Theological Theses · §105 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

No pope or council carries Scripture's notes of divinity

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No pope, council, or gathering of pastors carries so many and so bright marks of its own authority as sacred Scripture carries of its divinity.

Earlier theses already listed what recommends Scripture: prophecies of things to come, the holiness, height, and force of its teaching, the majesty and plainness of its style, the harmony of Old and New Testament, miracles confirming it, the life of those who first handed it down, God's lasting care to keep it, the martyrs' constancy for its truth, the consent of peoples, and even hostile witnesses.

What council, or what crowd of pastors, presses its claim with notes so many and so strong? Ask the adversaries' own conscience: is it not plainer that Moses and Paul wrote divine, authentic books than that Florence, Trent, or the Lateran were legitimate councils led by the Spirit without fail?

Latin

XXVIII. Adde quod nullus Pontifex, nullum Concilium, nullus Pastorum Coetus tot et tam illustres habet suae authoritatis notas et argumenta, quam Scriptura sacra suae divinitatis. Nam Scripturam sacram commendant quamplurima Thesibus praecedentibus a nobis enumerata: Futurorum praedictiones quae in ea habentur, doctrinae quam tradit sanctitas, sublimitas et efficacia, styli majestas atque simplicitas, consensus veteris et novi Testamenti, miracula in ejus confirmationem facta, genus vitae eorum qui primi eam tradiderunt, perpetua Dei cura in ea conservanda, constantia martyrum in veritate illius tuenda, populorum consensus, et ipsorum etiam hostium testimonium. Quodnam vero Concilium, aut quae Pastorum multitudo, tot et tam insignibus authoritatem suam ingerit argumentis? Atque hic appellanda est conscientia adversariorum, annon, scilicet, notius sit scripta Mosis et Pauli divina et authentica esse, quam Concilium Florentinum, Tridentinum, aut Lateranense legitima esse Concilia, et quae Spiritus sancti infallibilem ductum habuerunt.

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About this text

Louis Le Blanc, a Reformed professor at Sedan, sets out theology in theses argued against Rome: Scripture, faith, grace, free choice, good works and the saints.

This volume holds the Theses on Theology I–XLIII and On Faith I–XXII, in eighteen sections.

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675) was minister and professor of theology at the Academy of Sedan, the Reformed school on France's eastern border. His Theses were disputed by students over many years and collected in a London folio (1675).

The Theological Theses range across the whole Reformed system — Scripture, God, predestination, grace, and justifying faith — in the crisp thesis-and-proof form of the seventeenth-century schools.

Date1675 AD (Sedan theses; London collection)

No modern English.

Reference

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves).

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Translated from Latin (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
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