Theological Theses · §760 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Calvin, Beza, catechisms: define faith by persuasion of God’s goodwill — Molinaeus, Maresius, Alting

Calvin, Beza, and popular catechisms define faith from the trust/conviction of God’s grace and goodwill that saving faith carries.

Calvin/Beza: firm certain knowledge of divine goodwill, founded on grace promised in Christ, revealed and sealed by the Spirit.

Short catechism: sure trust that the Father loves me for Christ.

Near them: du Moulin (firm assent that Gospel promises are true and peculiarly mine); Maresius (gift resting in and fiducially applying those promises); Alting (knowledge plus fiducial apprehension of grace in Christ the Redeemer).

Latin

LXXXIV. Ita Calvinus, & Beza, & vulgares quidam Catechismi, fidem describunt solum ab illa fiducia, seu persuasione, quam secum trahit fides salvifica & justificans de gratia Dei, & ejus erga nos benevolentia. Nam Calvino & Bezae, ut supra retulimus, fides justificans est, Divinae erga nos benevolentiae firma certaque cognitio, quae gratiae in Christo promissae veritate fundata, per Spiritum Sanctum revelatur mentibus nostris & cordibus obsignatur. Et brevis quidam Catechismus vulgaris fidem definit esse, Certam fiduciam seu persuasionem, quam debet habere quilibet Christianus, quod Deus Pater ipsum amet, propter Filium suum Jesum Christum. Ad quas definitiones proxime accedit descriptio celeberrimorum virorum, Petri Molinaei, & Samuelis Maresii, & Henrici quoque Altingii. Nam Petro Molinaeo fides est, Firmus assensus promissionibus Evangelii, quo fidelis credit eas non tantum esse veras, sed etiam ad se peculiariter pertinere. Maresio vero, Donum quo promissionibus Evangelii in Christo, tanquam veris & certis acquiescimus, easque nobis fiducialiter applicamus. Denique Altingio, Cognitio gratiae Dei in Christo Redemptore, ejusdemque fiducialis apprehensio, qua quisque fidelis illam sibi singulariter applicat.

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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).

Printed text used

Translated from Latin (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
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Also checked pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
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