Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Elect Obj. 1 Solut close: Eternal will admits no succession in the willer
As Albert teaches, in things that act through essence the agent always holds himself in one way: he is not called “agent now and not before,” except insofar as the act now is and was not before. Nor do we invent a new or temporal act in God’s will itself when we say that, once faith has come, he becomes actually reconciled to this or that human being to whom, before faith, he was only reconciliable. God does not then begin to will that this believer should be actually reconciled to him—after having been only reconciliable before faith was conceived. From all eternity he willed that at this very moment the person both would believe and would be actually reconciled. Succession of changes is not in the willer, then, but in the thing willed—and those changes follow one eternal and most constant will of God.
Latin
Nam, ut docet Albertus, in illis quae agunt per essentiam, agens uno modo semper se habet: Non dicitur Agens nunc, & non prius, nisi quatenus actum nunc est, & non prius. Neque in ipsa Dei voluntate cogitamus novum aut temporaneum actum, quando ponimus fide adveniente illum fieri actu reconciliatum huic aut illi homini, cui ante fidem fuit tantum reconciliabilis: quia Deus non tunc incipit velle ut hic credens sit ei actualiter reconciliatus, qui fuit ante conceptam fidem reconciliabilis, sed ab omni aeternitate voluit ut hoc ipso momento & credens esset, & actu reconciliatus. In volente igitur non sunt mutationes succedaneae, sed in volito, eaedemque secundum unam, aeternam ac constantissimam Dei voluntatem.