 However tempting, this picture has trouble making sense of Spinoza’s repeated claims that everything is caused by God (Ip25–26), a claim Spinoza repeats in the very first sentence of Ip28d itself. Spinoza frequently emphasizes that God’s power or essence is the cause and explanation of everything that exists (Ip16, 17, 29s, 33, IAppendix). But how can everything follow from God’s power, if finite modes follow only from other finite modes? Won’t the alleged gap between finite and infinite modes mean that finite things do not, after all, follow from God or substance? And won’t that violate one of the most basic features of modes, namely their dependence, qua modes, on substance (Id5)?