Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
This extract is actually post number 4,000 on the Reformed Covenanter blog. The author was a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards:
§ 4. For God is a being infinitely and absolutely perfect. He has all those Perfections which are contained or implied in the Words good, right, excellent, amiable, and all other Words of the like Import—all those Perfections which can possibly exist, or that can be conceived of by the most perfect Intelligent: For there can be no Limitation of Perfection in a necessary and self-existent Being.
§ 5. Indeed we get the Idea of a Perfection from those small Degrees of Perfection which we observe in the Creatures, and then we ascribe all Perfections to God, in an infinite Degree; and unite them all in the Idea of ONE ALL-PERFECT BEING.
§ 6. So that, in the Order of our Conceptions, we conceive of a Perfection as existing in the Creature, before we conceive of it as existing in God, and generally (it may be) before we have any Idea of God at all. And therefore we are apt to conceive (or, at least, to use some Expressions as if we did conceive) some Perfections to have an independent Existence out of God, and prior to him; and as if we would try him by that Standard, and approve of his Qualities according as we conceived them to be agreeable to it. But this is a great Mistake: For all Perfection is originally in God, as the primary Foundation and Standard, and from that Fountain is communicated to the Creatures, in various limited Degrees, according to their several Ranks and Orders. ...
For more, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
§ 4. For God is a being infinitely and absolutely perfect. He has all those Perfections which are contained or implied in the Words good, right, excellent, amiable, and all other Words of the like Import—all those Perfections which can possibly exist, or that can be conceived of by the most perfect Intelligent: For there can be no Limitation of Perfection in a necessary and self-existent Being.
§ 5. Indeed we get the Idea of a Perfection from those small Degrees of Perfection which we observe in the Creatures, and then we ascribe all Perfections to God, in an infinite Degree; and unite them all in the Idea of ONE ALL-PERFECT BEING.
§ 6. So that, in the Order of our Conceptions, we conceive of a Perfection as existing in the Creature, before we conceive of it as existing in God, and generally (it may be) before we have any Idea of God at all. And therefore we are apt to conceive (or, at least, to use some Expressions as if we did conceive) some Perfections to have an independent Existence out of God, and prior to him; and as if we would try him by that Standard, and approve of his Qualities according as we conceived them to be agreeable to it. But this is a great Mistake: For all Perfection is originally in God, as the primary Foundation and Standard, and from that Fountain is communicated to the Creatures, in various limited Degrees, according to their several Ranks and Orders. ...
For more, see:
Thomas Clap on God as an all-perfect being
§ 4. For God is a being infinitely and absolutely perfect. He has all those Perfections which are contained or implied in the Words good, right, excellent, amiable, and all other Words of the like …
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
