Theological Theses · §2467 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Alvarez: complete and incomplete sufficiency

Thesis XXIX. As Alvarez observes, aid sufficient for a given operation is of two kinds. One is completely sufficient: beyond it no other aid is absolutely necessary for the operation actually to be produced. The other is not completely sufficient, yet truly sufficient, in that it confers the ability with respect to that operation. No other aid is then absolutely necessary for the person to be truly said to be able to produce it, just as to say that someone can see requires only that he have the power of sight, though many other things beyond that power are needed for him actually to see.

In this sense he maintains that through the aids of the grace which he calls sufficient, a person truly can perform the act in relation to which the grace is called sufficient, even if he will never perform it unless God, by efficacious aid, brings it about that it is reduced to second act. So aid sufficient for believing is aid by which a person can believe, and aid sufficient for persevering is aid by which he can persevere if he wills, though for him actually to will it efficacious aid is further required. Epitome de auxiliis divinae gratiae, book 3, chapter 17.

Latin

XXIX. Quippe ut notat Alvarez, duplex est Auxilium ad operationem aliquam sufficiens. Unum est enim complete sufficiens, nimirum ultra quod nullum aliud auxilium est absolute necessarium, ut illa operatio actu producatur. Alterum non complete quidem, sed tamen vere sufficiens est, quod, scilicet, tribuit posse comparatione ejusdem operationis: ita ut nullum aliud auxilium sit absolute necessarium, ut homo vere dicatur posse operationem illam producere: quemadmodum ut dicatur homo posse videre, non aliud requiritur quam ut habeat potentiam Visivam: quanquam ultra potentiam Visivam, alia plura requirantur ut aliquis actu videat. Et in hoc sensu asserit, per auxilia gratiae, quam sufficientem vocat, vere posse hominem operari actum illum, comparatione cujus dicitur sufficiens; etiamsi nunquam sit operaturus, nisi Deus auxilio efficaci efficiat, ut illa reducatur ad actum secundum. Atque sic auxilium ad credendum sufficiens est illud, quo potest homo credere: & auxilium sufficiens ad perseverandum illud, quo potest perseverare si velit: quanquam ut sit voliturus, requiratur praeterea auxilium efficax. Epit. de auxiliis divinae gratiae lib. 3. cap. 17.

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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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