Commentaries Upon the Apostles' Creed (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1899 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XCVI The primeval Estate of the first Man 1. It was a very wise saying of one, who (if we may approve Julius Scaliger's censure of him) was none of the wisest doctors, Tractate res hwmanas norunt plurimi, cestimare paucissimi.1 To attain unto a large measure of skill or cunning, whether in, contriving or managing mundane or merely human affairs, is a matter more easy or more common, than to be able to set a just price or estimate, whether upon the things or works themselves, or upon the artificer's skill in contriving or working them. This maxim is altogether as true, and somewhat more improvable in businesses sacred, especially in such as have been heretofore handled in part, and come now to be further discussed. The first part of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of Him crucified, raised from the dead, &c., is a great deal more easily learned, than the second, unto which these present meditations are addressed. The first part of this heavenly knowledge consists principally in the display of the harmony between the prophetical and evangelical writings, or the parallels between matters of fact recorded in the Old Testament, and the events answering in proportion to them in the New, already exhibited, and further to be accomplished before the end of this world, or in the world to come. 1 Cardanus in lib. de Utilitate ex adversis capienda. 2. The second part of the Knowledge of Christ consists in the true estimate or experimental valuation of His death and sufferings, of His resurrection from the dead, and exercise of His everlasting sacerdotal function. 3. lit Deum cognoscas (saith an ancient and pious father1) teipsum prius cognosce: we must learn to know ourselves before we can attain unto the true or perfect knowledge of God, whether as He is our ..