Methodus Sacrae Scripturae in publicis tum praelectionibus tum concionibus utiliter atque intelligenter tractandae

...so that it may be understood, lest it appear to be like a broom scattered. And those words which show the reason of order and continuation, although they are almost infinite among the rhetoricians themselves, yet a few are absolutely necessary to be known for the use of Sacred Scripture. They are almost these: Πρόθεσις proposition, θερισμός reaping/gathering, ὁρισμός definition, αἰτιολογία explanation of cause, τάξις order/arrangement, ἀντίθεσις opposition/antithesis, ὑποφορά objection, ἐπάνοδος return/recapitulation, παρέκβασις digression, μετάβασις transition, ἐξήγησις exegesis/explanation, ἀπεξεργασία polishing/elaboration, or ἐπιμονή persistence/insistence, αὔξησις amplification, κατάφασις affirmation. These I explain for the sake of the young candidates of theology. For although Bede the Anglo-Saxon, who is commonly called Venerable, has copiously treated the figures and tropes which Sacred Scripture is accustomed to use, he left this place intact. But neither did the most learned man, Andr. Hyperius, touch upon these things in any way when he clearly pursued the places of arguments that occur here and there in the same Sacred Scripture.

Πρόθεσις proposition is the brief explanation of the future dispute which is made immediately at the beginning. Thus Paul, in Romans 1:16, about to speak of the universal fruit of the Gospel, and those benefits of God which are poured out upon the whole human race through Christ, and are communicated through the preaching of the Gospel, immediately and with one word encompasses the entire future dispute in a very brief Πρόθεσις proposition. It is, he says, the Gospel of God, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first, then also to the Greek. Thus in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 10, about to rebuke the dissensions and schisms which were among them, he proposes this very thing briefly in the first place with these words.