seven arguments:

The first: Past events admit of increase and decrease, and whatever does so has a beginning. Therefore, past events have a beginning.

The first premise is established in four ways:

First: Past events up to the time of the Flood are fewer than those up to our time by the number of events occurring between the Flood and our time.

Second: Past revolutions must be either even or odd in number. Whichever they are, their number is less than the number immediately above it.

Third: The Moon’s returns are undoubtedly fewer than those of Saturn and Jupiter.

Fourth: If past revolutions were infinite, the human bodies that have existed in the past would be infinite, and human souls would therefore be infinite, since transmigration is impossible. Thus, the human souls existing in our time would be infinite, since human souls must continue to exist. Yet the number of souls existing in our time is infinite, since human souls must continue to exist. But the number of souls existing in our time admits of increase