Theological Theses · §2352 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Gregory of Valencia agrees: calling and assisting grace

Thesis XXXIII. Gregory of Valencia's account comes to the same thing. 'Theologians,' he says, 'give the name calling or rousing grace to certain divine inspirations, motions stirred up by God in a man's mind, by which God draws and invites the man to himself and moves him to devout and saving actions, so that he may turn to God by acts of faith, hope, charity and repentance.

They call assisting grace those gifts and benefits by which God helps a man who consents to the divine calling and rousing: both in the very act of consenting and turning, and in the other acts of devotion by which one presses on toward blessedness.

So this assisting grace includes first of all God's special concurrence with man in conversion, that is, in believing, hoping, loving, repenting and so on. It also includes his guarding man with particular care and providence, protecting him from evil, directing and spurring him to good, and giving him strength through various inspirations to overcome temptations and keep the commandments' (tome 2, disputation 8, question 3, point 3).

Latin

XXXIII. Atque eodem recidit expositio Gregorii de Valentia. Nam gratiam vocantem, seu excitantem, inquit, appellant Theologi divinas quasdam inspirationes, seu motus quosdam divinitus in mente hominis excitatos, quibus Deus hominem ad se allicit & invitat, & ad actiones pias atque salutares movet, ut fidei, spei, charitatis, & poenitentiae actibus convertatur. Gratiam autem adjuvantem appellant, Dei dona & beneficia, quibus Deus hominem divinae vocationi & excitationi consentientem adjuvat, tum in eo ipso quod consentit & convertitur, tum in aliis actionibus pietatis, per quas contenditur ad beatitudinem. Itaq; ad hanc gratiam adjuvantem in primis pertinet quod Deus peculiari concursu cum homine cooperatur ad conversionem, id est, ad credendum, sperandum, diligendum, poenitendum, &c. Item quod hominem singulari cura & providentia custodit, & protegit a malo, & dirigit atque stimulat ab bonum, & ei variis inspirationibus, ad vincendas tentationes, & ad observanda mandata robur praebet. Tom. 2. disput. 8. quaest. 3. punct. 3.

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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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