1p28sc.md (944B)
1 As certain things must be produced immediately by God, 2 namely those things which necessarily follow from his absolute 3 nature, through the means of these primary attributes, which, 4 nevertheless, can neither exist nor be conceived without God, it 5 follows:–1. That God is absolutely the proximate cause of those 6 things immediately produced by him. I say absolutely, not after 7 his kind, as is usually stated. For the effects of God cannot 8 either exist or be conceived without a cause (Prop. xv. and Prop. 9 xxiv. Coroll.). 2. That God cannot properly be styled the remote 10 cause of individual things, except for the sake of distinguishing 11 these from what he immediately produces, or rather from what 12 follows from his absolute nature. For, by a remote cause, we 13 understand a cause which is in no way conjoined to the effect. 14 But all things which are, are in God, and so depend on God, that 15 without him they can neither be nor be conceived. 16 17