Theological Theses · §1991 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

The fourth view states only what is certain: predictions are true, and the infinite intellect reaches all truth

The fourth view looks for the certainty of God's foreknowledge in the infinity of the divine intellect and in the determinate truth of things that will happen contingently. It asserts nothing that is not certain and beyond doubt.

It is clear that Scripture contains divine predictions about future contingents. That alone shows that true propositions can be framed about them, for God asserts nothing that is not true. Every true proposition must have truth corresponding to it in reality. So, since it can be said determinately and truly that this or that will happen freely and contingently, it follows that its truth is determinate.

It is no less clear that, once the truth of future contingents is granted, that truth is perceived and known by the divine intellect, which is infinite. Truth is the object of the intellect, so an infinite intellect reaches to all truth. Otherwise it would by that very fact not be infinite but would have bounds and an end, since it could not reach some truth.

Latin

XL. Quod spectat autem quartam sententiam, quae divinae praescientiae certitudinem quaerit in infinitate intellectus divini, & in determinata veritate eorum quae contingenter futura sunt, nihil illa ponit quod certum non sit & indubitatum. Nam quandoquidem evidens est, divinas praedictiones de futuris contingentibus in scripturis extare, hoc ipso manifestum est, veras propositiones de iis formari posse: nec enim quicquam Deus affirmat nisi verum. Omni autem verae propositioni necesse est ut in re veritas respondeat. Et sic cum determinate & vere dici possit, haec & illa libere & contingenter futura, consequens est, ut eorum veritas determinata sit. Nec minus est evidens, posita veritate futurorum contingentium, illam ab intellectu divino, qui infinitus est, percipi & cognosci. Nam cum verum sit objectum intellectus, intellectus infinitus ad omne verum se extendit: alioquin hoc ipso infinitus non esset, sed limites & finem haberet, quippe qui non posset aliquam veritatem attingere.

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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).

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