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declare to others: And this Spirit itself is called "the Spirit of Christ."

V. 2. In the excellence of his doctrine, also, Christ was superior to all other teachers; because he revealed to mankind, together and at once, the fulness of the very Godhead, and the complete and latest will of his Father respecting the salvation of men: So that, either as it regards the matter or the clearness of the exposition, no addition can be made to it: Nor is it necessary that it should.

VI. From their belief in this religion and their profession of it, the professors were called Christians. (Acts xi, 26; 1 Pet. iv, 16.) That the excellence of this name may really belong to a person, it is not sufficient for him to acknowledge Christ as a Teacher and Prophet divinely called. But he must likewise religiously own and worship Him as the object of this doctrine; -though the former knowledge and faith precede this, and though from it alone certain persons are sometimes said to have believed in Christ.

DISPUTATION XIII.

ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, WITH REGARD TO THE MATTER GENERALLY.

I. SINCE God is the object of all religion in its various modifications, He must likewise be the object of this religion. But Christ in reference to God is also an object of it, as having been appointed by God the Father, KING AND LORD of the universe, and the HEAD of his church.

II. For this reason in a treatise on the Christian Religion, the following subjects come in due order under our consideration: (1.) The Object itself, towards which faith and religious worship ought to tend. (2.) The Cause, on account of which faith and worship may and ought to be performed to the object. (3.) The very Act of faith and worship, and the method of each according to the command of God and Christ. (4.) Salvation itself, which, as being promised and desired, has the power of an impelling cause, which, when obtained, is the reward of the observance of religion, and from which arises the everlasting glory of God and Christ.

III. But man, by whom [the duties of] executed, is a sinner, yet one for whom reconciliation have now been obtained.

this religion must be remission of sins and By this mark it is

intended to be distinguished from the religion of the Jews, which God also prescribed to sinners; but it was at a time when remission of sins had not been obtained: On which account, the mode of religion was likewise different, particularly with regard to

ceremonies.

IV. This religion, with regard to all those things which we have mentioned as coming under consideration in it, is, of all religions, the most excellent; or, rather, it is the most excellent mode of religion. Because in it the object is proposed in a manner the most excellent; so that there is nothing about this object which the human mind is capable of perceiving, that is not exhibited in the doctrine of the Christian religion. For God has with it disclosed all his own [bonum] goodness, and has given it to be viewed in Christ.

V. The Cause on account of which religion may and ought to be performed to this object, is in every way the most efficacious: So that nothing can be imagined, why religion may and ought to be performed to any other deity, that is not comprehended in the efficacy of this cause, in a pre-eminent manner.

VI. The very Act of faith and worship is required, and must be performed, in a manner the most signal and particular: And the Salvation which arises from this act, is the greatest and the most glorious;-both because God will afford a fuller and more perfect sight of himself, than if salvation had been obtained through another form of religion;-and because those who will become partakers of this salvation, will have Christ eternally for their Head who is the Brother of men, and they will always behold Him. On this account, in the attainment and possession of salvation, we shall hereafter become, in some measure, superior to the angels themselves.

DISPUTATION XIV.

ON THE OBJECT OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: AND, FIRST, ABOUT GOD, ITS PRIMARY OBJECT, AND WHAT GOD IS.

I. THE object of the Christian religion is that towards which the faith and worship of a religious man ought to tend: This object is God and his Christ: God principally, Christ subordinately under God: God per se, Christ as God has constituted Him the object of this religion.

II. In God, who is the primary object of the Christian religion, three things come in order under our consideration (1.) The

Nature of God; of which the excellence and goodness is such, that religion can honourably and usefully be performed to it. (2.) The Acts of God, on account of which religion ought to be performed to Him. (3.) The Will of God; by which He wills religion to be performed to himself, and that he who performs it be rewarded, and, on the contrary, that the neglecter of it be punished.

III. To every treatise on the nature of God must be prefixed this primary and chief axiom of all religion,-" There is a God." Without this, vain is every enquiry into the nature of God; for if the Divine Nature had no existence, religion would be a mere phantasm of man's conception.

IV. Though [Deum esse] the existence of God has been intimated to every rational creature that perceives his voice, and though this truth is known to every one who reflects on such an intimation; yet" that there is a God," may be demonstrated by various arguments. First, by certain theoretical axioms; and because when the terms in which these are expressed have been once understood, they are known to be true, they deserve to receive the name [notionum insitarum] of "implanted ideas."

