E2P45S
Scholium — Part II
Latin
Hic per existentiam non intelligo durationem hoc est existentiam quatenus abstracte concipitur et tanquam quædam quantitatis species. Nam loquor de ipsa natura existentiæ quæ rebus singularibus tribuitur propterea quod ex æterna necessitate Dei naturæ infinita infinitis modis sequuntur (vide propositionem 16 partis I). Loquor inquam de ipsa existentia rerum singularium quatenus in Deo sunt. Nam etsi unaquæque ab alia re singulari determinetur ad certo modo existendum, vis tamen qua unaquæque in existendo perseverat, ex æterna necessitate naturæ Dei sequitur. Qua de re vide corollarium propositionis 24 partis I.
English (Elwes 1883)
By existence I do not here mean duration--that is, existence in so far as it is conceived abstractedly, and as a certain form of quantity. I am speaking of the very nature of existence, which is assigned to particular things, because they follow in infinite numbers and in infinite ways from the eternal necessity of God's nature (I. xvi.). I am speaking, I repeat, of the very existence of particular things, in so far as they are in God. For although each particular thing be conditioned by another particular thing to exist in a given way, yet the force whereby each particular thing perseveres in existing follows from the eternal necessity of God's nature (cf. I. xxiv. Coroll.).
Modern English
By existence I do not here mean duration, that is, existence conceived in the abstract as a kind of quantity. I am speaking of the very nature of existence that is attributed to particular things because they follow from the eternal necessity of God's nature in infinite ways and in infinite numbers (E1P16). I am speaking, I say, of the very existence of particular things insofar as they are in God. For although each particular thing is determined by another particular thing to exist in a certain way, the force by which each one perseveres in existing nevertheless follows from the eternal necessity of God's nature. See (E1P24C).