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12. Lo, are they not full of their ancient way, who say to us,
"What was God doing before He made heaven and earth? For if,"
say they, "He were unoccupied, and did nothing, why does He not
for ever also, and from henceforth, cease from working, as in times
past He did? For if any new motion has arisen in God, and a new
will, to form a creature which He had never before formed, however
can that be a true eternity where there ariseth a will which was not
before? For the will of God is not a creature, but before the
creature; because nothing could be created unless the will of the
Creator were before it. The will of God, therefore, pertaineth to
His very Substance. But if anything hath arisen in the Substance of
God which was not before, that Substance is not truly called
eternal. But if it was the eternal will of God that the creature
should be, why was not the creature also from eternity?"
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