Theological Theses · §107 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Scripture's witness outranks the Baptist's — and today's pastors

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Sacred Scripture also has, on every side, greater authority among believers than the Church's pastors do.

Their testimony today is no greater than John the Baptist's once was. Yet Scripture's testimony was greater than the Baptist's — as Christ our Lord teaches plainly (John 5), where he sets Scripture's witness to himself above John's. "You sent to John," he says, "and he has borne witness to the truth; yet I have a testimony greater than John's."

He then names a threefold witness greater than John's: first the miracles he worked — "the works the Father gave me to accomplish testify that the Father has sent me"; next the Father's voice from heaven — "the Father who sent me has himself borne witness of me"; and last sacred Scripture. He adds: "Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me."

Latin

XXX. Adde quod Scriptura sacra majorem ex omni parte apud fideles authoritatem habet, quam testimonium Pastorum Ecclesiae. Etenim testimonium Pastorum Ecclesiae non est hodie majus quam erat olim Joannis Baptistae testimonium. At Scripturae testimonium testimonio Joannis Baptistae majus erat: ut manifeste docet Christus Dominus noster, Joan. cap. 5. ubi testimonium illud quod ipsi Scripturae sacrae perhibebant, anteponit Joannis Baptistae testimonio. Misistis, inquit, ad Joannem, et testimonium dedit veritati, ego autem habeo testimonium majus Joannis testimonio. Et postea affert triplex testimonium testimonio Joannis majus: et primo quidem opera miraculosa quae patrabat. Opera enim, inquit, quae dedit mihi Pater, ut ea perficerem, testantur de me quod Pater miserit me. Deinde vocem Patris e coelo attestantem, Et qui misit me Pater ipse testatus est de me. Ac denique Scripturae sacrae testimonium. Subjungit enim, Scrutamini Scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam aeternam habere, et illae sunt quae testificantur de me.

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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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