Theological Theses · §2274 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Against a 'virtual and implicit' love of God in the ignorant

Thesis XIV. It is useless for some to distinguish here between a virtual, implicit love of God and a formal, explicit one, as though someone who does not formally love God, and is even ignorant of him, could still be reckoned to love him implicitly when he loves certain actions God has commanded, actions that must for that very reason be reckoned pleasing to God.

For whoever does not know God, or does not act from love of God, whether actual or habitual, undoubtedly acts from love of himself and loves himself above all things. He loves an upright action only so that he may take joy in it and be pleased with himself. Every love of self not subordinated to the love of God is vicious and sinful, and it is wholly unreasonable to find a praiseworthy implicit love of God inside a vicious love.

Latin

XIV. Caeterum frustra hic distinguunt nonnulli quendam amorem Dei virtualem atque implicitum, ab amore Dei formali atque explicito: quasi aliquis Deum formaliter non diligens, imo Deum ignorans, censeri tamen posset illum implicite amare, cum diligit actiones quasdam a Deo praeceptas, quae hoc ipso Deo placere censendae sunt. Nam qui Deum ignorat, aut non operatur ex Dei amore, vel actuali vel habituali, proculdubio ex sui amore operatur, ac seipsum supra omnia diligit; nec actionem honestam diligit, nisi ut ea gaudeat, atque sibi placeat. Omnis vero sui amor qui divino non subordinatur, vitiosus & peccaminosus est. In amore autem aliquo vitioso laudabilem quendam Dei amorem implicitum esse, prorsus est contra rationem.

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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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