As to Him who made "being" (equivalent to) freedom, whose nature it is
to make free beings, and who (therefore) might be called the "author of
liberty"--excuse the expression--to what could He be enslaved? It is
His being (or, nature) to be free; or rather, it is from Him that being
derives its freedom; for (we must not forget that) "being" is posterior
to Him, who Himself (being beyond it), "has" none. If then there be any
actualization in Him, if we were to consider that He was constituted
by an actualization, He would nevertheless contain no difference,
He will be master of His own self that produces the actualization,
because He Himself and the actualization fuse (and are identical).
But if we acknowledge no actualization whatever (in the Divinity), if
we predicate actualization only of the things that tend towards Him,
and from Him derive their hypostatic existence, we should still less
recognize in Him any element that is master, or that masters. We should
not even say that He was master of Himself, nor that He had a master,
but because we have already predicated of "being" what is meant by
being master of oneself. We therefore classify (the Divinity) in a rank
higher still.
But how can there be a principle higher than the one that is master
of Himself? In the Principle which is master of Himself, as being and
actualization are two (separate) entities, it is actualization that
furnishes the notion of being master of oneself. As however we saw that
actualization was identical with "being," in order to be called master
of itself, actualization must have differentiated itself from being.
Therefore (the Divinity), which is not constituted by two things fused
into unity, but by absolute Unity, being either only actualization, or
not even mere actualization, could not be called "master of Himself."