2p10csc.md (2166B)
1 Everyone must surely admit, that nothing can be or be 2 conceived without God. All men agree that God is the one and 3 only cause of all things, both of their essence and of their 4 existence; that is, God is not only the cause of things in 5 respect to their being made (secundum fieri), but also in respect 6 to their being (secundum esse). 7 8 At the same time many assert, that that, without which a 9 thing cannot be nor be conceived, belongs to the essence of that 10 thing; wherefore they believe that either the nature of God 11 appertains to the essence of created things, or else that created 12 things can be or be conceived without God; or else, as is more 13 probably the case, they hold inconsistent doctrines. I think the 14 cause for such confusion is mainly, that they do not keep to the 15 proper order of philosophic thinking. The nature of God, which 16 should be reflected on first, inasmuch as it is prior both in the 17 order of knowledge and the order of nature, they have taken to be 18 last in the order of knowledge, and have put into the first place 19 what they call the objects of sensation; hence, while they are 20 considering natural phenomena, they give no attention at all to 21 the divine nature, and, when afterwards they apply their mind to 22 the study of the divine nature, they are quite unable to bear in 23 mind the first hypotheses, with which they have overlaid the 24 knowledge of natural phenomena, inasmuch as such hypotheses are 25 no help towards understanding the divine nature. So that it is 26 hardly to be wondered at, that these persons contradict 27 themselves freely. 28 29 However, I pass over this point. My intention here was only 30 to give a reason for not saying, that that, without which a thing 31 cannot be or be conceived, belongs to the essence of that thing: 32 individual things cannot be or be conceived without God, yet God 33 does not appertain to their essence. I said that "I considered 34 as belonging to the essence of a thing that, which being given, 35 the thing is necessarily given also, and which being removed, the 36 thing is necessarily removed also; or that without which the 37 thing, and which itself without the thing can neither be nor be 38 conceived." (II. Def. ii.) 39 40