fall into an absolute identity
of being.

This absence of all potentiality in God obliges Him to be IMMUTABLE.
He is actuality, through and through. Were there anything potential
about Him, He would either lose or gain by its actualization, and
either loss or gain would contradict his perfection. He cannot,
therefore, change. Furthermore, He is IMMENSE, BOUNDLESS; for could He
be outlined in space, He would be composite, and this would contradict
his indivisibility. He is therefore OMNIPRESENT, indivisibly there, at
every point of space. He is similarly wholly present at every point of
time--in other words ETERNAL. For if He began in time, He would need a
prior cause, and that would contradict his aseity. If He ended it
would contradict his necessity. If He went through any succession, it
would contradict his immutability.

He has INTELLIGENCE and WILL and every other creature- perfection, for
we have them, and effectus nequit superare causam. In Him, however,
they are absolutely and eternally in act, and their OBJECT, since God
can be bounded by naught that is external, can primarily be nothing
else than God himself. He knows himself, then, in one eternal
indivisible act, and wills himself with an infinite self-pleasure.[295]
Since He must of logical necessity thus love and will himself, He
cannot be called "free" ad intra, with the freedom of contrarieties
that characterizes finite creatures. Ad extra, however, or with
respect to his creation, God is free. He cannot NEED to create, being
perfect in being and in happiness already. He WILLS to create, then,
by an absolute freedom.

[295] For the scholastics the facultas appetendi embraces feeling,
desire, and will.

Being thus a substance endowed with intellect and will and freedom, God
is a PERSON; and a LIVING person also, for He is both object and
subject of his own activity, and to be this distinguishes the living
from the lifeless. He is thus absolutely SELF-SUFFICIENT: his
SELF-KNOWLEDGE and SELF-LOVE are both of them infinite and adequate,
and need no extraneous conditions to perfect them.

He is OMNISCIENT, for in knowing himself as Cause He knows all creature
things and events by implication. His knowledge is previsive, for He
is present to all time. Even our free acts are known beforehand to
Him, for otherwise his wisdom would admit of successive moments of
enrichment, and this would contradict his immutability. He is
OMNIPOTENT fo