Q.E.D.
Prop. [IV] It is impossible, that man should not be a part of Nature,
or that he should be capable of undergoing no changes, save
such as can be understood through his nature only as their
adequate cause.
Proof.- (4:1) The power, whereby each particular thing, and consequently
being, is the power of God or of Nature (I:[xxiv] Coroll.); not in so far
as it is infinite, but in so far as it can be explained by the actual human
essence (III:[vii] ). (2) Thus the power of man, in so far as it is
explained through his own actual essence, is a part of the infinite power
of God or Nature, in other words, of the essence thereof (I:[xxxiv] ).
(4:3) This was our first point. (4) Again, if it were possible, that man
should undergo no changes save such as can be understood solely through
the nature of man, it would follow that he would not be able to die, but
would always necessarily exist; this would be the necessary consequence
of a cause whose power was either finite or infinite; namely, either of
man's power only, inasmuch as he would be capable of removing from himself
all changes which could spring from external causes; or of the infinite
power of Nature, whereby all individual things would be so ordered, that
man should be incapable of undergoing any changes save such as tended
towards his own preservation. (5) But the first alternative is absurd
(by [III] , the proof of which is universal, and can be applied to all
individual things).
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