Theological Theses · §255 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Reply: internal inspiration is a stronger writing mandate than vocal order

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Agreed: they would not make writings the rule of faith without a divine mandate.

Denied: that they lacked one — Augustine says Christ ordered the Apostles to write what we should read.

Even without a spoken 'Write!', inspiration and the Spirit's extraordinary impulse are the stronger command.

2 Tim. 3: all Scripture is God-breathed — once that stands, a further vocal warrant is needless.

Latin

XI. Respondeo, verum est Apostolos non fuisse aggressuros summam Evangelicae doctrinae scripto complecti, scriptaque sua Ecclesiae tradere, tanquam fidei normam & regulam, nisi ex divino mandato: Sed eos nullum tale mandatum habuisse falsum est. Id ex Augustino poterant adversarii discere. Nam Augustini verba sunt lib. 1. de consensu Evangelistarum cap. ult. Quicquid Christus de suis dictis & factis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum Apostolis tanquam suis manibus imperavit. Fieri quidem potest, ut Christus viva voce & expressis verbis istud non praeceperit: Sed dubium esse non potest, nec negare audent ipsi Pontificii, quin ad hoc fuerint a Deo inspirati, & a Spiritu sancto moti extra ordinem. Quod enim Petrus dicit de scriptis propheticis, non voluntate humana allatam olim prophetiam, sed actos fuisse a Spiritu sancto sanctos Dei homines, non minus verum est de scriptis Novi Testamenti. Atque, ut docet Apostolus 2. Tim. 3. Omnis Scriptura, seu Veteris, seu Novi Testamenti, divinitus inspirata est. Itaque Apostoli forte non habuerint externum & vocale scribendi mandatum: At certe mandatum internum habuerunt, eoque fuerunt adducti extraordinario quodam impulsu Spiritus divini, quod est omni mandato fortius. Nec video, ubi constat de divina inspiratione, cur praeterea mandatum externum requiratur.

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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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