First adversary argument: Scripture cannot prove Scripture, so the Church's testimony must
Their first attempt is to prove that Scripture's authority hangs on the Church's. Scripture, they say, cannot be proved by Scripture. So for the faithful to be sure of Scripture, some divine and infallible testimony must prove it. That testimony, they claim, can only be the Church's — none more certain or august on earth.
If you answer that Scripture in many places asserts its own divinity, they retort that we would already have to be persuaded of that divinity from elsewhere before we could believe the assertion. Mere self-claim is not enough: most of the Apocrypha claimed to be divine and were rightly rejected.
And it seems plain that Scripture cannot prove Scripture, because every proof moves from what is better known — and the same thing cannot be both better and less known than itself. Nothing from Scripture proves anything to someone who does not yet grant Scripture's authority, or who still doubts it.
Latin
II. Primum ergo sic authoritatem Scripturae ab authoritate Ecclesiae pendere, probare conantur. Scriptura, inquiunt, per Scripturam probari non potest. Ergo, ut de Scriptura apud fideles constet, necesse est ut sit testimonium aliquod divinum et infallibile, quo Scriptura probetur. Sed hoc testimonium aliud esse non potest quam Ecclesiae testimonium, quo in terris nullum est certius et augustius. Quod si dicas Scripturam multis in locis se divinam asserere, regerunt illi, ut Scripturae credamus se divinam asserenti, necesse esse ut de illius divinitate jam aliunde persuasi simus. Nec enim, ut scriptum aliquod pro divino habeatur, sufficit ut se divinum afferat: quod fecere libri plerique Apocryphi, qui merito tamen rejecti sunt. Et certe Scripturam per Scripturam ipsam probari non posse inde manifestum videtur, quod probatio omnis est a notioribus. At idem non est seipso notius et ignotius. Neque authoritatem Scripturae nescienti, aut de Scriptura dubitanti ex Scriptura quicquam probatur.
About this text
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu, Sedan Theses, newly rendered from Latin: from theology proper through the Roman theses I–77 and the Reformed theses of Part Two. The theses only — not the collected works.
English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).
Catalogue & scope
ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.