(25) It follows, therefore, that extended substance does not
appertain to the essence of God.
(15:26) Such are the arguments I find on the subject in writers, who by
them try to prove that extended substance is unworthy of the divine nature,
and cannot possibly appertain thereto. (27) However, I think an attentive
reader will see that I have already answered their propositions; for all
their arguments are founded on the hypothesis that extended substance is
composed of parts, and such a hypothesis I have shown ([xii] , and Coroll.
[xiii] ) to be absurd. (15:28) Moreover, anyone who reflects will see
that all these absurdities (if absurdities they be, which I am not now
discussing), from which it is sought to extract the conclusion that
extended substance is finite, do not at all follow from the notion of an
infinite quantity, but merely from the notion that an infinite quantity is
measurable, and composed of finite parts; therefore, the only fair
conclusion to be drawn is that infinite quantity is not measureable, and
cannot be composed of finite parts. (29) This is exactly what we have
already proved (in [xii] ). (15:30) Wherefore the weapon which they aimed
at us has in reality recoiled upon themselves. (31) If, from this
absurdity of theirs, they persist in drawing the conclusion that extended
substance must be finite, they will in good sooth be acting like a man who
asserts that circles have the properties of squares, and, finding himself
thereby landed in absurdities, proceeds to deny that circles have any
centre, from which all lines drawn to the circumference are equal.
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