System of Sacred Theology · §3.14.4 · Ludwig Crocius

Proofs 6-7; against Vorstius on diversity in life

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SIXTH, to these is added the consent of orthodox antiquity. To Dionysius named from the Areopagus God is self-life and living through Himself, eternally living; and with him Gregory, the archetypal author of life. Irenaeus: God is life and incorruption and truth. Cyril of Alexandria: There must be in the true God incorruption and freedom from destruction, and indeed that He live and can grant life to those in whom He wills life to be. Basil the Great; Augustine: There is no life that is not from God, because God is indeed the highest life and Himself the fountain of life.

SEVENTH, the Gentile philosophers subscribe. Aristotle, Metaphysics XII: We say therefore that God is a living being everlasting and best. Therefore life and continuous eternal age are in God. Orpheus; Hermes; Zeno of Citium called God an animal, that is an immortal living being.

Here also Conrad Vorstius departs in Notes on Disputation III p. 247, saying it seems some diversity is in God, so that one thing is God's living substance itself, another the life or force by which He lives. But they wisely know who know divine things well, and attribute to God those things whose likeness exists in creatures only with the mode of supereminence and negation of every imperfection.

Latin

SEXTO, his accedit consensus orthodoxae antiquitatis. Dionysio qui ab Areopago denominatur Deus est autzoe, ipsavita et autzoos per se vivens, aeizoon aeternum vivens; et juxta cum hoc Gregorio, archezoon vitae auctor. Irenaeus: Deus vita est et incorruptela et veritas. Cyrillus Alexandrinus: Inest, inquit, oportet vero Deo incorruptio et interitus vacuitas, imo et ut vivat, et vitam tribuere possit his quibus vitam velit inesse. Basilius Magnus; Augustinus: Nulla vita est quae non sit ex Deo, quia Deus utique summa vita est et ipse fons vitae. SEPTIMO, subscribunt philosophi gentiles. Aristoteles Metaph. XII: Dicimus itaque Deum sempiternum optimumque vivens esse. Quare vita et aevum continuum et aeternum Deo inest. Orpheus; Hermes; Zeno Cittieus Deum animal dixit, id est vivens immortale. DISCEDIT hic etiam Conradus Vorstius Notis ad disp. III p.247, inquiens videri aliquid in Deo diversitatis inesse, ut aliud sit ipsa Dei substantia vivens, aliud vita seu vis illa per quam vivit. Sed modeste sapiunt qui res divinas bene sapiunt, nec Deo tribuunt ea quorum similitudo in creaturis exstat, nisi cum modo supereminentiae ac negatione omnimodae imperfectionis.

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About this text

Ludwig Crocius's System of Sacred Theology (Bremen, 1636), all four books: theology and its rule in Scripture; man's last end, death and the resurrection; God, the Trinity, creation, providence and sin; and the grace of Christ, the Word and sacraments, faith, the Christian life and prayer.

Ludwig Crocius (1586–1655) taught theology and philosophy at Bremen and sat as a delegate at the Synod of Dort (1618–1619). A Calvinist of the irenic school, he spent his career seeking common ground between the Reformed and Lutheran churches.

His System of Sacred Theology (Bremen, 1636) is a full Reformed dogmatics in the high-orthodox style: precise definitions, ordered questions, objections raised and answered.

Date1636 AD (Bremen; Reformed professor)

EditionSyntagma sacrae theologiae (Bremen: Berthold Villerian, 1636)

English follows the 1636 Bremen Latin (Berthold Villerian), read chapter by chapter from the SLUB Dresden page images, with a machine reading of the same pages as a check. No modern English was copied. The author index at the end of the volume is not translated.

Reference

VD17 14:684303C. SLUB id335860389.

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