BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

On the divine law
‘a constant and perpetual will to assign to each man his due’, 2 and this is
why the Proverbs of Solomon 21.15 says that the righteous man is happy
when judgment comes but the unjust are afraid.
[3] Since law, accordingly, is nothing other than a rule for living which
men prescribe to themselves or to others for a purpose, it seems it has to be
divided into human and divine. By human law I mean a rule for living
whose only purpose is to protect life and preserve the country. By divine
law I mean the law which looks only to the supreme good, that is, to the
true knowledge and love of God. The reason why I call this law divine is
because of the nature of the supreme good, which Iwill now explain here as
brie£y and clearly as I can.
[4] Since the best part of us is our understanding, it is certain that, if we
truly want to seek our own interest, we should try above all things to perfect
it as much as possible; for our highest good should consist in its perfection.
Furthermore, since all our knowledge and the certainty which
truly takes away all doubt depends on a knowledge of God alone, and since
without God nothing can exist or be conceived, and since we are in doubt
about everything as long as we have no clear and distinct idea of God, it 60
follows that our highest good and perfection depends on a knowledge of
God alone, etc. Again, since nothing can exist or be conceived without
God, it is certain that every single thing in nature involves and expresses
the conception of God as far as its essence and perfection allows, and
accordingly the more we come to understand natural things, the greater
and more perfect the knowledge of God we acquire. Further (since knowledge
of an e¡ect through a cause is simply to know some property of the
cause) the more we learn about natural things, the more perfectly we come
to know the essence of God (which is the cause of all things); and thus all
our knowledge, that is, our highest good, not only depends on a knowledge
of God but consists in it altogether. This also follows from the fact that a
man is more perfect (and the opposite) according to the nature and perfection
of what he loves above all other things; and therefore that man is
necessarily most perfect and most participates in the highest happiness
who most loves and most enjoys, above all other things, the intellectual
knowledge of God, who is the most perfect being.
2 Justinian, Institutes 1.1.
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