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1. DESIRING to exercise the reader in the things that are
made, in order that he may know Him by whom they are made, we have
now advanced so far as to His image, which is man, in that wherein he
excels the other animals, i.e. in reason or intelligence, and
whatever else can be said of the rational or intellectual soul that
pertains to what is called the mind. For by this name some Latin
writers, after their own peculiar mode of speech, distinguish that
which excels in man, and is not in the beast, from the soul, which is
in the beast as well. If, then, we seek anything that is above this
nature, and seek truly, it is God, namely, a nature not created,
but creating. And whether this is the Trinity, it is now our
business to demonstrate not only to believers, by authority of divine
Scripture, but also to such as understand, by some kind of reason,
if we can. And why I say, if we can, the thing itself will show
better when we have begun to argue about it in our inquiry.
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