 It’s worth keeping in mind that Spinoza is making here two distinct claims: to say that God is a substance with the attribute of thought (that is, a thing whose essential nature it is to think) is ontologically and explanatorily prior to the claim that this thinking substance also produces an actual representation or idea of everything (which is a claim about the existence of a certain kind of infinite mode). So although Spinoza faithfully follows tradition in endorsing the claims that God thinks and is omniscient, he also ends up with a quite nontraditional result: the divine “infinite intellect” is not part of, or identical with, divine nature or essence. In terms of its ontological status, the divine intellect is on par with finite minds insofar as these too are merely modes.