System of Sacred Theology · §1.5.2 · Ludwig Crocius

As to the number of canonical books: none needful to salvation has perished; against Bellarmine and Becanus

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First, as to the number of canonical books: none needful to us for salvation have perished. For Bellarmine is false when he says (On the Word of God book 4 chapter 4): "Many truly sacred and canonical books have perished. Therefore we do not have, nor have we had for 1500 years, sufficient doctrine, if the whole of it is seated in the Scriptures."

The antecedent is false, as is plain from considering the eighteen books Becanus brings forward as lost from the canon. For by God's singular providence the canonical books have been so kept that not even a jot, much less a whole book, could perish from the canon (Matthew 5:18).

Of the books Becanus and other papists complain are lost, we note: (1) some still remain in the canon today; (2) some never existed; (3) some were not books but recensions; (4) some are historical works whose prophetic spirit is not established; (5) some are forensic books, as interpreters will have it.

Latin

Primo, quantum ad librorum canonicorum numerum, nulli qui nobis ad salutem necessarii perierunt. Nam falsus est Bellarminus l.4. de V.D. cap.4.: Multi, inquiens, libri vere sacri & canonici perierunt. Ergo non habemus, nec habuimus a 1500. annis sufficientem doctrinam, si tota sita est in scripturis. Falsum est antecedens, id quod ex 18 librorum quos Becanus e canone amissos obducit consideratione manifestum est. Nam singulari Dei providentia libri canonici ita asservati sunt, ut ne jota quidem, multo minus totus liber e canone perire potuerit (Matth. 5.18). Notamus vero e libris quos Becanus aliique pontificii perditos queruntur: 1. quosdam in canone hodieque superesse; 2. quosdam nunquam exstitisse; 3. quosdam non libros sed recensiones fuisse; 4. quosdam esse historicos de quorum spiritu prophetico non constet; 5. quosdam libros esse forenses, ut volunt interpretes.

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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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