System of Sacred Theology · §3.3.4 · Ludwig Crocius

ASSERTION 2: God known by natural mental discourse, but most imperfectly

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SECOND ASSERTION. God is indeed known by the natural discourse of our mind, but in a most imperfect way.

Since God cannot be perceived by sense, we inquire whether we can perceive Him by reason. But we know God much more faintly from His effects, which are infinitely surpassed by God. Hence Nazianzen, correcting Plato: God's nature can be explained by no words, and by mind and intellect can be comprehended still less.

Latin

ASSERTIO SECUNDA. Deus naturali mentis nostrae discursu cognoscitur quidem, sed imperfectissimo modo. Cum sensu percipi non possit Deus, an ratione eum percipere possimus inquiremus. Multo languidius Deum cognoscimus ex effectis suis, qui a Deo infinite superantur. Hinc Nazianzenus, Platonem corrigens: Dei naturam nullis verbis explicari posse, animo atque intellectu comprehendi multo minus posse.

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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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