17. Here is another proof of it. We have stated that the world and the
"being" it contains are what they would be if their production had been
the result of a voluntary determination of their author, what they
would still be if the divinity exercising a prevision and prescience
based on reasoning, had done His work according to Providence. But
as (these beings) are or become what they are from all eternity,
there must also, from eternity--within the coexistent beings, exist
("seminal) reasons" which subsist in a plan more perfect (than that
of our universe); consequently, the intelligible entities are above
Providence, and choice; and all the things which exist in Essence
subsist eternally there, in an entirely intellectual existence. If the
name "Providence" be applied to the plan of the universe, then immanent
Intelligence certainly is anterior to the plan of the universe, and the
latter proceeds from immanent Intelligence, and conforms thereto.[193]