Theological Theses · §247 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Reply: sufficiency is of Scripture's body taken indefinitely, not of every booklet

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We never meant: every single biblical booklet by itself teaches every dogma.

Sufficiency belongs to Scripture's body taken as a whole — indefinitely, and at least in its chief parts.

Rome assumes that dropping any one book instantly guts doctrine. That is not our claim.

Today's corpus holds salvation's teaching not only enough, but richly; many books only explain or apply what others already teach.

Even if some authentic divine writings had perished, the remaining Scripture could still hold the full saving doctrine — those lost books need not have carried any dogma missing from what survives.

Latin

III. Respondeo, quum dicimus Scripturam sufficienter continere omnia necessaria, nos id non intelligere de singulis Scripturae libris, quasi nullus esset Scripturae libellus in quo non traderentur omnia fidei dogmata. Sed hoc verum esse de Scripturae corpore indefinite sumpto, & secundum partes saltem praecipuas. Dico autem notanter de Scripturae corpore indefinite sumpto, & secundum partes praecipuas, quia mens nostra non est, doctrinam necessariam ita in toto Scripturae corpore contineri, ut, si inde pars aliqua, & liber aliquis dematur, statim aliquid desit ad integritatem doctrinae, quod in argumento supponunt adversarii. Nam in Scripturae corpore, prout illud hodie habemus, doctrina salutis continetur non tantum sufficienter, sed etiam abundanter. Suntque plures Scripturae libri in quibus nova dogmata non traduntur, & diversa ab iis quae alibi docentur, sed tantum luculentiores quaedam eorundem dogmatum explicationes & applicationes, sive ad contrarios errores refutandos, sive ad mores hominum formandos & instituendos. Itaque absque doctrinae salutaris dispendio quibusdam Scripturae sacrae libris carere possemus, & qui Ecclesiae dati sunt, non precise ad necessitatem, verum ad ubertatem & majorem utilitatem. Quamvis ergo daremus scripta quaedam divina & authentica periisse, non inde tamen sequeretur integram salutis doctrinam in Scriptura non posse amplius reperiri. Nam fieri posset ut alia quaedam scripta divina extiterint, neque tamen in iis ullum fuerit dogma, sive praeceptum, quod hodie non extet in Scripturae partibus quae supersunt.

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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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