Spinosism
Spinosism [1]
The doctrines of Spinoza, who was born a Jew at Amsterdam in 1632. The chief articles in his system are such as these: that there is but one substance in nature, and that this only substance is endued with an infinite variety of attributes, among which are extension and cogitation; that all the bodies in the universe are modifications of this substance, considered as extended: and that all the souls of men are modifications of the same substance, considered as cogitative: that God is a necessary and infinitely perfect Being, and is the cause of all things that exist, but not a different Being from them: that there is but one Being, and one nature; and that this nature produces within itself, by an immanent act, al those which we call creatures; and that this Being is, at the same time, both agent and patient, efficient cause and subject, but that he produces nothing but modifications of himself. Thus is the Deity made the sole agent as well as patient, in all evil, both physical and moral. If this impious doctrine be not Atheism (or, as it is sometimes called, Pantheism, ) I know not what is.
See Pantheism.
