System of Sacred Theology · §4.18.2 · Ludwig Crocius

Causes: Spirit principal; faith secondary; form = conformity to law

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The principal efficient cause is the Holy Spirit; the proximate secondary cause is true faith working through love.

The form of good works lies in conformity to God's law—sin is lawlessness, a good work is law-keeping. Yet because believers' works are imperfect, defects are supplied through faith in Christ, and Christ apprehended by faith makes His righteousness ours so that the works please God.

Latin

Efficiens principalis est Spiritus Sanctus (Rom. 8:14; Ezek. 36:26-27). Proxima et secundaria causa est vera fides per charitatem efficax (Gal. 5:6). Forma bonorum operum posita est in congruentia cum lege Dei—peccatum est anomia, bonum opus isonomia. Quia tamen opera fidelium imperfecta sunt, per fidem in Christum defectus supplentur et Christus fide apprehensus suam iustitiam nostram facit, ut opera Deo placeant (Gen. 4:4; Heb. 11:4).

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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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