Reply Obj. 2:  The active intellect is active only, and in no way passive.  But the will, and every appetitive power, is both mover and moved (De Anima iii, text. 54).  And therefore the comparison between them does not hold; for to be susceptible of habit belongs to that which is somehow in potentiality.

Reply Obj. 3:  The will from the very nature of the power is inclined to the good of the reason.  But because this good is varied in many ways, the will needs to be inclined, by means of a habit, to some fixed good of the reason, in order that action may follow more promptly. ________________________

SIXTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 50, Art. 6]

Whether There Are Habits in the Angels?

Objection 1:  It would seem that there are no habits in the angels.  For Maximus, commentator of Dionysius (Coel.  Hier. vii), says:  “It is not proper to suppose that there are intellectual (i.e. spiritual) powers in the divine intelligences (i.e. in the angels) after the manner of accidents, as in us:  as though one were in the other as in a subject:  for accident of any kind is foreign to them.”  But every habit is an accident.  Therefore there are no habits in the angels.

Obj. 2:  Further, as Dionysius says (Coel.  Hier. iv):  “The holy dispositions of the heavenly essences participate, above all other things, in God’s goodness.”  But that which is of itself (per se) is prior to and more powerful than that which is by another (per aliud).  Therefore the angelic essences are perfected of themselves unto conformity with God, and therefore not by means of habits.  And this seems to have been the reasoning of Maximus, who in the same passage adds:  “For if this were the case, surely their essence would not remain in itself, nor could it have been as far as possible deified of itself.”

Obj. 3:  Further, habit is a disposition (Metaph. v, text. 25).  But disposition, as is said in the same book, is “the order of that which has parts.”  Since, therefore, angels are simple substances, it seems that there are no dispositions and habits in them.

On the contrary, Dionysius says (Coel.  Hier. vii) that the angels of the first hierarchy are called:  “Fire-bearers and Thrones and Outpouring of Wisdom, by which is indicated the godlike nature of their habits.”

I answer that, Some have thought that there are no habits in the angels, and that whatever is said of them, is said essentially.  Whence Maximus, after the words which we have quoted, says:  “Their dispositions, and the powers which are in them, are essential, through the absence of matter in them.”  And Simplicius says the same in his Commentary on the Predicaments: “Wisdom which is in the soul is its habit:  but that which is in the intellect, is its substance.  For everything divine is sufficient of itself, and exists in itself.”