Theological Theses · §170 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Contained κατὰ λέξιν or in substance — Trinity proves the point

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From the above it is clear what we say Scripture contains. Next: how it contains them.

Dogmas and precepts may stand in a book in two ways — first κατὰ λέξιν, in the same words; second in substance, in equivalent words.

We do not claim every orthodox dogma and life-precept appears in Scripture in so many words. Some modern wranglers pin that on us: because we take up nothing outside Scripture in religion, they demand every sentence we teach be shown syllable by syllable in the text.

For us it is enough that Scripture contain the dogma in substance. Scripture nowhere says the bare words ‘God is one and three’; yet we believe it firmly, because Scripture says what comes to the same — three in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one — and in many places that God is one, while the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God.

Latin

VIII. Igitur quae sint illa, quae Scriptura sacra contineri dicimus, ex dictis manifestum est. Deinceps videndum est, qua ratione & modo ex sententia nostra in Scriptura contineantur. Porro dogmata & praecepta quaedam in aliquo libro possunt contineri duobus modis. Primo quidem κατὰ λέξιν, & iisdem verbis. Secundo in substantia, & verbis aequipollentibus. Nostra autem sententia non est omnia fidei dogmata, atque vitae praecepta quae traduntur ab orthodoxis, totidem verbis in sacra Scriptura reperiri. Istud quidem nobis imputant hodierni quidam vitilitigatores, qui ex eo quod profitemur nihil nos extra Scripturam in religionis negotio suscipere, exigunt ut quaecunque scribimus & docemus, totidem verbis & syllabis in Scriptura sacra ostendamus. Verum nobis sufficit ad credendum aliquod dogma, ut Scriptura sacra illud in substantia contineat. Ita Scriptura Sacra nullibi habet haec verba, Deus est unus & trinus. Et tamen illud certa fide credimus, quin quod eodem recidit Scriptura dicit tres esse in caelo, Patrem, Verbum, & Spiritum, & hos tres unum esse. Et pluribus in locis testatur Deum esse unum, & tamen Patrem esse Deum, Filium esse Deum, & Spiritum sanctum esse Deum.

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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).

Printed text used

Translated from Latin (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
Also checked PDF of the 1675 (Latin)
Also checked pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
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We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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