על שינוי השמות ל״דOn the Change of Names 34
א׳
1[181] But perhaps it may be said, why did he, when once he had believed, admit any trace or shadow or breath of unbelief whatsoever? It seems to me that this question amounts to a wish to make out the created to be uncreated, the mortal immortal, the perishable imperishable, and if it is not blasphemy to say it, man to be God.
ב׳
2[182] Such a person asserts that the faith which man possesses should be so strong as to differ not at all from the faith which belongs to the Existent, a faith sound and complete in every way. For Moses says in the Greater Song, “God is faithful and there is no injustice in Him” (Deut. 32:4),
ג׳
3[183] and it argues great ignorance to think that the soul of man can contain the unwavering, absolutely steadfast excellences of God. Enough for man is the power to possess the images of these, images in the scale of number and magnitude far below the archetypes.
ד׳
4[184] And surely this is to be expected, for the excellences of God must needs be unmixed since God is not compounded but a single nature, whereas man’s excellences are mixed, since we, too, are mixtures, with human and divine blended in us and formed into a harmony in the proportions of perfect music, and a compound of more than one ingredient is subject to natural counter-forces drawing it to each of these ingredients.
ה׳
5[185] Happy is he to whom it is granted to incline towards the better and more godlike part through most of his life. For it is impossible that it should be so with him throughout the whole length of life, since sometimes the opposing load of mortality throws its weight into the scales, and biding its time waits to find its chance in the mischances of reason and so prove too strong for him.