Question re: preface to Charnock

[reaganmarsh]

Greetings,

My wife surprised me with an early birthday present: Charnock's "Existence and Attributes of God." Happy birthday to me.

I've just begun reading the preface (by E. Veel and R. Adams). In it they write, "Nothing is more nervous than his reasonings, and nothing more affecting than his applications." (In my Baker 1-vol. edition, it's on pg. 21).

What do they mean by describing his reasonings as "nervous"?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Dict. def: "4. Vigorous in style or feeling; spirited." AHCD, 3rd. ed., 1993, p915.

 

[reaganmarsh]

Excellent, thank you! I had seen that possibility but know that often the older divines employ terms differently than we do today, so I was hesitant to read my guess into the word.

Appreciate the help!

 

[BobVigneault]

Obviously Pastor Bruce nervously hit the nail on the head. I would add that it's somewhat helpful to keep a link to Webster's Dictionary of 1828. It's a fabulous resource for some of the older definitions and particularly, words has they were meant in the Bible.

Here is the definition for the word "nervous".

 

[reaganmarsh]

Thank you, Mr. Vigneault! That is a helpful link to have. I hope it wasn't a remedial question -- I simply didn't want to impose a meaning onto a word which wasn't what the author intended. I remember a couple of instances of that sort of thing in Jonathan Edwards, for example, which brought a bit of embarrassment during seminary! Call me gun-shy, but I don't want to make the same mistake twice! Ha!

Grace to you, brothers. Thanks again.