The perpetuity of agency (* is an ambiguous expression that may refer to the perpetuity of specific agency, the perpetuity of agency in the *) (1) unqualified sense, or the perpetuity of (2) universal agency. It is well known that the perpetuity of universal agency—which would mean the perpetuity of (3) all effects—is a position that no rational person maintains. As for the perpetuity of specific agency in relation to a specific effect, they have no evidence whatsoever for it. Rather, rational proofs negate it, just as it is negated by (4) revelational proofs.

As for the perpetuity of agency in the unqualified sense, this does not establish their position; it merely establishes the error of those negationists among the theologians and philosophers who opposed them. The falsity of one position does not entail the soundness of the [other position] (5), unless these are the only two possible positions. If there is a third position, the soundness of either of the first two does not necessarily follow—especially when that third position is precisely what rational and transmitted proofs necessitate!

The point here is that both (6) factions that held the celestial spheres to be eternal are heretical, whether or not they affirmed that attributes and acts subsist in the Lord. Although these philosophers differ among themselves in their degrees of error and correctness in the divine sciences, their rebuttal is valid (7) only insofar as it is directed against (8) the innovations introduced by certain theologians, (* who attributed them to the religion.