Since He was not produced, we must suppose that He is the master of
His own being. Even if He were not master of His own being, and if,
being what He is, He did not endow Himself with "hypostatic" form
of existence, and limited Himself to utilizing His resources, the
consequence is that He is what He is necessarily, and that He could
not have been different from what He is. He is what He is, not because
He could have been otherwise, but because His nature is excellent.
Indeed, even if one be sometimes hindered from becoming better, no one
is ever hindered by any other person from becoming worse. Therefore, if
He did not issue from Himself, He owes it to Himself, and not to any
outside hindrance; He must essentially be that which has not issued
from itself. The impossibility of becoming worse is not a mark of
impotence, because, if (the Divinity) do not degenerate, He owes it to
Himself, (and derives it) from Himself. His not aspiring to anything
other than Himself constitutes the highest degree of power, since He is
not subjected to necessity, but constitutes the law and necessity of
other beings. Has necessity then caused its own (hypostatic) existence?
No, it has not even reached there, inasmuch as all that is after the
First achieved (hypostatic) existence on His account. How then could
He who is before (hypostatic) existence (or, which has achieved a form
of existence), have derived His existence from any other principle, or
even from Himself?