Monologium, on the Being of God36 Chapter XXXVI. In how incomprehensible a way he expresses or knows the objects created by him.
Chapter XXXVI. In how incomprehensible a way he expresses or knows the objects created by him.
Hence, it may be most clearly comprehended that how this Spirit expresses, or how he knows the created world, cannot be comprehended by human knowledge. For none can doubt that created substances exist far differently in themselves than in our knowledge. For, in themselves they exist by virtue of their own being; while in our knowledge is not their being, but their likeness.
We conclude, then, that they exist more truly in themselves than in our knowledge, in the same degree in which they exist more truly anywhere by virtue of their own being, than by virtue of their likeness. Therefore, since this is also an established truth, that every created substance exists more truly in the Word, that is, in the intelligence of the Creator, than it does in itself, in the same degree in which the creative being exists more truly than the created; how can the human mind comprehend of what kind is that expression and that knowledge, which is so much higher and truer than created substances; if our knowledge is as far surpassed by those substances as their likeness is removed from their being?
Qua ex re manifestissime comprehendi potest quomodo dicat idem Spiritus, vel quomodo sciat ea quae facta sunt, ab humana scientia comprehendi non posse. Nam nulli dubium creatas substantias multo aliter esse in seipsis, quam in nostra scientia. In seipsis namque sunt per ipsam suam essentiam; in nostra vero scientia non sunt earum essentiae sed earum similitudines. Restat igitur ut tanto verius sint in seipsis, quam in nostra scientia; quanto verius sunt alicubi per suam essentiam, quam per suam similitudinem. Cum ergo et hoc constet, quia omnis creata substantia tanto verius est in Verbo, id est in intelligentia Creatoris, quam in seipsa; quanto verius existit creatrix quam creata essentia: quomodo comprehendat humana mens, cujusmodi sit illud dicere et illa scientia, quae sic longe superior et verior est creatis substantiis; si nostra scientia tam longe superatur ab illis, quantum earum similitudo distat ab earum essentia.