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4 Incomprehensibility Of God
INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD This is a relative term, and indicates a relation between an object and a faculty; between God and a created understanding; so that the meaning of it is this, that no created understanding can comprehend God; that is, have a perfect and exact knowledge of him, such a knowledge as is adequate to the perfection of the object, Job 11:7. Is 60. God is incomprehensible,—1. As to the nature of his essence.—2. the excellency of his attributes.—3. The depth of his counsels.— 4. The works of his providence.—5. the dispensation of his grace, Eph 3:8. Job 37:25. Rom 11. The incomprehensibility of God follows,—1. From his being a spirit endured with perfections greatly superior to our own.—2. There may be (for any…
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3 Self-Existence Of God
SELF-EXISTENCE OF GOD Is his entire existence of himself, not owing it to any other being whatsoever: and thus God would exist, if there were to other being in the whole compass of nature but himself.
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2 Existence Of God
EXISTENCE OF GOD The methods usually followed in proving the existence of God are two; the first called argumentum a priori, which beginning with the cause descends to the effect; the other argumentum a posteriori, which, from a consideration of the effect ascends to the cause. The former of these hath been particularly laboured by Dr. Samuel Clarke; but after all he has said, the possibility of any one's being convinced by it hath been questioned. The most general proofs are the following: 1. "All nations, Heathens, Jews, Mahometan, and Christians, harmoniously consent that there is a God who created, preserves, and governs all things. To this it has been objected, that there have been, at different times and places, men who were atheists, and…
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1 God
GOD The self-existent, infinitely perfect, and infinitely good Being, who created and preserves all things that have existence. As the Divine Being possesses a nature far beyond the comprehension of any of his creatures, of course that nature is inexplicable. "All our knowledge of invisible objects is obtained by analogy; that is, by the resemblance which they bear to visible objects; but as there is in nature no exact resemblance of the nature of God, an attempt to explain the divine nature is absurd and impracticable. All similitudes, therefore, which are used in attempting to explain it must be rejected." Yet, though we cannot fully understand his nature, there is something of him we may know. He hath been pleased to discover his perfections, in a…
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Introduction
Knowledge, in a great measure, forms the true dignity and happiness of man: it is that by which he holds an honourable rank in the scale of being, and by which he is rendered capable of adding to the felicity of his fellow-creature. Every attempt, therefore, to enlarge its boundaries, and facilitate its acquisition must be considered as worthy of our attention and regard. The present work is designed to promote these valuable and important ends. The plan of conveying knowledge by dictionaries has been long established, and well received in the republic of letters. A dictionary, however, of a religious and ecclesiastical nature was still a desideratum in the religious world; for although we have had dictionaries which explained Scripture terms, yet it is…
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Title Page And Preface
Theological Dictionary by Charles Buck ------------------------------------------------------------ Charles Buck (1771-1815) was an English Independent minister, best known for the publication of his “Theological Dictionary”. The first edition was printed in 1802, followed by fifty reprints. Buck writes:[1] "I had been for some time employed in preparing for the press my Theological Dictionary, a work which cost me much labour day and night, and no one to assist me, except now and then the bare copying of an article. The vast variety of books to be consulted, the discriminations to be made, the difficulty of seizing those accurate definitions I wanted, the various opinions of authors on the same subject, the including every article in Ecclesiastical History, Theology, and Morals, rendered it rather a formidable work for…
