Fallacy exposed: a sufficient faith-rule need not prove itself — like science's first principles
The sophistic fallacy assumes what is false: that a sufficient faith-rule must prove everything including itself.
No rule of faith can prove itself by its own testimony — proof is from what is better known, and a thing is not better known than itself.
Yet embracing the rule is itself necessary to faith.
A perfect sufficient rule is one that, once supposed, proves all else of faith — not one that proves itself.
Scripture's inability to prove itself by bare self-testimony does not strip its sufficiency.
Saying otherwise is like saying the sky does not cover all because it does not cover itself — or that science's first principles are no rule because principles do not prove principles.
Latin
XXXI. Ut vero sophistici istius argumenti fallacia detegatur, notandum est illud tanquam rem manifestam supponere id quod falsissimum est, nempe, non esse illam sufficientem fidei regulam cujus testimonio non possint omnia probari quae ad fidem pertinent, ne quidem excepta illa ipsa regula. Nam, quaecunque tandem fidei regula statuatur, non potest illa proprio testimonio probari. Nihil enim seipsum hoc modo probare potest, cum probatio omnis sit ex notioribus, idem vero seipso non sit notius, & ignotius. Et tamen res est maxime ad fidem pertinens, & necessaria, ut ipsam fidei regulam amplectamur, & illi certum assensum praebeamus. Igitur illa fidei regula perfecta est & sufficiens, non quae seipsam probat, sed ex qua supposita probari possunt omnia, praeter ipsam, quae ad fidem pertinent. Ideoque quamvis Scriptura proprio testimonio sufficienter probari non possit, hoc tamen non arguit illam non esse perfectam & sufficientem fidei regulam. Et dicere Scripturam non sufficere ad probanda omnia quae fidei sunt, quoniam proprio suo testimonio fidem sibi facere non potest, sophisticari est eodem plane modo ac si quis probaret coelum non omnia tegere quoniam coelum non tegit ipsum caelum: aut cujusdam scientiae principia non esse veluti normam & regulam, per quam probantur omnia quae ad illam scientiam spectant: quoniam ipsa principia per principia non probantur; Et tamen ad aliquam scientiam pertinet illius principia nosse.
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.