On Necessity
XI. On Necessity
1. O Being who art necessary
since You consist in infinity and eternity!
May You be known, loved and honoured.
2. It is necessary for the infinite to infinitise,
just as it is necessary for perfection to perfect,
without which perfection one would be unable to sustain oneself.
3. Were eternity not to exist,
it would necessarily follow
that whatever exists would have been self-initiated.
4. It is necessary that in God there exist power,
and that in will may be known
the lover, the loveable and love.
5. In God power, wisdom and will
necessarily constitute a single nature,
so that He may be infinite in <His> unity.[1]
6. It is necessary that in God His operation
be as great as His existence,
so that in Him there may obtain <the act of> deifying.
7. <The acts of > concording, differentiating and equalling
are necessary in God,
so that He may not be idle.
8. God has no need of anything apart from Himself,
since He is perfect in every goodness,
for within Himself He possesses operation and <the> operated.
9. God is necessary to us,
for, in His absence, created being would not be sustained,
nor led towards any goal.
10. It is necessary for man to love,
know, serve and honour God,
in Whom there fittingly resides mercy and forgiveness.
[1] Cf. n. 4, Ch. IX, § 4.