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Theological Theses · §74

Motives of belief feed faith, but they are not its chief certainty

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Still, we do not think those arguments and motives of belief — the ones that recommend God's Word and gently bend minds toward obedience to it — are what faith's certainty chiefly hangs on, or its principal foundation. God does use them when he generates faith, and by them faith already generated is also nourished and kept warm. They do not seem to be faith's strongest basis, or the measure of its certainty.

The Christian schools already agree on this, as thesis 8 said: faith's certainty is the highest — equal to every certainty in the human sciences, or even above them — when faith is judged from its own principles and taken as it can and ought to be, not as it actually stands in many people. But the faith that receives God's Word as Scripture now holds it cannot have that certainty if it rests only on the notes and arguments that prove Scripture divine. Those are not demonstrations that produce absolute certainty. They are only moral arguments. They can lead a person to believe prudently, yet by themselves and by their nature they cannot generate a certainty equal to what the mathematical disciplines have — the kind of certainty, or even a greater one, that we suppose faith acquires.

Latin

XXXII. Attamen non existimamus argumenta illa et credendi motiva, quibus verbum Dei suadetur, et quibus hominum mentes leniter ad ejus obsequium flectuntur, esse illud unde fidei certitudo potissimum pendet, et praecipuum illius fundamentum. His quidem argumentis Deus utitur in fide generanda, et iis quoque fides jam generata alitur et fovetur: non tamen videntur esse fidei potissima basis et certitudinis illius mensura. Et hoc quia, ut jam thesi 8. dictum, consentiunt scholae Christianae certitudinem fidei summam esse, et talem quae vel aequet, vel etiam superet, certitudinem omnem quae reperitur in scientiis humanis, nempe, si fides aestimetur ex suis principiis et consideretur qualis esse potest, et debet: non autem qualis revera sit in multis. Sed fides qua verbum Dei, quod hodie Scriptura continetur, suscipimus, non potest habere illam certitudinem, si nitatur tantum notis et argumentis, quibus Scriptura divina comprobatur. Nec enim sunt demonstrationes quae certitudinem absolutam generent, sed argumenta solum moralia, quae, licet sufficiant ut aliquis ad prudenter credendum inducatur, non tamen per se, et ex sua natura, possunt gignere certitudinem parem illi quam habent, verbi causa, disciplinae Mathematicae: qualem aut etiam majorem supponimus fidem acquirere.

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

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.