It is also well-known that anything that we cannot grasp with our senses, we cannot imagine either. And something that we cannot imagine will never appear in our thoughts and we have no way of perceiving it.
Thus, human thought has no way of perceiving an essence. Moreover, we do not even know our own essences. I feel and know that I take up space in the world, that I am solid, warm, and that I think, and other such manifestations of the operations of my essence. But if you ask me what my own essence is, from which all these manifestations stem, I would not know what reply to give you. You can thus see that Providence has prevented us from perceiving any essence. We perceive only manifestations and images of activities that arise from the essences.