| The idea of God from which infinite things in infinite modes follow can
only be one. Infinite intellect comprehends nothing save the attributes
and modifications of God. God is one. Therefore the idea of God from which infinite things
in infinite modes follow can only be one. God acts merely according to his own laws, and is compelled by no one.
That infinite things must follow from the mere necessity of divine nature, or what is the
same thing, by the mere laws of divine nature, we have just shown and we have shown that
nothing can be conceived without God, but that everything exists in God. Therefore,
nothing outside God can exist by which he could be determined or compelled in his actions;
and, therefore, God acts merely according to the laws of his nature, and is compelled by
no one.
The human mind perceives no external body
as actually existing save through ideas of modifications of its own body.
In so far as the human mind imagines an external body, thus far it has no adequate
knowledge of it. When the human mind regards external bodies through the ideas of the
modifications of its own body, we say it imagines; nor can the human mind in any other way
imagine external bodies as actually existing. And therefore, in so far as the mind
imagines external bodies, it has no adequate knowledge of them, and in truth does not
exist except in a condition of its own inadequate nonexistent bodiness.
All ideas, in so far as they have
reference to God, are true.
Now all ideas which are in God must entirely agree with their ideals, and therefore they
are true. Truth is true and nothing else is true.
Every idea in us which is absolute, or
adequate and perfect, is true.
When we say that an adequate and perfect idea is granted in us, we say nothing else but
that there is granted in God an adequate and perfect idea in so far as he constitutes the
essence of our mind, and consequently we say nothing else than that such an idea is true.
If men were born free they would form no
conception of good and evil as long as they were free.
I said that he was free who is led by reason alone. He, therefore, who is born free and
remains free has only adequate ideas, and accordingly has no conception of evil, and
consequently (for good and evil are correlative) none of good. The infinite mind of God is
the reason of his freedom.
He that is led by fear to do good in
order to avoid evil is not led by reason.
All emotions which have reference to the mind in so far as it is active, that is, which
have reference to reason, are none other than the emotions of pleasure and desire. And
therefore he that is led by fear to do good in order to avoid evil is not led by reason.
The essence of things produced by God
does not involve existence.
For that whose nature (considered in itself) involves existence is its own cause, and
exists merely by the necessity of its own nature. Hence it follows that God is not only
the cause that all things begin to exist, but also that they continue to exist. God is the
cause of the being (causa essendi) of things. For whether things exist or whether
they do not, however often we consider their essence, we will find it to involve neither
existence nor duration; and their essence cannot be the cause either of their existence or
their duration, but only God, to whose nature alone existence appertains |
The Excommunication of
Baruch de Spinoza
|
After the judgment of the Angels, and with that of the Saints, we excommunicate, expel and
curse and damn Baruch de Espinoza with the consent of God, Blessed be He, and with the
consent of all the Holy Congregation, in front of the holy Scrolls with the
six-hundred-and-thirteen precepts which are written therein, with the excommunication with
which Joshua banned Jericho, with the curse with which Elisha cursed the boys, and with
all the curses which are written in the Law.
Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lies down, and cursed
be he when he rises up; cursed be he when he goes out, and cursed be he when he comes in.
The Lord will not pardon him; the anger and wrath of the Lord will rage against this man,
and bring upon him all the curses which are written in the Book of the Law, and the Lord
will destroy his name from under the Heavens, and the Lord will separate him to his injury
from all the tribes of Israel with all the curses of the firmament, which are written in
the Book of the Law.
But you who cleave unto the Lord God are all alive this day. We order that nobody should
communicate with him orally or in writing, or show him any favor, or stay with him under
the same roof, or within four ells of him, or read anything composed or written by him.
|
|
| What an astonishingly vindictive document. Here we see that Spinoza has been excommunicated from the human definition
of reality and condemned to eternal life.
We reject you, brother Baruch. You refuse to
acknowledge the reality of the human condition, of the necessity of need and struggle and
strife as caused by the God who created us.
What the human conceptual mind fears most is the totally
reasonable and inevitable conclusion it must reach in its own self-conceptual reasoning
process: That the question of self-identity can only be answered by its inclusion in
eternally creating mind.
The greatest and finally only threat to the human's
objective conditional establishment is the simple sensibility of the idea of a singularly
eternal creating Universal Mind of which he is an indivisible part in his own totality.
There is much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth
over the simple and totally reasonable supposition that if life is eternal, death is
impossible.
The obvious admission that no compromise is possible in
this axiom of truth is totally intolerable to human existence.
A human being is horrified at the thought of
its own inclusion in the eternally creating loving mind of God. There would be no
justification for its struggle to exist or need to prove its reality through its own
annihilation. |