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Here, before we proceed to something else, we shall
briefly divide the whole of Nature -- namely, into Natura
naturans and Natura naturata. By
Natura naturans we understand a being that we
conceive clear and distinctly through itself, and without
needing anything beside itself (like all the attributes which
we have so far described), that is, God. The Thomists
likewise understand God by it, but their Natura
naturans was a being (so they called it) beyond all
substances.
The Natura naturata we shall divide into two, a general, and a particular. The general consists of all the modes which depend immediately on God, of which we shall treat in the following chapter; the particular consists of all the particular things which are produced by the general mode. So that the Natura naturata requires some substance [N1] in order to be well understood. [Note N1]: A: substances; B: substance. |
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