while the servant is also called by these names. Yet what you affirm of the Lord through these names is not like what you affirm of the servant. Therefore, say regarding His attributes what you likewise say regarding the realities denoted by His names.
If he says:
“I do not affirm the Most Beautiful Names for Him either. Rather, I maintain that they are metaphorical, or that they are names of some of the beings He brought into existence”—as is maintained by the extremist esotericists and philosophers—
he is told:
“You must nevertheless believe that He truly exists and subsists in Himself. A body, too, is an existent that subsists in itself, yet it is not like Him.”
If he says:
“I affirm nothing at all; rather, I deny the existence of the Necessary Existent,”
he is told:
“Sound reason necessarily recognizes that any existent is either necessary in itself or not necessary in itself; either pre-eternal and beginningless or originated, having come into being after not existing; either created and dependent upon a creator or uncreated and not dependent upon a creator; and either in need of something besides itself or independent of everything besides itself.
“What is not necessary in itself can exist only through that which is necessary in itself; what is originated can exist only through something pre-eternal; what is created can exist only through a creator; and what is needy can exist only through something that has no need of it. Thus, whichever of the two contradictory alternatives is assumed, it necessarily follows that there exists a being who is necessary in Himself, pre-eternal and beginningless, a Creator, and independent of everything besides Him, while everything besides Him is the opposite in these respects.
“Sensory perception and necessary knowledge establish that there is an originated existent which came into being after not existing. What is originated cannot be necessary in itself, pre-eternal and beginningless, the creator of everything besides itself, or independent of everything besides itself.
“It is therefore necessarily established that there are two existents: one independent and the other needy; one the Creator and the other created. They agree insofar as each is a thing that exists and is real. Indeed, if the originated thing is a body, each of them subsists in itself.”