4p4d.md (2005B)
1 The power, whereby each particular thing, and 2 consequently man, preserves his being, is the power of God or of 3 Nature (I. xxiv. Coroll.); not in so far as it is infinite, but 4 in so far as it can be explained by the actual human essence 5 (III. vii.). Thus the power of man, in so far as it is explained 6 through his own actual essence, is a part of the infinite power 7 of God or Nature, in other words, of the essence thereof (I. 8 xxxiv.). This was our first point. Again, if it were possible, 9 that man should undergo no changes save such as can be understood 10 solely through the nature of man, it would follow that he would 11 not be able to die, but would always necessarily exist; this 12 would be the necessary consequence of a cause whose power was 13 either finite or infinite; namely, either of man's power only, 14 inasmuch as he would be capable of removing from himself all 15 changes which could spring from external causes; or of the 16 infinite power of Nature, whereby all individual things would be 17 so ordered, that man should be incapable of undergoing any 18 changes save such as tended towards his own preservation. But 19 the first alternative is absurd (by the last Prop., the proof of 20 which is universal, and can be applied to all individual things). 21 Therefore, if it be possible, that man should not be capable of 22 undergoing any changes, save such as can be explained solely 23 through his own nature, and consequently that he must always (as 24 we have shown) necessarily exist; such a result must follow from 25 the infinite power of God, and consequently (I. xvi.) from the 26 necessity of the divine nature, in so far as it is regarded as 27 affected by the idea of any given man, the whole order of nature 28 as conceived under the attributes of extension and thought must 29 be deducible. It would therefore follow (I. xxi.) that man is 30 infinite, which (by the first part of this proof) is absurd. It 31 is, therefore, impossible, that man should not undergo any 32 changes save those whereof he is the adequate cause. Q.E.D. 33 34