IV. Against the Conclusion of the First Opinion in itself

58. But against the conclusion of the said opinion in itself [n.11], whether it is sustained in the first way or the second, I argue as follows:

The ‘now’ of aeviternity - which is posited as one absolute after another according to the first way of sustaining the opinion [nn.48-51] - is either the same as actual existence or different from it. If the same, then it is plain that as actual existence remains the same so also does the ‘now’ of aeviternity. If different -to the contrary, for then, just as existence can be posited in being an infinite number of times, so it seems the same absolute ‘now’ of aeviternity (different from the being of existence) can be posited frequently in being, and so the same ‘now’ of aeviternity can be conserved just as the same existence can.

59. If it be said that ‘if it is posited frequently in being, then it is posited in diverse nows’ - on the contrary, if the absolute ‘now’, different from the being of existence, can be posited frequently in being and in different nows, there will still be the same reason for its being able to be conserved in each of those ‘nows’; and then there will be a process to infinity or a stand will be made in this, that just as existence is conserved the same, so any absolute in an angel will be able to be conserved the same.

60. Likewise, in the following question [nn.122-123] it will be proved that there is no other absolute in an angel besides his existence, and so there cannot be identity in existence and succession in some other absolute; and, whether it is this way or that, a new respect does not seem able to exist without newness in the foundation or the term, for a respect consequent to extremes - such that, when either is posited, the respect follows from the nature of the extremes - cannot be new (as it seems) without newness in one or other extreme; but, for you, there is nothing new in the foundation of this respect - nor in the term, as is plain.

61. Likewise, this respect is the same as the foundation, as is plain from the preceding distinction [2 d.1 n.260]; therefore this respect cannot be other while the foundation exists the same.