System of Sacred Theology · §3.18.2 · Ludwig Crocius

II-VI: God's virtue; wisdom and prudence

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II. But God is virtue and blessedness.. Gods virtue is the integrity of His intellect or will. Virtue in God is not an accident, and therefore not a quality or habit of intellect or will, but God's very essence considered in order to the true and the good, and a certain eminence of that which in our virtues and affections is most perfect. For He Himself is to Himself the right reason of all things knowable and to be done.

IV. Integrity of intellect is wisdom and prudence. V. Wisdom is integrity of intellect by which God knows what agrees with each thing and what is alien from it. By this God most inwardly knows Himself and all things — possible, future, existing in act, past — Job 11; 1 Samuel 2:3; Psalm 139; Romans 11:33; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 3:20.

VI. Prudence is integrity of intellect by which God knows how to accommodate to all things in order to practice what is fitting. By this God decrees and does all things from the most wise counsel of His will — Isaiah 40:28; Jeremiah 10:12.

Latin

II. Sunt autem Dei virtus et beatitas. III. Virtus Dei est integritas intellectus ejus aut voluntatis. Virtus in Deo non est accidens, adeoque qualitas seu habitus intellectus et voluntatis, sed ipsissima Dei essentia considerata in ordine ad verum et bonum, et eminentia quaedam ejus quod in virtutibus et affectibus nostris perfectissimum est. Ipse enim sibi est ratio recta omnium scibilium et faciendorum. IV. Integritas intellectus est sapientia et prudentia. V. Sapientia est integritas intellectus, qua Deus novit quid cuique rei conveniat et quid ab ipsa sit alienum. Hac Deus intime novit se et res omnes, possibiles, futuras, existentes actu, praeteritas — Job XI; I Sam. II.3; Psal. CXXXIX; Rom. XI.33; I Tim. I.17; Heb. IV.13; I Joh. III.20. VI. Prudentia est integritas intellectus, qua Deus novit rebus omnibus in ordine ad praxin accommodare quod convenit. Hac Deus omnia decernit et facit ex sapientissimo consilio voluntatis suae — Isa. XL.28; Jer. X.12.

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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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