that one
creature can be helped or impeded by another. Wherefore it was
fitting that God should both allow man in the state of innocence to
be tempted by evil angels, and should cause him to be helped by good
angels. And by a special favor of grace, it was granted him that no
creature outside himself could harm him against his own will, whereby
he was able even to resist the temptation of the demon.

Reply Obj. 1: Above the human nature there is another that
admits of the possibility of the evil of fault: but there is not above
the angelic nature. Now only one that is already become evil through
sin can tempt by leading another into evil. Hence it was fitting that
by an evil angel man should be tempted to sin, even as according to
the order of nature he is moved forward to perfection by means of a
good angel. An angel could be perfected in good by something above
him, namely by God, but he could not thus be led into sin, because
according to James 1:13, "God is not a tempter of evils."

Reply Obj. 2: Just as God knew that man, through being
tempted, would fall into sin, so too He knew that man was able, by his
free will, to resist the tempter. Now the condition attaching to man's
nature required that he should be left to his own will, according to
Ecclus. 15:14, "God left" man "in the hand of his own counsel." Hence
Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xi, 4): "It seems to me that man would
have had no prospect of any special praise, if he were able to lead a
good life simply because there was none to persuade him to lead an
evil life; since both by nature he had the power, and in his power he
had the will, not to consent to the persuader."

Reply Obj. 3: An assault is penal if it be difficult to resist
it: but, in the state of innocence, man was able, without any
difficulty, to resist temptation. Consequently the tempter's assault
was not a punishment to man.
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 165, Art. 2]

Whether the Manner and Order of the First Temptation Was Fitting?

Objection 1: It would seem that the manner and order of the first
temptation was not fitting. For just as in the order of nature the
angel was above man, so was the man above the woman. Now sin came
upon man through an angel: therefore in like manner it should have
come upon the woman through the man; in other words the woman should
have been tempted by the man, and not the other way about.

Obj. 2: Further, the temptation of our fir