ABSTRACT
In the creature immanent action is an accident; in the Creator it is identical with the Divine Essence. The actuality of the creature is limited by its essence: and its cognitive power is of necessity proportional to its essence. But the cognitive power of the Actus Purus must be infinite, reaching to the furthest bounds of reality. There can be no conceivable object to which the Divine intelligence does not extend. A problem of special difficulty is presented by the question of God's knowledge of future free actions. Moreover, within the sphere of the divine government there appear a twofold order—a physical order and a moral order. The doctrine of scientia media holds to both these truths, though it recognizes the inability of the human intellect to explain how the independence of the action can be reconciled with the independence of the Divine knowledge.
