System of Sacred Theology · §3.24.5 · Ludwig Crocius

XIII-XVI: efficient, impulsive, material causes

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XIII. Nor is creation of all things efficiently from God alone only, but also no creature can create. XIV. But the impulsive cause of creation is Gods communicative goodness, or the love by which God willed to communicate His good outwardly.

Matter properly so called did not lie beforehand for created things; for creation is from nothing. Those who invent eternal matter with Aristotle, or two principles with the Manichees, wander from the truth.

Latin

XIII. Neque tantum est rerum omnium efficienter creatio a solo Deo, sed et nulla creatura creare potest. XIV. Impellens vero creationis causa est bonitas Dei communicativa, seu amor quo Deus bonum suum ad extra communicare voluit. Materia proprie dicta rebus creatis non praejacuit; creatio enim est ex nihilo. Qui materiam aeternam fingunt cum Aristotele, aut duas principia cum Manichaeis, a veritate aberrant.

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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.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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