Philosopher

Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God.

The world has not been in existence from eternity nor could it have been according to the present dispensation and ordering of things.

Hence the end of the world should be awaited with all longing by all believers.

This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties.

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.

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.

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.

The starting point of sanctification is the filthiness, corruption, or stain of sin.

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.

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.

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.

The good pleasure of God is an act of the divine will freely and effectively determining all things.

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.

For this is our most perfect duty and yet least known to us by nature: Whatever we conceive or will should be joined with the good of our neighbor.

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.

Faith is the virtue by which, clinging-to the faithfulness of God, we lean upon him, so that we may obtain what he gives to us.

Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God's image.

From faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion referring to God, there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us; the hearing of the word and prayer.

The attributes of God tell us what He is and who He is.