If the divinity reason, we are forced to wonder what are the principles
of this reasoning; for, if it were objected that these principles are
derived from some other reasoning, we shall, nevertheless, in the
process of ascending, have to find something anterior to all reasoning;
namely, a point of departure. Now from whence are the principles of
reasoning derived? Either from the senses or the intelligence. (Could
the divinity have made use of principles derived from the senses?)
(When God created) there were no senses in existence yet; therefore
(the divinity must have reasoned) from principles derived from
Intelligence. But if the premises were conceptions of Intelligence,
then it was impossible for knowledge and reasoning to have some
sense-thing as object, as reasoning that has intelligible principles
and conclusion could not result in producing a conception of the
sense-(world). Therefore the foresight which presided over the creation
of a living being or of a whole world could not have been the result of
reasoning.[69]