7th
E.pII.p44.c2: “It is the nature of reason to perceive things under a certain form of eternity (sub quâdum æternitatis specie). …It is the nature of reason to regard things, not as contingent, but as necessary. Reason perceives this necessity of things truly—that is, as it is in itself. But this necessity of things is the very necessity of the eternal nature of God; therefore, it is in the nature of reason to regard things under this form of eternity. We may add that the bases of reason are the notions, which answer to things common to all, and which do not answer to the essence of any particular thing: which must therefore be conceived without any relation to time, under a certain form of eternity.”








