On the Reasons of the Holy Spirit, Book II

A single axiom for the foundation of the whole work.

That God is most excellent, and that He has made and is making all those things which contribute to the end and completion of the universe.

In the first place, those things about which we are going to treat must be set down so that we know in what order and about what matters we must act. And because error is not accustomed to being admitted or causing harm in all things equally, although it reigns everywhere and is usually defended persistently by many, nevertheless we have deemed that only that which is separated from the truth and impinges upon the chief heads of matters should be refuted with reason as our guide. These arguments are to be set down in this series.

Chapter 1: On the arrangement of the book, and on God.

A large ornamental drop cap letter 'D' is decorated with detailed floral and vine motifs within a rectangular frame.

God, the world, man. God is triune and one: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Man is the form of matter, soul by spirit, and body. His three times are to be considered: before, in, and after sin. The world is superior, middle, and lowest. The superior is the mind, ideas, intellect. The intellects are either perpetually separated, or sometimes not, as human minds. Free will, virtue, eternity. These things are either without a beginning, as God, or with a beginning, as intellect and solid man, or in a middle way, as the eternal world, or ideas, differing from God only in this: that they are created.

+In life, things are to be believed, done, and hoped for. Under these arguments

Hieronymus Cardanus...?