If, now, it is possible (provided only that we assume existence in time to be something that holds merely of appearances, not of things in themselves) to affirm freedom without detriment to the natural mechanism of actions as appearances, then the fact that the acting beings are creatures cannot make the slightest change in this, because creation concerns their intelligible but not their sensible existence and therefore cannot be regarded as determining basis of appearances; but this would turn out quite differently if the beings of the world existed as things in themselves in time, since the creator of substance would then also be the originator of the entire machine in this substance.