A. The Opinion held by Peter Lombard

11. In this second question the Master is not held to because, at the end of the fifth distinction, he approves more the opinion that says, “they were blessed before they merited it, and they did not merit blessedness itself.” But he says “they merited it in a way by submission paid to the elect” (as a soldier merits a horse by serving well on it in war).

12. For this opinion is not held to:

First, because if man had not been created, then the angel would not have had blessedness; for he would not have had intrinsic merit when all merit by which it might be merited is removed - the act by which blessedness could be merited; but this seems unacceptable, because one angel does not depend on another in meriting, and much less on a man.a

a. a[Interpolation] Likewise, an intrinsic act is meritorious when the extrinsic act is removed; therefore the angels could merit through the intrinsic act.

13. Further, someone does not merit to receive a thing because he will use it well after he has received it; for then a man could merit grace, because God who gives it foresees that he will use it well - and then grace would not be grace, because it would come from merits (though from merits not present in fact but foreseen). Therefore the angel did not merit blessedness if he only had it because of a good use foreseen in him by his submission toward the elect

14. Further, then the state of blessedness would not be certain of itself; for although the world were in fact to come to an end, and thereby the number of submissions to be finite (those paid out to the elect by certain of the angels) - yet the world could last longer, enduring for a thousand years or however long; yet, not for this reason would the state of blessedness be less certain but - on this supposition - the certitude of merit would not be as great as the reward would be; therefore this reward ‘certain of itself’ does not necessarily correspond, because of the fact it is certain of itself, to the merit ‘which is not certain’.