Theological Theses · §81 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Faith rests on God's truthfulness; certainty resolves into the Spirit's secret testimony

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We have taught that religion's dogmas, and other things handed down by God's word, can carry many arguments for their truth. Those arguments are still not the proper and principal reason on which the faith rests that receives what God's word hands down. That reason is rather the authority and truthfulness of God as he teaches and reveals.

God's word itself — divine revelation — does have notes and marks by which it can be recognized and told apart from diabolical and human frauds. Even so, our faith does not rest chiefly on notes and marks of that kind. Its certainty is resolved into the Holy Spirit's secret testimony, and into that inward efficiency by which he immediately makes the faithful certain it is God who speaks, and presses a firm persuasion of this on our minds.

Latin

IV. Docuimus, licet religionis dogmata, et alia quae verbo Dei traduntur, multa argumenta suae veritatis habere possint, tamen argumenta ista non esse propriam et praecipuam rationem cui innititur fides qua res Dei verbo traditas accipimus; sed potius authoritatem et veracitatem Dei docentis et revelantis. Ipsum vero Dei verbum, seu divinam revelationem, habere quidem notas et indicia, quibus internosci possit, et a diabolicis et humanis fraudibus distingui, nihilominus fidem nostram non niti potissimum hujuscemodi notis et indiciis: sed certitudinem illius resolvi in arcanum Spiritus S. testimonium, et internam illam efficientiam, qua fideles certos reddit immediate Deum esse qui loquitur, et firmam hac de re persuasionem mentibus nostris imprimit.

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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)
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.

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