System of Sacred Theology · §3.26.1 · Ludwig Crocius

Chapter 26: On things created in the beginning; heaven and earth

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX. On those things which were created in the beginning, and namely on the highest heaven, Angels, and earth.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth — Genesis 1:1. Heaven here is taken both properly for the expanse and heavenly things, and figuratively. Figuratively either by metonymy or by synecdoche.

By metonymy: (1) For God its possessor and author — Daniel 4:26; Matthew 21; Luke 15:18,21; John 3:27. (2) For other heaven-dwellers — Job 15:15; Psalm 89:6. (3) For the church militant on earth — Daniel 8:10; Revelation 9:1; 12:7. (4) For meteors — Leviticus 26:19. By synecdoche: (1) For the highest heaven only — Mark 16:19. (2) For the starry heaven — Psalm 19:6. (3) For the air — Genesis 1:26. But in the present heaven is taken by Moses both for the angelic heaven and for the heaven-dwellers produced by God in the beginning: but Earth for the other principle, from which these interior things which the highest heaven encloses — except the rational soul or our immortal spirit — were produced later.

Latin

CAPUT VICESIMUM SEXTUM, De iis, quae creata sunt in principio, et nominatim de caelo supremo, Angelis, et terra. In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram — Gen. I.1. Caelum hic accipitur tum proprie pro expanso et caelestibus, tum figurate. Figurate vel per metonymiam vel per synecdochen. Per metonymiam: 1. Pro Deo possessore et auctore ejus — Dan. IV.26; Matth. XXI; Luc. XV.18,21; Joh. III.27. 2. Pro aliis caelitibus — Job. XV.15; Psal. LXXXIX.6. 3. Pro ecclesia in terris militante — Dan. VIII.10; Apoc. IX.1; XII.7. 4. Pro meteoris — Lev. XXVI.19. Per synecdochen: 1. Pro caelo supremo tantum — Marc. XVI.19. 2. Pro caelo stellato — Psal. XIX.7. 3. Pro aere — Gen. I.26. In praesentiarum vero accipitur caelum a Mose tum pro angelico caelo, tum pro caelitibus a Deo in principio productis: Terra vero pro altero principio, ex quo haec interiora, quae caelum supremum claudit, excepta anima rationali sive spiritu nostro immortali, posterius producta fuere.

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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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