V. The First axiom is, "Nothing is or can be from itself." For thus it would at one and the same time be and not be, it would be both prior and posterior to itself, and would be both the cause and effect of itself. Therefore some one being must necessarily be pre-existent, from whom, as from the Primary and Supreme Cause, all other things derive their origin: But this Being is God.

VI. The Second axiom is, "Every efficient primary cause is better or more excellent than its effect." From this it follows, that, as all created minds are in the order of effects, some one mind is supreme and most wise, from which the rest have their origin: But this Mind is God.

VII. The Third axiom is, "No finite force can make something out of nothing; and the First Nature has been made out of nothing." For, if it were otherwise, it neither could nor ought to be changed by an efficient or a former; and thus nothing could be made from it. From this it follows, either that all things which exist have been from eternity and are primary beings, or that there is one Primary Being: But this Being is God.

VIII. The same truth is proved by the practical axiom, or the conscience which has its seat in all rational creatures: It excuses and exhilarates a man in good actions; and, in those which are evil, it accuses and torments;-even in those things of both

kinds] which have not come, and which never will come, to the knowledge of any creature. This stands as a manifest indication, that there is some Supreme Judge, who will institute a strict inquiry and will pass judgment: But this Judge is God.

IX. The magnitude, the perfection, the multitude, the variety, and the agreement of all things that exist, supply us with the Fifth argument; which loudly proclaims, that all these things proceed from one and the same Being and not from many beings: But this Being is God.

X. The Sixth argument is from the order perceptible in things, and from the [ordinatâ] orderly disposition and direction of all of them to an end, even of those things which, devoid of reason themselves, cannot act on account of an end, or at least cannot intend an end. But all order is from One Being, and direction to an end is from a Wise and Good Being: But this Being is God.

XI. The preservation of political, ecclesiastical and economical society among mankind, furnishes our Seventh argument: Amidst such great perversity and madness of Satan and of evil men, human society could never attain to any stability or firmness, except it were preserved safe and unimpaired by ONE who is Supremely Powerful: But this is God.

XII. We take our Eighth argument from the miracles which we believe to have been done, and which we perceive to be done. The magnitude of which is so great as to cause them far to exceed the entire force and power of the created universe. Therefore a cause must exist which transcends the universe and its power or capability: But this Cause is God.

XIII. The predictions of future and contingent things, and their accurate and strict completion, supply the Ninth argument, as being things which could proceed from no one except from God.

XIV. In the last place is added, the perpetual and universal [consensus] agreement of all nations; which general consent must be accounted as equivalent to a law, nay to a Divine Oracle.

COROLLARY.

On account of the dissensions of very learned men, we allow this question to be discussed, "From the motion which is apparent in the world, and from the fact that whatever is moved is moved by another, can it be concluded that there is a God?

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DISPUTATION XV.

ON THE NATURE OF GOD.

I. CONCERNING God, the primary Object of Theology, two things must be known: (1.) His nature, or [quid] what God is, or rather [qualis] what qualities does He possess? (2.) Who God is, or to whom this nature must be attributed. These must be known, lest any thing foolish or unbecoming be ascribed to God, or lest another or a strange one be considered as the true God. On the First of these we will now treat in a few Disputations.

II. As we are not able to know the nature of God in itself, we can in a measure attain to some knowledge from the analogy of the nature which is in created things, and principally that which is in ourselves who are created after the image of God; while we always add a mode of eminence to this analogy, according to which mode God is understood to exceed infinitely the perfections of things created.

III. As in the whole nature of things, and in man, who is the compendium or abridgment of it, only two things can be considered as essential, whether they be disparted in their subjects, or in a certain order connected with each other and subordinate in the same subject,-which two things are ESSENCE and LIFE; -we will also contemplate the nature of God according to these two [momenta] impulses of his nature. For the four degrees, which are proposed by several divines,-to be, to live, to feel, and to understand, are restricted to these two causes of motion; because the word, "to live," embraces within itself both feeling and understanding.

IV. We say, the Essence of God is the first impulse of the Divine Nature; by which God is purely and simply understood to be.

V. As the whole nature of things is distributed according to their essence, into body and spirit; we affirm that the Divine Essence is spiritual, and from this that God is a Spirit, because it could not possibly come to pass that the First and Chief Being should be corporeal: From this, one cannot do otherwise than justly admire the transcendent force and plenitude of God, by which He is capable of creating even things corporeal that have nothing analogous to Himself.

VI. To the Essence of God no attribute can be added, whether distinguished from it in reality, [ratione] by relation, or by a

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