On Loftiness

1. God is on high, above everything <else> that exists,

for He is the measure of all things and in Him all things are comprised,

for which reason He is to be loved (lit. “loveable”) with a lofty love.

 

2. God is lofty in terms of <the> loftiness of <His> goodness,

by reason of the magnifier, magnifying and the magnified,

which are lofty in infinite eternity.

 

3. In His loftiness God has exalted

that man in whom He has been hominified,

for He has honoured him above all created being.

 

4. Since God constitutes such lofty virtue,

He must be understood by means of lofty understanding

and must be loved by means of lofty will.

 

5. Were the human intellect unable to rise aloft

nor <the human> will able to conceive lofty love,

<human> memory could not remember lofty matters concerning God.

 

6. A lofty intellect is worth more in God

than are fifty or a hundred <such> in created beings,

and the same applies to <His> memory and love.

 

7. One loftily exalts one’s intellect

when one understands <the> generation and spiration <which occurs> within God

and the personal conjunction between God and man.

 

8. No one can bear a very lofty love towards God

should he fail to raise his understanding in praise

<of that which> God possesses within Himself by reason of <His> understanding and loving.

 

9. Insofar as God has wished to become incarnate for the sake of man,

He has bestowed upon him a way of raising

his love, his understanding and his memory aloft to Him.

 

10. He who understands the bonifier, the bonified and bonification,

and who avoids committing any error,

raises his intellect aloft to goodness.