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Spinoza, Baruch - Ethics - The Great Work
Identifier
021739
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics
Certain things had to be produced by God immediately, namely those which follow necessarily from his absolute nature, and others (which nevertheless can neither be nor conceived without God) had to be produced by the mediation of these first things
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Anything which is finite and has a determinate existence, can neither exist nor be determined to produce an effect unless it is determined to exist and produce an effect by another cause, which is also finite and has a determinate existence; and again, this cause also can neither exist nor be determined to produce an effect unless it is determined to exist and produce an effect by another which is also finite and has a determinate existence, and so on, to infinity
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All God's decrees have been established by God himself for eternity. For otherwise he would be convicted of imperfection and inconstancy. But since, in eternity, there is neither when nor before, nor after, it follows, from God's perfection alone, that he can never decree anything different and never could have