A64611:397
The sum of Christian religion, delivered by Zacharias Ursinus first, by way of catechism,…The summe of Christian religion, delivered by Zacharias Ursinus first, by way of catechism,…
The sum of Christian religion, delivered by Zacharias Ursinus first, by way of catechism, and then afterwards more enlarged by a sound and judicious exposition, and application of the same : wherein also are debated and resolved the questions of whatsoever points of moment have been, or are controversed in divinity / first Englished by D. Henry Parry, and now again conferred with the best and last Latin edition of D. David Pareus, sometimes Professor of Divinity in Heidelberg ; whereunto is added a large and full alphabetical table of such matters as are therein contained ; together with all the Scriptures that are occasionally handled, by way either of controversy, exposition, or reconciliation, neither of which was done before, but now is performed for the readers delight and benefit ; to this work of Ursinus are now at last annexed the Theological miscellanies of D. David Pareus in which the orthodoxall tenets are briefly and solidly confirmed, and the contrary errors of the Papists, Ubiquitaries, Antitrinitaries, Eutychians, Socinians, and Arminians fully refuted ; and now translated into English out of the original Latin copy by A.R.The summe of Christian religion, delivered by Zacharias Ursinus first, by way of catechism, and then afterwards more enlarged by a sound and judicious exposition, and application of the same : wherein also are debated and resolved the questions of whatsoever points of moment have been, or are controversed in divinitie / first Englished by D. Henry Parry, and now again conferred with the best and last Latine edition of D. David Pareus, sometimes Professour of Divinity in Heidelberge ; whereunto is added a large and full alphabeticall table of such matters as are therein contained ; together with all the Scriptures that are occasionally handled, by way either of controversie, exposition, or reconciliation, neither of which was done before, but now is performed for the readers delight and benefit ; to this work of Ursinus are now at last annexed the Theologicall miscellanies of D. David Pareus in which the orthodoxall tenets are briefly and solidly confirmed, and the contrary errours of the Papists, Ubiquitaries, Antitrinitaries, Eutychians, Socinians, and Arminians fully refuted ; and now translated into English out of the originall Latine copie by A.R.
London: printed by James Young, 1645
Title page: Internet Archive scan of the Early English Books microfilm
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fourthly,1 it is showed by many testimonies of Scripture, that the Wills and voluntary Actions of good and wicked men, which our adversaries maintain to be and have been free, and we also, according to the right meaning of this word Liberty, do willingly confess, are so guided by the secret and unchangeable purpose of God, that they neither can or could either do, or be otherwise. Wherefore either so many manifest places of Scripture must be denied, or openly corrupted: or it must be granted, that one and the same Action of the Will is free & contingent in respect of the Will, and necessary in respect of Gods government. Fifthly, it is declared by many places of Scripture,2 that all contingent effects do retain their contingency, which they have from the nature of their causes, although they be done by the unchangeable determination of the purpose or providence of God: But all voluntary effects or motions are contingent in respect of the Will, which by nature was alike able to have done the plain contrary unto them. They therefore retain their contingency, that is, their liberty (for this is the contingency of the actions of the Will) although they be so determined of by Gods Will, that there can be no other. The reason of the Major in this argument is, for that God so moveth the second causes, and by them bringeth to pass what he will, that in the mean season by this providence he doth not destroy or abolish their nature wch he gave them at their creation, but rather preserveth and nourisheth it: so that as concerning their nature, some work contingently, some necessarily, although in respect of the liberty of Gods purpose, all work contingently, and in respect of the unchangeableness of his decree, all work necessarily, so as they do. For when God by the rising of the Sun lighteneth the world, he maketh not the Sun so, as if being risen it did not necessarily lighten, or were apt by nature not to lighten: and yet it is in the power of God, either to change the nature of the Sun, or that remaining as it is, not to lighten the world: as he showed in Egypt, and at the passion of Christ. In like manner, when the Quails light at the Tents of the Israelites, and the Ravens carry meat to Elijah, and one sparrow falleth on the ground, God doth not make the nature of these living creatures such, as could not be carried elsewhere:
Fourthly,