Furthermore, although this essence applies to God in an absolute way so that there is not one thing and another thing in God, but all what He is, is his essence, we nevertheless rightly assign to Him various properties or attributes, which are classified under the title of divinity (Rom 1:20), suggesting that there is a difference between essence and properties and between the properties themselves. Yet this is not a real distinction, but a relational or rational distinction, in so far as they differ in creatures and in our perception. WIth these properties God himself grants to us the knowledge of who God is and what He is like, and through these attributes we can distinguish the one true God from the false ones and from all other things.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 6 Paragraph 21.