Author's Endnotes To The Theologico-Political Treatise
Endnote 6. (1) We doubt of the existence of God, and consequently of all else, so long as
we have no clear and distinct idea of God, but only a confused one. (2) For as he who
knows not rightly the nature of a triangle, knows not that its three angles are equal to two
right angles, so he who conceives the Divine nature confusedly, does not see that it
pertains to the nature of God to exist. (3) Now, to conceive the nature of God clearly and
distinctly, it is necessary to pay attention to a certain number of very simple notions,
called general notions, and by their help to associate the conceptions which we form of
the attributes of the Divine nature. (4) It then, for the first time, becomes clear to us, that
God exists necessarily, that He is omnipresent, and that all our conceptions involve in
themselves the nature of God and are conceived through it. (5) Lastly, we see that all our
adequate ideas are true. (6) Compare on this point the prologomena to book, "Principles
of Descartes's philosophy set forth geometrically."
Endnote 7. (1) "It is impossible to find a method which would enable us to gain a certain
knowledge of all the statements in Scripture." (2) I mean impossible for us who have not
the habitual use of the language, and have lost the precise meaning of its phraseology.
Endnote 8. (1) "Not in things whereof the understanding can gain a clear and distinct
idea, and which are conceivable through themselves." (2) By things conceivable I mean
not only those which are rigidly proved, but also those whereof we are morally certain,
and are wont to hear without wonder, though they are incapable of proof. (3) Everyone
can see the truth of Euclid's propositions before they are proved. (4) So also the histories
of things both future and past which do not surpass human credence, laws, institutions,
manners, I call conceivable and clear, though they cannot be proved mathematically. (5)
But hieroglyphics and histories which seem to pass the bounds of belief I call
inconceivable; yet even among these last there are many which our method enables us to
investigate, and to discover the meaning of their narrator.
Endnote 9. (1) "Mount Moriah is called the mount of God." (2) That is by the historian,
not by Abraham, for he says that the place now called "In the mount of the Lord it shall
be revealed," was called by Abraham, "the Lord shall provide."
Endnote 10. (1) "Before that territory [Idumoea] was conquered by David." (2) From this
time to the reign of Jehoram when they again separated from the Jewish kingdom (2
Kings viii:20), the Idumaeans had no king, princes appointed by the Jews supplied the
place of kings (1 Kings xxii:48), in fact the prince of Idumaea is called a king (2 Kings
iii:9).
