[Lexicon theologicum in quo theologiae termini explicantur juxta seriem locorum communium; Accedit monitio de lectione Novi Testamenti; (Prostat, 1612)]

Biography: Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), that industrious and God-fearing servant of the Church, was born in Mittenaar within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and was educated under the noble tutelage of Johannes Piscator at Herborn, and afterward under such men as Goclenius and Polanus, blending the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and the liberal arts. He was deeply steeped in the Reformed faith, trained in Ramist method and Lullist art, and rose swiftly to prominence as professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn Academy. In his later years, having been driven by the fury of the Thirty Years' War, he settled in the land of Transylvania, where, at the city of Alba Iulia, he established a Calvinist academy, laboring for the propagation of pure doctrine among the churches recently reclaimed from Socinian heresy. As a man whose very name was anagrammed into Sedulitas (diligence), Alsted pursued the systematization of knowledge with a singular zeal. His crowning achievement, the Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Distincta (1630), was not merely an inventory of sciences, but a theological and philosophical edifice structured according to the order of divine wisdom. He sought to demonstrate that all branches of learning, rightly understood, flow from and return unto Sacred Scripture. His labors were praised by the godly Cotton Mather and influenced John Amos Comenius, while even Leibniz once considered revising his great work. Though some censured him for his unacknowledged borrowings, yet none could deny the utility or magnificence of his efforts. In theology, he was a fierce opponent of the Socinians, authoring his Prodromusto confound their impieties. Thus lived and died this encyclopaedic divine, whose writings form a citadel of Reformed learning, erected to the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.

Biography: Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), that industrious and God-fearing servant of the Church, was born in Mittenaar within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and was educated under the noble tutelage of Johannes Piscator at Herborn, and afterward under such men as Goclenius and Polanus, blending the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and the liberal arts. He was deeply steeped in the Reformed faith, trained in Ramist method and Lullist art, and rose swiftly to prominence as professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn Academy. In his later years, having been driven by the fury of the Thirty Years' War, he settled in the land of Transylvania, where, at the city of Alba Iulia, he established a Calvinist academy, laboring for the propagation of pure doctrine among the churches recently reclaimed from Socinian heresy. As a man whose very name was anagrammed into Sedulitas (diligence), Alsted pursued the systematization of knowledge with a singular zeal. His crowning achievement, the Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Distincta (1630), was not merely an inventory of sciences, but a theological and philosophical edifice structured according to the order of divine wisdom. He sought to demonstrate that all branches of learning, rightly understood, flow from and return unto Sacred Scripture. His labors were praised by the godly Cotton Mather and influenced John Amos Comenius, while even Leibniz once considered revising his great work. Though some censured him for his unacknowledged borrowings, yet none could deny the utility or magnificence of his efforts. In theology, he was a fierce opponent of the Socinians, authoring his Prodromusto confound their impieties. Thus lived and died this encyclopaedic divine, whose writings form a citadel of Reformed learning, erected to the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.

Table of Contents:

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CHAPTER II: Of God.

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I. Of the Methodology

Let this be the method: God is an independent essence.

The Essence of God is to be considered, which is viewed absolutely and respectively.

The Essence absolutely considered is that common nature (namely to the three persons) by which God is God, and is distinguished from all other natures. This essence, although it be one in number, is nonetheless conceived by us only through distinct attributes. These attributes are of two kinds; absolute and respective. The absolute are those without which God would not be God. The related are those which are predicated of God as related to creatures. Hence some Divine names insinuate His essence, others His properties.

The Essence respectively considered is called subsistence; likewise mode of subsisting, τρόπος ὑπάρξεως: in one name it is called Hypostasis, Person.

There are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: whose works inwardly are elegantly called notional acts.

This thread concerning God we shall follow with God.

II. On the word Essence

Essence is so named from being: thus οὐσία from εἶναι. Particip. ὠν, οὐσα. Essence (saith Bellarminus) is derived from being, and is the abstract of that word, which in concrete is called Being. This word analogically exists in the sacred writings. For in the New Testament the verb substantive, most simple and irresoluble, is predicated of God a thousand times. It is commonly said:

It is lawful for an artificer to give a new name, Much more therefore it is lawful for God to declare His own name.

Compounds are οὐσιοποιός substantific, οὐσιώδης essential, substantial, οὐσιωδῶς essentially. Hence that greatest Theological maxim: The name θεός in Scripture is taken either οὐσιωδῶς, or ὑποστατικῶς, that is, absolutely and indeterminately, or determinately. οὐσιόω, I make to be. And passive οὐσιοῦσθαι, as if to say, to be substantiated. οὐσιωθῆναι τὸν λόγον ἐξ ἡμῶν, Budaeus interprets, The Word of God to have taken substance from us. οὐσίωσις, as if to say, essentation, or substantiation, substantification. For to express words of this kind, it is necessary to go beyond the boundaries of the Latin language. συνουσιοῦσθαι is to be consubstantiated; hence συνουσία, ἡμεθουσία.

The Hebrews call essence Thuscijah, from the verb Hajah. Thus it is frequently called in the book of Job and in the Proverbs of Solomon.Thuscijah therefore is essence, existence, substance, that which a thing is, or which truly and really exists; whatsoever is solid and stable. It is a general word, and therefore is variously translated and taken. Furthermore let us gather certain differences of names, which seem συνώνυμα and ἰσοδυναμοῦντα. Philosophers about to speak accurately, distinguish between to be, to exist, to stand under, and to subsist.

To be belongs to substance, to be in belongs to accident; according to that saying; The being of an accident is to be in. Thus accidents speaking philosophically are not created, but concreated, do not operate, but cooperate. But they who speak popularly, say that accidents also are.