The conception of God which is the most common and the most full of meaning is expressed well enough in the words: God is an absolutely perfect being. The implications, however, of these words fail to receive sufficient consideration. For instance, there are many different kinds of perfection, all of which God possesses, and each one of them pertains to him in the highest degree. We must also know what perfection is. The following is a sufficiently sure criterion of it, namely, that the forms or natures which are not susceptible of a highest degree are not perfections, as for example the nature of number or of figure. This is because the number which is the greatest of all (that is, the number of all the numbers), and likewise the greatest of all figures, imply contradictions. The greatest knowledge, however, and omnipotence contain no impossibility. Consequently power and knowledge are perfections, and in so far as they pertain to God they have no limits. Whence it follows that God who possesses, supreme and infinite wisdom acts in the most perfect manner not only in the sense of metaphysical perfection but also in the sense of moral perfection. And with respect to ourselves it can be said that the more we are enlightened and informed in regard to the works of God the more will we be disposed to find them excellent and conforming entirely to that which we might desire.
Chapter: 1