Active creation is conceived as a transitive action in which there is always presupposed an object about which the agent is concerned; it is virtually but not formally transitive because it makes, not presupposes, an object.
The will of God is single and totally one in Him.
The virtue of contentment is the acquiescence of the mind in the lot God has given.
Although the whole man partakes of this grace, it is first and most appropriately in the soul and later progresses to the body, inasmuch as the body of the man is capable of the same obedience to the will of God as the soul.
Therefore, the church is not absolutely necessary as an object of faith, not even for us today, for then Abraham and the other prophets would not have given assent to those things which were revealed to them from God without any intervening help of the church.
In the exercise of God’s efficiency, the decree of God comes first. This manner of working is the most perfect of all and notably agrees with the divine nature.
Nothing exists from eternity but God, and God is not the matter or a part of any creature, but only the maker.
Participation in the blessings of the union with Christ comes when the faithful have all the things needed to live well and blessedly to God.
Sanctification is not to be understood here as a separation from ordinary use or consecration to some special use, although this meaning is often present in Scripture, sometimes referring to outward and sometimes to inward or effectual separation.
The first act of religion, therefore, concerns those things which are communicated to us from God. The other concerns those things which we yield to God.
The efficiency of God may be understood as either creation or providence.
The relative property of the Son is to be begotten, that is, so to proceed from the Father as to be a participant of the same essence and perfectly carry on the Father’s nature.
The attributes of God tell us what He is and who He is.
Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God.
Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God.
The passive receiving of Christ is the process by which a spiritual principle of grace is generated in the will of man.
The inward offer is a kind of spiritual enlightenment, whereby the promises are presented to the hearts of men, as it were, by an inward word.
The ordinary ministry is that which receives all of its direction from the will of God revealed in the Scriptures and from those means which God has appointed in the church for its continual edification.
An idea in man is first impressed upon him and afterwards expressed in things, but in God it is only expressed, not impressed, because it does not come from anywhere else.
The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal.