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Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza
page 25 of 298 (08%)
God. This is our second point. God, therefore, is the
indwelling and not the transient cause of all things. Q.E.D.

PROP. XIX. God, and all the attributes of God, are eternal.
Proof.-God (by Def. vi.) is substance, which (by Prop. xi.)
necessarily exists, that is (by Prop. vii.) existence appertains
to its nature, or (what is the same thing) follows from its
definition ; therefore, God is eternal (by Def. viii.). Further,
by the attributes of God we must understand that which (by Def.
iv.) expresses the essence of the divine substance-in other
words, that which appertains to substance : that, I say, should
be involved in the attributes of substance. Now eternity
appertains to the nature of substance (as I have already shown in
Prop. vii.) ; therefore, eternity must appertain to each of the
attributes, and thus all are eternal. Q.E.D.
Note.-This proposition is also evident from the manner in
which (in Prop. xi.) I demonstrated the existence of God ; it is
evident, I repeat, from that proof, that the existence of God,
like his essence, is an eternal truth. Further (in Prop. xix. of
my "Principles of the Cartesian Philosophy"), I have proved the
eternity of God, in another manner, which I need not here repeat.

PROP. XX. The existence of God and his essence are one and the
same.
Proof.-God (by the last Prop.) and all his attributes are
eternal, that is (by Def. viii.) each of his attributes expresses
existence. Therefore the same
attributes of God which explain his eternal essence, explain at
the same time his eternal existence-in other words, that which
constitutes God's essence constitutes at the same time his
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