agreement or disagreement there is betwixt this part of the Pythagoric cabala and the Christian philoso phy. And, first, it hath been already intimated, that the very same doctrine with this of the ancient Pythagoreans was plainly asserted by Origen. Thus, in his first book, Peri Archon, c. vi. "Solius Dei (saith he) id est Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, naturæ id proprium est, ut sine materiali substantia, et absque ulla corporeæ adjectionis societate, intelligatur subsistere." It is proper to the nature of God only, that is, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to subsist without material substance, or the society of any corporeal adjection. Again, l. ii. c. ii. "Materialem substantiam opinione quidem et intellectu solum separari, a naturis rationalibus, et pro ipsis, vel post ipsas effectam videri; sed nunquam sine ipsa eas vel vixisse, vel vivere: solius namque trinitatis incorporea vita existere recte putabitur." Material substance in rational natures is indeed separable from them in conception and understanding, it seeming to be made for them, and in order of nature after them; but it is not really and actually separable from the same; nor did they ever, nor can they, live without it: for a life perfectly incorporeal is rightly deemed to belong to the trinity only. So also, in his fourth book, and his Anacephalæosis, Semper erunt rationabiles naturæ, quæ indigent indumento corporeo. Semper ergo erit natura corporea, cujus indumentis uti necesse est rationabiles creaturas. Nisi quis putet se posse ostendere, quod natura rationabilis absque ullo corpore vitam degere possit. Sed quam difficile id sit, et quam prope impossibile intellectui nostro, in superioribus ostendimus." There always will be rational natures, which stand in need of a corporeal indument. 66 a Wherefore there will be always corporeal nature, as a necessary indument or clothing for these rational creatures. Unless any one could shew, that it is possible for the rational nature to live without a body. Which how difficult and almost impossible it is to our understanding, hath been already declared.-Aquinas affirmeth Origen, in this doctrine of his, to have followed the opinion of certain ancient philosophers; and undoubtedly it was the old Pythagoric cabala, which the learned Origen here adhered to; that ʼn λoyin ovcía, as it is in Hierocles, and πᾶς ὁ λογικὸς διάκοσμος, the rational nature made by God; that is, all created understanding beings are neither body, nor yet without body, but have always a cognate or congenite body, as their vehicle or indument. So that angels or demons, as well according to Origen as Hierocles, are all of them incorporeal substances, not naked and abstract, but clothed with certain subtile bodies, or animals compounded and made up of soul and body together. b Wherefore Huëtius, and other learned men, seem not well to have understood Origen here, but to have confounded two different opinions together, when they suppose him to have asserted angels, and all understanding creatures, not to have bodies, but to be bodies, and nothing else; and, consequently, that there is no incorporeal substance at all besides the Deity: whereas Origen only affirmeth, that nothing besides the Trinity could subsist and live alone, “absque ulla corporeæ adjectionis societate," without the society of any corporeal adjection;-and that the a In Summa Theolog. part i. Quæst. li. p. 1. |