XV. What of that, they will say perhaps; do
not the Greeks also believe in one Godhead, as their more advanced
philosophers declare? And with us Humanity is one, namely the
entire race; but yet they have many gods, not One, just as there are
many men. But in this case the common nature has a unity which is
only conceivable in thought; and the individuals are parted from one
another very far indeed, both by time and by dispositions and by
power. For we are not only compound beings, but also contrasted
beings, both with one another and with ourselves; nor do we remain
entirely the same for a single day, to say nothing of a whole lifetime,
but both in body and in soul are in a perpetual state of flow and
change. And perhaps the same may be said of the Angels “Similarly it is
clear concerning the Angels, that they have a being incapable of
change, so far as pertains to their nature, with a capacity of change
as to choice, and of intelligence and affections and places, in their
own manner” (S. Thomas Aq., Summa, I., x., 5). and the whole of that superior nature which
is second to the Trinity alone; although they are simple in some
measure and more fixed in good, owing to their nearness to the highest
Good.