P3: In God/Nature there is necessarily an idea, both of his essence and of everything that necessarily follows from his essence.

Dem.: For God/Nature (by P1) can think infinitely many things in infinitely many modes, or (what is the same, by IP16) can form the idea of his essence and of all the things which necessarily follow from it. But whatever is in God/Nature’s power necessarily exists (by IP35); therefore, there is necessarily such an idea, and (by IP15) it is only in God/Nature, q.e.d.

Schol.: By God/Nature’s power ordinary people understand God/Nature’s free will and his right over all things which are, things which on that account are commonly considered to be contingent. For they say that God/Nature has the power of destroying all things and reducing them to nothing. Further, they very often compare God/Nature’s power with the power of Kings. But we have refuted this in IP32 C1 and IP32 C2, and we have shown in IP16 that God/Nature acts with the same necessity by which he understands himself, i.e., just as it follows from the necessity of the divine/universal nature (as everyone maintains unanimously) that God/Nature understands himself, with the same necessity it also follows that God/Nature does infinitely many things in infinitely many modes. And then we have shown in IP34 that God/Nature’s power is nothing except God/Nature’s active essence. And so it is as impossible for us to conceive that God/Nature does not act as it is to conceive that he does not exist.

Again, if it were agreeable to pursue these matters further, I could also show here that that power which ordinary people fictitiously ascribe to God/Nature is not only human (which shows that ordinary people conceive God/Nature as a man, or as like a man), but also involves lack of power. But I do not wish to speak so often about the same topic. I only ask the reader to reflect repeatedly on what is said concerning this matter in Part I, from P16 to the end. For no one will be able to perceive rightly the things I maintain unless he takes great care not to confuse God/Nature’s power with the human power or right of Kings.