The mode of that Spirit-work is obscure, though every believer experiences the faith
But what the mode of that operation is remains very obscure and hard to explain — which might seem strange. Since the Holy Spirit's work happens in our souls, we seem as if we ought to know it by sense and experience itself. Yet there is nothing odd here. We experience many things in ourselves, and we ourselves do many things, whose reason and mode we still do not grasp and cannot understand.
Every day we experience that we see and understand; yet when someone must explain how vision and intellection happen, the sharpest and most learned men stick fast and cannot disentangle themselves. Physicists and mathematicians still dispute whether vision happens by the emission of rays or by the reception of visible species.
So although every believer experiences that he embraces God's Word with certain faith and gives full, firm assent to sacred Scripture, it should not surprise us if theologians stick fast when they try to explain how that faith is generated in us, and how the Spirit brings forth that assent. On that we will briefly set out our view.
Latin
VI. Quis sit autem istius operationis modus, res valde obscura est et explicatu difficilis: quod forte cuipiam mirum videri posset. Cum enim illa Spiritus sancti operatio in animis nostris fiat, videmur id nosse debere sensu ipso et experientia. Sed tamen in eo nihil est quod mirari debeamus. Etenim multa in nobis experimur, imo multa operamur ipsi, quorum tamen rationem et modum non tenemus, nec valemus intelligere. Sic quotidie experimur nos videre et intelligere, et tamen, quum explicandum est qua ratione visio et intellectio fiat, acutissimi quique et doctissimi viri haerent, nec satis possunt se expedire. Et adhuc lis est inter Physicos et Mathematicos, An visio fiat per radiorum emissionem, An vero per receptionem specierum visibilium. Igitur etsi fidelis quisque experiatur se verbum Dei certa fide amplecti, plenumque et firmum assensum Scripturae sacrae tribuere, admirationem movere non debet, si Theologi haereant in exponendo, quomodo fides illa nobis ingeneretur, et qua ratione Spiritus assensum illum in nobis pariat. Qua de re sententiam nostram breviter exponemus.
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.