infinite, it is clearly
impossible for any created intellect to know God in an infinite
degree. Hence it is impossible that it should comprehend God.

Reply Obj. 1: "Comprehension" is twofold: in one sense it is taken
strictly and properly, according as something is included in the one
comprehending; and thus in no way is God comprehended either by
intellect, or in any other way; forasmuch as He is infinite and
cannot be included in any finite being; so that no finite being can
contain Him infinitely, in the degree of His own infinity. In this
sense we now take comprehension. But in another sense "comprehension"
is taken more largely as opposed to "non-attainment"; for he who
attains to anyone is said to comprehend him when he attains to him.
And in this sense God is comprehended by the blessed, according to
the words, "I held him, and I will not let him go" (Cant. 3:4); in
this sense also are to be understood the words quoted from the
Apostle concerning comprehension. And in this way "comprehension" is
one of the three prerogatives of the soul, responding to hope, as
vision responds to faith, and fruition responds to charity. For even
among ourselves not everything seen is held or possessed, forasmuch
as things either appear sometimes afar off, or they are not in our
power of attainment. Neither, again, do we always enjoy what we
possess; either because we find no pleasure in them, or because such
things are not the ultimate end of our desire, so as to satisfy and
quell it. But the blessed possess these three things in God; because
they see Him, and in seeing Him, possess Him as present, having the
power to see Him always; and possessing Him, they enjoy Him as the
ultimate fulfilment of desire.

Reply Obj. 2: God is called incomprehensible not because anything of
Him is not seen; but because He is not seen as perfectly as He is
capable of being seen; thus when any demonstrable proposition is
known by probable reason only, it does not follow that any part of it
is unknown, either the subject, or the predicate, or the composition;
but that it is not as perfectly known as it is capable of being
known. Hence Augustine, in his definition of comprehension, says the
whole is comprehended when it is seen in such a way that nothing of
it is hidden from the seer, or when its boundaries can be completely
viewed or traced; for the boundaries of a thing are said to be
completely surveyed when the end of the knowledge of it is at