that truth is, and against no truths is it producible with less genuine
mental effort than against those uttered by the founder of Christianity.
The question, however, if we are dealing with the New Testament, is not
whether the Sermon on the Mount can be turned inside out in a debating
society, but whether it does not represent better than anything which
the clever leader of the opposition can formulate the principle or
temper which should govern our conduct.

There is a group of propositions in the last part of the Ethic, which,
although they are difficult, it may be well to notice, because they were
evidently regarded by Spinoza as helping him to the end he had in view.
The difficulty lies in a peculiar combination of religious ideas and
scientific form. These propositions are the following:- {47}

"The mind can cause all the affections of the body or the images of
things to be related to the idea of God."

"He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his affects loves
God, and loves Him better the better he understands himself and his
affects."

"This love to God above everything else ought to occupy the mind."

"God is free from passions, nor is He affected with any affect of joy or
sorrow."

"No one can hate God."

"He who loves God cannot strive that God should love him in return."