Theological Theses · §246 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Rome's first sufficiency attack: lost canonical books would leave doctrine incomplete

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Rome's opening move: if Scripture were enough, either the whole Canon together would be enough, or each book by itself would be enough.

Neither works. Single books, cut off from the rest, do not hold every saving dogma — not every OT prophecy, not every NT epistle.

So sufficiency would have to belong to the whole Canon. Missing books would mean missing doctrine.

They claim many sacred books have perished: Nathan and Gad, Ahijah and Iddo, Solomon's songs and parables, plus a Laodicean letter and perhaps another Corinthian letter.

From today's incomplete Canon, they say, salvation's doctrine cannot be drawn sufficiently.

Latin

II. Primum ergo, ut probent Scripturam non continere omnia quae ad fidem & religionem necessaria sunt, in hunc modum argumentantur. Si Scripturae omnia necessaria ad fidem & salutem sufficienter continerent, id intelligendum esset, vel de toto Scripturae Canone, qui simul sumptus sufficiens esset; vel de singulis Scripturae partibus, quae singulae per se sufficerent. At neutrum dici potest. Et quidem de singulis libris manifestum est eos seorsim sumptos, & absque reliquo Scripturae corpore non continere omnia necessaria ad salutem. Nec enim prophetia quaevis Veteris Testamenti, aut Novi Testamenti Epistola quaelibet omnia fidei dogmata complectitur. Restat ergo, ut illa perfectio & sufficientia toti Scripturae sacrae Canoni tribuenda sit. Itaque ut habeatur integra salutis doctrina, necesse est ut integer Scripturae Canon habeatur. Quod si aliquid desit in Scripturae Canone, in doctrina quoque aliquid deficere necesse est. Jam autem non habetur integer Scripturae Canon. Igitur ex Scriptura, prout illam hodie habemus, doctrina salutis non potest sufficienter hauriri. Quod autem nunc non habeatur integer Scripturae Canon inde probant quod multi libri sacri interciderunt, tam ex Veteri, quam ex Novo Testamento. Et ex Veteri quidem Testamento libri Nathan & Gad Videntis, de quibus mentio fit cap. ult. lib. 1. Paralip. Et libri item Ahiae Scilonitae & Addo Videntis, de quibus mentio fit 2. Paralip. 9. hodie non extant amplius. Ut nec quinquies mille Salomonis Cantica, & tria millia parabolarum quae loquutus fuisse dicitur 1 Reg. 4. Ex Novo vero Testamento aiunt periisse Epistolam ad Laodicenses, cujus mentio fit, ut putant, ult. cap. Epist. ad Colos. Et forte aliam quandam Epistolam ad Corinthios, cujus mentio fieri videtur 1 Cor. 5.

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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)
Also checked PDF of the 1675 (Latin)
Also checked pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
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