Theological Theses · §248 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Unlikely that any properly divine authentic writing truly perished

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

We also doubt the premise: it is not likely any properly divine, authentic writing has truly vanished.

Providence is injured if God had a book written only to let it vanish useless to the Church.

Among books providence did keep, some are tiny and of no obvious necessity — so why invent larger lost equals?

Rome, which credits the Church with ἀδιαπτωσία and exalts her, still shames her if she let many God-given norm-books perish through neglect.

Latin

IV. Attamen nobis non est probabile ullum scriptum proprie divinum & authenticum periisse. Nec enim id videtur statui posse absque magna providentiae divinae injuria. Ad quid enim Deus curasset librum aliquem divinum & authenticum scribi, ut tamen Ecclesiae nulli usui foret, sed statim Deus illum intercidere pateretur? Cumque inter eos Scripturae sacrae libros, quos divina providentia mirabiliter huc usque conservavit, reperiantur quidam exigui valde, & quorum non magna potest videri necessitas, quis in animum inducere poterit Deum fuisse passurum, ut perirent tot libri non minoris authoritatis, quique tales finguntur ut istos magnitudine, momento, numero & usu superarint? Adde quod Pontificii qui ἀδιαπτωσίαν Ecclesiae tribuunt, & supra modum illius authoritatem extollunt, non levem tamen hac in re illi contumeliam faciunt, & ignominiam inurunt. Quis enim posset tantam in Ecclesia culpam & negligentiam excusare, ut libros divinitus conscriptos, & ipsi datos, ut per eos instrueretur in doctrina salutis, illisque uteretur tanquam fidei norma, & regula veritatis, ut tales, inquam, libros, eosque multos, interire sivisset, nec ea, qua par erat cura, custodivisset?

Report a mistake in this passage

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)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1675 (Latin)

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.

Report a mistake