2. We are well aware that neither the speech of men nor the analogy of human nature can give us a full insight into the things of God. The ineffable cannot submit to the bounds and limits of definition; that which is spiritual is distinct from every class or instance of bodily things. Yet, since our subject is that of heavenly natures, we must employ ordinary natures and ordinary speech as our means of expressing what our mind apprehends; a means no doubt unworthy of the majesty of God, but forced upon us by feebleness of our intellect, which can use only our own circumstances and our own words to convey to others our perceptions and our conclusions. This truth has been enforced already in the first book149    § 19., but is now repeated in order that, in any analogies from human affairs which we adduce, we may not be supposed to think of God as resembling embodied natures, or to compare spiritual Beings with our passible selves, but rather be regarded as advancing the outward appearance of visible things as a clue to the inward meaning of things invisible.

2. Verbis humanis res divinas non bene explicari.---Non ignoramus autem, ad res divinas explicandas, neque hominum elocutionem, neque naturae humanae comparationem posse sufficere. Quod enim inenarrabile est, significantiae alicujus finem et modum non habet: et quod spiritale est, id a specie corporalium exemploque diversum est. Tamen 72 cum de naturis coelestibus sermo est, illa ipsa, quae sensu mentium continentur, usu communis et naturae et sermonis sunt eloquenda, non utique dignitati Dei congrua, sed ingenii nostri imbecillitati necessaria; rebus scilicet verbisque nostris ea quae et sentimus et intelligimus locuturi. Atque haec sicut primo libello (num. 19) testati sumus, nunc quoque idcirco a nobis 0098A commemorata sunt, ut cum aliquid ex humanis comparationibus proferimus, non secundum naturas corporales de Deo sentire credamur, nec passionibus nostris spiritalia comparare, sed potius rerum visibilium speciem ad intelligentiam invisibilium protulisse.