And
in consequence there is a great difference between the false
suppositions such as this, and the true ideas born within me,
the first and principal of which is that of God. For really I
discern in many ways that this idea is not something
factitious, and depending solely on my thought, but that it is
the image of a true and immutable nature; first of all,
because I cannot conceive anything but God himself to whose
essence existence [necessarily] pertains; in the second place
because it is not possible for me to conceive two or more Gods
in this same position; and, granted that there is one such God
who now exists, I see clearly that it is necessary that He
should have existed from all eternity, and that He must exist
eternally; and finally, because I know an infinitude of other
properties in God, none of which I can either diminish or
change.
For the rest, whatever proof or argument I avail myself
of, we must always return to the point that it is only those
things which we conceive clearly and distinctly that have the
power of persuading me entirely.
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