ime between
every two instants, so far as time is continuous, as it is proved
_Phys._ vi, text. 2. But in the angels, who are not subject to the
heavenly movement, which is primarily measured by continuous time,
time is taken to mean the succession of their mental acts, or of
their affections. So the first instant in the angels is understood to
respond to the operation of the angelic mind, whereby it introspects
itself by its evening knowledge because on the first day evening is
mentioned, but not morning. This operation was good in them all. From
such operation some of them were converted to the praise of the Word
by their morning knowledge while others, absorbed in themselves,
became night, "swelling up with pride," as Augustine says (Gen. ad
lit. iv, 24). Hence the first act was common to them all; but in
their second they were separated. Consequently they were all of them
good in the first instant; but in the second the good were set apart
from the wicked.
_______________________

SEVENTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 63, Art. 7]

Whether the Highest Angel Among Those Who Sinned Was the Highest of
All?

Objection 1: It would seem that the highest among the angels who
sinned was not the highest of all. For it is stated (Ezech. 28:14):
"Thou wast a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in
the holy mountain of God." Now the order of the Cherubim is under
the order of the Seraphim, as Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. vi, vii).
Therefore, the highest angel among those who sinned was not the
highest of all.

Obj. 2: Further, God made intellectual nature in order that it
might attain to beatitude. If therefore the highest of the angels
sinned, it follows that the Divine ordinance was frustrated in the
noblest creature which is unfitting.

Obj. 3: Further, the more a subject is inclined towards anything, so
much the less can it fall away from it. But the higher an angel is,
so much the more is he inclined towards God. Therefore so much the
less can he turn away from God by sinning. And so it seems that the
angel who sinned was not the highest of all, but one of the lower
angels.

_On the contrary,_ Gregory (Hom. xxxiv in Ev.) says that the chief
angel who sinned, "being set over all the hosts of angels, surpassed
them in brightness, and was by comparison the most illustrious among
them."

_I answer that,_ Two things have to be considered in sin, namely, the
proneness to sin, and the motive for sinning. If, then, in t