PART I: CONCERNING GOD.
Page: 23

manner, has necessarily been thus conditioned by God; and that
which has not been conditioned by God cannot condition itself to
act.

>>>>>Proof--That by which things are said to be conditioned to
act in a particular manner is necessarily something positive
(this is obvious); therefore both of its essence and of its
existence God by the necessity of his nature is the efficient
cause (Props. xxv. and xvi.); this is our first point. Our
second point is plainly to be inferred therefrom. For if a
thing, which has not been conditioned by God, could condition
itself, the first part of our proof would be false, and this, as
we have shown is absurd.

XXVII. A thing, which has been conditioned by God to act in a
particular way, cannot render itself unconditioned.

>>>>>Proof--This proposition is evident from Ax. iii.

XXVIII. Every individual thing, or everything which is finite
and has a conditioned existence, cannot exist or be conditioned
to act, unless it be conditioned for existence and action by a
cause other than itself, which also is finite, and has a
conditioned existence; and likewise this cause cannot in its turn
exist, or be conditioned to act, unless it be conditioned for
existence and action by another cause, which also is finite, and
has a conditioned existence, and so on to infinity.

>>>>>Proof--Whatsoever is conditioned to exist and act, has been
thus conditioned by God (by Prop. xxvi. and Prop. xxiv., Cor.)

But that which is finite, and has a conditioned existence, cannot
be produced by the absolute nature of any attribute of God; for
whatsoever follows from the absolute nature of any attribute of
God is infinite and eternal (by Prop. xxi.). It must, therefore,
follow from some attribute of God, in so far as the said
attribute is considered as in some way modified; for substance
and modes make up the sum total of existence (by Ax. i. and Def.
iii., v.), while modes are merely modifications of the
attributes of God. But from God, or from any of his attributes,
in so far as the latter is modified by a modification infinite
and eternal, a conditioned thing cannot follow. Wherefore it