of anything's being exceeds the mode of the knower, it must
result that the knowledge of the object is above the nature of the
knower. Now the mode of being of things is manifold. For some things
have being only in this one individual matter; as all bodies. But
others are subsisting natures, not residing in matter at all, which,
however, are not their own existence, but receive it; and these are
the incorporeal beings, called angels. But to God alone does it belong
to be His own subsistent being. Therefore what exists only in
individual matter we know naturally, forasmuch as our soul, whereby we
know, is the form of certain matter. Now our soul possesses two
cognitive powers; one is the act of a corporeal organ, which naturally
knows things existing in individual matter; hence sense knows only the
singular. But there is another kind of cognitive power in the soul,
called the intellect; and this is not the act of any corporeal organ.
Wherefore the intellect naturally knows natures which exist only in
individual matter; not as they are in such individual matter, but
according as they are abstracted therefrom by the considering act of
the intellect; hence it follows that through the intellect we can
understand these objects as universal; and this is beyond the power of
the sense. Now the angelic intellect naturally knows natures that are
not in matter; but this is beyond the power of the intellect of our
soul in the state of its present life, united as it is to the body. It
follows therefore that to know self-subsistent being is natural to the
divine intellect alone; and this is beyond the natural power of any
created intellect; for no creature is its own existence, forasmuch as
its existence is participated. Therefore the created intellect cannot
see the essence of God, unless God by His grace unites Himself to the
created intellect, as an object made intelligible to it.

Reply Obj. 1: This mode of knowing God is natural to an
angel--namely, to know Him by His own likeness refulgent in the angel
himself. But to know God by any created similitude is not to know the
essence of God, as was shown above (A. 2). Hence it does not follow
that an angel can know the essence of God by his own power.

Reply Obj. 2: The angelic intellect is not defective, if defect be
taken to mean privation, as if it were without anything which it
ought to have. But if the defect be taken negatively, in that sense
every creature is defective, when