PART FIVE
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1. The Operation that GOD has within Himself is greater than the human intellect; & therefore the intellect cannot fully comprehend this Operation. But to give it a proportioned way for apprehending this Operation, GOD created one medium through which the intellect rises aloft and apprehends this Operation above and beyond its natural reach, so that its understanding is proportioned to this object.
2. The Operations which GOD performs above the course of nature are loftier than the operations which proceed within the course of nature; & therefore the intellect cannot apprehend them in a natural way, & when it does apprehend them, its attainment is a means for it to rise aloft and understand the operations that GOD has within Himself.Camera FM
1. The species which the intellect receives from real objects are received in two ways, namely: within the course of nature, & above the course of nature; and it receives species above the course of nature in two ways, namely: by way of belief, & by way of demonstration; & it produces this demonstration from species it receives from the Supreme Object & from objects it attains supernaturally.
2. Imaginary natural objects are means through which the intellect reaches real natural objects; & if it cannot reach them by these means, it reaches them through other means which are above the course of nature, while preserving the conditions proper to natural objects.Camera FN
1. From real Genera, the intellect draws imaginary genera under which it places imaginary Species which are its means for understanding real Species in which real individuals exist, & from these the intellect draws imaginary individuals from which it reproduces Species, & from Species, Genera; & if it is impeded in this process, then it ascends, & understands things above its own nature, & above the nature of these Species.
2. When the intellect cannot receive Species by reason of its own nature, it receives them by reason of the object's nature, & as it judges these Species in accordance with this loftier nature, its judgment raises it to a supernatural understanding of its object.Camera FO
1. The species which the intellect reproduces were potentially in it before it reproduced them & drew them from the object, as it accepted likenesses or unlikenesses of it. Therefore, the intellect is a motive power, & the object is a passive power inasmuch as likenesses or unlikenesses can be made of it. These likenesses or unlikenesses mediate between the intellect & its object & these media can be corrupted in two ways: by forgetting, or by the alteration of other, supernaturally moved intermediaries.
2. The intellect naturally has its own coessential motive and mobile virtues; & thus it has a natural medium existing between both powers, which is its natural & essential act of understanding wherein it moves intelligibilities which are not of its own essence & which it understands within itself because it moves them within itself with its own natural motion, & those it cannot move according to the course of nature, it can move above the course of nature with its own natural motion, or in the Supreme Object's natural properties.Camera FP
1. Difference exists between the Intellect & its Object as a means and a light through which the intellect reaches its object. When it simply accepts an object by reason of Unity, it accepts no more than one likeness or unlikeness of it; and so Difference enlightens the intellect by enabling it to accept one specific object. But if the intellect cannot accept its object with one likeness only, then it multiplies likenesses, & reaches it through Plurality. And if it cannot reach it with any of these, it unites Plurality into Unity, & divides it into Plurality: & if all this is not sufficient for it, its understanding ascends above the course of nature, following the virtue of the object.
2. In Unity, the intellect can understand Plurality, & in Plurality it can understand Unity in which it can understand the uniter, unitable and uniting. And in the Plurality of all three, it can understand the Unity of essence; & therefore its act of understanding is its means for objectifying Unity & Plurality. And when the intellect does not follow this natural process, it can fall into ignorance against the course of nature, just as it can ascend above the course of nature to understand the truth.Camera FQ
1. Intelligence is an object considered in the Abstract, & its essential concrete parts are: the essential intellective, intelligible & understanding. And when the intellect reaches an understanding of abstract objects which are not of its own essence, it first does this through its essential Media in which it receives the likenesses of Concrete & Abstract things. And when it acts against this natural process, it falls into ignorance unless its understanding rises above the natures beneath it, or in the virtue of the supreme Object.
2. The intellect receives the figure of Abstract things through Concrete ones, & this figure is its means for attaining Abstract essence, & from this essence it again draws figures of concrete things through which it understands essence. And so it places its understanding in a circle composed of two figures, where it attains each figure through the other, by way of acquired science. And when it understands things above this circle, it reaches above its own nature through infused science.Camera FR
1. Intensity is the Means through which the intellect reaches an understanding of simple objects; this Intensity is a likeness of the intensity of both the object & the intellect, and signifies the simplicity of both. And when the intellect attains compound beings through Intensity, its understanding ascends above the course of nature.
2. Extensity is the Means through which the intellect reaches an understanding of compound objects; & by attaining simple objects through Extensity, its understanding ascends above the course of nature.Camera FS
1. The likeness of man is the Means through which the intellect attains man as a Medium resulting from soul & body joined together. And when it understands man above this likeness, the intellect attains man above the nature of the imaginative power, & understands him in with its own natural understanding, and thus, it conceives of man as a species.
2. The likeness composed of the circle, the triangle & the square is a Means through which the intellect reaches an understanding of imaginable objects which cannot be imagined when the intellect withdraws these measurements from the object. And Likenesses or Unlikenesses of these geometric figures remain in the intellect, that uses them to understand spiritual objects above physical beings.Camera FV
1. Within its own innate intelligibility, the intellect generates the intelligibility of foreign objects. And it implants its imaginary act of understanding in its real object; & waters it with likenesses of its own Goodness, Greatness & other properties. And when it waters it with unlikenesses of its own properties & with the likenesses of the supreme Object, then its understanding ascends above the course of nature.
2. When the intellect does not generate the species it receives from objects by means of its own understanding, & if in this Generation it consents to the will or to memory rather than to itself, then it corrupts its own natural understanding; because it accepts undigested Species & transmits them to the memory & will; & when it wants to retrieve them, it does not know how to receive them in accordance with its natural understanding. Therefore, Sciences which are merely positive & offer no proofs, consist of unlikenesses of understanding, & dull the intellect & keep it from understanding the necessary and true conditions of beings.