J. E. Smith

Anthony Tuckney on 2 Peter 1:4 Anthony Tuckney (Westminster divine and chairman of the Assembly’s committee for the Larger Catechism) on 2 Peter 1:4 (and yes, he does affirm that Adam had this grace): “8. As Nature sometimes anticipates Reason, so this Divine Nature [i.e., as he describes, a created participation of the divine nature/life, primarily consisting of habitual grace in the soul] always exceeds and goeth beyond that which is only humane. Divinity is above Humanity, Grace above Nature. A Christian is not ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπος a bare man, but more than a man. And therefore to have or express no more than what Nature can work, or natural men by other helps can attain to, κατ' ἄνθρωπον περιπατεῖν, to walk as [mere] men with the Apostle, 1 Cor. 3. 3. terminus minuens, or (as Cap. 6. 7. he calls the like) it's ἥττημα a defect, in which we fall much short of, and below that which a man of God that is made partaker of the Divine Nature, should arrive at, and come up to. For as man by nature and kind is and acts above other creatures, so a Christian man should even above himself, as a man, and above other men that want that Divine Principle. […] [A]s long as the sanctifying Spirit acts and abides in us, we are true Nazarites, as by our holy Vows separated to God, so we should be (though not wholly separated, yet) very much distinguished from other ordinary men. Christ expects from us a τι περισσόν, Mat. 5. 47. something singular, eminent, and transcendent. […] [Gasparo] Contarini (de Justificat.) makes the comparison of the manners of a Rustick and of a Citizen or Courtier: and a like difference he saith there is between the carriage of an earth-born sinner and a Saint made partaker of the Divine Nature. The Sons of Princes should not be in the garb of Peasants children; but that comparison is too low. Between Nature and Grace there should be a more vast distance. A Child of God should be as much above a natural man as heaven is above the earth, and as much above a fouler sinner, as heaven is above hell.” - Anthony Tuckney, Forty Sermons, 246-247 [2nd of 4 sermons on 2 Peter 1:4, in which he discourses at length on this text and on this topic].

John of St. Thomas's treatise on essence, existence & subsistence is now ready. Link down below.

Logic-maxxing Friday. Link below.

@jstephentrotter @Tink830 Those are from his chapter on genus and species in Book 1.

I definitely would argue that this is correct. Individual relates to species as species does to genus; both are covered under the genus-species distinction (e.g., see the sections below from Burgersdijk's Logic, especially the last clause in the first picture).

"our ablest, and most Judicious Divines acknowledge that upon supposition, that the Saints fallen into gross sins against Knowledge and Conscience...should dye in them before they had, through Grace... renewed both their Faith, and their Repentance...they would be damned"

A New Confession of Faith (1654) "XV. Whosoever allows himself to live in any known sin, upon any pretense or principle whatsoever, is in a state of damnation." Produced by the Parliament Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel with John Owen as a principle contributor

@JosephGilbert_ @scottrswain @BerithPress It’s Ames.

@DordtyHylemorph @scottrswain @BerithPress Who is this?

Memorize this simple chart. It will have huge ramifications for your brain.

Amesius should be more Famesius but we are Lamesius.

Check it out 👇

@Mohsule_ He also doesn’t totally condemn it in the quoted source, but says there’s a use for it. And not only that, but also this:

You’re trying so hard to co-opt Voetius to your biblicist agenda but your evaluation lacks balance. You’re divorcing his criticism from the context of papal use of scholasticism, in justifying points of [catholic] sacred tradition. Other than that, Voetius very much lauds the…

Put your thinking cap on for this one. See link below.

“Relation” became one of the fuzziest categories in modern theology. Burgersdijk is not fuzzy. Kudos to @reformedtexan for his ongoing translation of this work.

I think this is my favorite chapter of all in his Logic

He is our Thomas Aquinas

The Aberdeen Doctors were brilliant. Here is my new series working through Robert Baron's Disputation on Venial and Mortal Sin. Link below.

Back to the grind. See link below.

"[W]hatsoever doth make manifest, is light] Either [1] sensible light, which maketh things manifest to the eye; or [2] intellectual, which maketh things evident to the understanding; and that is either [2a] natural, as the light of reason, or [2b] supernatural, as the light of God's Word, and his Spirit." - English ["Westminster"] Annotations (1657), Ephesians 5:13.

“For the promissory part of the Law. It promiseth life and reward to no obedience, but to perfect and absolute obedience, if there be the least defect in the least jot; the garland and crown promised is forfeited; so as there is no reigning of it for ever by that bargain. But the Gospel promiseth to the least sincere obedience, were it but a cup of cold water to a Disciple, a reward of glory. Therefore the difference standeth not as Antinomians dream, between the covenants chiefly in doing, and not doing, as if the Gospel or covenant of grace did not also command doing, in relation to life eternal; yea, and with a promise, as well as the Law doth, but in a far other way: for godliness hath the promises of the life that now is, and that which is to come.” —Samuel Rutherford, Spiritual Antichrist, book 2, CHAP. VII

"Though [Harrison] Perkins no doubt agrees with Augustine that grace is necessary post-fall, he commits essentially the same error as the Pelagians in positing that nature is, in itself, proportioned to the attainment of a supernatural end." americanreformer.org/2026/04/the-na…