Aldus, a Journal of Translation
his perfection of God would be more than that perfection which we assign to God, which is His kind [espeçia], and is not like that as we show and prove; also the knowledge [sçiençia] of that example, thus says: “coins of gold and they praise him for silver,” is to demonstrate that our perfections are not the kind of the essence [esençia] of God, also they would be a dimunition [mengua] of His highness [alteza], like the given example said of Him: “and certainly the thing was ugly to him.” And already I gave you to understand that what in God you think is a perfection is a dimunition in Him when it should be of that which is for us. And Salamon showed us this abundantly, where he says: “That God is in the heavens and you are on the earth; therefore, let your words be few.” [Ecl. 5:1] Chapter Fifty-Nine Thus I want to say to you more so that you may understand that most of one’s habits [costunbres] are by way of deprivations17, and so that you should begin to distance the way of affirmations in God. Consider a man who knows there is in the world a ship, who has not seen it, nor knows what its name concerns, if a substance or an accident; and another knew that it is not an accident; and another understood that it is not of minerals; and another knew that it is 17 In context, not in the sense of the re-formings which strip away, which are deprivations in a sense, but deprivations, more broadly, as those affirmations which, in fact, diminish God by ascribing human qualities to him.
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