attributes of action, by either deficiency or perfection. If one may claim that either of the two falls into neither category, the same claim may be made for the other. Otherwise, the answer applies equally to both.”
As for the “philosophers,” they may be told: According to you, the eternal is not indwelt by temporally originated events, yet it has always been a locus of such events. Thus, in your view, eternity does not preclude this. Indeed, you regard this as the “possible perfection” beyond which no other is possible. They deny it of the Necessary Existent only because they think He is not characterized by it. The invalidity of their position on this has already been indicated, particularly since whatever is the locus of successive temporally originated events cannot derive its existence from an eternal, complete cause that necessarily produces its effect. For the effect of a complete, necessitating cause—or any part of that effect—cannot come after the cause. Whenever any part of its effect comes after it, it is a cause of that effect potentially, not actually; and its becoming an actual cause requires another cause.
If it is He Himself who brings it from potentiality into actuality, then there is something potential in Him, and He is the one who actualizes it. This entails that He is receptive or active, which they disallow because they hold attributes—which they call composition—to be impossible. If someone other than Him brings Him into actuality, that is necessarily impossible, as all agree, because it contradicts necessary existence and entails “simultaneous circular dependence” and an “infinite regress of efficient causes.”
If He became the agent producing a particular thing after not having been its agent, He could not be an eternal, complete cause. Thus, the eternity of anything in the world would entail His being a complete cause from eternity. That, in turn, would entail that nothing temporally originated could proceed from Him, whether through an intermediary or without one. This contradicts what is observed.