De Sacramentis 1.2.14-18

1.2.14-18. Two problems are posed. First, isn’t God’s status as Creator dependent upon his actually creating something, making God after a fashion dependent upon his creatures? Second, doesn’t God’s foreknowledge of future things confer a necessity on those things? Hugh begins with the question of foreknowledge. God’s knowledge, which is identical with his being, can’t in any way be dependent on his creatures (ch. 14). All things existed previously in God, but they did not exist in God (“there”) because they would later exist in creation (“here”), but vice versa (ch. 15). What God foreknows to be, will be, and what will not be was never foreknown to be. Nor is God’s foreknowledge passive, but is coupled with his predestinating power, so that what God foreknows to be, he actively brings it about to be (ch. 18).