If it is said, ‘Because it belongs to Him and proceeds from Him,’ the reply is: ‘The acts of will likewise belong to Him and proceed from Him.’

If it is said, ‘The eternal will belongs to Him in His eternity,’ the reply is: ‘The newly originated will likewise belongs to Him in His eternity, because what came earlier in His existence, through an earlier act of will, necessitated in Him a later act of will. Thus He brought forth one creation after another through one act of will after another, necessitated in His wisdom by His successive acts of creation. His later act of will therefore followed necessarily from His earlier act of will, through the things He willed—and so on.’”

He said:

“To declare Him free of temporally originated will is like declaring Him free of eternal will, as regards His being a locus for either. Yet there is no basis for declaring Him free of this, as we shall discuss in the chapter on knowledge, when we ask concerning His knowledge: ‘Why does He know? And how does He know?’”

He said: “This, then, is one of the two views.” He said: “As for the view