Furthermore, whatever comes into being must have a cause. Individual instances can come into being because other things precede them that can serve as causes. But if the entire kind is supposed to have been nonexistent and then to have come into being, this would entail its coming into being without a cause requiring it to do so, which is impossible.

Moreover, concerning this “kind,” either He has always been capable of it, or He became capable after not having been so. If He was capable of it, its existence was possible, not impossible; thus, its nonexistence cannot be categorically asserted. If He was not capable of it, this would entail power coming into being without a cause, a change in power, and a transition from impossibility to possibility without a cause. Individual instances are different: a particular instance was impossible until something occurred that made it possible; or it was possible, but wisdom required its existence to follow those other things. As for the kind, if it is said to have come into being, no particular time could be singled out for this, since in absolute nonexistence no time can be conceived as distinguishable from another.

“Furthermore,” the kind is likewise possible for Him by virtue of His existence, and it depends on nothing beyond Him, whether proceeding from Him or from another. Whatever is possible and depends only on His essence must exist by virtue of His essence existing, as with His life, knowledge, power, and His other attributes. This establishes that these attributes must be eternal as a kind, and that the kind is inseparable from His essence, even if individual instances are said to come into being.

On this basis, it may be said that attributes which come into being do not subsist in His essence. That is, no kind of attribute that comes into being subsists in Him: speech is an attribute, and will is an attribute, but these attributes do not begin to exist in Him, nor does any kind among these attributes. Rather, He has always possessed speech and will, even if there come into being