2.4K
CONCERNING BEING AND ESSENCE 29 could be conceived to exist in which something over and above were added to existence. Similarly, too, although a being be existence alone, it does not follow that it should be wanting in the rest of the perfections and nobilities. Indeed God has the perfections which are in all genera, and for this reason He is called perfect simply, as the Philosopher and Commentator say in the fifth book of the Metaphysics* 2 but He has these (per- fections) in a more excellent mode than other things, because in Him they are one, but in other things they have diversity. And this is because all of these perfections belong to Him according to his simple existence; just as, if someone were able by means of one quality to effect the operations of all qualities, in that one quality he would have all qualities, so God in His very existence has all perfections. According to the second mode essence is found in created intellectual substances in which the essence is other than their existence, although their essence is without matter. Whence their existence is not absolute but received and therefore accord- ing to the capacity of the receiving nature, but their nature or quiddity is absolute and not received in any matter. And there- fore it is said in the book De Causis 83 that intelligences are infinite from beneath and finite from above. For they are finite in respect to their existence which they receive from above, but they are not finite from below, since their forms are not limited to the capacity of any matter receiving them. And therefore in such substances there is not found a multitude of individuals in one species, as has been said, except in the instance of the human soul because of the body which is united to it. And although its individuation depends on the body as its occasion inasmuch as its (that of the individuation) beginning is con- 82 Aristotle, Met, A, 1021 b 30; Averroes, In Met, V, com. 21, f. 62 a 10-13. 88 De Causis, cf. Bardenhewer, op. cit, No. 4, p. 167.